The bootstrapping panel was moderated by Bijoy Goswami, founder of Bootstrap Austin, CEO of Aviri, and author of The Human Fabric. The official SXSW description of this panel was:
Bootstrap your venture with little to no startup capital like Michael Dell! Learn the rules of bootstrapping from successful bootstrappers in publishing, software and art.
One of the more interesting concepts put forth by Bijoy was the three stages of a bootstrapped company: ideation, valley of death, and growth. Ideation and growth are pretty self-explanatory, but the valley of death concept was intriguing. The valley of death is the stage where you really start building the business – no more thinking. This is the action stage where the critical decisions must be made for the bootstrapped company. Even after the business is up and running, Bijoy states that it is possible for the company to enter the valley of death again due to circumstances. These inflection points could be whether to take on external financing, to develop a new product, or enter new markets.
Here are the notes for this panel:
– bootstrapping is more than a low capital approach to building companies
– there are three stages: ideation, valley of death, growth stage
– some entrepreneurial myths
- capital is important in early stages
- you need a business plan (meaning precedes action)
- you have to be the lone hero, you have to do it yourself
- you have to have a â??big ideaâ?
- bootstrap ventures donâ??t become big
– SXSW 2006 must be the bootstrappers conference
– the danger is over-planning and not taking action
– need 2 things â?? idea + customer
– Some bootstrap principles
- follow and develop your passions
- right action by stage: ideation, valley of death, growth
- valley of death stage – this is where you innovate!
- focus on you customer, not an investor
- opportunistic adaptation and serendipity
- demo -> sell -> build
- power of 2 – two founders can help
- venture as an organism â?? can’t skip grades, need to go from stage of development to the next
– the key for an entrepreneur is how to react to what customers do and how they act
– business plans are too linear
– bootstrapping is a process or a philosophy
– focus on execution
– book resources
- Go It Alone by Bruce Judson
- Selling the Wheel by Jeff Cox
