This document discusses bootstrapped growth strategies and the challenges of bootstrapped companies. It argues that bootstrapping forces companies to focus on customers and be capital efficient. However, bootstrapped companies face constraints on growth due to limited capital for initiatives. The document recommends raising growth capital at the right time to fuel expansion while insulating the core business, and partnering strategically to reduce costs and accelerate growth.
3. Sweat Equity
Built some of the largest tech
company successes
Growth equity capital/partial liquidity
was raised post-significant run-rate
revenue $4-$30M+ in revenue
Capital-efficient and scalable sales
and marketing engines, product led
5. Forced to listen to the customer
(very carefully)
Market test (will someone pay for
it?)
Baked into the company's DNA
Customer Focus
Investments are more gradual
Sustainable burn rate
Avoid fund-raising time drain
Avoid conflicting expectations of
management and investors
Do-or-die nature of the business
Fewer distractions
Too many people/too few projects
Problems cannot be glossed over
with capital
Capital is deployed rationally,
not speculatively
Capital Allocation
Team is focused and goals
are aligned
Alignment
SAVANT
GROWTH
7. Constrained Growth
If market growth
accelerates, bootstrapped
businesses may not be
able to fund initiatives
required to keep pace
Product
Sales
Marketing
Recruitment
Weak Capital Base
Insights
Recruiting top-flight
senior management can
be difficult if funding is
limited and/or founder’s
objectives are not clear
CEO
VP Sales
CRO
Analytics
Can lead to an overly
conservative risk profile
due to inability to fund
new initiatives, impacting
decision making
Price
Partners
Market
Expansion
Bootstrapped businesses
often lack board members
or advisors with a vested
interest in maximizing
shareholder value
Board
Members
Advisory
Visibility
SAVANT GROWTH
8. Ideal
Growth
Capital
Raising capital at the
right time can transform
growth
Significantly higher
timing execution
risks
Threat
Sales acceleration
unimpeded; baseline
business insulated
from growth risks
Strength
Less market timing
risk; better customer
requirement
assessment
Opportunity
Internally generated
cash flow may not keep
pace with customer
requirements
Weakness
SAVANT
GROWTH
INVESTMENT
BOOTSTRAPPED
DEVELOPMENT GROWTH
10. Determine growth opportunities and develop
the business plan to exploit the company’s
strengths; avoid about-turns
Develop and validate a sales model that can
scale predictably and profitably
Develop relationships with strategic partners that
to reduce sale costs and/or accelerate growth
Evaluate management strengths weaknesses.
Recruit outside management talent to invest in
key areas that can be improved
Evaluate the capital needs of the business: fuel
growth insulate the baseline business from risk
Bring in an outside board for management
guidance
Growth
Sales
Relationships
Recruitment
Capital Needs
Guidance
Strategy
Consider adjacent product areas and/or
acquisitions to build on company’s organic success
SAVANT
GROWTH
12. Learn More
We know founder-led
businesses
www.savantgrowth.com
Javier Rojas
Managing Partner, Savant Growth
jrojas@savantgrowth.com
Eric Filipek
Managing Partner, Savant Growth
efilipek@savantgrowth.com
Francesco Mantica
Principal, Savant Growth
fmantica@savantgrowth.com
Savant Growth is a US-based Growth Equity Fund that
invest in SaaS software / technology companies. Savant
Growth invests capital to help fuel growth, provide
founder liquidity, and provides a powerful software called
SaleSavant and operations platform called DevSavant
dedicated to accelerating growth for capital-efficient
SaaS companies.
