 Lauren Gibson, and I am a Foreign Service Officer here at the U.S. Department of State. Thank you for joining us. I will be your moderator for today's global innovation through science and technology, or just TechConnect conversation on bootstrapping your business, tips and tricks. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, bootstrapping, it's the process of cost-effectively building a business with limited funding while maximizing available resources such as your network. That's just a broad definition. We'll explore the concept further throughout this discussion. Remember, you can join the conversation by sending us your questions and comments through the chat space next to the video player or through Twitter at hashtag just TechConnect. Let me begin by welcoming our panel of experts. I am joined by Lisa K. Garcia, a consultant and instructor in business development for tech entrepreneurs. I am also joined by Helder Sebastio, innovation strategist and lean launch specialist. And joining us in the chat space to help answer your questions and share links to resources is Christina Tamar, a program officer at VentureWell, managing an investment readiness program. Thank you all for joining me today. As we wait for viewers to send us their questions, I'd like to kick off the discussion by asking you to explain the value and purpose of bootstrapping. Helder, let's start with you. Sure. Thank you, Lauren. So first thing I'd like to make a point about is that bootstrapping, it's a conscious strategic choice. It's about how you build, manage, and grow your business. It should not be your last option. In other words, you shouldn't default to bootstrapping because you couldn't raise funding because it's more than about money. It's really about managing control and managing your risk. You control your destiny and manage how you manage your business. And so it forces you to prove the business model. Bootstrapping is really about saving your resources until you're really ready to grow and build your business. And you don't want to waste time chasing funding. Bootstrapping is really about achieving the quickest path to revenue as opposed to a plan for funding. So that's what bootstrapping means to me. Thank you, Helder. Lisa, can you share your thoughts with us? Absolutely, Lauren. Thank you. Bootstrapping by its very nature and the things that Helder just outlined puts you closer to your customer. And by being closer to your customer and understanding that person or that entity's challenges and obstacles, you're going to better be able to focus your resources and develop a customer base and validate your hypothesis about your business model before you go out to others asking for money. I think that's one of the greatest benefits of bootstrapping. Thank you, Lisa. Still ahead? We'll ask our panel of experts to share the ways startups can do more with less when launching their venture. Now let's dig into the poll question we asked on social media and the days leading up to this program. We asked, what aspect of bootstrapping are you most interested in hearing about? You can see the results on the screen. The top answer was strategies for getting the most out of limited funding, followed by tips for maximizing your network as a resources, then bootstrapping versus angel VC investment. Helder and Lisa, what are your reactions to the poll? Lisa, perhaps we can start with you. Thank you, Lauren. I think the fact that people are interested in maximizing their network is key. Business is all about building those relationships and connections in an international setting, even more so today, right? So being able to maximize your network, making sure that this is a numbers game, absolutely. And people focus on the dollars and the numbers there, but focus on the number of people that you're connected to. Like it said in the video earlier, focus on making those connections through LinkedIn, having those conversations. You may have 100 conversations before you find the information that validates your hypothesis, before you get enough information to move to the next step. You need to have as many of those conversations and connections to leverage your network and build it out. Thank you. From my standpoint, I'm happy to see that getting the most out of your limited funding is at the top because that's really what bootstrapping is about. It's a discipline and it's a strategic mindset that, by the way, doesn't just end when you're done bootstrapping, when you've moved on to other funding. It's a discipline that will serve you well because it's profit oriented. It's revenue generating sales, revenue oriented. It's about running a tight and lean ship in terms of your business operations. So I'm happy to see that that's something that's at the top of people's minds because it really is a mindset that you don't just do at the beginning of a startup, but throughout the development and growth of your business. Now, we have a live poll question for our viewers. What component of your business would you apply bootstrapping principles to? Product development, networking, marketing, overhead costs, or staffing? Please answer the poll that should be on the screen now and we'll read your answers off later in the program. Now let's take some questions from our online viewers. Didi from Cote d'Ivoire asks, what is a good first step when looking to bootstrap a startup? I think the first step, and I'll take Lisa's lead here a little bit, is to really do an inventory of your resources and not just your financial resources, but your network resources. Who do I know who can help me in terms of building this business, moving this venture forward? Also, what