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.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Co-founders Bootstrapped First, Scaled to $16M

This is a textbook case study of founders with deep domain knowledge in starting with services and then productizing, eventually raising institutional capital. EZOPS Co-Founders Sarva Srinivasan and Dutt Chintalapati told us all about their journey in 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where were you born? Where does your journey begin? 

Sarva Srinivasan: I was born in India and grew up there. I did my Computer Science there, then majored in Finance. I then started working with Wipro.

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Chase Customers Instead of Concept Financing

First time entrepreneurs, for the most part, do not qualify for Concept Financing. If you are hitting up pre-seed VCs in search of Concept Financing, you are wasting your time.

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Are You Chasing Investors Ahead of Customers?

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.

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Bootstrapping a High Growth Cyber Security Venture with a Paycheck: Christian Geyer, CEO of ACTFORE (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: So, what you’re describing is a very interesting scenario where you were able to incubate the company to a very large degree – $18.3 million revenue level within your parent company, and the board let you do that. It’s amazing that you were able to do this at this scale.

Now, how many people went with the spinoff – you and your co-founder and who else?

Best of Bootstrapping: Entrepreneurial Couple Bootstrapped with a Paycheck to Millions

Nomad Lane Co-Founders Kish Vasnani and Vanessa Jeswani bootstrapped to multi-million dollars in revenue selling a private label product before quitting their jobs. In this story, you also get to see the nuances of running successful (and not so successful) crowdfunding campaigns. Their very interesting journey and insights were shared with me in 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the very beginning. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in background?

Kish Vasnani: I was born in Jaipur, India and moved to the US when I was about one year old. I grew up around the Atlanta area and finished school there. I moved to New York to help a friend of a friend start a software company, which was also bootstrapped. We were able to sell that to Thomson Reuters. I had the itch again to go out on my own. Very candidly, I was also fired from a couple of other jobs over the course of two years.

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Bootstrapping a High Growth Cyber Security Venture with a Paycheck: Christian Geyer, CEO of ACTFORE (Part 1)

Christian convinced the Board of his employer to let him incubate a Cyber Security startup idea as a division of the company with an express intent of spinning it off.

Now, the company has been spun out, doing almost $20M in bootstrapped annual revenue, and may soon find a lucrative Exit. This is a phenomenal story for entrepreneurs considering the Bootstrapping with a Paycheck route.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $26M and a Fabulous Exit

When we spoke in 2021, Founder CEO Vamsi Kora had bootstrapped Gathi Analytics to over $26 million in revenue in four years and exited at a fabulous multiple. Much to learn from his journey.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Vamsi Kora: I’m from south India, from a village in Rajamundry, which is very close to the Bay of Bengal. I did Mechanical Engineering. Right after it, I went to have one of the very few well-paid careers at that time. I couldn’t afford to come to the US. So I went into merchant shipping and roamed around the world for about three years. I made two and half rounds around the equator.

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