Bootstrapping versus Blitzscaling

There are many controversial topics swirling at the moment: Bootstrapping vs. Blitzscaling, Concept Financing, Applying to Y Combinator, and Bootstrapping with a Paycheck. In this article, please find links to specific discussions on each of those topics. You are most welcome to weigh in.

Remember, Entrepreneurship = Customers + Revenues + Profits; Financing and Exit are Optional.

The media has, unfortunately, muddled this issue. If you read what is celebrated, you would think Entrepreneurship = Financing.

This is absolutely false.

Startups are trying to blitzscale and become Unicorns while the market around is falling apart. In the last 18 months, numerous erstwhile Unicorns have stopped growing and started failing.

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later is a MUCH better strategy than Blitzscaling with ridiculous amounts of capital. In 1Mby1M, we prefer Bootstrapping early, then raising small amounts of capital. You can read more and dialog here on Bootstrapping vs Blitzscaling.

First time entrepreneurs, for the most part, do not qualify for Concept Financing. If you are going around hitting up pre-seed VCs in search of Concept Financing, you are wasting your time. You can read more and dialog here on Concept Financing.

Are you trying to get into Y Combinator? Beware, they have a 98% rejection rate. They need to see that you are building something that can be blitzscaled with gobs of venture capital. Blitzscaling, however, is NOT the only way to build a successful company. You can read more and dialog here on your Y Combinator strategy.

Are you still employed but dreaming of starting a company? I’m going to give you contrarian advice: Do NOT quit your job. In 1Mby1M, we support entrepreneurs bootstrapping with a paycheck. There is no good reason to quit your job before validating your startup idea. You can read more and dialog here on your Bootstrapping with a Paycheck strategy.

Bootstrapping a New Age AI Services Venture: Anji Maram, CEO of CriticalRiver is a wonderful case study depicting an important trend. Anji has bootstrapped CriticalRiver to $50M in revenue and is introducing AI into his services business model. We expect to see a lot of this happening all over the tech services ecosystem. AI Services is going to become a massively valuable category.

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The 1Mby1M curriculum teaches a proven Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later methodology.

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