At last week's Business Plan Competition at Marquette University, the keynote speaker, Greg Gianforte, CEO of Right Now , talked passionately about the keys to bootstrapping businesses.
Greg is the well known author of Bootstrapping Your Business, and a frequent speaker on the topic. In addition to RightNow, where he is currently the CEO, he's started four other companies, including BrightWorks, successfully sold to MacAfee (prior to RightNow.)
It seems to me that bootstrapping is an overlooked technique, and it should not be. A successfully bootstrapped start-up allows the entrepreneur to retain more equity (Gianforte hung on to 60% up to the IPO) and provides a lot more control and freedom from competing goals of various investors. Listen to him talk about the principles he applies. In a brief hallway conversation, he told me, several times, "there's always another way" to get going, aside from very early, and very expensive, capital.
If a start-up, all things considered, can bootstrap, it should.
Here's a podcast (will download to your iTunes library). It's about 35 minutes, and well worth the listen. Greg Gianforte at Marquette University BPC, 2009.
Enjoy.