Strangely, I think a lot of funded startups are more realistic about the challenges involved. It's well documented. We read about flameouts every day.
All of the bootstrapped businesses that get 6 months into their business and realize it's a much longer road just sorta fade away. We don't hear much about 'em, don't read about 'em... But a lot of people have latched onto the (very inspiring) story of 37s and a few other bootstrap stars. Good on 'em.
The volume of people chasing the (more realistic) 37s-style dream is high, but I've been struck by the unreasoned optimism-- not the "we can build something really good" optimism (which is required, I think) but the "we'll be rolling in money within 6 months". Thus the post!
Regarding abridging my post to say "focus on profit earlier" - nope. I don't think I'd go back and go that route, even if I could... But that's probably another post.
There are very very few funded startups, so the question for me is the comparison between those seeking funding and those that are bootstrapping (seeking revenue from paying customers). I find the former to be much less realistic than the latter but we are probably looking at different data sets.
All of the bootstrapped businesses that get 6 months into their business and realize it's a much longer road just sorta fade away. We don't hear much about 'em, don't read about 'em... But a lot of people have latched onto the (very inspiring) story of 37s and a few other bootstrap stars. Good on 'em.
The volume of people chasing the (more realistic) 37s-style dream is high, but I've been struck by the unreasoned optimism-- not the "we can build something really good" optimism (which is required, I think) but the "we'll be rolling in money within 6 months". Thus the post!
Regarding abridging my post to say "focus on profit earlier" - nope. I don't think I'd go back and go that route, even if I could... But that's probably another post.