TLDR:
- As venture capital funding has dried up, founders are turning to bootstrapping to start new startups.
- Many founders are leveraging their personal savings and skills to launch successful businesses without outside funding.
Prospective founders are shifting their mindset when it comes to funding and running their startups. Bootstrapping and turning a profit have become front and center for many consumer startups as venture capital funding has dried up. Now, the origin story of founders is also shifting. Rather than spending a couple years grinding away at a hotshot DTC startup before raising money for their own venture, more founders are thinking pragmatically about what will help them secure the most money to bootstrap their own startups. Some founders are choosing to operate a consulting business on the side, to help them stash away more cash for their new startup, and, potentially save on marketing or PR costs.
Aside from injecting their own cash, some founders are using their existing marketable skills to operate a new brand from the ground up. Dryft Sleep, a DTC brand that launched in 2022 and focuses on mouth tape, is another bootstrapped brand. Co-founders Jess Windell and Lindsey Rosenberg operate PR and marketing consulting firms respectively and used their personal savings to start Dryft. They were able to pay themselves through their consulting businesses, allowing them to reinvest revenue back into the business.
Bootstrapping through a startup’s first year or two of operation doesn’t mean a founder won’t consider raising capital at some point. But as Modern Dose’s founder Catherine Zhu said, once a startup takes outside capital, the focus naturally shifts to hyper-growth with a timeline for an exit. With funding no longer as accessible, founders are learning to be diligent with every dollar spent from day one to build sustainable and profitable businesses in a competitive industry.
