I gave this talk at yesterday's Bootstrap Austin meeting. This is similar to the one I gave at Austin Rice Alliance in May, 2005.

The slides incorporate Darius Mahdjboubi's Bio-venture model with the MRE Framework. Darius' model shows the first three critical stages of any venture: Ideation, Valley of Death (or Survival) and Growth. How the entrepreneur chooses to navigate the second stage determines whether she is a bootstrapper.

The MRE Framework is used to show the critical roles that founders play in a Bootstrap venture. The founder must understand her core talents (Maven, Relater or Evangelist) and those of her co-founders. Indeed, most successful Bootstrap ventures had two founders with very different and complementary talents.