Our customers are the only investors we've ever had
We've had investors since day one, even though they've never asked for shares. They're our customers. And seeing it that way changes how you look at everyday work.
Leer más →What is bootstrapping (and why it's more a way of thinking than a way of funding)
Bootstrapping means growing a company on what it earns, without investors. But what really changes isn't where the money comes from. It's how you decide.
The word sounds like consultant English.
The idea is as old as business itself.
Bootstrapping means growing a company with the money it generates itself. No investors. No rounds. No asking anyone's permission for the next step.
It comes from the old phrase about pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. Impossible in physics. Very possible in business.
What bootstrapping means in practice
In practice it comes down to three simple things:
- Customers pay for growth. Every euro you invest, the company earned first.
- Sales set the pace. You grow when you can afford it, not when someone demands it.
- The decisions are yours. There's no board of investors waiting for a multiple.
Foxnice started that way in 2014. €300 between my partner and me. Since then, every step has been paid for by a client.
Bootstrapping isn't a way of funding. It's a way of thinking
Here's the interesting part.
A lot of people see bootstrapping as plan B. What you do when you can't get investors.
I see it the other way round. It's a way of looking at your company that forces you to ask good questions from day one:
- Would someone pay for this today?
- Does this expense bring sales closer, or does it just make me feel more like a company?
- Can I start smaller and test it first?
When the money is yours, you care about it. And when you care, you decide better.
With outside money you can buy time. With bootstrapping you learn not to need it.
Can you bootstrap a startup?
Yes. Just not every startup.
It works very well when:
- You can charge early. A service, subscription software, something someone will pay for in month one.
- Your market doesn't reward whoever gets there first at any cost.
- You'd rather build something solid than something huge.
It works less well when you need years of development before you can sell anything. There, outside money makes more sense.
There's no good option and bad option. There's the one that fits what you want to build.
The advantages nobody puts on the slide
You learn to sell before you learn to spend. It's the most useful skill a founder can have, and bootstrapping teaches it to you whether you like it or not.
Your customer is your boss, not your investor. You build what the market asks for, not what looks good in a pitch deck.
You can be small and profitable. Nobody's asking you to 10x. You can choose to grow a little less and live a little better.
If something goes so-so, you're still standing. There's no countdown. You adjust and carry on.
What it demands
I won't sell you smoke: it has a price.
It demands patience. Things move more slowly.
It demands focus. You can't do everything, so you choose.
And it demands selling. A lot. From the start. Because without sales there's no bootstrapping, just savings running down.
How to start bootstrapping
- Start with what you already know how to charge for. A service is the fastest way to have revenue.
- Spend only on what brings the next sale closer. Everything else can wait.
- Reinvest with judgement. Not everything that comes in has to go out.
- Build product from what clients teach you. They're already telling you what's missing.
Bootstrapping isn't epic. It doesn't make the press.
But it leaves you with something valuable: a company that's yours, and that works because someone pays for it.
P.S. This is how it all began: Foxnice with €300.