[throwaway_tech]

>Getting into an incubator or getting money from investors is zero measure of business success.

That is sort of like saying money doesn't buy happiness...true, but financial stress or poverty typically can be outright bars to happiness. As you say YC admission or raising funds from investors isn't a measure of business success...but then again I haven't seen a tech unicorn that hasn't been funded by investors.

>Head down, work, balanced lifestyle, try to make something small succeed on your own.

That is a great message to tell to the 99% that get rejected from YC and will never touch VC funding...but even that sounds more like a pipe dream than the American dream now a days.

[JangoSteve]

> As you say YC admission or raising funds from investors isn't a measure of business success...but then again I haven't seen a tech unicorn that hasn't been funded by investors.

There is a difference between a company getting investor funding and the investor funding being a significant measure of success.

There are plenty of unicorns that didn't raise money until well after they were already considered a success. A couple examples off the top of my head would be:

* Github - first round was a $100mil series A at a $650mil valuation about 5 years after founding.

* Atlassian - first round was a $60mil round 8 years after founding.

I'm sure there are plenty more that are easier to find once you know what you're looking for.

[davidajackson]

> ...but then again I haven't seen a tech unicorn that hasn't been funded by investors.

MailChimp

[marcus_holmes]

>...but then again I haven't seen a tech unicorn that hasn't been funded by investors.

Partly because if you're not in the target market for a bootstrapping business, you probably won't have heard of them. It's a waste of money, time and energy making a big noise about your business if you're not chasing investment.

Partly because the desired exit for bootstrapped businesses is (usually) a trade sale. You can't trade-sale a unicorn-sized business because finding a buyer that big is difficult/impossible. Bootstrapped businesses tend to sell before they get that big, while they're still showing huge growth, to make sure they have enough potential buyers.

Partly because valuations of bootstrapped private companies are weird. With no VC driving valuation growth, and no stock sales, how much is a private company actually worth? Valuing one is tricky, and a lot less important than for an investment-driven business.

[andruby]

> but then again I haven't seen a tech unicorn that hasn't been funded by investors

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bootstrapped-unicorns_b_64576...

It talks about Zoho, eClinicalWorks and Veeam beeing bootstrapped businesses to reach unicorn valuations

Also: Basecamp (I guess) and Valve Software