I came across a recent post by Griffin Caprio on “Being Your Own Angel Investor” at that addressed an issue that comes up at many breakfasts. Here is the core of Griffin’s approach but go ahead and read the whole thing:
“So, if I bootstrapped, but didn’t fund myself with personal money, what did I do? Simple: Consulting. Unsexy consulting. I’m thinking long term and, in my mind, spending a year or so consulting to fill my business coffers simply made sense. I wasn’t trying to strike quickly or catch the wave of any given fad. I wanted to build a business that endures. To do that, I needed a stable cash runway similar, to an angel investment, that would give me the freedom to build the kinds of products I wanted to build. So that’s what I went out and got for myself. However, instead of talking to an angel and trying to acquire an funding in exchange for some debt or a piece of my (non valuable) company, I’ve spent the first 12 months of 1530s existence scooping up any and all consulting gigs I could get my hands on.”