…people are wondering whether it’s fair to ask someone to pull themselves up [by the bootstraps] at a time of heightened awareness that not everyone has metaphorical boots.
So what's the alternative, everyone fundraises? That's even more exclusive and rare of an opportunity. Bootstrapping is progress over the previous status quo, and technology is making it increasingly affordable and available to more people.
It's ridiculous to me because it ignores how when you're doing something groundbreaking, investors come to you. We bootstrap not for lack of opportunities, but to retain control and autonomy.
On a side note: I think in general Maslow's over-emphasised physical and safety needs. The suffering people are willing to go through to reach their dreams is sometimes quite unbelievable.
I think this article doesn't really know where it wants to go.
The title 'who gets left out of bootstrapping' implies that there's something wrong with bootstrapping that excludes people.
But then the rest of the article proves that less privileged people are bootstrapping more often than more privileged people. That's easy to understand. It's about who you know, and whether or not you can get daddy's investor friend to make an introduction.
So who gets left out of bootstrapping? The guys who don't need it.
Who gets left out of funding? The same people who get left out of everything else: women, minorities, people with disabilities.
These people have been bootstrapping all along (in software but in all kinds of business), because that's all that was ever possible to them.
If I'd gotten this article across my desk in my days as an editor, I'd have told the author (I hope it's not you @londoner, sorry!) that he needs to go all the way back to the drawing board and think about what his central thesis actually is.
So we're all doing what we're doing because a dude in 1834 was talking shit? 😂 Mr. Murphree may not have discovered perpetual motion, but he did have an impact!
And on a more serious note, this article makes a very important point — thanks for posting.
Lol! I find this origin story hilarious too. Like...okay...soooo, some dude named Nimrod (that's his real name!) makes a bogus claim about inventing perpetual motion, and he is then roasted by a journalist who essentially says that Nimrod's only success is hanging himself over a barnyard fence by his bootstraps?? Did I get that right? 😂 And now we're all proud to be called bootstrappers...oh my. Cool, cool, cool.
Great food for thought. Many indie hackers receive significant help — money, family assistance, educational connections, etc — along the way but portray themselves as having built something through their blood, sweat and tears alone.
Of course there are many humble indie hackers that will commend their supporters. Yet almost no one acknowledges the privilege of their ability to bootstrap in the first place which can entail not only the funds able to launch a product and sustain themselves but also the freedom to actually choose this path. Many people have no choice at all. It doesn't make these people wrong for pursuing cash or their dreams, but the model itself leaves many people out.
The whole point of being a "bootstrapped" founder is that you're starting from zero. Literally $0 of external funding - how can the playing field be any more leveled?
It doesn't mean you start with $0, it means you're self-funded - i.e. you start with whatever it is that you have. Yes, for the vast majority of bootstrapped founders that means a significantly limited amount of resources compared to those they would have if they had secured VC/angel investment. But there's no doubt that it takes a huge amount of privilege to be in a position to go it alone, as the article suggests. Anyone from a wealthier background/in a financially secure position has it easier than those who aren't.
Even if everybody starts from zero. Things like home-ownership, social contacts, working history, location, legal status, age, etc, make the bootstrapped experience very different.
Very much this. Over the years of me being a freelancer for other companies i gathered so much (valuable)
experience in many different aspects of entrepeneurship
connections
money
The money part is the least important on that list. If i start with 0$ i still have a HUGE headstart compared to someone without said experience and/or connections.
That's true, and I love the MLK quote by another use on this thread, but I would just like to add I don't think it is reasonable that coming from a wealthy family is bad and a negative thing in and of itself. People work hard their whole lives for a reason, especially if they have a family. A good father/mother will want to leave a legacy and an inheritance to their kids. They also will want to have a high ceiling if they desire their children's floor to be their ceiling.
I don't think they're portraying it as a bad thing tbh, just something we should be mindful of. We're all lucky enough to attempt to bootstrap from a good starting point because we're in reasonably safe and comfortable first world positions, with support from friends and family. Others have it harder to reach similar levels of impact through bootstrapping when they can't rely on the things we take for granted.
Exactly - great quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. : “It’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself up by his own bootstraps."
Also, the graph at the bottom is super interesting! I would NOT have expected that a greater proportion of female founders would be bootstrapped than men.
As a college student I studied the personality of Martin Luther King and I love all the quotes. Here's one of them, "I can never be what I'm supposed to be unless you are what you're supposed to be. That's the way our world works. No one person or nation can stand out by bragging about their independence. We are interdependent." I found a lot of interesting work about her work here https://edubirdie.com/examples/martin-luther-king/. So I was able to learn more interesting information about it.
So what's the alternative, everyone fundraises? That's even more exclusive and rare of an opportunity. Bootstrapping is progress over the previous status quo, and technology is making it increasingly affordable and available to more people.
