Many of the biggest companies in the world today started out with limited resources and no outside funding. Jeff Bezos, for example, operated out of his garage with just a handful of employees when he sold his first book in 1995. Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile,launched Facebook from his college dorm room.
Bootstrappers take an idea and, using talent and professionalism, build a worthwhile business without the backing of investors and having little or no starting capital. It takes great dedication, sound work ethics, and pure single-mindedness to achieve success this way. Bootstrapping is hard. However, over the long run, as the list of companies that started this way proves, starting out alone can be a blessing.
Key Takeaways
- Entrepreneurs who bootstrap their companies start with very little money and no outside investments to build their business.
- Bootstrappers may rely on sweat equity, customer funding, personal debt, or personal savings to provide initial capital.
- It might be an effective model for new companies because it encourages simplicity and flexibility during the early growth phase.
- Bootstrappers may face cash flow issues and high levels of personal stress.
- Software development platform company GitHub launched as a bootstrapped startup in 2008 and was bought by Microsoft for $7.5 billion in 2018.
The Origin of Bootstrapping
The origin of bootstrapping can be linked to the following sayings:
- "Pull oneself over a fence by one's bootstraps." This saying originated in the early 19th century United States and implies an impossible action.
- “Pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps.” This refers to 19th-century high-top boots that were pulled on by tugging at ankle straps. It generally means doing something on your own, without outside help, and, in many cases, the hard way.
Bootstrap became a metaphor for overcoming tough tasks. And that paved the way for the term bootstrapping, which applies specifically to companies starting out with little outside help.
Bootstrapping is a process whereby an entrepreneur starts a self-sustaining business, markets it, and grows the business by using limited resources or money. This is accomplished without the use of venture capital firms or even significant angel investment.
Bootstrapping Methods
Without outside debt and equity financing from banks and investors, companies that are bootstrapping will look at:
- Owner Financing: The use of personal income and savings.
- Personal Debt: Usually incurring personal credit card debt.
- Sweat Equity:A party's contribution to the company in the form of effort.
- Operating Costs: Keep costs as low as possible.
- Inventory Minimization: Requires a fast turnaround of inventory.
- Subsidy Finance: Government cash payments or tax reductions.
- Selling: Cash to run the business comes from sales.
Bootstrapping a Business/Company
A bootstrapped company usually grows through three successive funding stages:
- Beginning Stage: The founder starts the business while continuing to work a day job, starting with some personal savings, debt, or investment money from friends and family.
- Customer-Funded Stage:In this stage, money from customers is used to keep the business operating and, eventually, fund growth.Once operating expenses are met, growth will speed up.
- Credit Stage: In the credit stage, the entrepreneur must focus onthe funding of specific activities, such as improving equipment, hiring staff, etc. At this stage, thecompany takes out loans or may even find venture capital for expansion.
What's Needed to Bootstrap a Company
To run a successful bootstrapped company, an entrepreneur must execute a big idea, focus on profits, develop skills, and become a better business person.
Execute on Big Idea
It is best to break a big idea into a series of ideas, then execute the startup on the best portion. Then, youfollow up on other sections later. In most instances, a company will be successful in its execution of a business idea rather than the idea itself.
Focus on Profits
This is what funds the business. A very different mindset must be employed for bootstrapped startups compared to the management mindset in a venture-funded or angel-funded company.
Bootstrapped businesses usually expect to be around for a long time, growing slowly and quietly, developing paying customers to meet the business costs. On the other hand, companies with outside funding will be expected tohave high growth so that the investor can have a profitable exit strategy.
To start a business and bring it to successful fruition takes a sound mix of confidence, risk tolerance, self-discipline, determination, and competitiveness.
Development of Skills and Becoming a Better Business Person
People starting a business must develop a wide variety of business-related skills. Passion, resilience, perseverance, and courage also help as does being resourceful, accountable, and careful as well as enthusiastic and relentless in the advancement of the company. These traits are usually required to make a bootstrapped company workable.
Companies Suitable for Bootstrapping
There are generally two types of companies that can bootstrap:
- Early-stage companiesthat do not require large influxes of capital, particularly from outside sources, and, therefore, have flexibility and time to grow.
- Serial entrepreneur companies, where the founder has money from the sale of a previous company to invest.
Being required to solve problems without external funding means that bootstrappers have to become resourceful and develop a versatile skill set.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Bootstrapping
Advantages
- Low cost of entry: Working with your own money is a cheaper and more accessible option. And if funds are short, you can start operating your company on a lean business model, which can be a good habit to get into.
- You call the shots: Without any external investors (as only founders are investing in the business), the founders’ equity and control over the company are not diluted.The founders are their own bosses and are responsible for all crucial decisions in operating and growing the company. This can ensure that the business is moving in the direction desired, according to the founders’ vision and cultural values. It also means that the founders get to keep eventual profits for themselves.
