The Bootstrapper Mindset to Not Try to Conquer the World
shoganai.io
shoganai.io
I think there is a mistaken understanding of "bootstrapping" here, and one that you see all too often for some reason. "Bootstrapping" is a process, not a goal, or an outcome. You can bootstrap and wind up with a small / "lifestyle" business, OR a huge multinational corporation. Likewise, you can go the VC route and wind up with a multinational corporation, or an insignificant company that gets acquired for peanuts.
Whether or not you bootstrap is completely orthogonal to what your desired outcome is. A "bootstrapped" company not defined as a company that "makes just enough profit for you to quit your day job."
And on the same note, bootstrapping and taking VC money aren't mutually exclusive over time. You can bootstrap for a long time, then take outside money. IOW, you're "bootstrapped" until you aren't.
FWIW, we're taking the bootstrapped approach but we still plan to conquer the world.
My point was that as a bootstrapper it's important to generate revenue as soon as possible, doesn't matter if you build a small business to support yourself or a plan to grow into a huge company. You don't have the luxury of taking your time and planning to come up with a monetization strategy in the future. Therefore you need to do what works and iterate quickly.