[lmeyerov]

Important for others: Some loans do not extend this way and thus company bankruptcy (US) can protect you, so just opportunity cost. But the terms are generally bad, and why firms like tinyseed exist, esp. once revenue starts growing (though at that point you can potentially get a SAFE at better terms...).

Money is so sensitive! A Google millionaire bootstrapping on surveillance savings or a doctor taking favorable loans for starting a practice is different from say a college grad bootstrapping on no savings. Most SaaS is especially hard as there is typically no real revenue for ~years, compared to say B2B where each customer can easily pay for .5-5 people. So if operational expenses come from revenue, including sales/marketing/r&d, bravo.

[codegeek]

I hear you but most small business loans try to push you for personal guarantee. You can fight it but it usually is tough unless you have real physical collateral in the business which is not the case for software companies. I have talked to Bankers who told me that unless the business is brick and mortar with inventory and machinery or real estate, they cannot give loans without personal guarantee even SBA backed loans.

[lmeyerov]

The crew here already bootstrapped to (small) revenue, which means revenue-based loans are possible (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/revenuebased-financing....). I haven't been following this space recently, but it seems like there's now a big zoo of traditional lenders + upcoming tiny-vc's. IMO if you've reached something like 10K MRR but not enough of a userbase for crowdfunding, there's a world of options, the angel story may be the most friendly + not yet forcing you on the VC treadmill.

For pre-revenue... that's tougher. For a tech startup, consulting/services, SBIR, (lax) corporate day jobs, etc. all give ways to split between the startup and work without risking your nest egg. For b2b, I now like the model of well-paying design partners that you hustle to land before you take the full leap. But some people are rich, or comfortable with the risk/reward, or all sorts of other things, and go with personal guarantees. Pretty sure that's what I did with our first business credit card. In all cases, bravo to anyone who pushes to sustainable growth, it can be a life changer deal for both the company and the individuals, whatever financial path they pushed through.