- Concentrate on building the business: The fact that raising external finance is not an issue allows for full concentration on the core aspects of the business such as sales and product development.Because of the limited cash supply, alternative options (factoring, asset re-financing, and trade finance) become part of the norm with bootstrapping. Building the financial foundations of a business on your own is a huge attraction to future investors. Investors are much more confident funding businesses that are already backed and show promise and commitment by their owners. Business glitches can be rectified with growth, which means that perfection at the launch of the business is not a necessity.
Disadvantages
- Limited cash flow issues and experience: Problems can arise if a company doesn’t generate the capital it needs to develop products and grow. Moreover, an entrepreneur's lack of experience and know-how—particularly in the fields of business acumen and leads—can cause stagnation and disaster. Outside investors don't just offer capital. They also have lots of experience growing startups.
- Equity issues among multiple founders: Equity issues can become a problem when there's more than one founder. This could cause disharmony as well as adverse tax consequences if there's an imbalance between founders when it comes to the amount of invested capital, experience, or time. Commingling company and personal funds can defeat one of the major reasons to incorporate or set up a limited liability company (LLC). A record of founders’ capital provided to the business will help alleviate this problem. Also, consulting an attorney is beneficial for company startups.
- Risk of failure can be high: Bootstrapping involves much more risk of losses and failures. One reason some bootstrapped companies are unsuccessful is a lack of revenue. Profit is not sufficient to meet all costs. Starting a business often requires very long hours of work just to keep your business going. In many cases, there is no paycheck to go with this effort. All problems are yours, as hiring staff may not apply. This means that solutions are limited to your ability or those of friends and relatives who might be willing to help.
- Personal stress: You'll need to become adept at handling stressful situations that may crop up if you finance your company using money borrowed from others, such as family members and friends. Understanding what is expected of you and communicating this clearly to others can help you cope with the stress of the situation.
Pros
Bootstrapping is cheap, which means there is normally a low cost of entry
You are your own boss, so you call the shots
You have the freedom and flexibility to develop your business
Cons
You may experience cash flow problems
Equity issues may arise if there are multiple founders
The risk of failure can be high
You may find your stress levels shooting up
Successful Bootstrapped Companies
Building a strong business with a sound foundation and value takes time and many bootstrapped companies have achieved this by providing amazing products or services. Eventually, they reach the point, through solid strategies and sustainable profit, where the company grows to have a powerful position within its industry.
Many of the successful companies that we see today had their humble beginnings as bootstrapped enterprises. Examples of these include:
- Dell Computers
- Meta (formerly Facebook)
- Apple
- Clorox
- Coca Cola
- Hewlett-Packard
- Microsoft
- Oracle
- eBay
- Cisco Systems
- SAP
Obviously, there are entrepreneurs behind the scenes of successfully bootstrapped companies, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, and Richard Branson.
Example of a Bootstrapped Company
GoPro,formerly Woodman Labs, is an American corporation that develops, manufactures, and markets high-definition personal cameras. The company manufactures small, body-worn cameras that record the user's experiences. These cameras became popular among sports enthusiasts because of their ability to record hands-free, high-definition footage.
Nick Woodman conceived the idea of a wrist strap that could tether already-existing cameras to surfers. His inspiration came after a 2002 Australia surfing trip where he was hoping to capture quality action photos of his surfing. Woodman found he was unsuccessful as an amateur photographer because hecould not obtain quality equipment at affordable prices. He tested his first makeshift models but came to the realization that these were not good enough, therefore concluding that he would have to manufacture the camera, its housing, and the strap himself.
The initial money Woodman raised to found the company—$30,000 dollars in bootstrapped cash—came partially from selling bead and shell belts out of his VW van. He moved back in with his parents at age 26 and worked many long hours to develop his product. He scraped by doing many different types of work, from emailing to truck driving, so that he could design his product, which he did by hand because he didn’t have enough computer design experience to do so electronically.
In 2004, the company sold its first camera system, which was a 35mm analog camera that eventually evolved to digital. As new adopters discovered the product, the cameras branched out from the surf scene and started to be used for auto racing, skiing, bicycling, snowboarding, skydiving, base jumping, white-water rafting, and skateboarding.
Sales Drive Growth
The company consistently grew revenue and in 2014 GoPro went public with an initial public offering (IPO) valued at $2.96 billion.
Although it took 10 years for GoPro to reach its zenith, there had been a great deal of aggressive marketing, social media strategy, and constant consumer technology advancements going on throughout this time. And, of course, the company benefitted from being in the right place at the right time by taking advantage of smartphones making traditional digital cameras and camcorders obsolete.
Woodman was not a success the first time around. He previouslybuilt two companies.The first wasa website called EmpowerAll.com, which sold electronic products. The second,Funbug, (funded to the tune of$3.9 million) wasa gaming and marketing platform. Both failed. Determined to succeed, Woodman came back a third time to pursue his dreams with GoPro.
