Not raising funds to stay small and happy

I also identify with the author. Tried the startup game on two occasions and got burned 2 times (one as senior engineer the other as CTO) - somehow both companies managed to sell but not at a price that made my shares worth it.<p>I then swore I would never be an employee again and decided to join an accelerator but crashed out. Now I am freelancing and building a bootstrapped business on the side: much less headaches, I earn a good living, and get to build something I am passionate about while remaining master of my destiny. Not seeking VC money nor VC-esque returns, just a meaningful life where my work is valued and provides enough to live comfortably.

Building a small boot-strapped company vs a funded company is in a large part dictated by market and product rather than by individual intention.<p>If you try to build a funded company in a space that can&#x27;t sustain one you will struggle, likewise if you try to build a small bootstrapped company in a space that can you will similarly struggle.<p>If your direct competitors have a much better product then you (because they have more dev&#x2F;product&#x2F;ux resources than you), a professional sales org, marketing machine, etc. then it&#x27;s very hard to compete. Your acquisition costs and churn will be high which will severely hurt your ability to grow to a sustainable level.<p>There are some ways to compete by going after the customers your competitors don&#x27;t want (if they&#x27;re price sensitive, too small, wanting unusual customization, services, niche needs, etc.) but you should think about upfront what your strategy is going to be.

Rarely comment, but definitely identify with this. Given HN&#x27;s general focus on growth and funding, I think it&#x27;s great&#x2F;important for an article&#x2F;concept like this to be given some reach.<p>I find that there isn&#x27;t enough critical thought given to why one ought to pursue an aggressive growth strategy. And that generally, staying small is seen as a failure to grow, rather than a conscious effort to grow in line with ones own life. Going from 3 to 100 employees in a (relatively) short period will naturally have a large impact on one&#x27;s personal life and mental&#x2F;emotional state. I think it&#x27;s important to ask, before one ventures into that kind of adventure, whether or not you&#x27;re okay risking mental&#x2F;emotional (and arguably physical) stability in place of the adventure, and the potential financial windfall.<p>There&#x27;s nothing wrong with saying no to that risk. This is a short life we have, and spending it chasing growth to keep up w&#x2F; the momentum of the extremes of capitalism doesn&#x27;t need to be your game ;)<p>[edit] Prefer my last paragraph be written as: There&#x27;s nothing wrong with saying no to that risk. This is a short life we have, and <i></i>if you&#x27;re<i></i> spending it chasing growth to keep up w&#x2F; the momentum of the extremes of capitalism, it doesn&#x27;t need to be your game ;)

I can definitely agree with this. I was developing <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;framestr.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;framestr.com</a> (SaaS), and at the time, we had to bring on a 2nd developer and server costs were increasing (we all wanted to avoid raising funds and aim to bootstrap). Rather than raise funds, my partners and I built a small SEO business. We ended up scaling the SEO business to around $200k MRR.<p>Having been through the financing process before for at a previous start-up, I can say that the time invested in the side business was not a whole lot different than time invested in fund raising (+ meetings, reporting to investors after the raise).<p>By hustling, we were able to build a nice life style business, while being able to grow our tech SaaS. At the same time, we had much more flexibility and have been able to build &#x2F; invest in what we want, and for what we believe is best long-term.

Totally agree with this. Been bootstrapping my own thing for a while. If it hits $5k MRR I&#x27;ll be more than satisfied and probably never raise money.

What worries me the most about freelancing, or being a small 3-person shop, is retirement.<p>A 3-person shop might not be sustainable if me (1&#x2F;3) decides to retire and has to pay someone to keep it afloat. And that is, if I find such a person. I also have to make sure that whatever service I provide, will keep making sense in ~30 years.<p>Saving might work in countries with stable economies, but you still have to set aside quite a bit of money -- and should you outlive your saving, you&#x27;re in trouble.

It depends what you want and what is your market size. Due to liquidation preference, it makes sense for investors to invest in any good companies they can no matter their size.<p>Now that SaaS is maturing and opportunities are smaller microSaaS will become more commonplace.<p>I built one 10 years ago and I remember people thought I was crazy at that time...

I believe it is Bhutan that measures gross national happiness in addition to GDP, realizing growth just for growth&#x27;s sake doesn&#x27;t necessarily increase overall happiness. Don&#x27;t know how well that works for them but good for both the nation and this startup to have it as a goal. My concern in the context of the startup would be that another player would enter the same market segment and use funding to expand aggressively, eating all of my market share in the process. Even if there is plenty of space in the market for both the slow growth and quick growth startups, there is going to be a danger of getting steamrolled by the quick growth company.

I was expecting more than a few paragraphs claiming that a small company is a good thing in regards to happiness and flexibility at work... oh well.

I also had these thoughts when I bootstrapped but the problem is not being able to hire a great team that can build something you would not be able to. If you’re all 3 single guys in 20s, enjoy 20s. When you’re married and have kids, then you’ll care about bills rather than lifestyle and retreats.

Funding is just another form of employment (or slavery if you wish).

What’s the ultimate value of growth anyway? If a startup is VC backed, then growth is the pathway for investors to get rich. If growth is a way to have a sustainable competive advantage of that’s a value too. However there are also enough small companies with a sustainable competitive advantage. Depends very much on your positioning etc

I think about the controlled growth of Amazon. They&#x27;re the tortoise than won the race. Others grew fast and crashed and burned. They were careful not to overleverage and to make sure they were doing what they could handle.

&gt; Not raising funds to stay small and happy<p>But in this winner-takes-all reality, is that possible? If your business concept becomes successful, what prevents a bigger player to copy it, improve upon it, and steal away your customers?

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