Bootstrapping

Funding the company from your own money and from revenue, rather than by selling equity.

Example

You keep contracting two days a week and build the product on the other three, until customer revenue covers your costs.

Bootstrapping is slower but you keep control and 100% of the company. Many founders raise because they assume they must, not because they compared.

Venture capital (VC) — Professional investors who manage a fund of other people's money and invest it in high-growth startups in exchange for equity.
Dilution — When new shares are issued, existing shareholders own a smaller percentage of the company than before.
Runway — How many months your company can keep operating before it runs out of money, at its current rate of spending.

Should you raise money at all? — Raising is not an achievement, it is a transaction. The first question is whether you need it, and most founders skip it. (12 min)
Venture-backed or bootstrapped? — Two completely different ways to fund a company, with different risks, different speeds and different definitions of winning. Most founders never consciously choose. (12 min)
Should you start a company at all? — An honest look at what it costs, what it requires, and the good reasons not to. Nobody else is going to ask you this. (10 min)