Principles of bootstrapping

Bootstrapping means declining venture capital and having contributors work unpaid in exchange for a stake in the business, and the author argues that VC advice should be ignored by bootstrappers. The author contrasts this with VC funding, where investors expect outsized returns from each founder and push founders to obsess over users in ways that serve the investor. Kiwi News, the author's bootstrapped business, is cited as an example: its founders set their own expected outcome size and can aim to sustain modest living costs rather than grow to monopolize a market.