is the bare minimum that I can use to launch this business? And there's an area of entrepreneurial thought and action where we talk about being means driven. So with the limited means that I have, how can I quickly get my first customer? So that should be sort of the first thing you're thinking about as you're bootstrapping. What do I have at my disposal right now? And how can I get to that first customer as quickly as possible? And Lisa, what do you think? Thank you, Helder. I think Helder's exactly right. And to be careful during that process that you don't cut corners at aspects of building your business that are important. So if there is a first step that you need to take, start scoping out the professionals that you might want to hire down the road, attorneys or accountants. Those people are going to be critical. You might even start those conversations with people that have already have the startup that you want to have or have the business you want to have. Have some prototype conversations. We talk about having prototypes to show people of your product or your service. Have a prototype conversation with somebody who's already living the life that you want to live in the entrepreneurial environment that you're in. Thank you. So the next question, Victor from Nigeria asks, what role does bootstrapping have in helping create small businesses that can help a country like Nigeria emerge from a recession? Lisa, I would be happy to take that. I had seen his question earlier there online and thinking about all of the pressures and the challenges that you have in your country. What you have and advantages that bootstrapping is about being pretty scrappy. It's about being tenacious and persevering. And in a culture that has inherently bred that kind of environment where you have to be persevering, you have to try again and again to accomplish things, you've got an incredible resource in the people there and the environment. People are going to work hard. So, I think the environment there presents an ideal, in some ways, an ideal environment for people to have the right expectations on what it takes to launch a startup. Thank you. And what I would add to that is, again, I think whether it's in Nigeria or other countries that have resource limitations, you're actually perfectly suited for bootstrapping. You're perfectly suited for being, you've learned to be creative, you've learned to stretch the resources that you have. So, that's actually an advantage. And also that if you are a network of bootstrapers that to, again, kind of leases theme about networking, you ought to be networking with other entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping as well and leveraging each other's assets to help strengthen the resources that you have available and build on the resources you have together as a community. And how there's a build on that, we have a question for you. Rain Zirinon asks if there are ways to use bootstrapping to scale small businesses. Absolutely. So, the idea here is that you're using your customers as your, once you get past friends and family, your own funding and what you can get from friends and family, really your next level of funding is your customer. And raising, and you're really raising money, you think of making sales as a way of, and profits as a way of raising funding for your business. So that's the first level of scaling. And once you have developed a track record and once you have a solid customer base, you can then start looking at other means of financing. Say a year or two down the road, if you're in a country where there's a reasonable banking system, you can look at potentially traditional, conventional bank financing. But really customers are where you build your initial cash flow from a bootstrapping standpoint. Thank you. Now our next question, we have a viewer who asks, how do crowdfunding sites figure into a bootstrapping model? Lisa, would you start us off? Absolutely. Crowdfunding sites have, present a wonderful opportunity for B to C type opportunity, something where the average person can relate to the need just last night. I was looking into some of the startups at a variety of the countries where folks are listening right now. In Nicaragua, there's a project going on where there's a cooperative helping coffee bean farmers skip several of the middlemen and roast the beans and deliver them direct to customers. This kind of idea and this innovation, typically there's 17 different entities that would touch a coffee bean before it gets to my house here in the United States. This cuts out a lot of that. That idea is put up on Kickstarter and it appeals to a lot of people in different countries to be able to help the farmer streamline the process, brings in a lot of different people to the table to fund it. That's where I think crowdfunding can be really leveraged. Yeah, I think there's, to me, there's two really strong advantages to crowdfunding. Number one is the customer is paying for their own product development, right? You're taking money upfront and then you will be delivering, if it's a reward-based crowdfunding program, which is where you actually give someone some product for having contributed to the campaign, that's the most common form of crowdfunding. But more important is these new customers, these first customers become your evangelists. They are people who are invested in your success and so you want to, you just built your network by adding, by opening up your company to these new customers via a crowdfunding campaign. That's great. Now, we have another question from the American Center in Tirana, Albania and they want to know how they can get the most