Ask HN: Is it okay to just bootstrap it, even when VCs are knocking?

Your situation sounds awesome, and I don't think your preference sounds weird at all. Congrats on the success!

You can find more like minded folks in the Indie Hacker community, if you haven't run across it yet.

See https://www.indiehackers.com/

If you're happy, then live your life, man. We're all weirdos in our own ways.

The advantage of VC etc. is that if you have objectives for your company that you can accelerate with money, then you can do that faster than if you do it solo. That's useful because the only really irreplaceable resource on the personal scale is time.

But if you feel fulfilled doing your thing then maybe live it. There's hundreds of businesses of this size that can live forever because the TAM isn't high enough. And anyone who attempts venture scale in those will just fail. So this could be a very rational decision.

Enjoy and congrats!

That sounds fantastic! Making good money solving problems for people and enjoying it is pretty much the dream right?

I would say trust your instincts on this one. VC absolutely comes with strings attached, and those strings can easily lead to worse outcomes for both you and your customers.

Of course VC has its place, and some things are better off targeting massive scale from the beginning, but it does preclude a lot of good ideas just based on the economics. Given the scalability of software, running leaner can enable a wider variety of products that deserve a place in the world. If you want to split the difference with some funding you could consider https://tinyseed.com/.

As you say it, it might not last forever. VC startup is a more recognized "unit of business". Equally, VC objectives may be different than yours and they may spoil the dream for you.

It's a choice of being your own, maybe small rocket, and strapping yourself to another, bigger rocket, which is going roughly up, but maybe not where you want it to. Either can explode, but in different ways...

Success to you is for you to define. Don't fall into the trap of VC funding because its all you read on HN or Techcrunch. What you have built is your baby so don't let anyone else tell you what you should be doing. It sounds like you have so much meaning and purpose in the company you have. If (and it sounds like) you don't want the vc money, then that is the right decision for you.

May a well post a link to your company…

These don't sound like serious inquiries. Have you been approached by a partner at a VC firm or a executive at the Megacorp? This sounds more like due diligence against other investments they are considering by having low level folks reach out to see what they can uncover.

Building a bootstrapped business (i.e. NOT taking venture capital) is a rare skill. I would keep on building without outside capital if you can continue to build growth. If you hit a ceiling (without growth) then you may want to consider looking for/accepting outside capital.

As soon as you accept VC funding, there are basically 3 outcomes for your company. Getting acquired, going public (if that's an option where you are) or going bankrupt.

If you can keep growing without VC funding, I'd keep doing that.

You do have a real business already: understanding potential customer problems, solving it and charging for it. If you want to grow your activity, VCs are one way that has been pounded for the last decade or so, but not the only one! You could start by looking for an associate, you could employ someone to help with tasks you’re not comfortable with, etc. Be the entrepreneur you want to be, not what the crowd tells you to be!

Congratulations on finding success and satisfaction in your work. I hope to one day find the same. Personally, I think you should keep doing what you’re doing. If you accept VC money you are now beholden to your shareholders and are no longer in control of your business. The degree of autonomy you have, the quality of your product, and the satisfaction you derive from your work will all surely suffer as a result. It’s a deal with the devil and frankly, were I running a business, I would stay away.

PS. These are merely the opinions of someone with no experience operating a business.

I joined a bootstrapped SaaS several years ago in a niche domain. They were making 10x that again in MRR, growing rapidly and still 100%-owned between the 2 founders. VC's knocked on their door every week but they had their own vision for growth.

Don't be afraid to walk your own path.

Personally, I would always pick bootstrap over VCs after past experiences when I can (there are businesses that simply cannot be started without a lot of cash). But I don't want to be a billionaire; I want to live comfortably and doing what I like; also, like you say, I don't want the 'go big or go home' attitude; you can get VC money and be gone in 6 months even though bootstrapped you would've ran the same business, but slower, for a decade+.

We had VCs in the past and it can take out the fun immediately depending on your taste. They (VCs) simply demand results, fast, so you change from someone who does what they like and believe in, to someone who has to focus on numbers, growth, staffing and presentations (always be raising once you're in!). Even for me as CTO, the VCs we worked with demanded me to be more of a MBA CTO dan a tech CTO; that's not me (I ran companies as ceo/cfo and know the theory well enough; I just find it a waste of life for me personally while there are other people who love that, so why would I?), so I had some words with them over that every meeting.

In short; if you don't need to and you don't want this pressure cooker growth, I wouldn't give away % for money; only for people who really benefit your company and are willing to grow slower with you. Definitely not weird at all.

Congrats! It's a great position to be in! I've been running a bootstrapped business for 6 years.

You're not nuts at all, it all comes down to what you want. I personally want to start a VC backed business next year. They're both different types of businesses, where you'll learn different skills and live life in different ways.

If you don't want to do any of that, then you've just answered your own question! Enjoy where you're at and don't worry about comparing yourself to what others think.

