Bootstrap Network Blog

SXSW, BootKarma and other

2007-03-19T10:09:00.000-05:00

Kevin blogs about this week's developments at Bootstrap Austin, including our talk at SXSW and the demo of BootKarma.

Bootstrap Company innertee featured on CNET

2007-03-18T12:13:00.000-05:00

Innertee is a member of Bootstrap Austin and is featured on CNET's Webware site. Congrats!

Article on Bootstrapping

2007-02-03T17:23:00.000-06:00

Great article by Doug Burke on Bootstrapping, which reiterates the Demo/Sell/Build approach.

What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial

2007-01-11T07:10:00.000-06:00

Michael Strong, cofounder of FLOW alerted the Bootstrap community to this 2001 paper by Professor Saras Saraswathy. Kevin Koym, fellow bootstrap leader also commented on it on his blog. It is particularly of note that the paper is also listed on Vinod Khosla's website. Vinod is one of the few VCs today who actually founded his own company, SUN, with minimal investor startup capital.

This is easily one of the best articles on the topic. It at once explains the truly differentiating qualities of entrepreneurs and why traditional MBA programs will never prepare individuals for entrepreneurship - and indeed have a reverse effect. It also reveals the weakness of writing a business plan to raise money for a new venture.

Dr. Saraswathy has a website on Effectuation where she is conducting further research.

Bootstrap Book Club - Hero's Journey

2006-12-01T14:08:00.000-06:00

The Bootstrap Book Club gathered yesterday and had an inspiring and heartfelt discussion of the hero's journey as it relates bootstrapping.

Dr. Elliot McGucken kicked off the discussion on conference call. Dr. E is an Evangelist for bootstrapping and artistic entrepreneurship. He teaches a course called Arts Entreperneurship on the subject and has laid out the elements of the hero's journey. His website describes Joseph Campbell's "monomyth" as it relatest to the stages of entreperneurship.

Participants were encouraged to check out one or more sources on the Hero's Journey:

1. Joseph Campbell's book: Hero with a Thousand Faces, which oultines the monomyth.
2. Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers television series: The Power of Myth
3. Professor Candace Allen's journal article (.pdf): Entrepreneur as Hero

Dr. E's talk will be on the Boot Rap Podcast (powered by HearThis).

Michael Skye, founder of Vision Force Academy, has a blog post about his first interaction with Bootstrap through the book club.

VC/Investors finding their "right time"

2006-11-12T14:40:00.000-06:00

My definition of Bootstrapping is simply: "the right action at the right time." Significant capital from investors does not belong in the Ideation or VoD stages, but is appropriate to consider in the Growth stage.

This article reveals a very positive trend where capital is finding its appropriate place in the entrepreneurial adventure. When capital comes into the system earlier, it should rightly be in very small amounts and without a timeline associated with it.

This trend bodes well for bootstrappers AND investors.

Lessons in Entrepreneurship from traditional business

2006-10-26T14:59:00.000-05:00

Great blog post.

Bootstrap mentioned in Jim Hopkins' blog

2006-10-18T14:23:00.000-05:00

Jim writes on entrepreneurship for USA Today.

Article in Austin Business District Magazine

2006-10-12T01:08:00.000-05:00

I wrote an article, the first in a series, about the usefulness of comparing Austin to Silicon Valley. I will explore whatI think we should do in the next one. These recommendations will apply to any community wishing to take steps in this direction.

Small World Labs & Bootstrap Network

2006-08-28T03:50:00.000-05:00

Press release announcing Bootstrap's use of the SWL platform.

Seth Godin on 5 Marketing Mistakes

2006-08-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

As usual, Seth's entertaining and spot on.

Steve Writes on SWOT Analysis in about.com

2006-08-18T18:38:00.000-05:00

Steve's book is "The Ripple Effect" and he leads the Bootstrap Austin Ambassador Initiative.

Bootstrapping at its Finest

2006-08-17T01:24:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Stan Tyler for sharing this story from John Maxwell's book, Failing Forward:

A ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A,” forty pounds a “B,” and so on. Those being graded on “quality,” however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the quantity group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the quality group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

Business Week Article Online

2006-08-09T12:18:00.000-05:00

The March article on Bootstrap is now on the their website.

