[soundlab]

--startups do not fall into the category of traditional businesses with strong P&Ls and great balance sheets--

So as a bootstrapper are you still taking this approach past year 3 or 4? At a certain point you need to hone in on that repeatable / scalable business model and put up some numbers or fold.

If you're a couple years in and have bootstrapped past breakeven your funding options AND odds of survival are greatly improved- so why not orient around that outcome?

I'm not here to defend the absurd behavior and ignorance of commercial banks just pointing out that sometimes the game changes if you can afford to take a slower more incremental approach to growth than what is typically demanded by VC.

[beachstartup]

yes, you take it past year 3 or 4. you get half a million bucks, a million bucks in the bank during the first years, and then you start spending it on real things. sometimes your cash dips. sometimes you bolster it with a good few months. however, you can't spend it all - you need capital. you need a reasonable amount of debt you can service.

when the bank sees this, they will flip the fuck out. but someone with experience in your industry and a specific financial product designed to help you will know exactly what you're doing.

it's repeatable, it's scalable - however, it requires money to grow just like every other business. this isn't skating by on ultra thin margins with $50k in the bank - it's a business with significant cash that needs significantly more cash, and is willing to sacrifice margins in the short term to grow. and that's not what banks do (these days).