Changing your bootstrapping identity

Filed in archive Bootstrapper Tips on April 27, 2008

I love Saurabh Chandra's post on the subject of "How to become the right person" for a bootstrapping venture at Bootstrap in Bangalore.

Unlike going on a job interview, bootstrapping requires no special credentials, so why not take the opportunity to stretch beyond your comfort zone with a business idea not necessarily connected to your expertise.

Saurabh suggests:

• Learning all you can. Attending conferences, setting a Google Alert for relevant on line info. (I'd also recommend starting a blog as a great method of sharing what you've found and forcing yourself to go on learning so you can create new posts.)
• Making connections. Hopefully through the learning process you'll meet folks either on line of in person in the field you hope to enter, sources of not only information but future partnerships.
• Breaking it down. Don't try to realize your entire vision at once. Saurabh suggests breaking it into manageable chunks and allowing you to branch out into unknown territory starting with what you know and moving to the less familiar.
• Examining options. Look for ways either to bootstrap your idea perhaps with help from a larger company better able to exploit it or to get investment for expanding the enterprise yourself based on the interest you've generated.

Read more about my own efforts to bootstrap my way into semi-unfamiliar territory using existing resources in the next post.

Photo Credit: Iván Melenchón Serrano, MorgueFile