out of in-kind donations or help. Again, part of it is looking at what's available and then also sort of matching that up against what you're looking for, but whatever free assistance that you can get, whether it's advice on how to sort of manage your finances or whatever you can get assistance from, sort of take advantage of that, whatever free resources are available, leverage to as best as you can. Thank you. And Lisa, what are some ideas of those free resources that people can leverage? Well, social media of course is a powerful tool. Going to people that are, again, already have had some success with entrepreneurial pursuits, online accelerators, there are a few of those. Make sure you go, you can do a quick Google search and find free tips and tools for starting a startup, but I would say social media is a place where you can leverage all sorts of, again, connections, resources, learning and find customers to spread the word and become those early evangelists like Helder mentioned. That's great. Now, the next question, Lisa, I'll turn it over to you, is if you have been tapping your personal networks for funding and support, when is it a good time to transition away from that towards more conventional financing? That's a great question. I would say that if you can to stretch it out as long as you can before you get venture capital and that kind of thing, because you're gonna maintain more control and ownership of your company, a way to do that would be to offer your development as a service to a company that has the problem that you're seeking to solve, give them a discount while you build the product. Again, you're closer to your customer and I would say if you could stretch that out farther before you go out and make that decision to reach out for outside funding, that's the best avenue. Maybe Helder can address this more fully. I think I'll reiterate something I said earlier. I think after your friends and family, it's really, if you're bootstrapping, it's customer financing. So whether that's through crowdfunding or whether that's through just direct sales, that would be the next avenue. And then once you've built a solid base of customers, you feel like you have a solid business model, that's when you can start looking for potential growth capital, whether that's investors or again, sort of conventional financing. But to me, the next level after that, after friends and family would be customer financing, some form of customer financing. Yeah, now that makes perfect sense. And you've talked a little bit throughout the program about networks. What kind of incentives makes sense to offer when tapping personal networks for support? I would love to answer this question and I'm not sure if Lisa and I are gonna agree or disagree, but this would be fine. I am of the opinion that friends and family should never be given a percentage of the business early on. And the reason I say this is because you don't know how valuable your company is at the beginning. You're bootstrapping, you are probably underestimating the eventual value of your company. So wherever possible, when friends or family are involved, first of all, if they give it as a gift, accept it, thank them, bless them for having their faith in you. That's why they're really investing with you early on. It's about you, not so much the idea that you have. If you want to compensate them, do it in the form of a loan because this gives you the flexibility to not lose any liquidity, not lose any ownership. And you have, this gives you control and greater options when you do try to go outside. If and when you do go outside to get outside investment. So I'm not a big fan of giving friends and family and ownership stake in the business. I certainly wish to compensate them appropriately. So that's my take on it. And Lisa, what's your take? Yeah, well, I absolutely agree with Helder. You want to keep that at bay as much as you possibly can. And you'd be surprised. There are a lot of reasons and a lot of types of recognition that you can give somebody an individual or a company that they'd be more than happy to have instead of a percentage of the equity in the company. I would say be creative. It may be bartering, it may be some sort of endorsement of that nature, but you want to maintain that control as long as you can because you don't know what you have at that point. And you want to make sure that when you find out that you're still owning as much of your company as you possibly can. Yeah, free product and services. That's a good way to go. Makes perfect sense. Now we've talked a little bit about networks, but how do incubators and accelerators figure into the bootstrapping model? Helder, can we go to you? Sure, I've been involved with both. And to me, the way I define, the way I delineate between an incubator and accelerator is an incubator is a relatively very early stage company that has some sense of where it's headed but needs some assistance in sort of building out its business model. An accelerator is a company that is already has a little bit of traction, has made some sales, has a sense of what its business model is and is looking to scale. So I would assume that for most of the audience here, they fall into the other category, which is relatively new companies. And so an incubator can be a great place. Someone talked about free resource, asked a question about free resources earlier. Incubators provide space. They provide, they can provide clerical assistance and support. Most importantly, incubators are a great place to get mentoring from professionals who volunteer their time. So in terms of from a bootstrapping standpoint, incubators are probably make