How to Build Sustainable Startups Without Subsidies

During Slush a week ago, one word kept resurfacing in my mind from experiencing more challenging times before: Bootstrapping, which was also my advice to the numerous start-ups asking to meet. It refers to the process of building a business with minimal external funding. Here are five main points associated with bootstrapping: 1. Self-Financing: Rely on founders' savings or revenue from early operations to fund growth. 2. Frugality: emphasize cost-effectiveness and efficient resource management. Focus on minimizing expenses with a lean approach to operations and prioritizing necessities. 3. Organic Growth: Expand based on the revenue generated from operations. A gradual approach allows more control over the pace and direction of growth. 4. Profitability Focus: Prioritize achieving profitability early on, ensuring sustainability and reducing dependence on external funding. 5. Sweat Equity: Transform the ask for money into a contribution of time, effort, and expertise by individuals, earning contributors a stake or ownership in the business. When times get tough, entrepreneurs get creative and build companies that weather out storms. Times of turmoil are good moments to start up. Just have the right mindset and seek support from the right people. As always, Together, We Can, also Bootstrap!

Many entrepreneurs, myself included, have fallen for the 'build it, and they will come' fallacy, only to be met with silence. After selling my first business, I invested in a startup to combat food waste without properly engaging our target market — a critical misstep. What I should have done was launch a waitlist (at minimal cost), driven potential clients to that page and asked a handful of questions to gather data... before we invested a boatload of cash in the product. The truth is, over 95% of new products fail not due to lack of innovation but because of a lack of market understanding, poor planning, and inadequate customer feedback. Many of the business owners I speak to have sunk millions into building a product before even testing their idea. 🧠 Learn from brands like Harry's: success comes from building buzz and understanding your market before launching. They collected 100,000 emails pre-launch, not through expensive ads but via effective referral marketing. For business owners, this is a wake-up call. Move beyond the 'build it and they will come' mindset. Validate your market, engage potential customers early, and strategize your launch. That's how you turn silence into sales... and scale a valuable business. #BusinessStrategy #ProductLaunch #Entrepreneurship

If you're just starting, don't think about funding. I had A LOT of people download my investor database. It's great, I'm happy to have created so much value for people. But if you downloaded it, I bet about 90% of you don't need it.. yet. If you're a founder new to the startup world, let me tell you... funding is a facade. You see the articles on Tech Crunch and the announcements on LinkedIn - "<Company Name> just raise $3.2M Seed" "<Company Name> just valued at $100M with their Series A" This is the facade. And for every 1 company you see with announcements, there are 1,000+ that are trucking away without that or struggling to get it. Not to mention how hard it is to get funding in today's market. Plus, the chances that you're ready for funding are pretty slim. So instead of focusing on the investors, focus on building a product that your customers are obsessed with. Sustainable is sexy, and if you want to be venture-backed, sustainable is also fundable. So do these things first >> - Be obsessed with your customers - Gather data, learn, and solve problems that make their lives easier - Create an experience that makes you unforgettable - Build a cashflow-positive business - Grow with what you have, be smart with your pennies - Continue to evolve and learn Don't build for you, build for them.

I invested $387.53 to start my company. "You need VC capital”. I disagree. Many successful business owners I know started with spare time and small investments. When I founded G2i, I bought some books, a mouse, a WordPress theme, and I registered a DBA with Sunbiz. For the next few years, G2i Design was a mom-and-pop shop: A local web design agency. Things took off. I reinvested the profits back into the company. We kept things simple for a long time. You see, many young people want to create ‘the next big thing’ —to build the next Google or to create an entirely new category. Here’s my two cents if you want to start a business: 1. Keep it simple: Provide an in-demand service like lead generation, design, or writing. This requires only a laptop and you can learn everything from YouTube. Do everything you can to care for your customers and provide an amazing experience. 2. Create content: Pick a platform like LinkedIn to continuously talk about your business and what it does for whom. Build relationships with future customers. 3. Execute, document, and uncover new opportunities By running a ‘simple’ business, you quickly encounter problems within your niche. Those are the real opportunities that could accelerate you. This is how G2i grew from a design agency to matching freelance software developers and designers with remote product teams. I’m confident G2i, my company, won’t fail. But I remember the crippling self-doubt: “You will fail when you get bigger. The next recession kills your biz. You have no idea what you’re doing”. Start a simple business. Be patient and assertive. And sustainable growth will be inevitable.

