Bootstrapping represents careful growth
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Entrepreneur David Rabjohns, founder and president of MotiveQuest LLC, a company that monitors on line conversations about its clients' brand identity, says he decided to bootstrap his company despite the availability of outside investment for two important reasons.
1. Maintaining quality. Rabjohns wanted control over the company culture he was creating through the people he was hiring, the service he was delivering and the longterm goals he had set for his company
2. Ensure responsibility. In his job at Leo Burnett Chicago he'd watched well-financed companies blow their capital and go down the drain because of lack of adequate control and was determined the same would not happen to him.
Quitting his day job and using consulting work to finance the launch of his company. Now that its time to look for investors, Rabjohns has maintained the protectiveness of his company left over from his bootstrapping days.
He explains:
One of the main reasons entrepreneurs choose to bootstrap-to retain control and maintain quality-is also why success presents them with such a powerful dilemma. I want to build a company that's about much more than money. I want to build a company that I'm proud of, that my kids can be proud of, and where the people who work can enjoy their lives. With those values in the forefront and investors on the same wavelength, I'm confident I can meet all of our goals in both the short and long term.
Read the rest of Rabjohns observations here and join us in the next post for more from the Kauffman Foundation bootstrapping series…
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