Andreas, the "raise to scale, not to build" distinction is the key shift. Are you seeing bootstrapped founders hold out longer, or still raise once growth hits?
hm good question... I can't say that definitively. I see many bootstrapped startups that have been in the market for a long time, but I also see many that start out bootstrapped, sustain themselves for years,and then strategically raise capital to expand into new markets, for example.
We're also seeing more revenue with less employees. The 2022 to 2024 cohort is has twice the revenue and half the employees compared to the 2020 to 2021 cohort at the same age point .. you'll therefore find more founders being successful with zero capital I suspect
I agree it's an exciting time to be in this game. I've had a lot more interesting conversations with hardware founders too because they're able to attract capital that wasn't there before. We might see some really amazing innovation from hardware + AI hi over the next decade.
As you mentioned in the end, when the value of a check goes beyond the wire transfer, both founders and investors still get excited to partner.
True! There has to be more than just money
Andreas, the "raise to scale, not to build" distinction is the key shift. Are you seeing bootstrapped founders hold out longer, or still raise once growth hits?
hm good question... I can't say that definitively. I see many bootstrapped startups that have been in the market for a long time, but I also see many that start out bootstrapped, sustain themselves for years,and then strategically raise capital to expand into new markets, for example.
I heard that too. It seems like AI might bring more of those.
Raising less can be healthy if it stops founders pretending every idea needs millions before it can meet a customer.
AI makes the first build cheaper now. The harder question is whether anyone actually wants it badly enough.
Funnily enough, though not a coincidence, I wrote about that today: https://millennialmasters.net/p/build-it-and-they-still-wont-come/
That's the question! Thanks for sharing Daniel, great read!
This makes a lot of sense.
The old playbook of raising a massive seed round just to build a basic prototype always felt incredibly inefficient.
It does, right?
We're also seeing more revenue with less employees. The 2022 to 2024 cohort is has twice the revenue and half the employees compared to the 2020 to 2021 cohort at the same age point .. you'll therefore find more founders being successful with zero capital I suspect
That's also a great development... the speed that's possible nowadays let's founders also figuring out what works way faster
I agree it's an exciting time to be in this game. I've had a lot more interesting conversations with hardware founders too because they're able to attract capital that wasn't there before. We might see some really amazing innovation from hardware + AI hi over the next decade.
oh yes I strongly believe... hardware is on the rise
Less money raised to build means the product has to earn its right to exist from day one.
Exactly!