The "who" describes my situation perfectly, but at first blush the logic and positioning both read as internal contradictions.
> Those who focus on raising outside capital and achieving fundable milestones have a very difficult time getting off that VC treadmill.
In other words, getting off the "VC treadmill" is hard because of structural problems from deals and milestones, and psychological problems instilled in a team now dependent upon outside money. While I see how Indie.vc addresses the former, they seem to sweep aside the internal contradiction in the latter.
Anecdotally, those bootstrappers who have succeeded have not done so in spite of their difficulties raising capital, but because of the attitudes those very difficulties cultivated. You know, the ability to make tough choices on product development, the urgency to prioritize customer development, the clarity to cut costs and increase margins. As a casual observer of other startups, I tend to see an inverse correlation between the strength of these attitudes and their total capital raised. Maybe this is a non-issue when the sum is just $100,000. I don't know. But it concerns me just enough to be skeptical.
Assuming those concerns are unfounded, my next concern is with the positioning.
> While it’s true that some companies really do need outside capital, there are many examples of great companies that have reached revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars, or even gone public, without ever taking in capital, or taking it in only at a late stage, when they’d already created a high valuation by bootstrapping the company.
This seems to contradict the pitch that I need money. Others before me have bootstrapped without it. So remind me: why do I need to raise capital?
My fear is that this pitch will attract founders who couldn't figure out how to get $100,000 of working capital, rather than those who'd rather be building than running on the bootstrapping treadmill. I'm guessing this is a concern for them, as well, since their application asks:
> How have you been funding your company until now?
I feel you need to dig that knife deeper on the pains shared by my fellow bootstrappers. What pains are you hoping we'll avoid? Early death by cash flow problems? Lack of dedicated focus? Sputtering growth? And why is your approach right vs other options?
I hate being a wet sock on HN about potentially innovative things. I just hope my 2¢ helps clarify their vision. I really want to see something like this succeed.