Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
After recent conversations with Y Combinator alumni and other promising entrepreneurs, I’ve heard that many of them have no plans to raise venture capital at all. Although raising funds is often crucial, bootstrapping is an approach every entrepreneur should consider.
Unlike the “move fast and break things” mantra that resonates throughout Silicon Valley, bootstrapping often means taking a steady and deliberate approach. This allows for a deeper understanding of your market and more meaningful connections with early customers.
For example, instead of aiming for rapid growth, Tuple focused on building a product that users would actually love. Their strategy revolved around a relentless focus on user feedback and incremental improvements. By prioritizing the quality of their screen sharing feature, an important feature for developers, over rapidly expanding their feature set, they created a loyal user base that drove organic growth.
Related: What I Wish I Had Known Before I Booted My Startup
Pilot your own ship
Bootstrapping isn’t just about money; It’s about maintaining the purity of your vision. When bootstrapping, you retain complete control over your company’s direction, culture, and values. This autonomy can be invaluable, especially if your vision doesn’t match typical investor expectations.
Remember that maintaining control does not always mean rejecting all external input. Mailchimp, which facilitated a $12 billion acquisition by Intuit, sought advice from outside experts. The difference was that the founders had the freedom to decide when and how to implement this advice.
Can your model fuel itself?
The ideal bootstrap-friendly business generates revenue quickly and requires minimal upfront investment. This often leads to bootstrapped startups focusing on solving immediate, painful problems for customers who are willing to pay for solutions.
Gumroad, a platform that allows developers to sell products directly to consumers, built its business model around instant monetization. Gumroad aligned its success directly with its users by taking a small share of every transaction.
Being bootstrap friendly often requires creativity in finding ways to generate revenue early. Pieter Levels, founder of Nomad List, started his company by developing several small products and services for digital nomads. This diversified approach allowed it to generate revenue streams that collectively funded the growth of its main platform.
Related: Bootstrapping vs. Seeking Venture Capital – How to Decide the Best Path for Your Business
On the borderline between brave and stupid
Bootstrapping often means betting on yourself – sometimes literally. It requires weighing up necessary risks and avoiding reckless gambling. This often requires personal sacrifice and a willingness to operate with a much thinner safety net than funded startups.
When Sara Blakely founded Spanx, she worked as a fax machine salesperson during the day while developing her product at night and on weekends. She invested her entire $5,000 in savings and even wrote her own patent to save on legal fees.
The key is to be realistic about your risk tolerance and financial situation. It’s about finding creative ways to expand your runway and validate your ideas before going all out. This could mean starting as a side project or finding ways to generate additional income that fits your long-term goals.
Build big and start small at the same time
One of the most common myths in the startup world is that certain ideas require massive scale from day one and require significant upfront investment. However, numerous examples prove that it is possible to build a large, impactful company from humble beginnings.
Shopify, which now powers over a million businesses, started as a simple online snowboard gear store. They initially founded the company and only sought outside investment after they had a proven product and clear market demand.
This paradox can often be solved by focusing on a specific, underserved segment of your target market. By dominating this niche, you can build the resources and reputation you need to expand into neighboring markets or scale up to serve larger customers.
Turn limitations into advantages
One of the most powerful aspects of bootstrapping is the way it encourages creativity and efficiency. With limited resources, bootstrapping startups often find innovative solutions that ultimately become crucial competitive advantages.
Going back to Basecamp’s journey, their limited resources led them to focus on doing a few things exceptionally well rather than trying to achieve all of their competitors’ features. This constrained innovation resulted in a product known for its simplicity and ease of use – features that became key selling points.
Related Topics: Starting a Business? Before you start looking for VC money, here’s why bootstrapping might be a better choice.
Building a team with more than money
One of the biggest challenges for bootstrapping startups is attracting and retaining top talent without high salaries and extensive benefits packages. However, many bootstrapping companies have found innovative ways to build strong teams despite these limitations.
By openly sharing the company’s revenue, salaries and equity distribution, Gumroad attracted talent that aligned with their values and were excited about the opportunity to work in such an open environment.
Many top performers are motivated by factors that go beyond just salary. Autonomy, mastery, determination and work-life balance can be powerful appeals, especially for those disillusioned with the high-pressure environment often found in heavily funded startups.
Define success the way you want
The bootstrap path can lead to unexpected and often cheaper exit opportunities. When bootstrapping, you retain more equity and have more control over the timing and conditions of a potential exit.
When Intuit acquired Mailchimp for $12 billion, the founders owned 100% of the company, a feat never before seen among tech unicorns. Their bootstrapped journey allowed them to grow the company at their own pace and exit on their own terms.
An “exit” does not necessarily mean a sale or an IPO. Success can be defined in many ways – building a profitable business that supports the lifestyle you want, starting a business that has a positive impact on the world, or, yes, ultimately selling for a significant sum.
