Bootstrapping vs Startup
I recently read an article about Bootstrapping. Bootstrapping is basically a startup company without any money and lots of hope. A Startup company is something with a little money, lots of hope, and serious possibilities. I follow a blog called AVC, and you can read the Bootstrapping article on their site.
What struck me about the article is that I’ve been under the impression that FlamingLunchbox is a Startup company. What I slowly realized via this and many other blogs, is that we are Bootstrapping it. All this talk about being a Startup and we aren’t even technically in the club!
The article was enlightening. It talked about many companies and how they transitioned from Bootstrapping it to being a Startup, but only after many years of simply trying to make ends meet.
There are so many great things out there, amazing things. These creations and dreams didn’t simply happen overnight. I hear the voices in my head that tell me…“It’s not working, you need to move on” or “There are so many problems that I don’t know how to handle, maybe they can’t BE handled”. Robey and I, we’re both coming up with difficult problems, and sometimes they’re personal. Sometimes they are our own demons.
Sometimes ‘starting’ a company is difficult. You have to learn how to ‘start’ a company, learn to do all the odd jobs. You have to learn how to train and pace yourself, and learn how to work together with others when it really matters.
If you have a chance read the comments in the article I mentioned above as well as the article itself. The article and especially the comments were very heartening for me. They told of stories of now successful companies that had to wade through several years of trials just to make something work. Articles like that give me hope to keep trying, to keep pushing. Many great things are made by people who simply don’t give up.