Roundup of events for bootstrappers in November 2025. Online and in-person events are offered at $10.
Roundup of November 2025 Bootstrapper Events
We offer online events for bootstrappers including Bootstrappers Breakfast and Lean Culture. There are also in-person Bootstrapper Breakfast meetings in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Silicon Valley. These events are for “entrepreneurs who eat problems for breakfast.”®
We have eight events this month to help you move your business forward. Join us as your interests dictate and schedule permits.
Are you an entrepreneur who’d like to share lessons learned? If you’ve a reached a milestone in your entrepreneurial journey and would like to share lessons learned, please contact Theresa Shafer (tshafer@skmurphy.com) to explore scheduling a short briefing at a Bootstrapper Breakfast or a talk at a Lean Culture event. You must have attended a Bootstrapper Breakfast or Lean Culture event to be considered.
Wed Nov 5 9:00 am PST Silicon Valley Bootstrappers Breakfast (In Person) Redwood City
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bootstrappers-breakfast-in-redwood-city-tickets-1759074652639
Thurs Nov 6 8:00 am PST Mastermind Open House https://www.meetup.com/skmurphymastermind/events/311583550/
Fri Nov 7 9:00 am PST Silicon Valley Bootstrappers Breakfast (In Person) Downtown Campbell
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bootstrappers-breakfast-in-downtown-campbell-tickets-215740344177
Fri Nov 14 9:00 am PST San Francisco Bootstrappers Breakfast Startups at CityGroup Center (In Person)
https://www.meetup.com/bootstrappers-breakfast-san-francisco/events/311476230/
Tues Nov 18 8:00 am PST Silicon Valley Bootstrappers Breakfast (Online)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/silicon-valley-bootstrappers-breakfast-online-2024-tickets-488376135167
Thurs Nov 20 8:30 am CST Chicago Bootstrappers Breakfast (Online)
https://www.meetup.com/bootstrappers-breakfast-chicago/events/cpkzjtyhcpbbc/
Fri Nov 21 9:00 am PST Mtn View Bootstrappers Breakfast at Red Rock Coffee (In Person)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mountain-view-bootstrappers-breakfast-tickets-262928394907
Fri Nov 28 9:00 am PST Silicon Valley Bootstrappers Breakfast (Online)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/silicon-valley-bootstrappers-breakfast-online-2024-tickets-488376135167
Key take-aways from the Bootstrappers Breakfast conversations in October
- Finding real partners / cofounders / early employees is hard. Most people have an employee orientation. They expect to get paid for every hour they work. As an entrepreneur many hours produce no immediate payback but some hours are worth hundreds to thousands of dollars.
- A handful of face to face conversations is worth 10,000 cold emails
- Step across the table and look at it from the customer point of view. How do they describe benefits
- All founders / cofounders must sell
- Like the growth of infants and children, startups exhibit allometric scaling not isometric scaling. Certain functions, like an infant’s legs, are a much smaller proportion of the total body in the first few years. Worry about key milestones:
- How to convert a trial user into a paying customer
- How to retain a paying customer
- Doing this at scale can wait until you have satisfied yourself you have an offering people will pay for. Caterina Fake observed that she gathered the first 10,000 users of Flickr with personal invites and referrals. Once you have debugged the pay from awareness to consideration to evaluation to retention you can worry about scaling.
Lightning Round Question for October 2025
How will the insights and lessons you’ve learned this year shape your strategies and objectives going forward?
Trademarks: “Bootstrapper Breakfast” and “Entrepreneurs Who Eat Problems For Breakfast” are registered trademarks of SKMurphy, Inc.
Image Credits: “Learn” on Pixabay by WORKANDAPIX used with permission.