13 traits to never fail as a bootstrapped founder

99% of the bootstrappers fail.

Still, 100s of bootstrapped companies like Mailchimp or Shopify have gone on to become unicorns. What sets them apart?

Here are the 5 inspirational stories and 13 traits all bootstrappers can use to never fail.

Bootstrapping - using personal funds or operating revenue, to launch and grow your business.

For most early-stage founders, this is not an option.

Angels and VCs are not going to fund you without traction.

Some choose to never raise - why deal with external pressure. Right?

I failed to bootstrap the first time around as well. Reading philosophies over the internet did not help me.

I had to learn actionable concepts the hard way.

I do plan to bootstrap to a point where I can easily raise funds. You can too.

Bootstrapping has a lot of benefits too over raising funds,

1. It is easy to manage finances
2. More control over decision making
3. More room for creativity
4. More focus on what you like to do
5. Highly attractive for future investments

Let's look at a few noteworthy stories.

1. Shopify

In 2006 the founders were building an e-commerce site for snowboarders. They were not satisfied with the existing shopping cart solutions.

They knew to code, so they built their own using open source frameworks and bootstrapped it for the next 5 years.

2. Intuit Mailchimp

Founders had a design consultancy business in the year 2000. Their clients wanted e-newsletters, but it was hard to do. So they built MailChimp.

The co-founders' bootstrapped company sold to Intuit MailchimpIntuit for 12 billion, more than 20 years later.

3. Shutterstock

In 2003, the founder began his career as a developer, he was a hobbyist photographer on the side.

He uploaded his own library of 30,000 pictures and sold them via subscription.

Bootstrapped for the next 4 years, improving and expanding the
photo library.

4. Lilearning

Lynda Weinman started her career in the late 1990s as a web design teacher. She was unimpressed with existing books, she began to create her own materials.

She ended up with a large content library and sold it to Linkedin for $1.5 billion in 2015.

5. GoPro

The Founder came up with GoPro as a way to record his surfing adventures in 2002.

He sold belts and straps and moved back in with his parents and took a loan from them for his initial capital.

---

There are many notable stories you already know or can read about for your further curiosity.

GitHub GoFundMe Apple khan Academy Zoho Groupon Udemy Under Armour

By the way, getting inspired is one of the top traits all bootstrapping founders have in common.

Let's look at the top traits now,

1. Get Inspired - Consume and learn constantly
2. Acquire skills - Code, no-code, marketing, etc.
3. Be frugal - Save money and invest in the business
4. Find problems - Around you
5. Have interest - In the problem you solve
6. Keep building - Be persistent over a long period of time
7. Don't reinvent - Take help and advise
8. Automate Work - As much as possible
9. Prioritize - Have a plan of action
10. Create a good team - Cofounders or outsourcing
11. Sell something - Keep the money juice coming from day one
12. Share your story - Journey, learnings, etc. everywhere
13. Stop dreaming, just start doing

Give a follow if you like such content.