Read/Write Web has an article on bootstrapping. Their definition is slightly different to what I thought it was, which was where a company sustains itself on consulting until it has a sustainable product, but either way, it is about getting a product to market without needing outside infusions of cash/capital.
From the article:
The aim of many entrepreneurs is to take a business idea and convert it into a professional and functioning business on a low budget. This is typically called "bootstrapping" and it is fraught with potential pitfalls and dangers. But when done well it can really help get a company going fast, professionally and without the founders having to give up much (if any) equity - or bankrupting themselves.I agree with the author's approach. If I was to try bootstrapping knowing what I do now, I would not attempt to do the development myself for any complex project. My skills are too narrow technically and different sites, such as google analytics, have raised the bar of what is accepted interface practices (ie flash graphs). Much of which is outside my personal skillset. As the article notes:
Project complexity is the main driver of cost - i.e. delivery risk and timescale. Therefore it is exceptionally hard to be accurate with this, but you are in for a minimum spend of $50k. Systems as complex as a trading exchange will involve much bigger numbers. If you have less than this, then you'll have to do the development yourself - nothing else is going to shift the needle. And by doing the development yourself, you're competing with an offshore company that has specialists in all the skill areas I mentioned above. Plus there's a practical limit to the size of the project you can accomplish.I think a better approach is to treat it from the mindset of project management where you are in control of the requirements, project budget, project timelines/milestones, deployment, etc and use the cash you have on hand, or from consulting, to buy the necessary skills to have the project completed.
