Bootstrap Startups vs VC Funding: Why I Hate This Debate

0:00All right, everyone. We are down in

0:01London, the famous London. And here we

0:07have the or his Majesty's now. It was

0:11Her Majesty's theater. So, this is where

0:13like the famous uh Phantom of Opera

0:16theater is filmed here. And yeah, maybe

0:20we'll check out some London sites seeing

0:22as I'm down here for a couple of

0:23meetings. All right, so what am I doing

0:24in London? Well, I have a couple of

0:27meetings with clients and a couple of

0:29meetings with potential investors uh as

0:33well. So, pretty exciting. Uh luckily,

0:36Pierers lives down in London as well.

0:39So, we're actually on our way. Just

0:41checked into the hotel. On our way to go

0:43meet him, uh grab some food. We're going

0:46to go watch a film tonight as well. And

0:48then uh tomorrow is a bit more of like a

0:51we're going to go to a co-working space,

0:53chill out uh and get some work done.

0:56It's just so much better when you're

0:58together. It's so much more

0:59collaborative. I feel like you get so

1:02much more done. And uh yeah, we've now

1:05got to try and find him in the heart of

1:07Piccadilly Circus, which for those of

1:10you that know London, it's a very busy

1:14area. If you don't, if you're from

1:16Europe or the US or somewhere that

1:17hasn't been to London, this is basically

1:19where everything happens. It's central

1:21London. It's a nightmare. It's very

1:23touristy. It's very cliche London

1:26though. Uh but we're going to try and

1:29find him through bit of WhatsApp live

1:32location. Here we go.

1:36Here he is. We found him. I found you.

1:41[Music]

2:07What's going on, guys? We are Thursday

2:10morning now. No, sorry. I sound correct.

2:12It's Wednesday morning. Got to get back

2:15down to Cornwall. It's a 3-hour train

2:17drive all the way down to the bottom of

2:19the UK. I've got a webinar about how to

2:22build a personal assistant uh AI

2:25Atlantic system. Uh so, we're going to

2:28do that first of all, get a little run

2:30in. Going to go see Big Ben, get some

2:33sights in, and then um yeah, we'll uh

2:38crack on with the day. It's going to be

2:40a busy day. Uh, I got a lot of calls in

2:43the morning before I get on the train.

2:45Really starting to focus on kind of what

2:48can we do to hold the system in place,

2:50keep the run rate uh that we have in

2:54terms of cash in the bank to uh kind of

2:57an appropriate level. At the moment, we

2:59have around 18 months runway and our

3:03burn that we're doing is deteriorating

3:06daily, which is quite good. So, yeah,

3:08we'll see.

3:15[Music]

3:18Let's talk a little bit about

3:21profitability and where we're at from a

3:24finance perspective as a business. And

3:28that's Westminster, everyone. Very nice.

3:30We got Westminster,

3:33got the London Eye,

3:35and we just got London. Well, we are at

3:39the moment

3:41uh roughly about 18 months uh 18 to 20

3:45months or so of runway. In fact,

3:48every,000

3:49MR that we add at the moment roughly

3:53gives us an additional month because our

3:56burn decreases, which effectively

3:59is to say that

4:02unless things go catastrophically wrong,

4:04within the next 3 months, we'll be at a

4:07profitable stage as a business.

4:09Obviously, we did the preede round. Um,

4:12so we've been spending more cash than

4:14we've been making and now, uh, we're

4:17about to enter into that profitable, uh,

4:20kind of zone, which gives us a lot of

4:23options. You know, it's do we reinvest

4:27that cash? Well, obviously, we would

4:28reinvest that cash to keep growing. Do

4:30we want to go and raise and grow even

4:33faster? and we can do so now from a

4:36position of strength because we're

4:38obviously profitable and so on.

