Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

Unlocking Success: The Advantage of Bootstrapping for Startups

20 Aug 2023 · 1 min

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0:55

Jason M. Lemkin discusses the advantages and challenges of bootstrapping startups versus taking VC funding. He argues bootstrapping is generally viewed positively by investors but is harder and typically delays growth—"it typically takes three to four years longer"—and may be infeasible in fast-moving sectors like payments/fintech, while being more acceptable in niches like vertical SaaS.

Questions this video answers

Three to four years longer.

August 20, 2023.

Chapters

So I just want to Simply it's not VCs prefer bootstrap companies don't let that be an excuse don't bootstrapping is not bootstrapping is a reason it's harder right we'll get to that next but it's not it is a positive for most investors VCs would love to be the first one on the captain because there's more space and less drama right it's what you want the different point is bootstrapping is harder and I wrote this post a long time ago it typically takes three to four years longer being bootstrapped it does and it sometimes that can kill you if you pick the wrong part of a fast moving segment because someone will get funded and there are spaces there's parts of fintech payments where the mood there's no time to bootstrap right there are other niche spaces maybe you vertical SaaS where you know it's competitive but like you're competing with 20 year old software like sometimes it's okay if it takes a little longer.