Bootstrapping With A Paycheck: Entrepreneur Journeys

by Sramana Mitra

In this eleventh volume of her acclaimed Entrepreneur Journeys series, Sramana Mitra takes on the subject of starting a company while holding onto a full-time job. She talks to entrepreneurs who have built sizable businesses while navigating the messy, cash-strapped startup phases using their own paychecks, or their spouses’ income. The experience simulates sitting down with each of them, discussing over a cup of coffee, the gory details of their decisions. Risk appetite varies from entrepreneur to entrepreneur. Family situations, financial obligations, constraints, etc. often come on the way of entrepreneurial dreams. This volume is encouraging particularly because of its message of a flexible, pragmatic approach towards startups.Sramana Mitra’s One Million by One Million (1Mby1M) global virtual accelerator follows this principle of case study-based learning to leverage the experiences of successful entrepreneurs to teach and mentor those who are trying to grow their businesses in various sectors of the digital economy. The program is one of very few, if not the only one, that supports entrepreneurs who want to bootstrap their companies without quitting their day jobs.

207 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 14, 2014

Reviews

[Nikolay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice small book written in a form of interviews with founders, focusing on cases when new companies were brought up without founders leaving their full-time job. I found a reference to this book on a Reddit thread, and enjoyed reading through the stories, very inspirational from the perspective of "bootstrapping with a paycheck".

Real-world time frames are also providing useful insights (How long does it take to build a company that would provide enough revenue to fund the founder at least at the level that correspond to the paycheck? How soon founders hire someone to hand over a part of work? etc.)

[Hemant Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sramana Mitra interviews founders who started their company or product development while still holding onto a full-time job (albeit after clearing it from employer and ensuring that there was no conflict of interest).

It is interesting to read about the entrepreneurs who funded their business dreams with their own paychecks and their struggles as well as jubilations. Most important, the book reminds the reader again and again that "bootstrapping with a paycheck" is not only possible but you can actually end up building a very large business starting like that. Nothing to stop you from doing that.

At the same time, its going to be a bed of thorny roses and a very rough ride.

On the whole, a very encouraging book