Absolutely - when me and my team spend $50k to experiment (which is chump change for a funded company) and it fails, that hurts. It's coming out of my pockets. And because of that, I remember it and my team remembers it.
But it's also allowed us to focus solely on the problems our customers actually have and will spend money for. It forces service/product-market fit before attempts to scale.
We are a services business so it is different than SaaS, but same principles apply.
There are benefits to bootstrap and benefits to funded. I feel as if bootstrapping first is a great way to learn the lessons needed to be successful when you do something funded later on.
But it's also allowed us to focus solely on the problems our customers actually have and will spend money for. It forces service/product-market fit before attempts to scale.
We are a services business so it is different than SaaS, but same principles apply.
There are benefits to bootstrap and benefits to funded. I feel as if bootstrapping first is a great way to learn the lessons needed to be successful when you do something funded later on.