I know that you must be asking yourself how to have money to transform into reality your biggest dreams! Probably, you do not have enough money to finance your start up from the very begining or to growth it.
On the other hand it is very good to have the freedom to choose our own ways, making mistakes and learning with them.
The point here is that you have to think twice before getting investments from outside. if you ask an expert in investments they will told you that it is a good idea to avoid investments in the early stages of your company because a simple reason, it is very unlikely that your plan A (your first idea will work).
So if you borrow money and get investments and later try to validate your business, and you are yet in the plan A, great are the chances that your investors will not trust you on your next plans, B or C or even a G plan.
On the very beggining of this year I took a course named how to finance you company without a VC and I really recommend it for you, if you are on the early stages of your company. Now I am going to summarise some of their key concepts.
So, the answer is bootstrapping! What is bootstrapping?
According to the article written by Javier Rojas, partner at Kennet, based in US:
Bootstrapping happens when a company develops with little or no outside funding. The company opts to fund its primary development and growth through internal cash flow using real customer revenues.
The founders and a restricted set of early employees often forgo salary payments for equity in the company. Eventually these companies operate at a breakeven or profitable performance level by necessity.
Today the costs of creating a startup are very low considering the Internet. But, eventhough you do not have enough money try alternatives like finding a part time job, or find a partner who has technical knowledge you should pay for it.But most of all, love what you are doing! just love and this sense of fulfilment will make you not give up when things get hard. Never do for the money, do it for fun :)!
Fred Wilson, one of the most renown venture capital investors in US states that:
"The fact is that the amount of money startups raise in their seed and Series A rounds is inversely correlated with success".
The course I recommend id from University of London and it is freely avaiable in Coursera.
However, please do not run away from VCs in this moment, just keep in mind that the idea is to contact them not as baggers. Pay attention, you should always be open to mentory and it is a great a idea to have mentory from accelerators in any time, ok?
This can really save you lots of money and time! Please do not underestimate the time and money you can spend in wrong ideas or when you yet need a part time job.
I wish I knew that before. I spent much time making mistakes and mistakes and mistakes. Without having access to people with the right mindset. It is said that you are the average of the 5 people you are connected. So let's make better decisions in each moment and growth and have a future mindset.
