Founder of another TonySeed startup.

On your own can mean many things. I also burnt through my personal savings for the first year.

So. On your own is just “VC’ed yourself”

Taking money from TinySeed is very different than taking money from VC.

> So. On your own is just “VC’ed yourself”

Precisely. If TinySeed has provided funds, it's no longer "VC'ed yourself", it's "VC'ed yourself + tiny seed from TinySeed".

> Taking money from TinySeed is very different than taking money from VC.

No one is arguing that TinySeed is just like any other VC. But instead that by accepting VC, you could no longer claim the business to be bootstrapped.

So if I start with $1M of my own money, is it bootstrapped?

If family (with fuzzy conditions) ponied up $250k, is it bootstrapped?

$1M of your money? Yes

$250k from immediate family, if said fuzzy conditions don't confer any ownership or repayment? I'd say just barely yes (it's basically a gift to you at that point, which is then your money)

$250k from a third cousin in return for equity? No.

Being bootstrapped isn't an ungameable category, but it is a fairly unambiguous one IMO.

"VC'd yourself" is the definition of bootstrapping.

You either take money from someone else or you bootstrap it yourself.

It's kind of disingenuous to try to make this same comparison across different people.

What if you borrow money from family in order to start your business? Are you no longer "bootstrapping"?

What is Bezos decides he's bored, and wants to start something new. Really looking forward to seeing the "most successful bootstrapper of 2030" be Jeff Bezos with his self-funded $5B "startup".

Bootstrapping is not a statement about difficulty, bootstrapping is a statement about where the money comes from. That's it.

I mean I understand the concepts you’re talking about, but maybe you need other terminology? Bootstrapping doesn’t make as much etymological sense if it also covers ”got some outside funding, but not too much”.

This

You're assuming that the only categories that exist are "bootstrapped" and "took VC money". That isn't the case. Raising money from friend, or taking a loan from a bank would be neither boostrapped nor VC-funded.

> So. On your own is just “VC’ed yourself”

Well, yes. You're assuming the risk, not an external firm that in exchange demands a chunk of the company.

In a truly bootstrapped company the risk is yours alone as is the potential reward.