vinney...axkl's avatar
vinney...axkl vcavallo@vinneycavallo.com 2 months ago
The trainwrecks had initial pre-seed funding (mix of angels and VC) but fizzled out just before seed raising trying to find product/market fit in a far-too-novel niche, much too close to open source software. The non-trainwreck: as far as I know, for the most part bootstrapped and profitable. I'm not a super experienced expert in this field, but my spidey sense from observation and vibe-checking is that VC money is mostly a problem unless there is strong and focused alignment with the startup's "spiritual" mission. Which is probably almost always impossible for any of the products and technologies I'm interested in. Which is probably why I think VC money is almost always an anti-pattern in my world. I'm certain there are whole books about this that I haven't read
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Replies (4)

vinney...axkl's avatar
vinney...axkl vcavallo@vinneycavallo.com 2 months ago
A briefer way to put this: I tend to want to work on products that by definition and by design cannot be profitable. Like open source code that people can self-host and potentially build **their own businesses on** where I'm no longer in the loop. Try pitching that to a VC.
Catallax - A Protocol for Pseudonymous Contract Work Economies
Catallax is an open protocol that enables pseudonymous contract work economies. It runs over Nostr, Bitcoin and Cashu ecash for censorship-resistan...
 is not a great example of this concept, but it's directionally correct. I want to provide an open source self-hostable SaaS-like package for #catallax that specifically does not enrich me.
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Vitor Pamplona's avatar
Vitor Pamplona _@vitorpamplona.com 2 months ago
Yeah, I almost don't call bootstrapped companies "startups" because they are more like regular small businesses than the crazy stuff we see with VC money. High ROI expectations, high levels of craziness.
Kevin's Bacon's avatar
Kevin's Bacon kb@mynostr.com 2 months ago
This still does enrich you if you do it right. Prioritizing the consumer to that extreme level tends to make you the go-to in highly responsible, perceptive, libertarian, or UNIX philosophy circles. It earns you a great reputation and allows your products to play nicely with everything else so that they have a strong, long-lasting incentive to use your stuff.
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