Josh Abramson: A friend of mine wanted to sell his business for $800m, but his board wouldn’t let him.
Me: What?!?!?
Josh: I know tons of stories like that one.
Me: Really!?!?
Josh: Yep. I’ve seen it over and over again.
Unless you think you are building a billion dollar company, AND you wouldn’t be happy running the business if it ended up smaller than that, you shouldn’t use VC.
Me: I AGREE 100%!!!
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I've built 3 profitable SaaS companies without raising a single dollar.
But the real story didn’t start with me … It all started when I watched my former roommate sell TWO bootstrapped companies for a combined 9-figures!!!
Back in 2003, I was trading credit default swaps at Lehman Brothers in NYC. My four roommates were building something that seemed crazy at the time: a website where people could upload and share videos with friends.
That website became Vimeo.
Here's what happened next:
They bootstrapped it alongside College Humor into a cash-flowing empire
Sold to IAC for 8 figures
Learned how big corporations operate from the inside
All went separate ways to build new ventures
One roommate, Josh Abramson, went on to bootstrap and sell a second company—also for 8 figures.
Two successful exits. Zero venture capital. Pure bootstrapping genius.
Not only that …
He’s made over 100 investments, been an entrepreneur-in-residence at a top-tier VC firm, and seen thousands of founders choose VC or bootstrap over the last 25 years.
He’s going to share how he bootstrapped and a handful of VC horror stories with us this week on UnF*ck My Startup.
It’s Tues and 3p EDT/12p PDT.