Are you bootstrapping your startup?

Whenever I think of bootstrapping a business, I always recall the bootstrapping success story of Basecamp and how Jason Fried built a business from scratch without taking money from VC's.

Bootstrapping has a lot of pros in comparison to it's cons. It helps you to be lean and grow without any external pressure. It helps a business to experiment and try new things. It helps pivot quickly.

No pressure to achieve numbers according to VC's plan.

I have been fortunate that I started my career at a company i.e., Cloudways. Where there was no VC money.

I started as a marketer and I did whatever I can to achieve the results with limited amount of money.

We built the foundation of the company on building a community around our brand. Solving problems where they occur. Making people we helped to remember us, our people and also our company, Cloudways.

5 years down, we have survived without VC money and still not looking towards it. What I learned in that time is that if you want to build a bootstrapped business, focus on three basic things.

Create a solid product on continuous customer feedback.
Build a community around brand so that people share what they love about your product.
Experiment fast, never fear the failure. Experiment again.

We recently wrote a piece on how to bootstrap a business with expert opinion from different companies that can help you to build a company without taking money from venture capital firms.

https://www.cloudways.com/blog/tips-for-bootstrapping-a-business/

If you are bootstrapping your startup, what is your best advice? Why you choose that route? Share your story.