Gianforte at Forbes.com and the bootstrapper's big eight

Filed in archive Bootstrapper News on June 25, 2006

If Seth Godin gave bootstrappers their bible, then Greg Gianforte remains the patron saint of the faith.

Thanks to Bijoy Goswami at the Bootstrap Network Blog for this link to an interview with Gianforte at Forbes.com. Depending on your connection, you may have to give the video time to buffer. Be patient. It's worth the wait.

On his own website, Gianforte suggests eight key reasons for bootstrapping your next business over more conventional investment options. Gianforte says:

• Bootstrapping ensures that you build your business on a legitimate, real-world value proposition...If you have a lot of external funding, on the other hand, you can be fooled into thinking you've already created an actual business just because you're paying salaries and rent.

• Bootstrappers initiate the critical sales learning process sooner, not late. Selling is the hardest job of all. You have to learn how to be absolutely great at selling your product or service, and then teach others how to be absolutely great at selling it too.

• Bootstrappers don't waste money; they make it...Venture funding actually encourages the start-up to waste money long before a viable business has been established

• Bootstrapping accelerates time-to-market and time-to-profitability...Venture-funded entrepreneurs spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find sources of external funding-while Bootstrappers are already on the street looking for customers and closing deals.

• Bootstrappers are less likely to make big, fatal financial mistakes...From a personal perspective, Bootstrappers are also at less risk-because they don't have to put up the family home as collateral or jeopardize a lifetime of savings.

• Bootstrappers are forced into unconventional thinking...This results in innovative, outside-the-box approaches to everything from product design and manufacturing to marketing and sales.

• Bootstrappers have more freedom and flexibility...They can change direction overnight if that's what circumstances call for.

• Bootstrappers wind up owning much, if not all, of what they create...once you're addicted to external financing, you can see your shares totally diluted by subsequent rounds of funding. So you can wind up with a successful business and little personal financial gain to show for it.

Gianforte's book "Bootstrapping Your Business: Start And Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money" encapsulating many of his key ideas on bootstrapping is available from Amazon.com.