[jasode]

>But to me, bootstrapping VS "VC road" is much more nuanced than this.

I went to the "TinySeed.com" website landing page and I do see that they prominently advertise "The First Accelerator Designed for SaaS Bootstrappers".

And then their FAQ page has these example financial terms:

>TinySeed invests $120k for the first founder, $60k for the second, and $40k for the third. Our standard terms are for 10-12% equity. -- from https://tinyseed.com/program#program-faq

Well, if founders accept those terms, they are no longer "bootstrapping" as people generally understand that word. Yes, you may have been bootstrapping right up to the point _before_ taking TinySeed $180k but after that outside capital infusion, "bootstrapping" literally no longer applies. It doesn't seem like any nuance is necessary. It's quite a binary status.

[jt2190]

I guess we can debate the existence of the “True Bootstrapper”, but that’s not a very interesting conversation.

The term “bootstrapping” predates the existence of funding sources like TinySeed, and is now outdated. It was never terribly precise anyway, e.g. if someone saves up an “initial investment” amount of money before starting, are they bootstrapping? What about having a spouse who pays the bills while starting?

The digital age has also introduced a whole new range of funding options that didn’t exist very long ago, crowdfunding for example.

[jasode]

>I guess we can debate the existence of the “True Bootstrapper”, but that’s not a very interesting conversation.

I'm a language descriptivist not prescriptivist so I don't care to debate it but just pointing out that the founders are using "bootstrapped" in a confusing way that contradicts how others understand it. (Which then causes meta discussion of founders trying to educate readers on the nuances of what "bootstrap" means.)

Compare the financial equity cap table terms to YC. When YC terms were $120k for 7% equity, people (generally) didn't call all those annual YC batch applicants "bootstrap companies". E.g. we (generally) did not say "DropBox is a bootstrapped company", "AirBNB is a bootstrapped company". But TinySeed funding means it's a bootstrapped company?!?

Doesn't that seem inconsistent?

Taking outside funding from professional investors for equity stakes typically wasn't seen as bootstrapping.

My point is that it's a whole heck of a lot easier if you shed the "bootstrap" label when the financial status changes. It's not a flaw or being evil to lose that label. Why is it so psychologically necessary to keep it?