In her recent blog post, Sramana Mitra, founder of the 1M/1M (One Million by One Million) initiative, provides some tips on how founders can leverage the paychecks from their day jobs as a way to bootstrap their startups. She uses Voziq as her case study:
Bootstrap your startup through services, while holding on to your paycheck:
"[It's] a great way to bring immediate value to the customers, learning about their needs, all the while building a product with the long-term view in mind."
Don't quit your day job:
"... one or two [co-founders] could continue working while others are firming up the business plan and reaching out to prospects. This way, he says, you can fund your company through your paychecks while others are executing the core ideas of the startup."
Being willing to sacrifice to validate your startup:
"[Each co-founder should take] a chunk of business and product development tasks and [execute] these during evenings and weekends. Once [there is] traction, [take on] roles as independent consultants in related areas to continue to earn a paycheck."
The Vozig co-founders were successful in building their startup because they took Sramana's advice and adhered to a basic tenant of the 1M/1M methodology: look to customers rather than investors as a way to further bootstrap and validate your work.
"Hundreds and thousands of professionals around the world harbor entrepreneurial dreams. Most of them lack capital. For these entrepreneurs -- heavy in expertise, light on funding -- bootstrapping with a paycheck is a fine path to get going!"
Thist post was originally featured on FounderCode.com
Source: "Bootstrapping With A Paycheck"
Image Source: Hannes A. Schwetz