September 28, 2010
“The odds of raising venture capital are equal to the odds of getting struck by lightning while standing on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day.” – Bill Reichert, Garage Technology Ventures
Bill said that in 2004 and the odds have probably gotten longer since then. The challenges of raising outside money coupled with lower initial capital requirements (at least for web companies) and new methods like the Lean Startup are one factor that has contributed to an explosion of bootstrapped companies.
37 Signals, makers of Basecamp, is a prime example and they’ve recently been profiling others. They call the series “Bootstrapped, Profitable and Proud.”
The companies on the list are all product companies who have never taken VC investment, have revenues over US$1 million and are profitable.
If you are bootstrapping by choice or necessity there are some informative and inspirational stories here including:
The complete list as well as a call for more companies to profile is here.
If you think bootstrapping might be the right approach for you the bootstrapping section of our Entrepreneur’s Toolkit is a good place to start.