Lenny Distilled

Small can be the goal, not just a phase

Strategy → Vision & Mission

This is a way to be. It's an alternative to what you're often hearing in our industry, which is, 'Go big or go home. Raise a bunch of money and get huge, and unicorn status,' and the whole thing. That's a way. Just know though that basically almost nobody makes it that way.

Jason FriedHow to get press for your product | Jason Feifer (editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine)

Small is not just a stepping stone, small is a great destination itself.

Jason FriedHow to get press for your product | Jason Feifer (editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine)
Supporting

If you are going to be that large company, you need to get to a billion in revenue per year. It doesn't have to be overnight, it can be over 20 years, it's not something that has to happen quickly, but that's how I think about it.

Patrick Campbell10 lessons on bootstrapping a $200m business
Nuanced

Why don't you actually just create its own C corp? Why don't you make it so clear that this is its own entity?

Matt MocharyAre your fears giving you terrible advice? | Matt Mochary
Nuanced

Bootstrapping is for lifestyle businesses that want to cash flow. Funding is for companies trying to create a billion dollars in annual revenue.

Patrick Campbell10 lessons on bootstrapping a $200m business
With caveats

We wanted a company where a thousand people could work, but it'll look like 10 people did it.

Brian CheskyBrian Chesky's new playbook
With caveats

We probably, if we had taken money, we could have had a billion-dollar exit or we could have kept going. And we should have taken money earlier in our life cycle. This was actually a big mistake because we got hooked on the efficiency and that was great, but we could have moved even quicker than we were.

Patrick Campbell10 lessons on bootstrapping a $200m business