Bootstrapping
Building a company through self-financing, without external investors. The founder funds growth from operating revenue, keeping expenditure strictly aligned with cash generation to reach profitability.
In practice
Bootstrapping preserves the founder’s control and equity stake but constrains growth to the pace of cash flows. Basecamp, Mailchimp and Zoho reached hundreds of millions in revenue without dilution. The cash discipline it enforces forces choices that venture-backed companies defer: ruthless prioritisation, profitable pricing from day one, organic rather than paid-for growth.