We are Bootstrappers!!!

2006-08-05T17:37:00.000-05:00

Nobody on the bench....
No Half-Times....
No Timeouts....
We train in Real Time
We play for Change
Welcome to Our Game
We are Bootstrappers!!!!

by Danny Gutknecht

Bootstrap Article in Inc

2006-07-19T11:49:00.000-05:00

Stephanie Clifford writes a wonderful article, with 7 lessons for bootstrappers.

A VC Promotes Bootstrapping - Yeah!

2006-07-13T18:04:00.000-05:00

Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend...it's all about the "right intervention at the right time." Capital from investors rightly belongs after the venture crosses the VoD. The faster VCs and entrepreneurs understand this, the better off we all are.

Bootstrapping and Scrum: siblings

2006-07-12T13:40:00.000-05:00

Interesting post and good timing as I embark on book #2, titled...Demo, Sell Build! Now as to who is whose little brother, that's a whole other conversation!

Great Development: Entrepreneurs Taking the Bootstrap Way

2006-06-26T14:16:00.000-05:00

A recent survey reveals entrepreneurs in the wireless sector in Ottowa focus on customers rather than investors for their funding!

Greg Gianforte Interview at Forbes.com

2006-06-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

Greg's the founder of RightNow Technologies and wrote the excellent bootstrap primer: Bootstrapping Your Business.

KXAN Interview

2006-05-16T15:47:00.000-05:00

Post on The Human Fabric blog.

The Bootstrap Bootcamp is yet another example of how Bootstrap's Open Source Model works. My understanding and articulation of bootstrapping has been refined and developed within the supportive environment of the community as it acted as the "first customer" and provided amazing feedback. Now, three years on (a long Ideation period!), these concepts can be taken outside the community to individuals and corporations that want to discover the Bootstrap Way. Of course, the community will continue to be an integral part of this proceses as we continue on our journey of discovery!

Red McCombs, another Dancing Evangelist Bootstrapper!

2006-04-25T12:38:00.000-05:00

In a previous post I described Sir Richard as a Dancing Evangelist. Last night I learned about his "twin."

Red was featured in "American Made," a new show on CNBC produced by an Austin Bootstrap Company, iVeea. The interview with Ingrid Vanderveldt revealed Red to be a true bootstrapper: constantly hunting for new opportunities, aware of his own Evangelist talents and always complementing himself with incredible Maven partners. I highly recommend this episode to all bootstrappers, but especially Evangelists. A discussion between Sir Richard and Red would be penetrating indeed. Ingrid?

On a related note, on May 19th I'm conducting the first Bootstrap Bootcamp, sponsored by the City of Austin. I'm excited because this is a synthesis of many years of work on Bootstrapping and working with Bootstrappers. Dancing Evangelists are on the agenda!

Gary Hoover Speaks at Bootstrap Student

2006-04-21T11:24:00.000-05:00

As usual, Gary gave a rousing and thought-provoking talk to a packed audience of UT Students. Neville, a UT student, posted notes and pictures in his blog.

We will have a Boot Rap session with Gary soon.

A Bootstrapper's approach to investor cash

2006-04-20T14:41:00.000-05:00

Bootstrapper Matt Mullenweg takes a great attitude to investor capital, which he writes about in a recent post.

It's a common misconception that bootstrappers have a total aversion to investor capital. Rather, the bootstrapper knows that capital is just one of many interventions available to her. Applied at the right time (post VoD) and in the right dose (minority stake), it can be just the thing needed for the venture's next stage.

By taking your venture through the Ideation and Valley of Death stages without investor capital, you take full advantage of a key bootstrap principle: necessity is the mother of innovation.

When the organization emerges from the VoD, it has clarity about its "business model." By having the discipline to only consider investor money post VoD, the bootstrapper takes advantage of another key principle: money is an amplifier (and that's about all it is!).

Bootstrap as Open Source Community

2006-04-17T11:22:00.000-05:00

I gave a talk To TAG Austin a couple of weeks ago explaining how Bootstrap Austin is emerging as an Open Source community for bootstrappers to develop their products and services.