In a Mar-14-2005 article on SandHill.com entitled “Bootstrapping: The Secret to Entrepreneurial Success” Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies and author of “Bootstrapping Your Business: Start And Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money” offers “eight solid reasons why Bootstrapping will consistently deliver better results than the fund-and-burn model that has become entrenched in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.”
- Bootstrapping ensures that you build your business on a legitimate, real-world value proposition.
- Bootstrappers initiate the critical sales learning process sooner, not later.
- Bootstrappers don’t waste money; they make it.
- Bootstrapping accelerates time-to-market and time-to-profitability. You can start immediately!
- Bootstrappers are less likely to make big, fatal financial mistakes. They don’t have huge amounts of cash to spend.
- Bootstrappers are forced into unconventional thinking. Necessity truly is the mother of invention.
- Bootstrappers have more freedom and flexibility. No external funding parties to answer to.
- Bootstrappers wind up owning much, if not all, of what they create.
I think these are accurate, especially if you understand what’s not said.
- Or you go broke quickly.
- Or you go broke quickly.
- Or you go broke quickly.
- You get more information from trying to sell to customers than investors.
- You are in a battle of maneuver not attrition, you have to out-think and outperform–not outspend–the competition.
- If you don’t attack undefended hills and “hit them where they aint” you will not win.
- But advisers can help you steer and consider overlooked possibilities.
- You also should know when to trade in your small pie for a piece of a larger one.