👀 @Calendly “The business is approaching $30 million in recurring revenue, and growing more than 100 percent year-over-year. It's been profitable since 2016. And I'm the majority owner.” inc.com/magazine/20190…
Founding a startup isn’t cool.
You know what’s cool?
Building a Real Business.
R- revenue
E- ebitda
A- actual business model
L- leverage in every conversation with investors and potential partners.
Fund me I’m a FOUNDER:
F - failed at my last thing
O - out of personal savings
U - unqualified to manage money
N - no actual business experience
D - dead set on my crappy idea
E - emotionally immature
R - running away from a real job
Imagine an alternative startup universe where all the time and energy that currently goes into perfecting investor pitches went into talking to customers and growing revenue.
That’s it. That’s the alternative reality we’re trying to build.
And it’s working...
Common theme:
VC backed founders tell us they want off the treadmill and will not raise institutional money again.
Bootstrapped founders tell us they’ve already learned the hard lessons from their lean years and will raise VC money the next time around.
🙃
* Create a landing page for this “great idea” with an option to buy. Spend $50 on adwords. See if anyone hits the buy button.
* Call 10 potential customers of this “great idea”. Pitch them the product. If half want to buy, start building.
* other ideas not involving funding?
It's 2018, you have a great idea for a software business but you need to spend 6-12 months of full-time to build, launch & get traction.
Your options to fund it are:
* VC 🚀🤯
* Life savings 💸😵
* Rich relatives 🤴👸🤑
* Credit Card Debt 💳😖
* Shark Tank 📺🙏🤷♂️
🤔👎
“Warren Buffett likes to say “never ask a barber if you need a haircut.” This is why many VCs will tell you bootstrapping is bad, and many entrepreneurs who aren’t capable of raising money will tell you bootstrapping is good. Be careful who you listen to.” medium.com/@robmay/boostr…
Sent privately from one of the most active angels in the game
“I’m so over the capital being pushed into so many companies with the expectation to build at a pace that will just kill them. It makes zero sense! Most of those investors don't even understand the actual business!”
“Venture capital should never have become the standard way for us to fund new businesses.”
Great exploration of alternative funding models, and their underlying economics, by @Anerbenamiblog.usejournal.com/dont-go-chasin…
If only there were a funding option that sat between traditional VC and bootstrapping 🤔
If recent twitter threads are any indication, there may be a real opportunity to fill that gap...
