Thanks to Startup Saturday Kochi for inviting me which gave me opportunity to connect with quite few young entrepreneurs. I tried to explain few on #Bootstrapping based on my experience

1. Bootstrapping
Your Startup
Ahimanikya Satapathy
Founder & CEO, DocEngage

2. So Why Startup?
● You are passionate about a problem
● You have skills to solve it
● And someone is willing to pay for it

3. Doubt your Intentions
Do you want to become a Doctor or you want
to cure people, which one first?
Do people value your solution
Money is a scale to measure value, if you are
solving someone’s real problem, they will pay.

4. So, Why Bootstrap?
● Lack of Money will force you
build something that works
● Retain Control till you can
demonstrate a working Idea
● Coworking space is the new
garage, All cloud providers
have startup options

5. Bootstrap Definition: A situation in
which an entrepreneur starts a
company with little capital. An
individual is said to be bootstrapping
when he or she attempts to found
and build a company from personal
finances or from the operating
revenues of the new company.

6. OK, So how do I get started?
Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle and require
discipline, the most important one is financial
discipline. You need money all the way.
Over time I have developed something
called MLP (Minimum Livability Plan); this
could be one of ways to get started...

7. Use Case: You are a student

8. Use Case: You have been working in
corporate for a while

9. So, how do I really do it?
● Understand, Customer Money is the Cheapest Money
● Personal branding - help others - someone will help you
● Dig deep into competitors public content - don't build
product based their features, but know their weak
points
● host in-house, it works - use basic linux machine
● Don't waste time in all free stuff, only get free things
thats is required for your business
● Don't give anything free to customers - remember
customers money is cheaper than VC money

10. Myths
Entrepreneurship = Venture Capital
Bootstrapping = Not Funded Yet
Don’t get confused with these myths, understand,
Bootstrapping and raising external fund are just two
pathways to build business. You as a founder have to
choose what is best for your business and you.

11. Bootstrap Business Models
● Sometime there are ideas or products that are niche but
may not provide scale to attract VCs; but it still can be a
viable business
● Sometime startup could stay bootstrapped in initial days
and while creating a stable product acquire customers
and then decide to scale with external fund
● Lifestyle business owners could choose to stay
bootstrapped for long

12. Thank You !!
“Successful bootstrapping is all about discipline and stamina” - Kevin Hale,
Founder, WUFOO
“The hardest thing you have to do when you bootstrap is to work for free.
There’s no income. It’s not that you have to be cutting big checks necessarily –
there’s just no income. So you have to be able to adjust your lifestyle for
some period of time” - Christian Chabot, CEO Tableau
Be Capital efficient - You don’t need a ping pong table to have a startup
culture. In fact, if you’re worried about having a ping pong table, you’re focusing
on the wrong values

13. Further Reading
http://pn.ispirt.in/category/bootstrapping/
http://bootupindia.net/
http://customerfundedbusiness.com/
http://www.bootstrappedbook.com/
http://mixergy.com/interviews/bootstrapping-37signals/