Unpopular Opinion: Anyone who can get funding should get funding
Bootstrapping does not allow for fast growth if you don't have a viral component. A lot of the PMF-ed projects I see here can benefit a lot from funding, though this community glorifies bootstrapping. I believe bootstrapping is a good way to get your feet in and try to validate an idea, and I believe it's okay for people who don't have access to funding to try and bootstrap, but getting funding and spending some money is an important aspect of fast growth. What do you think?
We don't all need fast growth. There are lots of people with regular business who are doing very well without fast growth, be it real estate, a restaurant, a clothing store, a car repair shop.
The idea of being an indie hacker is that we don't want a startup, we don't care for fast growth. We want to be independent, without the chains and stress of growing fast, owing someone money because they invested, moving in their own direction and vision.
We can be fine independently. If you have a $10/monthly product and you have 1000 customers, that's $10,000 a month. That's a lot of money in USA and ridiculous money in many parts of the world.
A startup with 10,000 paying users paying $10 is a failed startup. Startups leave those sort of niches on the table and that's what the indie hacker is hoping to capture. Those niches that are just too small for a well funded startup, but nice enough for those of us who wish to be truly master of our own destiny.
Ah, I completely understand that. I guess I'm way farther than the indie hacker narrative than I realize
I would say the exact opposite of this is true. If you can't find customers for your product, it most probably means it's not something beneficial to the world. When you take someone's money you are legally obliged to increase that money. Take social media platforms as an example. No one will pay for social media accounts, so the companies are forced to sell user data or sell ads—a net negitive to humanity. You can find plenty of examples here on Indie Hackers of people building something, without exteral funds, and getting traction. If these stories are too "small," see Basecamp.
There's also the issue that you didn't define "fast growth." Spending money could be an important aspect of fast growth, but that's not measurable.
On an unrelated note, what is PMF? Nothing on the first page of Google seemed relevent to this discussion.
PMF is Product-Market Fit, and as per your explanation I don't see any reason why a startup with product-market fit shouldn't take funding and scale up quickly. I agree that validation is necessary before funding, but I see many validated products here that don't consider paid channels as true ways to grow. Though Basecamp scale is achievable by bootstrapping, I think it's a lot harder and slower.
I don't understand why fast growth wouldn't be measurable.