I belong to the breed of first-generation entrepreneurs who have basically created our enterprises with very frugal resources.
If you're going to start a company, it's not going to be in the millions of dollars, but it's going to be something - for a lot of these kids - out of the trunk of their car, the same way that I did.
Technology ventures can succeed with very little investment, unlike many other industries. A lot of the big Internet players like Google or Yahoo were started by a couple of guys with computers. Microsoft was started in Bill Gates' garage.
For as long as I am still motivated, I will keep putting my boots on and not pinning them up.
If we consider men and women generally, and apart from their professions or occupations, there is only one situation I can think of in which they almost pull themselves up by their bootstraps, making an effort to read better than they usually do. When they are in love and are reading a love letter, they read for all they are worth.
Financing is always the hard part, especially if you don't have friends or family to back you, which was my case and the case for most designers.
The first year, I didn't have much capital so I did everything myself. I had to keep my overhead low by learning everything about running a business, from accounting to fixing the gears of my equipment. I really started from scratch.
So many people wait around for funding, and if they're unsuccessful, they don't make the film; if you've got a good idea, that seems so pointless. There's always a way of doing it; you've just got to find it.
I used the principles of Kickstarter to make 'She's Gotta Have It.' We filmed that in 1985 to 1986. The final cost was $175,000. I didn't have that money. It was friends, grants, donations. We saved our bottles for the nickel deposit.
In my experience, fledgling entrepreneurs focus way too much on the money - you can get most things done and figure out a lot without spending much. That said, most businesses require money to launch and get off the ground.
I never had a budget, I never had a manager, I never had a PR. I never had nothing. I was getting everything straight out the mud.
Only morons start a business on a loan?
Every successful business, even Google, Facebook, Twitter, started with a combination of manual improvements and friends of the founders using the site.
I was told I had to go to business school to succeed. I gave it a shot, but eventually dropped out to bootstrap a restaurant with just a Visa card and a $20,000 line of credit. Everyone told me restaurants were hard work (and they were right! I have so much respect for anyone in the restaurant business). I ran the restaurant for two years, sold a franchise, decided to change paths, and sold the whole operation at a modest profit.
A savvy entrepreneur will not always look for investment money, first.
We live in a world where not everyone has the urge to help others... It is OK to encourage others to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, but if you do, just remember that some people have no boots.
The doctrine of thrift for the poor is dumb and cruel, like advising them to try and lift themselves by their bootstraps.
I really started from grassroots, without a handout or anything.
Information is just simply bootstrapping itself to higher and higher levels of self-reflection and self-coordination using whatever means are necessary.
Not a single, substantial, commercially-successful product had come from an adequately-finded team. They'd always come from the scrounging, scrapping, underfunded teams.
Finding initial funds is the primary barrier most entrepreneurs face. Many people don't have three or six months' worth of savings to free themselves up to do months of unpaid legwork.
When I was a 25-year-old kid, I raised $260,000 for my first show, 'The Pajama Game,' in such a homemade, pathetic, endearing way - a buck here, a buck there.
We look for the scrappy entrepreneur: the kind of person who will get things done without looking to spend money right away.
But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.
I started Shutterstock without any outside funding; I believe in creating a lean startup. By not taking outside investors early, I was forced to use every dollar I had as efficiently as possible. And I was able to keep a large part of the company.
