Is it the bootstrapper’s time to jump on the venture treadmill?

Equity

TechCrunch

Entrepreneurship, Business News, News, Business, Technology

4.2 • 372 Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Is it the bootstrapper’s time to jump on the venture treadmill? The episode was inspired by Natasha's recent Startups Weekly column, "The bootstrapped are coming, the bootstrapped are coming" and the companion TechCrunch+ piece, "Will once-bootstrapped startups turn to venture during a watershed moment?" But, of course in classic Equity style, we continued the conversation with nuance and numbers as a focus. Here's what we got into: The definition of bootstrapping, and our own additions and subtractions The trend of more bootstrapped companies taking on venture, or at least more venture capitalists being interested in bootstrapped companies What the heck is a venture treadmill, and what to drugs have to do with it? We ended by both agreeing that we are, indeed, the best. There's ample history when it comes to bootstrapping companies eventually raising money. We just want to know if it is going to happen more often today, and earlier. Let's chat! Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of
0:15.1	startups where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. I'm Natasha
0:18.9	Masqueriness and this is our Wednesday show where we niche down to a single
0:22.3	topic, think about a question
0:23.7	and unpack the rest today we're asking is it the Bootstrapper's time to jump on the
0:28.2	venture treadmill and as always I am joined by the inimitable editor-in-chief of Tech Crunch Plus.
0:33.7	Alex, how are you and how is our Crunch Plus going?
0:36.7	We haven't talked about that live in a while.
0:38.4	Tech-Prince Plus is hiring, it's growing, we're expanding.
0:41.1	I mean just real talk though, because we're going to talk about bootstrapping and
0:43.8	kind of dealing with the realities of business. July was a tougher month for T.C. Plus. We had a slightly
0:48.3	higher churn that anticipated, but Jason Limkin once said, you know, you're always going to have a quarter
0:51.8	that's a little bit strange. And August is off to a great start, so all the and
0:53.3	August is off to a great start so on the whole directionally lovely July can screw off for all I care
0:58.5	you're doing a great job and I actually really do think there's like something to be said about journalists putting on like a business and startup hat and then becoming more empathetic reporters. I forget which journal which went solo said this recently which was like I have a lot more empathy. I think it was Eric Newcomer which is I have a lot more empathy for startups right now because I am talking about things like turn and off quarters and stuff like that so I'm glad we have that perspective on the show now.
1:21.7	I mean I think the newcomer example is actually a great
1:23.6	intro point because I don't think he raised external capital for his publication
1:28.7	newcomer he may have gotten some sub-stack money but it doesn't like he was out
1:31.3	there raising a series A and so
1:32.8	effectively bootstrapped and he's making a good go of it and I think a lot of us in the
1:35.8	media world they're kind of watching and I'll just be honest cheering on from the
1:38.7	sidelines I hope it goes well for. Oh hell yeah I mean bootstrapping which is what we're talking
	...

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