
Ask HN: Any founders who self funded all the way? How was it? - cvaidya1986
We are actually considering going completely bootstrapped from idea to profitability. Is this insanity?
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davismwfl
This is the way the overall vast majority of businesses are started in the US,
e.g. no VC money. The echo chamber of silicon valley is all about the need to
raise money, which is just a false notion. Raising money is not evil but it is
also not the only way to build profitable, sustainable and stable businesses.

I have done both, there are pros and cons to each side and both bring
different headaches. My personal preference is not to raise money, but I am
not against raising money either -- I am part of a startup now that raised.

A lot of the exceptions and premise of this depends on your idea and some
ability to fund it until revenue comes in. Many times, you can use your day
job to fund the business for now, get some traction, get some clients and work
the angle to find what will sell. VC's will call people who do this non-
committed and/or hobby/lifestyle businesses. There is truth to what they say
of course, but in the end their point of view is also very self serving.

If I told you that you can build a $10-20M/year business with 10-30% margins
in 5-8 years, owning 100% of it (or close to 100%) and enjoy life, would you
be complaining? No most people would jump at that, and the people that don't
are usually the outliers. Even wealthy people want to own these types of
businesses because those businesses produce real returns consistently. But a
VC would call this a lifestyle business because it isn't going to return to
them the high value they need to justify investing -- which in all honesty is
a fair position.

There are also alternatives to the VC highway of funding. High net worth
individuals live all over the US and world, and almost all are interested in
making decent investments with reasonable returns. Most small businesses that
take funding in the US are backed by these people more than any other source
(outside of family, friends). And the ownership these people take is fair
given their risk/reward ratio.

There are also reasons to jump on the VC train but I have already written a
book and I am sure others will point out those values.

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nickjj
I wouldn't do it any other way.

I self funded my solo developer lifestyle business and am really happy about
it.

I'd rather run a business that's profitable from nearly the start and
eventually ramp up into something that's very reasonable, instead of beg for
money and hope that in 5 years I get bought out by Acme Inc for an absurd
amount of money that needs to get split up in a 100 different ways.

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peter_d_sherman
No, it's sheer brilliance... but it's an order-of-magnitude harder than
getting funding from a funding source. Still, at the end of the day, you'll
retain 100% equity in the company you create, and don't need to fear VC-
installed management teams or hostile takeovers or anything of the sort...

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gajju3588
Founded on a loan from father, story of two brothers from India.
[https://qz.com/763927/the-worlds-newest-billionaires-are-
two...](https://qz.com/763927/the-worlds-newest-billionaires-are-two-brothers-
from-india-who-started-out-as-nerds/)

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DoreenMichele
_Plenty of Fish_ did this.

[http://www.thejournal.ie/plenty-of-fish-
sold-2217455-Jul2015...](http://www.thejournal.ie/plenty-of-fish-
sold-2217455-Jul2015/)

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cvaidya1986
Thank you for all your comments and insights. Very grateful to see the
detailed responses which has given us a lot to think about.

