Sorry, but I'm of the opinion that your opinion, or at least your use of terminology, is a bit dodgy. I agree that taking VC money implies certain expectations that may not be what you - as a founder - want or are comfortable with, yes. That's just a warning against taking VC money, unless you know for sure what you're getting into. But to suggest that you aren't a "startup" unless you take VC money and do the "get big fast" thing is, IMO, totally unsupported.
Just because a company is bootstrapping does not mean they are "building a small business" or that you are meant to be companions with the "local plumbers, restaurants and barbers". Big companies can be built slowly. Did Wal-mart start off as a huge mega-corp? McDonals? IBM? A million other examples? No.
Organic growth, re-investing in the company and growing slowly but steadily can be a path to being huge just as well as grabbing a pile of VC money and trying to compress it all into a couple of years. It's all about the decisions you make and how you execute and what your vision is.
Also note that it's really not a fixed decision anyway... you could bootstrap for 6 years, then - one day - decide to take VC or private equity money to expand. So were you, or were you not a startup? Or would that be a "Schrödinger startup"?
... in the opinion of greghinch.
Sorry, but I'm of the opinion that your opinion, or at least your use of terminology, is a bit dodgy. I agree that taking VC money implies certain expectations that may not be what you - as a founder - want or are comfortable with, yes. That's just a warning against taking VC money, unless you know for sure what you're getting into. But to suggest that you aren't a "startup" unless you take VC money and do the "get big fast" thing is, IMO, totally unsupported.
Just because a company is bootstrapping does not mean they are "building a small business" or that you are meant to be companions with the "local plumbers, restaurants and barbers". Big companies can be built slowly. Did Wal-mart start off as a huge mega-corp? McDonals? IBM? A million other examples? No.
Organic growth, re-investing in the company and growing slowly but steadily can be a path to being huge just as well as grabbing a pile of VC money and trying to compress it all into a couple of years. It's all about the decisions you make and how you execute and what your vision is.
Also note that it's really not a fixed decision anyway... you could bootstrap for 6 years, then - one day - decide to take VC or private equity money to expand. So were you, or were you not a startup? Or would that be a "Schrödinger startup"?