This was, what, 2012? Asana IPO'd last year and
still wasn't profitable[0]. In fact, they were bleeding vast amounts of cash and went public with the statement:
We do not expect to become profitable in the near future, may never achieve profitability, and have incurred substantial net operating losses, or NOLs, during our history.
This is the price of cheap money. VC-backed competitors can simply outspend a bootstrapped company on customer acquisition, marketing, development and hiring, and cash out without the company ever actually making a profit.
In the current environment, a bootstrapped company should ideally be:
(a) niche (and therefore outside the traditional VC market crosshairs)
(b) profitable from day one.
A to-do list doesn't fit that mould at all, which this guy found out the hard way.
[0] https://sec.report/Document/0001193125-20-228462/
We do not expect to become profitable in the near future, may never achieve profitability, and have incurred substantial net operating losses, or NOLs, during our history.
This is the price of cheap money. VC-backed competitors can simply outspend a bootstrapped company on customer acquisition, marketing, development and hiring, and cash out without the company ever actually making a profit.
In the current environment, a bootstrapped company should ideally be: (a) niche (and therefore outside the traditional VC market crosshairs) (b) profitable from day one.
A to-do list doesn't fit that mould at all, which this guy found out the hard way.
[0] https://sec.report/Document/0001193125-20-228462/