4:41All of these options are available. I

4:43honestly don't know which option we are

4:47going to take at the moment. We have

4:49this discussion once a week about the

4:52future and what we need to do to be able

4:54to compete with some of the best tools

4:56out there. And the reality is some of

4:59the best tools out there, they're all

5:01public. on most of the moral public or

5:04they've had millions and millions and

5:06millions in funding. And so, you know, I

5:10know there's a lot of debate about

5:13bootstrapping versus uh kind of raising.

5:16I actually hate those arguments and

5:18people who make those arguments are

5:20losers in my opinion because it really

5:23is it just depends on the type of

5:26business that you want. You know,

5:29you could lose everything trying to do a

5:31bootstrap business and pay yourself

5:33nothing and it goes nowhere. On the

5:35other hand, you could be a highly

5:36successful, pay yourself a massive

5:38salary and get a sellout at some point.

5:41Same thing if you went for VC, you know,

5:43it could be highly successful, it would

5:45be most likely more successful than a

5:47bootstrap business because you can pull

5:49more cash into it. So, in theory, your

5:51dilution goes down, but when you exit,

5:53your value of the business is bigger and

5:55therefore you work more. That could

5:56happen. In theory, nothing could happen.

5:58But maybe you've paid yourself a good

6:00salary, maybe you haven't. I don't know.

6:01But both options, there's no right or

6:04wrong. It's literally just what makes

6:06sense for the business. And people kind

6:11of riding the train of no, you're giving

6:14away everything. They're literally just

6:16doing that for clickbait. So, I wouldn't

6:17even pay attention for it because it's

6:19completely circumstantial on what makes

6:21sense for the business at the time. A

6:23lot of the times it makes sense to do

6:24bootstrap and a lot of the times it

6:26makes sense to raise. So the question

6:28that you got to answer is what makes

6:30sense for you as a business at that

6:31time.

6:33Well

6:35that is the London Eye and if you've

6:38ever been on it just goes around in a

6:40circle and that's kind of like running a

6:42startup. What I found is yesterday for

6:45example we had uh about 12 signups um

6:51close to around 2K Mr. signed up. Um,

6:54but the day before that we had like six

6:57turns and maybe I would have liken a

7:00startup to more of a roller coaster. You

7:01literally go up and down, up and down,

7:03and you're just like, ah, holding on for

7:05dear life and just got to try and

7:06survive till the end. Um, but we'll use

7:08that analogy seeing as we're running

7:09past the uh London Eye. So, if you're in

7:12a startup, hold on for dear life because

7:15I don't know if there is cuz I've not

7:16done it, but there might be light at the

7:18end of the tunnel. And uh, just enjoy. I

7:21don't know what part of the roller

7:22coaster you enjoy going up or going

7:23down, but enjoy one of those parts

7:25because ride the highs uh to get you

7:28through the lows.

7:31[Music]

7:37[Music]

7:45Okay, so run is done. Like I said, you

7:48know, runway's looking good. We've got

7:51options ahead of us whether we want to

7:53take another raise, whether we don't. We

7:54need to make that decision and will make

7:56sense for the business and things are

7:58looking positive. The kind of rebrand or

8:02the evolution of trigger fire is coming

8:04along nicely and that's going to

8:05probably take place around August time,

8:07I'd imagine. I got my hands on the tool

8:09properly for the first time yesterday

8:11and it's so so so good. Anyway, just got

8:15back from the run. Time to grab a quick

8:17shower. Just checking up on some emails.

8:20Having a look at things. Uh, time's

8:238:38. Need to have a quick shower before

8:25the 9:00 a.m. call. We got a sandwich.

8:28Traveling is not that pretty. I hate

8:29doing it these days. I used to love it

8:31when I was, you know, my 20s and just

8:33starting kind of like my business career

8:35out. Traveling around was so exciting.

8:37Now it's just a ball egg.

8:47[Music]

9:06There we go, guys. We are back down in

9:09Cornwall after a long 3 and 1/2 hour

9:11journey. And uh yeah, just about to get

9:14picked up and then uh head the last 40

9:16minutes