My first startup upon leaving Thinking Machines was a bootstrap. We had no investment at all, and I had no savings, so it was self-funded from the beginning. That was a night and day cold bath. It was sort of like going from the Roaring 20s, when champagne is coming from everywhere, into the depression, where you are washing your baggies and reusing twist ties.
Actually I really liked the discipline that came from a bootstrapped startup. I think that everybody that goes and does a startup-even if they don't do a major startup that way-should start a business that is having to make people happy
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