The Ups and Downs of Business
Like all businesses, a company that starts out as a bootstrap venture faces the same headwinds that all companies face once they mature past the early stages. GoPro is no exception to this. Since trading at a high of around $93 a share in October 2014, the company's stock plummeted. On 20 August 2024, the shares were trading hands at $1.32 apiece.
The business model that made the company successful began to falter when GoPro faced competition from other action-camera companies and from the new technology that made smartphones the camera of choice for many consumers. Over the years, GoPro's competitive advantage over its rivals has decreased.
Other Bootstrapped Companies
Most companies have a bit of bootstrap in their past before moving to the next step and accepting outside funding. The decision to go the road of bootstrapping and create a self-funding business has been known to provide rewards that can be both immediate and lasting.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a web application company that produces simple, focused software. It started as a cash-strapped startup called 37Signals and turned into a highly successful business.
Basecamp was founded in 1999 by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (or DHH), who have co-written three bestselling books: Getting Real, Rework, and Remote. In the early years up until around 2004, the company was primarily a consulting agency, basically helping to create and improve company website designs for companies such as Panera Bread and Meetup.com.
Since its launch, the company has developed various products. Its current range of products includes Basecamp, HEY, and Ruby on Rails.
GitHub
GitHub, a web-based hosting service for software development projects that uses the Git revision control system, was founded by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, Scott Chacon, and PJ Hyett.
This started as a weekend project, with the founders covering the costs involved to buy a domain, and when the decision was made to bring GitHub into full-time operation they funded the setup costs themselves. The platform for developers, which functions as a social network, portfolio space, and co-working space, took off.
As the platform became accepted by programmers, requests for private repositories, or safe places to store their codes where others couldn’t view or steal them, were being received. The founders left their day jobs and focused on the business by working various hours and locations. They also released imperfect products that, with customer feedback, went on to become extremely popular.
As of August 2024, over 100 million global developers use the company's software development platform.
$7.5 billion
The price Microsoft paid to acquire GitHub in October 2018.
TechCrunch
TechCrunch, a technology website, was founded in 2005 by successful serial entrepreneur Mike Arrington andKeith Teare. TechCrunch became the epitome of technology blogs online and basically transformed the space of blogging into great works of journalism.
The site achieved enormous growth and a loyal readership by putting out high quality, consistent content and by sharing stories about the latest happenings in the tech and entrepreneurship worlds.
To further enhance its presence, TechCrunch created its powerful CrunchBase database with over half a million startups and high-caliber entrepreneurs. Moreover, it began hosting several in-person and virtual events, including its flagship Disrupt conference.
In 2010, TechCrunch was sold to AOL for a rumored $25 to 40 million. At the time,Arrington personally owned 85% of the company.
Plenty of Fish
Plenty of Fish, one of the world's largest and most popular dating sites, became a full-time business in 2004. Until 2008, founder Markus Frind conducted his startup from his apartment. Eventually, he acquired a new Vancouver, Canada, headquarters and began hiring other employees.
In 2024, Plenty of Fish had 169 million registered users, 77 employees, a 15.2% share of the dating market, and was estimated to be worth between $450 million and $750 million.
The company makes money via advertising as well as offering premium services as part of its upgraded membership. The site was acquired by Match Group in 2015.
What Is a Bootstrapped Company?
A bootstrapped company is a company that was built with little capital and outside financing. These companies stay afloat and gradually grow by tapping into the founder’s personal finances and the company’s operating revenues.
What Is the Success Rate of Bootstrapping?
Lots of companies start this way and measuring how all of them fare is difficult. Gitnux found that 90% of bootstrapped startups fail within the first five years, which isn’t a very encouraging statistic. However, it also reported that bootstrappers have a 3.6 times higher chance of reaching profitability.
Which Is the Biggest Bootstrap Company in the World?
Some of the biggest, most valuable companies in the world today started out this way, including Apple, which, as of August 21 2024, is the world’s biggest company by market cap.
The Bottom Line
Many companies have been successfully bootstrapped: Braintree, TechSmith, Envato, AnswerLab, Litmus, iData, BigCommerce, Campaign Monitor, Indeed, Behance, Thrillist, Lead411, Office Divvy, Goldstar, Carbonmade, FastSpring, SparkFun Electronics, Grasshopper,Clicky, WooThemes, AppSumo, MailChimp, Burt’s Bees, Patagonia, and Craigslist are just a few.
Bootstrapping companies must constantly look for ways to improve their processes, even without hindsight or millions of dollars at hand. One area to take particular note of is the financial management of a growing company, as cash-flow surprises can be the nail-in-the-coffin of a startup. Sloppy practices and shortcuts will often be disastrous.
Bootstrapping isn't easy. However, it isn't impossible, either. Lots of companies started this way and have since gone on to be very successful.
