We plan to do consulting projects in the same market, adjacent to our product, hope to get more market insight and visibility.
Will be like dools says - consult X days to increase runway by Y days on product. Ideally Y>X.
Poll: Would your start-up bootstrap instead of raising money?
31–37 of 37 posts
Re: Poll: Would your start-up bootstrap instead of raising money?
#32I think you can get a certain distance by doing short term work and during that time flesh out the idea, write V1 of the code, even release it to users. But as the user base grows and the urge to iterate faster and faster starts to burn it becomes hard focusing on contracting or part-timing it (which i was doing)
You kinda get up in the morning SUPER bummed about going to the 9-5 shop and the motivation dies almost completely cause you just wanna make the side project (which i guess it is at the time) work.
If i was going to do some part time work i would probably look at tutoring highschool students or certain cs courses cause it pays ok for the day to day bills and i find that more fun anyway. Not at the super broke stage yet so dont need to go down that path at the moment :)
Re: Poll: Would your start-up bootstrap instead of raising money?
#33But bootstrapping != contracting?
I suppose the term bootstrapping in the poll title could mean your startup is self funded from previous savings. But I'm referring to finding a short-term contracting gig to keep your startup afloat rather than raising money.
TBH, the only time I've ever heard anyone use the word bootstrapping was to describe raising funds from friends and family, and in most cases, it was also in the form of loans, not equity investment.
Re: Poll: Would your start-up bootstrap instead of raising money?
#34I have a small team that has tried to do consulting but haven't been able to find gigs. Any tips?
Re: Poll: Would your start-up bootstrap instead of raising money?
#35I was prepared to vote an unequivocal "YES!" to the question until I clicked through and saw the additional terms regarding contracting.
Contracting can be a good gig, but it's also a tar pit. I'd rather not contract. Instead I'd prefer to raise money and focus on developing the company's initial product. Contracting often distracts from the company's true product needs.
That said, I'd rather build a company using the founder's funds with no external funding or contracting distractions. To me, that's true "bootstrapping" and that's the best path for almost any startup to take.
(Of course investors and advisors can offer excellent advice and open up fantastic opportunities, so never completely dismiss the idea of external funding. Almost every company that wants to move beyond a "lifestyle business" needs to take on significant funding and begin building a powerful support and advisement network.)
Re: Poll: Would your start-up bootstrap instead of raising money?
#36I'm glad to see most people are willing to work for money rather then take money from someone who is going to want to take away some of their ownership.
Start-ups should focus on bootstrap if they really care about their product.
Re: Poll: Would your start-up bootstrap instead of raising money?
#37I've found consulting while bootstrapping teaches important prioritization, balancing and juggling skills that any successful startup will need.
You can almost treat your consulting side as a startup of it's own to make it as efficient as possible a provider to the bootstrapping effort.