Bootstrapping with 50 K
Filed in archive Bootstrapping Trends by Shawn Hessinger on July 22, 2008

Not too long ago, blogger Taylor Davidson and I debated the value of a future economic system where Venture Capital or something like it might fund less expensive "lifestyle" business startups at a much lower level than the Twitter's and Facebook's of today.
Now, entrepreneur Andrew Goodman worries about a micro-financing trend of supplying bootstrapped startups with a $50,000 infusion to help them get up and running-and so do I.
Goodman is concerned that if bootstrappers:
• don't have the ingenuity enough to sell your car
• beggar thy neighbor
• go nuts on your credit cards
• or just moonlightand grind
Then maybe $50,000 won't do much to help-or worse!
I'd argue any quick cash infusion that isn't sustainable can do more harm than good to a startup, especially one that is simply "promising" and does not yet have a proven business model.
I have high hopes for www.postranger.com but if someone handed me $50,000 tomorrow for investment, I wouldn't know exactly what to do with it.
Yes, the network has a growing on line audience, but so far it has yet to establish enough substantial cash flow based on that traffic. I don't see how $50,000 would help this situation.
In the end, when PostRanger starts developing a sustainable, predictable cash flow, $50,000 may be beside the point. Today, without a proven business model in place, it would simply be a distraction.
Photo Credit: Dani Simmonds, MorgueFile
Permalink: Bootstrapping with 50 K
Tags:
business startup venture bootstrapping tips advice entrepreneur bootstrap among+forbes
Trackback: http://www.creative-weblogging.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.pl/129334















