Indian entrepreneurs and readers, Alok Mittal suggested a special offer for VentureWoods readers. I’m always interested in your perspective and am curious to hear some of your thoughts after reading my Entrepreneur Journeys and Bootstrapping books. I will gladly have a copy of either book sent to the first 10 people who are interested in writing a review of either book for VentureWoods. If you would like to participate, please write Venture Woods Reviewer in the subject line and send your best mailing address to Maureen Kelly. We look forward to hearing from you.
Some of you may have followed a recent discussion on my blog, 18,000 People On The Bench At Infosys.
I have to say, I am continuously frustrated by aspiring entrepreneurs telling me that they cannot move forward because seed funding is not available in India. My message has always been, bootstrap the beginning, and then you can raise funding after your business thesis has been validated. That way, you preserve equity, and have the option also to not raise money at all. In my book, Bootstrapping: Doing More With Less, which comes out in India in September, I have discussed this topic at length. Even in Entrepreneur Journeys (Volume One), I opened the book addressing the issue of bootstrapping. This book has been available in India for a few months now.
Indian entrepreneurs, you must learn to bootstrap. Here’re some short video interview clips that Dwevesh Divedi of Breaking the 9 to 5 Jail produced where I have discussed the topic further. If you have a 9-5 job, you are in a perfect position to bootstrap a venture on the side. Hundreds and thousands of aspiring Indian entrepreneurs in corporate jobs: your seed capital is coming to you in form of a pay check. Use it, my friends.
My new Forbes column Bootstrap Yourself highlights Silicon Valley’s hottest new trend, Bootstrapping. Indian entrepreneurs, you need to embrace this trend, given that the early stage venture capital industry doesn’t quite have its act together yet.
Great bootstrapping case studies I have covered are Sridhar Vembu, Frank Levinson and Jerry Rawls, Cree Lawson, and Beatrice Tarka. Sridhar, Frank and Jerry did it almost without any outside money, while Cree and Beatrice have done it with very small rounds of Angel funding. Aspiring entrepreneurs, you have much to learn from them.
Also note, in Frank and Jerry’s case, they used services to bootstrap, while Sridhar used a lower profile, but successful product which became a cashcow.
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