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Bootstrapper Tips
by Shawn Hessinger on December 23, 2007

In his "Four Pillars of Organic Growth" at Inc.com Joel Spolsky co-founder and CEO of Fog Creek Software suggests cash flow, hiring, publicity and quality must all increase at roughly the same rate in a successful bootstrap venture.
• Bring in cash flow from too many customers all at once and you won't be able to hire staff fast enough to provide necessary services.
• Hire too fast and you can't indoctrinate new employees into the company culture meaning quality and service will suffer.
• Get publicity too early on before you have a good quality product or in some cases any product at all and they may never give your company a second chance.
• Fail to bring up quality to meet increased demand and word of mouth interest in your product and customers will also loose interest.
There's something about all this that implies the need to start small and build up slowly to your big idea. (Joel uses the example of starting a small Vermont ice cream shop before expanding to a giant ice cream empire. Now, who could he be talking about?)
It's also something struggling entrepreneur and consultant Alan Wilensky (who likes to refer to this blog as the Business Bootstrapping Blogger Brigade) is discovering with his venture ThruDispatch. (See more detailed discussions on the startup complexity issue here.)
Permalink: Bootstrapping requires organic growth
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Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/108103
Mr Wong
Vote for Bootstrapping requires organic growth:
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Rating: 6.75 out of 4 vote(s) cast.
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Response from:
alan
(12/23/07 1:38pm)
Response from:
Shawn
(12/23/07 7:35pm)
Hey Alan,
Don't sweat it. I love the blog and am flattered by the mention--really! Venting is part of what the Internet and the increased freedom of expression it provides is all about. I think your narrative is great. You might consider publishing it in book form at some point in the future.
Don't sweat it. I love the blog and am flattered by the mention--really! Venting is part of what the Internet and the increased freedom of expression it provides is all about. I think your narrative is great. You might consider publishing it in book form at some point in the future.
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Thanks for the link! I want everyone to know, unequivocally , that I hold the advice given on this blog, and others like it, as very valuable. In my dramatized account of starting ThruDispatch, I point out that there can be some periods in one's journey where, in spite of the best advice, the odds can seem insurmountable.
But, I think all of us, from startups that hold out their hand and vencap falls in, to those that bang heads against the wall, that the following is true:
To have never even tried is the most fundamental sin.