If you are reading this article, I presume you have a bomb start-up idea up your sleeves and you are almost there to make a phenomenal change to the society! But as a start-up owner one aspect of the business that might still give you semi sleepless nights could be funding. When you want to do something big, you also need a bigger support in form of capital, manpower as well as technological investments depending on the business needs. When it comes to funding a start-up, there are mostly two common ways to do it, one is Bootstrap funding and the second one is venture capital funding. In today’s article, we will be looking at the difference between both these funding mechanisms and also put some insights regarding the pros and cons of both the funding types.

Bootstrap Funding

Bootstrapping a start-up primarily means not getting any external capital funding for the business and growing the business with the owner’s savings and revenue for the operational and expansion of the business.

You must be wondering how the term Bootstrap came into existence? There is a small story behind the nomenclature. Once a great person of Baron Munchhausen used his boot straps to pull himself out of water and hence the name.

In the business perspective, the whole idea of bootstrap funding is to minimize the amount of borrowing for any start-up. One of the biggest advantages of bootstrapping a start-up is that it gives the business a lot of independence in making decisions for the firm.

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Funded Venture

Funded venture is another mechanism of financing a start-up and it is different from bootstrap in a lot of ways. In a funded start-up, the capital requirements of the firm are initially looked up by an investor or a group of investors who are interested in the idea of your start-up and also looks forward to getting a share of the profit of your business. Here, the prime focus as a start-up should be to sell your ideas to the investor in return for capital investment.

There are two ways in which a funded venture start-up can operate-

Angel Investors- Angel investors are those people who have a profitable business of their own and they invest their own money into businesses or start-ups which looks promising for growth.

Venture Capitalist– Venture capitalist are also investors who invest their money into the start-up but they have more ownership on the decision making of the company.

WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO FUND A START-UP?

It is not a cake walk to make a decision on how to choose the right way to finance your start- up. There are a lot of underlying factors which should be considered before you choose which path to go for. As a start-up, you can ask these questions before taking a decision on when and how you can fund your start-up.

1. Where do you see your business 5 and 10 years from the present?

If the focus of the business is to grow rather than innovating, then maybe a funded venture is a better way for you. But if your start-up is keener on innovating new product or services in the future, then you can take the risk and try bootstrapping the business.

2. What are your return expectations from the business?

In case a start-up is bootstrapped, a major chunk of the revenue will be injected back into the business and probably in the early stage, you won’t even make salary out of your own business. But involving an external investor will make sure that a salary is paid, even if it is lower initially.

3. What skills and knowledge do you wish to have in your venture?

If you are already someone who specialises in the domain of your business, then maybe you do not need a lot of extra experience to run a successful business. Say for example, if a person having 20 years of experience in IT opens a start-up in the same domain, then that person is well informed about the hard skills that are required to run the business. But, if your skills are limited, then an investor along with his money will also come with a lot of experience and knowledge which will be incremental for the growth if your business.

KNOWING THE PROS AND CONS OF BOOTSTRAPPING AND FUNDED VENTURE-