Discover what happens at a Bootstrappers Breakfast, connect with fellow entrepreneurs, share startup challenges, and gain practical insights to grow your business.
Join Other Entrepreneurs Who Eat Problems for Breakfast
Building a business is hard work and bootstrapping one with your own money, limited resources, and no corporate safety net takes it to a whole new level.
This is where the Bootstrappers Breakfast® comes in, a focused, peer-driven meetup for founders of early-stage startups.
This isn’t a networking event where everyone gives a sales pitch or a demo. It’s a small-group roundtable where entrepreneurs come together to compare notes, exchange ideas, learn from each other’s mistakes, brainstorm solutions, and tackle the real problems that come with building a business.
The format is a 90 minute moderated roundtable discussion where we ask that people engage in a single conversation around the table. We ask each attendee to introduce themselves and explain briefly what they are working on. Anyone facing a challenge is encouraged to “put their topic on the table” to gain a wide range of perspectives from the group. After introductions we have short discussions of the challenges or questions attendees asked for help on during their introductions.
Compare Notes. Exchange Ideas. Solve Problems.
Every entrepreneur runs into challenges. How do you find your customers? Should you build the feature customers are asking for? How do you manage cash when resources are tight? Hire, outsource, or do it yourself? How do you price your product?
Bring a current challenge to the table and talk it through with others who understand what it’s like to build a business from the ground up.
Our goal is to share experiences, ask questions, challenge assumptions, and offer perspectives based on what’s happened. Sometimes the most valuable advice comes from someone who’s already made a mistake.
What Happens at a Bootstrappers Breakfast?
We have serious conversations with other entrepreneurs who are trying to build successful businesses.
Attendees are encouraged to:
- Bring a current business challenge and talk it through
- with the group
- Share experiences, expertise, and lessons learned
- Learn from other entrepreneurs’ successes and mistakes
- Ask questions and offer constructive feedback
- Brainstorm ideas
- Discuss operational, product-development, customer, and business issues
- Celebrate small wins and share what’s working
- Speak from experience when helping other entrepreneurs
- No selling or pitching products and services
Small Group Advantage
One of the advantages of a roundtable format is that everyone has an opportunity to put their issues on the table and get different perspectives.
Someone may have faced your problem before. Someone else may see something you’ve overlooked. Someone else could ask a question that changes how you think about the situation or challenge.
Our moderation style is straightforward. We encourage people to speak honestly, challenge assumptions, and contribute practical ideas. We don’t sugarcoat the challenges of entrepreneurship. We believe founders benefit more from honest conversations than hearing everything is going to be great.
What You’ll Gain
Being an entrepreneur can be isolating. You’re making decisions solo with limited resources and usually with a lot of uncertainty, so a peer group can make that a little easier.
Attendees can gain:
- Practical suggestions for bootstrapping and growing a business with limited resources
- Different perspectives on operational, product-development, and business challenges
- Connections with other bootstrapped founders and entrepreneurs
- Referrals, introductions, and potential partnerships
- Feedback on ideas and approaches
- Meeting notes summarizing key discussions and insights
- An opportunity to share small wins and potentially have your story featured
- Leave with ideas and perspectives you can put to work
Building the Business
Our focus is on building a business, and we believe the bootstrap model—using creativity, discipline, customer revenue, and personal resources—can be a way to develop a sustainable business.
For some founders, their business may become attractive to venture capital someday. If outside funding makes sense, great. But funding isn’t the objective. Building a valuable, sustainable business is.
Who Should Attend?
Bootstrappers Breakfast is designed for entrepreneurs who are actively building early-stage businesses.
You’re likely a good fit if you:
- Run a business involving services, hardware, software, or a combination
- Are building with limited resources
- Are investing your own money or relying heavily on customer revenue
- Are hands-on in the day-to-day work
- Have a real business challenge you’d like to discuss
- Are willing to share your own experience and expertise
- Want honest feedback from other entrepreneurs
- Are serious about growing your business
- Understand that the meeting is about helping one another—not selling to one another
Bootstrappers Breakfast Eat Problems for Breakfast
Entrepreneurship doesn’t come with an instruction manual. You learn by doing, making mistakes, and adjusting. If you’re lucky, you learn from someone else’s mistake before making the same one yourself.
We bring entrepreneurs together to
- Compare notes
- Exchange ideas
- Learn from others’ mistakes
- Brainstorm with peers
- Have serious conversations
Come prepared to talk about what you’re working on, what isn’t working, and what you’re trying to figure out.
See you at a Bootstrappers Breakfast.
P.S.: See what others have said. One Thing I Learned