How to go from idea to insane growth with no help as a bootstrapped founder.
For VC-backed startups, their path to success might look like the following:
- Develop an idea.
- Raise a seed round.
- Raise an A round, raise a B round, and raise a C round.
- Hire. Fire. Grow like hell and cross your fingers that your valuation climbs. ?
- Sell to a Fortune 500 company for $1 Billion.
- Cash-out. Buy a yacht, Tesla and one gold plated suit.
That’s one route you can go with financing your business.
But, what about the majority of people that aren’t raising venture dollars and looking for 10X exit?
What’s their option? How do they grow?
They are the bootstrapped founder.
What does this mean? Bootstrapping is when you fund your startup or business with your own money or the cash you make from the business.
This is where I fit in. I’m bootstrapping and I’m always looking for inspiration from other bootstrapped founders on how they self-funded an idea into a sustainable business.
Here are my favorite articles on how a few brave founders bootstrapped their business.
- A Six-Figure Side Project: The ClickMinded Story (Tommy Griffith)
- Growing Growth Machine: How We Went from 0 to $100k MRR in One Year (Nat Eliason)
- How Rob Walling Bootstrapped Drip into a 7 Figure SaaS Business
- Want To Sell Your Agency? Here’s How I Did It ?
- 7 Ridiculously In-Depth Case Studies on Starting an Ecommerce Business from Scratch
For me, I’m currently writing my own story but it’s not done just yet.
Here is my 2018 recap and 2019 recap. I might have had a little miss along the way when I lost $400,000 in 48 hours. But, it’s all about getting to my number!
Maybe one day I’ll publish my full story of bootstrapping.