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The ultimate guide to bootstrapping your startup + a conversation about the recalibration of Series…

by MPD
This post is by MPD from @MPD - Medium

The ultimate guide to bootstrapping your startup + a conversation about the recalibration of Series C valuations

Here’s what’s covered on this week’s episode:

  • Phuong Ireland joins us to talk about bootstrapping startups. Bootstrapping means building and growing your business without external funding, relying on personal savings, revenue, or loans. It offers benefits like maintaining full ownership, having control over the company’s direction, and focusing on profitability. It also makes you more attractive for future funding. However, bootstrapping comes with risks like limited funds and lack of access to mentorship and connections.
  • Mike Rogers shares his insights on the current state of Series C funding. Series C funding peaked in 2021, but 2022 showed a decline and 2023 is showing signs of following suit. This is due to a flight to quality, with investors being highly selective in their investments and demanding best in class metrics and profitability. On the flip side, many companies meeting these criteria choose not to raise funds in the current market. This confluence of factors has led to a smaller pool of eligible companies and a decrease in Series C funding.

Links:

Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

Listen via your preferred platform here.

*DISCLAIMER*

Interplay Family Office LLC (“Interplay”) is registered as an investment adviser with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Registration of an investment adviser does not imply any level of skill or training. Information about (Read more...)

In its first funding in 7 years, profitable fintech Lower raises $100M Series A led by Accel

by Mary Ann Azevedo

Lower, an Ohio-based home finance platform, announced today it has raised $100 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel.

This round is notable for a number of reasons. First off, it’s a large Series A even by today’s standards. The financing also marks the previously bootstrapped Lower’s first external round of funding in its seven-year history. Lower is also something that is kind of rare these days in the startup world: profitable. Silicon Valley-based Accel has a history of backing profitable, bootstrapped companies, having also led large Series A rounds for the likes of 1Password, Atlassian, Qualtrics, Webflow, Tenable and Galileo (which went on to be acquired by SoFi). 

In fact, Galileo founder Clay Wilkes introduced the VC firm to Dan Snyder, Lower’s founder and CEO. The two companies have a few things in common besides being profitable: they were both bootstrapped for years before taking institutional capital and both have headquarters outside of Silicon Valley.

“We were immediately intrigued because Ohio-based Lower echoes both of these themes,” said Accel partner John Locke, who led the firm’s investment in Lower and is taking a seat on the company’s board as part of the investment. “Like Galileo, Lower will be one of the most successful bootstrapped fintech companies globally. The combination of a company built in a nontraditional region across the globe and a bootstrapped company reminds us of [other] companies we have partnered with for a large Series A.”

There were other unnamed participants in (Read more...)

To sell or not to sell: Lessons from a bootstrapped CEO

by Ram Iyer

Glen Rabie Contributor
Glen Rabie is co-founder and CEO of Yellowfin, a global analytics and BI software vendor.

The clock begins ticking on a startup the day the doors open. Regardless of a young company’s struggles or success, sooner or later the question of when, how or whether to sell the enterprise presents itself. It’s possibly the biggest question an entrepreneur will face.

For founders who self-funded (bootstrapped) their startup, a boardroom full of additional factors come into play. Some are the same as for investor-funded firms, but many are unique.

Put happiness at the center of the decision, and let your intuition — the instincts that made you the person you are today — be your guide.

After 18 years of bootstrapping a BI software firm into a business that now serves 28,000 companies and three million users in 75 countries, here’s what I’ve learned about myself, my company, about entrepreneurship and about when to grab for that brass ring.

Profitable or bust

Starting a software company 7,900 miles southwest of Silicon Valley requires some forethought and not a small amount of crazy. When we opened, it didn’t occur to us that one could have an idea and then go knock on someone’s door and ask for money.

Bootstrapping forced us to be a bit more creative about how we would go about building our company. In the early days, it was a distraction to growth, because we were doing other revenue-generating activities like consulting, (Read more...)