Repeat after me: Raising VC-money is NOT an achievement.
Building something people pay for IS.
If you’re a bootstrapped founder, every dollar you earn is a middle finger to the system.
You’re already playing on hard mode, and you’re winning.
Forget the headlines.
Ignore TechCrunch.
Chasing venture money is a game for people who don’t want to sweat, bleed, and own every inch of what they build.
You are DIFFERENT.
You wake up every day with scarcity as your superpower.
Every customer serves as validation, not another investor’s generic LinkedIn “congrats.”
Let’s get it straight:
1/ No permission slips to build.
2/ No board breathing fire down your neck.
3/ Every win, every cent, every f*cking user, you EARNED it.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re “playing small” because you’re building slow, stacking revenue one painful subscription at a time.
Those are real stripes.
The kind that can’t be bought with someone else’s money.
At BuddiesHR, we built from nothing.
No shortcuts.
No sugar daddy VCs.
Profitable.
Lean.
Free.
And I’d bet on this path EVERY DAMN TIME.
If you’re bootstrapping, this is your edge:
↳ You iterate fast, because you HAVE to.
↳ You know your customers’ pain, because you share it.
↳ You build for survival, not for show.
That’s where resilience is forged.
That’s where legacy is born.
So hold the line.
Celebrate profit, not press.
Remember: Vanity fades.
Revenue compounds.
Stay hungry. Stay lethal. Stay bootstrapped.
----------
👋 Hey, I'm J.Y!
I'm the co-founder of BuddiesHR, the #1 Employee Engagement Software that lives in Slack.
I post 1x a day about my journey and share what I've learned along the way.
Follow me for more content like this 👆
P.S. I'm writing a no-BS B2B SaaS playbook with everything I've learned. Want a free copy? Click “Visit my website” to sign up.