Though taking money from investors might seem like the path to success, bootstrapping has several advantages. First, it helps you to stay scrappy and to realize talents you may not know you even had. Second, and counterintuitively, it can help attract the right talent. And, finally, it helps you maintain control of your company while finding the right partners to help you scale.
When you bootstrap, you are forced to get good fast. As humans, we prefer to put in only as much effort as we need to, but whether we recognize it or not, we all have extra gears. Sometimes it’s not until things get really tough that we find the gears that allow us to shift into overdrive — that is what bootstrapping does for you. Admittedly, it is hard, but it forces you to get creative with your strategy and come up with solutions you would never have thought of.
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Learning to improvise like that is essential to startup success, and it’s hard to learn unless it’s forced upon you. Bootstrapping does just that.
It also helps attract talent. If you’re bootstrapping, you probably don’t have enough cash or cachet to attract high-profile talent. Early on, bootstrapping companies aren’t able to hire candidates with tons of experience. Instead, they attract people who are willing to bet on themselves — and on your vision.
Curated from Why Every Startup Should Bootstrap [Harverd Business Review]
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