Hold on - what!?
Jeff Bezos invested in them and they are claiming they are bootstrapped? And have not taken VC money?
How can either of those be true. (And Bezos was not a VC fund is just playing semantics)
Jeff Bezos invested in them and they are claiming they are bootstrapped? And have not taken VC money?
How can either of those be true. (And Bezos was not a VC fund is just playing semantics)
The difference is:
* Taking VC money from day 1 and have a founder with a 10% stake
* Taking VC money when the company is already successful and highly valuated, so it can raises millions while the founder retains 70% of the capital
That's day and night. In the first case the VCs decide, and they can fire the founder if they don't like it.
In the second case, the founder controls the company and can tell the VC "thank you for your advice but I'm doing it my way" during board meetings.
I'm not disagreeing with their choices (if Bezos offers to in est you say yes) but it does rather dim their core story.
That's fine - this is all part and parcel of HN - the real "how we got there" is always more educational for those following than the story told afterwards
Essentially, their argument was that if Jeff Bezos invested, they could have access to his advice and connections which was worth way more than any money he put in.