I guess that one reason bootstrapping is so tough is that it requires a lot of time, usually years, to even start to imagine one day living off of your company.
Imagine you have this nice business idea, which you have been working on for countless hours after work to make it become an awesome product. You sacrife your free time and maybe even health or friendships. You start to feel bad for every day you don't work on your product, as you know it all depends on you, and maybe a couple of co-founders. You know your product is great and it could make many customers happy. Yet what you earn from your it is peanuts and you don't see how this will change any time soon.
In that scenario, venture capital or a buy-out seem like a very appealing idea. After all, if you've come this far, it means that your product means a lot to you and you have more ideas than time. And suddenly knowing that you could get a decent amount of money to quit your "boring" daily job and make all these ideas come true gets even more interesting.
That burning desire to make your "baby" succeed should not be underestimated. That's why so many startups try hard to get a decent funding. I can't blame them, because I've been there. Heck, if a "big player" came to my little startup and offered a good deal, I would probably more than consider taking it. In the end, life is short and you can only build so many valuable things in your life that might have an impact and make a difference.
Still, I'm happy to have a fully bootstrapped startup that is not yet bringing enough money to quit my job. It is tough, it takes a lot of patience, and even more sacrifice every day. But also the prospect of making it profitable enough to have a small team that can work on your idea has a special kind of appeal. Not wanting to be the next Google or Facebook is a good thing in my opinion, but I understand that there is a lot of people who just burn with desire to push their ideas forward faster. Can't blame them for that.
Great comment. My frustration primarily comes from being a consumer of these startups. I understand why co-founders choose this approach. But it's taken me a while to realize that in this "system", I am not a consumer but I am the product. These companies think very differently than what I am used to as they measured by number of "active users" as the big companies of day like Google, Facebook, Dropbox use these metrics for acquisition. Google would rather buy a company with 1m free users than a company with 10k paid users paying 100usd each.
> Google would rather buy a company with 1m free users than a company with 10k paid users paying 100usd each.
Absolutely. This is why you have companies who have not proven to have a profitable business model, yet they are valued far higher than your small, bootstrapped startup. This is one more angle to look at it. I can happily claim that my tiny little bootstrapped startup is actually more profitable than Twitter :)
Can concur- also bootstrapping. It's very hard to get people to pay, and it's frustrating on every level. It's like trying to talk your cousin out of voting for the person who is going to actually work against him. "Don't you get it?" "I don't care." And off they go.
It's mind blowing how a person can blindly spend $500+ on a phone, $100/month on a plan, but scoff at the idea of spending $1.99 on an app. "No, sir!". What? But it would totally help you solve some problem. "I'm not paying for an app". Idiots.
Imagine you have this nice business idea, which you have been working on for countless hours after work to make it become an awesome product. You sacrife your free time and maybe even health or friendships. You start to feel bad for every day you don't work on your product, as you know it all depends on you, and maybe a couple of co-founders. You know your product is great and it could make many customers happy. Yet what you earn from your it is peanuts and you don't see how this will change any time soon.
In that scenario, venture capital or a buy-out seem like a very appealing idea. After all, if you've come this far, it means that your product means a lot to you and you have more ideas than time. And suddenly knowing that you could get a decent amount of money to quit your "boring" daily job and make all these ideas come true gets even more interesting.
That burning desire to make your "baby" succeed should not be underestimated. That's why so many startups try hard to get a decent funding. I can't blame them, because I've been there. Heck, if a "big player" came to my little startup and offered a good deal, I would probably more than consider taking it. In the end, life is short and you can only build so many valuable things in your life that might have an impact and make a difference.
Still, I'm happy to have a fully bootstrapped startup that is not yet bringing enough money to quit my job. It is tough, it takes a lot of patience, and even more sacrifice every day. But also the prospect of making it profitable enough to have a small team that can work on your idea has a special kind of appeal. Not wanting to be the next Google or Facebook is a good thing in my opinion, but I understand that there is a lot of people who just burn with desire to push their ideas forward faster. Can't blame them for that.