Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 6106651


The term "bootstrap" has made the 11th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary according to this article from Telegraph.co.uk.

The newspaper reports the new dictionary edition defines bootstrap as a:

start up (an Internet-based business or other enterprise) with minimal financial resources.

Bootstrapping makes the new edition along with listings and definitions for a variety of other new words including:

• muffin top - roll of fat visible above the top of a pair of women's tight-fitting low-waisted trousers.

• custard cream - a biscuit with a vanilla-flavoured cream filling.

• fascinator - a light, decorative woman's headpiece consisting typically of feathers, flowers, beads, etc. attached to a comb or hairclip.

• botnet - network of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owners' knowledge, e.g. to send spam messages.

• cosplay - dressing up as a character from a film, book, etc.

Congratulations, bootstrappers. We've arrived!

Although some might debate whether the lean business startup technique is mainly for Internet companies, it's clear the term and the unique entrepreneur culture it defines are finally on the map and part of the public consciousness.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Daniel Stein


Blogger and venture journalist Donna Bogatin will host a StartupAlpha pitch meet and tech connection party 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. August 12 at the Midtown Pub, 8 East 36th Street, NYC.

Read more about the event here.

The meet is free to members of Bogatin's Startupalpha.com pitch community on line where bootstrap entrepreneurs can create a "pitch profile" for their venture at no cost. Others can attend the event for a fee of $10 and all must RSVP.

Members will have an opportunity to pitch their idea to fellow entrepreneurs and members of the entrepreneurial community during individual two minute presentations and all presenters must be pre-confirmed before the event.

Despite a background as an International investment banker, Bogatin continues to champion bootstrap entrepreneurship via her blog Startup Chatter, particularly Web 2.0 startups from Silicon Alley, NYC's growing tech entrepreneurship community.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Stefan Klein


Bootstrap entrepreneurs in the US who find themselves less than enthused with the two likely major party candidates for president of the United States this year may have a third choice.

Blogger Jeff Cornwall at The Entrepreneurial Mind suggests at least two reasons to consider Libertarian presidential nominee and former Georgia congressman Bob Barr:
• Huge reductions in the role of federal government (including presumably in the economy.)
• Possible repeal of the federal income tax to be replaced with some kind of consumption tax (although Barr has also said on other occasions he would be willing to listen to other tax reform proposals as long as they included a decrease in government spending.)

Here, from Barr's campaign website are two video clips in which the candidate discusses his thoughts on the role of the federal government on the economy and with regard to taxes.

Like Jeff, I have no interest in endorsing any candidates, but if you're looking for alternatives this election season give Barr's website a look.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Danielle Davey


Not long ago I posted about Jason Coulls' plan to make a million dollars through his Becoming a Millionaire with Adsense blog.

I mentioned at the time that, far from being a get rich quick scheme, the idea of a niche blog as a bootstrap business startup generating revenue via CrispAd, Google Adsense, BidVertiser, AdBright or other monetizing options is perfectly reasonable.

And it didn't take long for another entrepreneur to contact me saying he would be following the same example.

It made me start to wonder about the potential of blogs or other on line communities as a kind of bootstrapped incubator for small startups.

Just as they do with small businesses, blogs can:
• Draw a larger audience than conventional websites because they provide fresh content that is constantly being updated and picked up by Google and other search engines
• Utilize hypertext to provide readers with on going listings of constantly updated links on related topics
• Create archive lists and generate syndicated feeds (RSS) providing visitors with both a record of posts containing past hyperlinks potentially grouped by category and a real time list of new posts and links as they appear on the site

Imagine a blog dedicated to introducing new Web 2.0 apps and other on line business startups creating a growing database of links to the newest developments on the Internet.

And the price? Nothing but the time to maintain it. The perfect bootstrap opportunity!

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Boris Shapiro


Just when you thought you'd never here about another tie between business and Chinese warfare, blogger Joshua Baer's got another one.

Baer shares this excerpt from a book by Dan Ariely:

In 210 BC, a Chinese commander named Xiang Yu led his troops across the Yangtze River to attack the army of the Qin (Ch'in) dynasty. Pausing on the banks of the river for the night, his troops awakened in the morning to find, to their horror, that their ships were burning. They hurried to their feet to fight off the attackers, but soon discovered that it was Xiang Yu himself who had set their ships on fire, and that he had also ordered all the cooking pots crushed.

With no route for retreat, the army had no choice but to be victorious...or, of course, be defeated.

Twice while at the helm of a bootstrapped company (Skylist), Baer says he made similar decisions changing course away from one line of business and group of customers for another strengthening the company each time but also running a considerable risk.

However, there's at least one other way that the story of Xiang Yu gets close to the core of the bootstrapping ethic, it seems to me.

Without the cushion of outside investment, bootstrappers are forced to enter the battle immediately and find out decisively whether or not their business model can be a success.

Like Xiang Yu's warriors who had no means of escape, bootstrappers with no cash flow other than what they create cannot avoid getting their product or service before the customer or avoid their feedback positive or negative.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Jan Rysavy


A recent post by blogger and venture journalist Donna Bogatin raises the question again about the need for big venture capital in a Web 2.0 startup world.

The implications are similar to those raised in a recent post by Taylor Davidson on his blog though Taylor takes the other side of the argument to some extent. (View our extended discussion of the topic here.)

The question? How much big outside investment is really needed in a world where technology is pushing the cost of especially Internet startups but also to some extent service and even retail startups lower and lower?

Take my own admittedly lean startup, for example. With added outside investment, I could:
• Add additional bloggers and additional bandwidth/capacity if necessary to instantly expand the existing PostRanger.com by creating sub-blogs in each of the existing categories already linked to from the main site
• Hire an advertising firm or firms to help monetize the site immediately instead of experimenting with Google AdSense, BidVertiser, CrispAds et al to see what kind of revenue can be generated without additional staff first. (One idea I have is to sell premium links to blogs from posts within each existing category. Any takers?)
• Hire a software developer to create a specialized platform for the network adding more of the social media features I had originally envisioned that are so-far not really possible with the off-the-shelf TypePad platform I'm currently using.

Am I making a mistake to bootstrap? Would it be better to seek VC funding for a concept that has yet to generate any real revenue? Let's keep this discussion going. Add your two cents below.