"You don't have a runway; you have margin. Protect it." That line needs to be on a poster in every bootstrapper's office.
I'd push back slightly on seedstrapped being the US version of bootstrapped though. I've seen founders in Asia take a small seed and operate with the same discipline as bootstrappers. The difference isn't geography, it's whether the founder treats outside money as fuel or as permission to stop being scrappy.
Kyle's piece is another great read. The more alternatives, the better. If you are counter-positioning your business idea, why are you mainstream (VC only) in your financing?
The other critical factor under "VC-backed (for capital scale)" is that the most important companies in that category can't get there with VC capital alone. They need different financing structures at different stages, and often for longer than a typical VC fund life. Fernando Larrea has written about this in more detail: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hard-thing-tech-fernando-lelo-de-larrea-h-72rte/.
"You don't have a runway; you have margin. Protect it." That line needs to be on a poster in every bootstrapper's office.
I'd push back slightly on seedstrapped being the US version of bootstrapped though. I've seen founders in Asia take a small seed and operate with the same discipline as bootstrappers. The difference isn't geography, it's whether the founder treats outside money as fuel or as permission to stop being scrappy.
That’s a fair point, I’m certainly less familiar with startup scene in Asia.
Kyle's piece is another great read. The more alternatives, the better. If you are counter-positioning your business idea, why are you mainstream (VC only) in your financing?
I like that.
The other critical factor under "VC-backed (for capital scale)" is that the most important companies in that category can't get there with VC capital alone. They need different financing structures at different stages, and often for longer than a typical VC fund life. Fernando Larrea has written about this in more detail: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hard-thing-tech-fernando-lelo-de-larrea-h-72rte/.
Yep, good point