🚀 From Unicorn Dreams to Donkey Success: My Personal Journey in Building a Thriving Business 🐴💼 I recently reflected on my entrepreneurial journey and want to share some valuable insights with you. In the fast-paced world of startups, we often get caught up in the pursuit of becoming a unicorn—the elusive billion-dollar valuation. However, I've realized that being a donkey startup can be a smarter, more fulfilling path to success. For two years, I chased investors, believing securing funding was the key to rapid growth. But I soon discovered that this approach was diverting my attention from what truly matters—sales. I shifted my focus and went all-in on sales, embracing the donkey mindset. The results were astonishing. My company's revenue skyrocketed by hitting the road and prioritizing sales growth, exceeding even our most ambitious projections. We realized that a sustainable business model and generating actual revenue were far more crucial than relying solely on investor capital. What sets donkey startups apart? They thrive on stability, profitability, and sustainable growth. Instead of constantly seeking external funding rounds, donkey startups reinvest profits to fuel their expansion, giving them an unlimited runway for success. I invite you to read my latest article, "Unicorns vs. Donkeys: Your Handy Guide to Distinguishing Who's Who." It delves deeper into the advantages of being a donkey startup and shares valuable insights from my journey. Join me in embracing the donkey mindset. Focus on sales, build a solid foundation, and watch your business flourish. Let's shift the narrative and celebrate the power of donkey startups in driving true, long-term success. #DonkeyStartups #SalesGrowth #Entrepreneurship #startup #success #growth #power #SustainableSuccess

As founder of a startup, your two most important assets are your time and your equity. Try as you may, you will never recover time spent, no matter what you spend it on. You can invest your time into processes that will save you time going forward, and that is a very smart thing to do. And, you can spend time raising money. You will never get that time back - you have traded your time, for the money of others. And for that you get to give those persons your equity. So, you have lost both your time and your equity. Is it worth it? Perhaps, but could you have used that time to build your business - a business that makes the money you need? Each of us has the same 24 hours every day. How should you invest yours, to reach your goals? I am not saying taking investment is all bad, but it is not the only way. For most, it is the wrong way. Investors know the game - make sure you do before using your time to give them your equity. Too few are teaching the boostrappers way of building a sustainable business that you, the founder, actually own and control. Understand why… #playlong

I've been working on building PILOT Inc. for nearly a decade, and one of the most common things people ask about the company is how much 💰 venture capital funding we've raised. The answer is $0. And the number of fundraising pitches I've done? Also, zero. When I put my life savings into founding the company, I wanted to build something meaningful, impactful, enduring, and special. My NYC #entrepreneur mentors encouraged me to be a "revenue first" business owner, focused on adding value to customers and making money rather than selling off major stakes in the company based on a slide deck. I share this because most media attention around #startups is focused on VC fundraising, which is an impressive accomplishment. What isn't covered are the vast majority of small businesses and start-ups that build organizations without large up-front capital, which is out of reach for most founders unless they come from a very narrow pedigree and personal demographics. When my Grandfather immigrated through Ellis Island from Germany in the 1920s, he founded his own small business in a similar fashion, starting with his own resources and using hard-earned revenues to build, expand, and invest. On a recent episode of the HBR On Strategy podcast, Mike Salguero, the Founder & CEO of ButcherBox, shares how he started his company without VC funding and discusses the advantages that gave him (link is in the comments 👇). This resonated with me as my journey shared some similarities. It is important to amplify these entrepreneurs and stories, and if you know of others, please drop them in the comments below! If you're considering being an entrepreneur or have friends/colleagues who might be, realize there are many 🛣 paths to success, and the VC path can produce blockbuster outcomes but typically has the highest failure rate and lots of tough tradeoffs. #smallbusinessowner #vcfunding #successstories