more sense, but beware that some incubators, the way their business model is operated is they want to take a percentage of ownership in your company. So if that's not appealing to you, you'll have to look at other resources. Okay, and Lisa? Yeah, absolutely. I think that incubators and accelerators have their place and keep in mind that their business is in a sense too and they have challenges and obstacles that they need to overcome. So go have those conversations with the people running the incubators, running the business accelerators. Find out what their challenges are. What kinds of companies are they trying to bring in? What ways can you help them solve those problems? What kinds of things are they trying to fund? That's gonna help you leverage that opportunity to the best that you can. So make sure you understand their business model like Helder said, you wanna know what you're getting into. Typically you're gonna find a lot of resources there and if they're not there, those people are gonna be able to tell you where to go and who to talk to and they're more than happening most times to make warm introductions for you, which is gold. I mean, your gold is sitting in your customer database and your contacts. So if anybody there can help you reach out and find more contacts, you're gonna wanna do that as much as you possibly can. That's great advice. Thank you. Now for those of you just joining us, you're watching the JIS TechConnect conversation on bootstrapping your business. I'm joined by a panel of experts, Helder Sebastio and Lisa K. Garcia. We are taking live questions from viewers. You can submit your questions through the chat space next to this video or on Twitter using hashtag JIS TechConnect. For our viewers, remember to submit your response to our online poll. We will reveal the results later in the program. Now, Lisa, I have a question for you. What would you say are the top three benefits of bootstrapping your business? Well, thank you. I would say that the top three benefits are, you're able to answer the tough questions. When you bootstrapping, you're being able to know the business from the inside out. You're not paying somebody else to be involved from that start position. You know every aspect. And so when somebody comes in, a potential leader, customer or a potential investor, you can answer every question they have. And if you can't answer it, you know where to go. And again, we talked about this with a lot of the countries that are listening in today. You're gonna be scrappier and more resourceful being able to figure out where to go and how to do something because you already had, you had to learn it. You had to do it yourself. That's incredibly valuable, especially when you get to the point when you have enough money and enough sales where you can hire somebody to do that, you know what kind of person and what kind of skills they need to have. And I would say, lastly, that creative freedom, this gives you the opportunity to, as you learn your customer and what their challenges and obstacles are, you have the opportunity to pivot your business as you need to to adjust because, and you can do that quickly. When you have full creative freedom and control, you get to manage that and the speed with which you're agile and able to respond. Thank you, Lisa. Now we're gonna go back to some questions from our online participants. And Constance asks, can you use crowdfunding for a digital business as opposed to a real product? Helder, perhaps we can start with you. Sure. Yeah, the tricky part is the, if you're using a rewards-based crowdfunding platform, what are you sort of providing or giving away? But if you have a product that you have, that is a revenue where you are charging for that particular product, giving away access to that product or giving away access to sort of the premium level of that product is a very legitimate reward that you could use on crowdfunding. So the BNC viewing group in Nicaragua asks, what is the hardest thing about self-financing? Lisa, do you mind answering this question? Oh, that's a great question. Cool. I would say, let's be honest about it. It's all challenging. It's all difficult. And I'm gonna be the first one to tell you that I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, that it's difficult to not have enough resources. And I think probably the biggest challenge is gonna be mental. You can be your own worst enemy if you're constantly telling yourself, I can't do this because I don't have X. I don't have the enough money. I don't have enough connections. I don't have enough resources. You have to turn that on its head and make sure you have a full inventory and accounting of all the things you do have at your disposal and leverage those like crazy. That's what you have to do. I would just reinforce that point that I think the biggest challenge that bootstrapping entrepreneurs can be their own worst enemy because they focus on what they don't have, which is money and fail to really and underestimate what they do have, which is networks and resources and connections that they've developed over time. So I would agree. It's you're your own worst enemy in boots. That's your biggest challenge is yourself. You know, your own mindset as to how you approach bootstrapping. Now, we've talked quite a bit about what individuals can do, but the viewing group at Embassy Monrovia has a question about government. They want to know how can government policy support bootstrapping to promote small businesses? Heldar, would you like to start us off? Sure. And in the U.S., I've been involved with small business administration programs and several other government programs. So