We hear little about bootstrapped companies, despite bootstrapping being an effective way to get up and running. We cover five successful bootstrapped firms you’ve probably not heard of – until now
Oct 4, 2023·edited Oct 4, 2023Liked by Gergely Orosz
Having co-founded a company a while ago, it is like a breath of fresh air to read about successful bootstrapped companies. Thank you for interviewing the founders!
PS: If I am allowed, one small typo in section 6, Friendly Capture, Guido's answer. "Hite kind people..." -> "Hire kind people..."?
It’s really awesome to expose bootstrapped companies to the public and especially show their “starter stories”. Thank you for doing this.
I’m sure that many feel that they can relate to how bootstrapped companies start (like a side project). VC is much more unrelatable for those who haven’t gone through the process before or aren’t in startup-centric circles.
We lack access to stories about Bootstrapped Companies and this article of Pragmatic Engineers is great. I hope we see more of it because Choosing Boring Growth is like Choosing Boring Technology.
Please do not include Consultancy Agencies in the future. Consultants are different category than companies offering services as products. Take for example, mobile carriers. Services for access to the mobile network are the products, but there is little-to-no consultancy involved.
Dimi: sorry, but I include companies I find relevant. A good chunk of bootsrapped companies are consultancies. I wanted to include to represent this category as well. It's one out of the 5 examples, and very purposeful.
Anyone starting a bootstrapped companies will find the consultancy path an obvious one. It's the easiest way to generate revenue (and profits) from day one. It's also hard to grow beyond a certain size (10-30 people).
have you observed how consultancy companies remain a consultancy and do not grow own products? This is my motivation to make a distinction between bootstrapped companies and consultancy. We lack stories about bootstrapped product companies, while consultancy stories are plenty on Linkedin. Thank you for responding.
Dimi: in this article I brought 4 bootsrapped companies building products, and one consultancy. Neither are in the "plenty" category that I have observed.
I am really happy that you picked multiple bootstrapped companies. The differences of each company really made the article useful. Thanks again for digging into this niche. I also enjoyed the new bootstrapped section in the new weekly issue.
Having co-founded a company a while ago, it is like a breath of fresh air to read about successful bootstrapped companies. Thank you for interviewing the founders!
PS: If I am allowed, one small typo in section 6, Friendly Capture, Guido's answer. "Hite kind people..." -> "Hire kind people..."?
It’s really awesome to expose bootstrapped companies to the public and especially show their “starter stories”. Thank you for doing this.
I’m sure that many feel that they can relate to how bootstrapped companies start (like a side project). VC is much more unrelatable for those who haven’t gone through the process before or aren’t in startup-centric circles.
We lack access to stories about Bootstrapped Companies and this article of Pragmatic Engineers is great. I hope we see more of it because Choosing Boring Growth is like Choosing Boring Technology.
Please do not include Consultancy Agencies in the future. Consultants are different category than companies offering services as products. Take for example, mobile carriers. Services for access to the mobile network are the products, but there is little-to-no consultancy involved.
Dimi: sorry, but I include companies I find relevant. A good chunk of bootsrapped companies are consultancies. I wanted to include to represent this category as well. It's one out of the 5 examples, and very purposeful.
Anyone starting a bootstrapped companies will find the consultancy path an obvious one. It's the easiest way to generate revenue (and profits) from day one. It's also hard to grow beyond a certain size (10-30 people).
have you observed how consultancy companies remain a consultancy and do not grow own products? This is my motivation to make a distinction between bootstrapped companies and consultancy. We lack stories about bootstrapped product companies, while consultancy stories are plenty on Linkedin. Thank you for responding.
Dimi: in this article I brought 4 bootsrapped companies building products, and one consultancy. Neither are in the "plenty" category that I have observed.
I am really happy that you picked multiple bootstrapped companies. The differences of each company really made the article useful. Thanks again for digging into this niche. I also enjoyed the new bootstrapped section in the new weekly issue.
My friends over at https://canny.io/ is also bootstrapped and doing a great job!!