Three years later, what did I learn about bootstrapping

Bootstrap is a situation in which an entrepreneur starts a company with little capital. An individual is said to be bootstrapping when he or she attempts to found and build a company from the operating revenues of the new company.

The untold story behind many bootstrapping is this. You can hardly fund your startup from customer revenues but, instead, from your personal finances. The founders come to the table with more time, more energy and all their savings. In my case, with limited savings, over the last three years, I have generated the cash flow from the part-time consulting services I do on the side.

Bootstrapping using part-time consulting is a real challenge on your personal finance (not to mention energy and health). In general, little by little, you exhaust all your savings. After three years, I am in this situation right now. I need to revitalize my personal savings.

Fortunately, as a DevOps expert it was easy to find a full-time contract. For the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ), I will lead a major reorganization of the software release process and testing pipelines. Billing more hours will allow me to put aside money and rebuild my savings.