Ask PG: what's YC's / PG's opinion of the lean startup / bootstrapping movement?
Obviously you're not opposed to venture funding, but do you see it as a requirement? Are there YC startups that have chosen to eschew or severely minimize post-YC funding in favor of growing based on revenue and profits? Or does YC both select for and encourage raising larger amounts of funding?
Published in 2010, this chronicle by @ryanwaggoner details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Charging customers from day one acts as the ultimate filter for building software that solves genuine, high-urgency problems.
Keeping fixed overhead low and leveraging lean infrastructure allows founders to stay alive until market tailwinds kick in.
Small, repetitive improvements in customer retention and conversion rates yield massive returns over multi-year horizons.
Community Debate Themes:
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
CATEGORY Bootstrapping & MRR →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 14 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 4 comments
This came up a couple days ago:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1736166