Bootstrapping Is Not a Badge of Honor, It’s a Business Strategy

Small-business owners who avoid working capital out of principle may be preventing their company from growing.

BY JARED FELDMAN, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, FORA FINANCIAL

Bootstrapping is the right call in plenty of situations. In the early stages, before you know whether your business can work, keeping your obligations minimal makes sense.

What costs people is when bootstrapping stops being a tactical decision and becomes an identity: the idea that every dollar of outside capital is a compromise, that the owner who built the business without help is more admirable than the one who used every available tool. That framing costs business owners real growth, and the longer it holds, the more it compounds.

Where the image comes from

The bootstrapping ideal has roots worth respecting: independence, self-reliance, not owing anyone anything. Those values have built real businesses.

Somewhere, though, that mentality became a competitive sport. The founder who raised no money was honorable. The one who took outside capital was suspect.

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