bootstrapping sounds cool and i’ve done that for many years. at some point you need money to grow because hiring people is super expensive and/or risky and marketing is not free either. so if you cannot generate enough cash to pay for that you are stuck. you are then basically still juggling all the work yourself perhaps with your cofounder and no investor will touch you because they think you are weird or don’t want to work with people even though the business is valid and the potential is huge given a investment. most investors are not very smart, have little operating experience and are not very good at listening. looking back i would never start a company again with my own money as the journey is brutal. i would rather have an investor on board, be able to hire people and pay myself rather than being broke for many years and working myself to death.