This article is a bit ridiculous.
It's ridiculous to me because it ignores how when you're doing something groundbreaking, investors come to you. We bootstrap not for lack of opportunities, but to retain control and autonomy.
In the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, bootstrapping is probably near the top:
You can't bootstrap if you don't have any money to feed yourself. It takes time.
You can't bootstrap if you don't have a safe house above your head.
It's kinda demotivating to start bootstrapping if you're all lonely and depressed. But still possible. This is where bootstrapping becomes "viable".
So there's definitely an "inequality" when it comes to bootstrapping.
On a side note: I think in general Maslow's over-emphasised physical and safety needs. The suffering people are willing to go through to reach their dreams is sometimes quite unbelievable.
I think this article doesn't really know where it wants to go.
The title 'who gets left out of bootstrapping' implies that there's something wrong with bootstrapping that excludes people.
But then the rest of the article proves that less privileged people are bootstrapping more often than more privileged people. That's easy to understand. It's about who you know, and whether or not you can get daddy's investor friend to make an introduction.
So who gets left out of bootstrapping? The guys who don't need it.
Who gets left out of funding? The same people who get left out of everything else: women, minorities, people with disabilities.
These people have been bootstrapping all along (in software but in all kinds of business), because that's all that was ever possible to them.
If I'd gotten this article across my desk in my days as an editor, I'd have told the author (I hope it's not you @londoner, sorry!) that he needs to go all the way back to the drawing board and think about what his central thesis actually is.
So we're all doing what we're doing because a dude in 1834 was talking shit? 😂 Mr. Murphree may not have discovered perpetual motion, but he did have an impact!
And on a more serious note, this article makes a very important point — thanks for posting.
Lol! I find this origin story hilarious too. Like...okay...soooo, some dude named Nimrod (that's his real name!) makes a bogus claim about inventing perpetual motion, and he is then roasted by a journalist who essentially says that Nimrod's only success is hanging himself over a barnyard fence by his bootstraps?? Did I get that right? 😂 And now we're all proud to be called bootstrappers...oh my. Cool, cool, cool.
lol
That's actually kind of a cool name. Not gonna lie...
Great food for thought. Many indie hackers receive significant help — money, family assistance, educational connections, etc — along the way but portray themselves as having built something through their blood, sweat and tears alone.
Of course there are many humble indie hackers that will commend their supporters. Yet almost no one acknowledges the privilege of their ability to bootstrap in the first place which can entail not only the funds able to launch a product and sustain themselves but also the freedom to actually choose this path. Many people have no choice at all. It doesn't make these people wrong for pursuing cash or their dreams, but the model itself leaves many people out.
The whole point of being a "bootstrapped" founder is that you're starting from zero. Literally $0 of external funding - how can the playing field be any more leveled?
It doesn't mean you start with $0, it means you're self-funded - i.e. you start with whatever it is that you have. Yes, for the vast majority of bootstrapped founders that means a significantly limited amount of resources compared to those they would have if they had secured VC/angel investment. But there's no doubt that it takes a huge amount of privilege to be in a position to go it alone, as the article suggests. Anyone from a wealthier background/in a financially secure position has it easier than those who aren't.
Even if everybody starts from zero. Things like home-ownership, social contacts, working history, location, legal status, age, etc, make the bootstrapped experience very different.
Very much this. Over the years of me being a freelancer for other companies i gathered so much (valuable)
The money part is the least important on that list. If i start with 0$ i still have a HUGE headstart compared to someone without said experience and/or connections.
That's true, and I love the MLK quote by another use on this thread, but I would just like to add I don't think it is reasonable that coming from a wealthy family is bad and a negative thing in and of itself. People work hard their whole lives for a reason, especially if they have a family. A good father/mother will want to leave a legacy and an inheritance to their kids. They also will want to have a high ceiling if they desire their children's floor to be their ceiling.
I don't think they're portraying it as a bad thing tbh, just something we should be mindful of. We're all lucky enough to attempt to bootstrap from a good starting point because we're in reasonably safe and comfortable first world positions, with support from friends and family. Others have it harder to reach similar levels of impact through bootstrapping when they can't rely on the things we take for granted.
Exactly - great quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. : “It’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself up by his own bootstraps."
Also, the graph at the bottom is super interesting! I would NOT have expected that a greater proportion of female founders would be bootstrapped than men.
As a college student I studied the personality of Martin Luther King and I love all the quotes. Here's one of them, "I can never be what I'm supposed to be unless you are what you're supposed to be. That's the way our world works. No one person or nation can stand out by bragging about their independence. We are interdependent." I found a lot of interesting work about her work here https://edubirdie.com/examples/martin-luther-king/. So I was able to learn more interesting information about it.