Bootstrapping Your Startup - Vivek Bhaskaran
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Growing your startup successfully without taking outside money by founder of Survey Analytics and successful bootstrapper Vivek Bhaskaran. Presentation given at StartupDay 2010. http://www.seattle20.com/startupday
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Bootstrapping Your Startup - Vivek Bhaskaran
- 3. Why I did it
- 4. The VC (Not Greg G) (Not Greg G)
- 5. Our Business Plan Make Fucking Money!
- 6. Customers = VC = $$
- 10. Find Your Market Fast
- 11. Co-Founders
- 12. Friends
- 13. Break Bread (Or get Wasted) (Or get Wasted)
- 14. Its the Journey Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never bee n seen associated with long delays. -Sun Tzu, the Art of War -Sun Tzu, the Art of War -Sun Tzu, the Art of War Text Text Unless its 10x EBITDA
Notas del editor
- -how QP started -awards -how we’re doing now.
- -its for people that don’t have inheritance or trust funds -its for poor college kids like me that only (at the time) knew how to smoke weed, not talk to VCs Caveats - - Good - Software (Saas, Cloud etc.) - B2B - Bad - Capital Intensive - Car
- -I was poor college student -I didn't know even know what Angel/VC funding was -tell story of working with professor? -80% of VC funding fails - I didn’t want to accept that failure rate
- -I’ve always been my own boss --tell story of having a zillion bosses as a consultant --non of them know their head from their ass -I can be more honest with myself and my colleagues --if something sucks, I say it sucks --if I have an idea thats a bad idea, my collagues can say so (mostly - laugh here) -I’ve always retained control -don't have to spend 1/2 of your time appeasing VCs
- You’ve heard this a million times, but I’ll re-iterate: a startup is about writing the business plan. It could not be more prevalent in the world of bootstrapping. Everyday I’m working on our business plan. If I can’t recite the current business plan of the hour in my head, then I shouldn’t be in business. So writing it down is fruitless. Business plans are just a checkbox for a VC firm to feel [slightly] better about their investment. It means nothing for a real bootstrapped business. What am I gonna do, write a BS business plan and then submit it to myself for review and approval? (snicker)
- - Ask for money
- -millions of brand decisions when you run a business -when bootstrapped, you may feel like the underdog and back down on deals --do not give in - preserve your brand at all costs. --this is the stepping stone to move up the chain/crossthe chasm - SEO before SEO was cool - Cloud before cloud was cool - SaaS - ASP
- -A startup, at its very core, is about writing a business model (not executing a business model) -at a bootstrapped startup, revenue is always the #1 goal -its built into our DNA from day one. -its not something thats deferred as a later problem (like funded startups) -there are two types of businesses: ones that are executing a business model, and one that is writing the business model (we’ll talk about this more later) --when revenue is day one objective, you are always writing the business model. --fans of the 4 steps to the epiphany and understand what I mean when I talk about this.
- -millions of brand decisions when you run a business -when bootstrapped, you may feel like the underdog and back down on deals --do not give in - preserve your brand at all costs. --this is the stepping stone to move up the chain/crossthe chasm - SEO before SEO was cool - Cloud before cloud was cool - SaaS - ASP
- -being small is better advantage than you think -being small forced me to find my market as fast as possible - I didn’t defer this -Art of War quote here (harass, attack head on, wear down) - Example of IdeaScale - Feature of a tool, then a separate brand, and then a website and now a separate company alogether
- -Find Co-Founders that are in the same risk category --this is more important that you think --if you are single and see no difference between sleeping under the desk, at a friends house, or on a real bed, then don’t pair up with a family man
- Hire Friends! -common myth that hiring friends is bad -I can be more honest with friends --I can tell them their work sucks, or be sincere when its great. --I make it clear that its my company -I know what I’m getting myself into -It actually doesn’t bother me to fire friends either (ok maybe the first one was hard) -I know whose in for the long haul much quicker than if I hire someone off the street -also, dealing with friends has made me better at hiring strangers, as my company has grown.
- -always break bread --even with your enemies - talk about how Dave Sliwa / Ad Ready - Madrona -
- -thanks to Marcello -thanks to startupday coordinators -hope I didn’t update any VCs in the audience - I still love you guys (sorta)