Fast Company Blogjam: Fear of getting acquired AND benefits of bootstrapping a business
There are times when I write a few posts that I think deserves a lot more eye-balls than what my blog attracts. Of course, there are other times when a few other posts get a lot more views than they deserve too.
So when Heath Row from Fast Company contacted me to find if I will be willing to contribute in the Fast Company blogjam, I was more than eager. I had decided on a few posts that I will be writing but I never got to do that because of the last minute decision on me also going for the campus placements. I will have to postpone writing the same articles for some more time.
But I did contribute 2 posts in the blogjam2006 category, even though they were not the ones I had originally planned:
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The Fear of Getting Acquired!
We focused a lot on the fact that innovation in the world of Web 2.0 and web-applications is particularly happening in the nooks and corners and the big companies are playing catch-up by mostly acquiring the same startups. What startled me was the fact that amongst the people who had the startup bent of mind and wanted to join startups had a fear – fear of the company getting acquired! The fact that everybody makes tons of money whenever such thing happened didn’t seem to satisfy them – they were more concerned on what happens to the same innovation that was happening when the company was small.
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How Good Is the Idea of Bootstrapping a Business?
Last week, I was having a telephonic conversation with somebody from one of India’s most popular business magazine. The talk was about startups in general and drifted to lack of seed capital for India based startups. One question he asked me was “Would you have taken investment if it was easily available?”
I said “No” – “I think it’s best to bootstrap a business and not go for seed funding if it can be avoided”. Of course, there are businesses which cannot be bootstrapped at all but it should be avoided as much as possible.
My first visit to your website and I am pleasantly requainted with some good old days. Pass my regards to Heath Row, he is splendid fellow. To think that the last time I wrote to him I told him I was giving up on this online stuff. Ashish, having quickly rummaged through your website, I think I will keep on trucking for a little while longer, well done on maintaining a wonderfully organized blog. I shall lurk here more in future since my gray matter will benefit or at least until the web becomes a mundane and troublesome rather than the current rich and surprising place it is and can be.
M.
Thanks Manjit. Appreciate your comments!
The appreciation is also mine. Since reading this blog, it has helped me focus my own priorities. I have decided to observe from a distance rather than participate from here on in. As the web gets bigger it is great to see more and more new voices. Thank you very much Ashish and also to all the people who comment here with good intentions and hearts.