Integral Review

Welcome to my personal blog! I use it to share what I'm currently learning or thinking about, usually on topics related to technology, business, and health.

Not raising funds to stay small and happy

“Any plans to raise funds?” is a question I get a lot. Here are a few of the reasons why we intend to stay bootstrapped.

Conventional wisdom says you start building an MVP, maybe acquire a few customers and raise funds. If you go to events, most stories start with a variant of this. But there’s a catch here.

Building a SAAS generating $30k MRR is hard but doable. It’s enough to have a great lifestyle for a team of 3. You can work remotely, host company retreats in amazing places and keep full control.

Raise funds, and you’re losing this freedom. Investors will rightly ask for a decent exit, and a team of 3 won’t allow this. So you’ll try to grow to a team of at least 20 to increase the value of your company. Of course, a profitable 3 person team will often break when you try to scale it.

It all boils down to what is enough to make you happy. A 30k MRR company can provide an amazing lifestyle. If it is enough to make you happy, you’re highly increasing your odds of success. But if a 100 person company is what you need, then hopefully you’ll enjoy the trip, as you most likely won’t get there.

A company needs to reach a certain bar to ensure the happiness of its founders. But this bar is often a lot lower than we think. Let’s avoid falling for the hedonic treadmill.

#funding #happiness #startups

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