You might consider taking on some debt, perhaps in the form of a convertible note, given what the economy is doing. That gives you a cushion for N years of degraded revenue. Depending on the terms, the strings might be minimal.

If you sell equity, the VC's will expect a huge multiple return on investment over ~5 years.

If your company could get to $100m-1b a quarter with the VC money (but not without), then take the cash. If projected revenues after you saturate the market are much lower than that, then the VCs will probably want you to build the company so it can be easily acquired for a quick buck. It sounds like you don't want that.

IMHO, keep doing what you're doing! Not much better than being beholden to no one but yourself. I don't think it's weird at all to want to keep that going.

Personally, I'm pretty inclined to shy away from VC unless it's unavoidable for the domain the company is in (e.g. hardware companies, which tend to require an unbelievable amount of capital outlay just to survive development + manufacturing).

You have drawn enough attention for VC cold calls which means your idea is attractive. Your VC funded competitors will grow faster than you unless they botch things. If that is acceptable, continue present course.

I can tell from your post that you will absolutely hate ceding control to a VC

I would recommend finding a co-founder who has similar ideals but can handle the parts you don’t like doing, and has business experience. You’ll get much further without losing real control

I’m doing the same (small, bootstrapped SaaS, 10k MRR), previously leading tech from seed->C at a VC startup. It’s definitely okay to stay bootstrapped!

Main question to ask is whether you have considered the overall potential threats to the business, and what you’re trading off against by not taking VC; and if you are comfortable with those risks and tradeoffs.

There’s no universal answer, but there are better answers depending on the business / those risks. For example if your business is at increasing risk of a better-funded competitor eating your lunch, a bigger war chest might be prudent.

Keep in mind that there are a substantial set of skills you will need to develop, and responsibilities you will need to make time for, when taking VC investment. Not necessarily a negative, and for me it was desirable. Fundraising, managing investors (eg updating the board quarterly), hiring faster, and scaling the product faster. I’m hand waving here, but as you’ve guessed it’s likely not just take money and keep on operating exactly the same way. Big checks will come with certain expectations, and meeting them can dramatically change the culture and lifestyle you’re trying to achieve.

Lastly, there are ~boutique VC firms out there that specialize in smaller SaaS with good trajectory. The VC that is knocking may be the wrong match for your goals, but it’s OK to shop around a little.

Quick thoughts but feel free to find/dm me if you’d like any addl advice or anecdata. And, congrats!

I’m in almost the exact same position, minus the knocking VCs. For a while I felt like I should look for funding and more growth to be a real „company“. Over time I realized that the path this would probably take me on isn’t really for me: I deeply care about delivering a quality product and managing my own time and priorities and I’m pretty sure that would fly out of the window. A VC funded competitor exists and is bigger, but the market is big enough for both (and others). I enjoy being the „weirdo“.

I'm a solo dev doing $700k yearly across two saas products. I'm also the founding engineer at Reforge (e.g. I've done the VC game from A16Z).

There are two things I look at when raising VC.

1. What's the TAM of my product and will a capital injection get me there faster?

2. Do I actually want to raise capital or do I want to work at my own pace?

The last couple of years (after Reforge), I've just been working at my own pace -- healing from my last VC run.

Do you run it all by yourself or you have a team in place? If it is solo operation, perhaps middle ground would be to develop it into self functioning company first. There are many obvious reasons why you would want to do it (and why you wouldn't). Perhaps one less obvious one - you will get tired of it eventually. And if it can't survive without you - you will hate leaving it to die off and you will hate keeping running it...

I agree with most comments that it’s ok to prefer not being VC funded. Looking at what other possible outcomes you may have by taking an alternate route: if you take VC money and the company self-destructs, you might end up with considerable capital (depending on how things ended) at the expense of the business and your clients.

But that’s a gamble. If you think the current MRR is sustainable then I would personally stick with it (I assume you’re a solopreneur)

The founder of SaaStr Jason Lemkin wrote a pretty good article that can help you think about this decision

https://www.saastr.com/the-10x-rule-what-raising-1-of-ventur...

The immediate impact is that that MRR that you have is no longer eligible for dividend payment. Expectation will be that you reinvest all income for growth until you exit (acq, IPO).

On the positive side, you’ll get to explore how big your idea can really become. And with much less worries about immediate cashflows than you otherwise would have if you were to grow your headcount.

tldr; think big or enjoy your small scale success. (As others have pointed out, absolutely nothing wrong with the latter.)

One thing to realise is that a lot of those VCs will be junior analysts and tyre kickers looking to fill their diary. I am involved in a handful of businesses and they could all fill half of their week taking those calls, even though the investors are not serious. They conclude the call with “let’s keep in touch” even though the businesses have stellar growth and margins.

If I was to take VC funding again I would combine it with taking a big slug off the table personally to derisk things. For this to make sense you would probably need to scale the business quite a bit more before that becomes viable.