this speaks to my heart in terms of trying to develop ecosystems. I think part of it is governments can, the best job that governments can do is to try to remove barriers. So if there are barriers in the way of allowing people to work out of their home, for example, because that's a big bootstrapping tool is instead of leasing office space, you work out of your home. If there are barriers about, you know, onerous licensing requirements or things of that nature that prevent people from going ahead and launching their own business. Healthcare is an issue that's near and dear here in the United States and perhaps is an issue in other countries where employer-funded healthcare versus a program where people who are self-employed can find affordable and reasonable healthcare. So there are the ways that government can assist bootstrapping entrepreneurs is by reducing a lot of the barriers that make it hard for people to bootstrap, that make it hard for them to stretch the resources that they have. Thank you. Lisa, do you want to chime in? Yeah, absolutely. I think that if the attitude of the government can be that the small businesses and startups are economic drivers for the entire country, that can shape policy, much like what Helder shared as examples here in the United States. A startups and small companies in the United States are the biggest new job creators we have. So every, you know, I'm all in favor of anything we can do to support those groups and make sure that it's as easy as possible and financially possible for people to start a business. You want that environment to be as friendly as it possibly can be and support it financially as well if you can. If you don't want people working in their homes, provide some co-working space. Something of that nature can be super helpful and provide cooperative resources like Helder was talking about earlier. If several startups are in the same space, they could share resources and the government could fund that kind of thing too as well. Now we have a viewing group in Guatemala that asks, what are best practices to bootstrap the development of a profitable product? Helder, would you like to start us off at this time? Sure. Number one is do not, if you're developing a product, don't wait till it's perfect. The whole point of bootstrapping and the whole point of entrepreneurial thinking and acting as you put out a good enough product with the idea that you're one going to get feedback from customers that is going to improve the product, two, you're generating revenue, and three, these customers become your evangelists that help multiply your business. I think the other thing to keep in mind as you're developing a new product is to understand with each successive iteration of that product, where can we cut costs? Where can we improve efficiencies in how we produce and deliver that product? Thank you, Helder. And to build on that, Lisa, perhaps you can answer the next question. How can you maintain the bootstrapping philosophy as your startup scales? Absolutely. You want to make sure that you're, you're again, you're customer centric and that whatever you're doing is evidence-based. You want to make sure that you're building something people care about. So that bootstrapping mentality, make sure that you don't lose what the benefits are in the beginning of being close to your customers, of understanding what they want and getting that feedback. So, you know, I have been working with a very successful businessman who's had several businesses, very large companies. He makes it a point every single day to have a call with a potential customer to learn something different about his business. He never stops on that front. And you can't stop having that attitude that there's always somebody there who's ready to build a better product or service in your same space. So you've got to keep, you've got to keep abreast of what's important with your customers. Absolutely. What I would add to that is that you can take too much money too early. And so what a bootstrapping mindset, you only take money when you absolutely, positively need it to grow your business. Cause when you take money too early, you're taking it from someone who's expecting a certain trajectory and now you put yourself on that trajectory and it may fail. So bootstrapping is a great way to sort of keep yourself disciplined on how and where you plan to grow. Now we've talked about growth, we've talked about scaling your business, but perhaps we can take it back to the business plan. We have an online viewer, Sally Matacone from Cote d'Ivoire who wants to know about tips for developing a good business plan that incorporates bootstrapping. Lisa, would you start us off? Absolutely. I would say that it's important for you to have a big picture that you can look at that touches all aspects of that. Helder's familiar with this as well that the business model canvas which you can find online is a good way to look at your business in different aspects of it. And if you can answer questions about each part of the business model canvas, you'll be able to have a plan, a basic plan and know where you need to put resources and know where you need to build that out more. Helder, would you? Absolutely. Yeah, Lisa and I are of like mind on this. To me, a business plan in the traditional sense of what we think a business plan to be is writing science fiction because you're talking about something that hasn't happened yet. A business plan is a useful document once you understand to Lisa's point what your business model is and then are looking to scale and grow your business. I think in the early stages you really wanna use the business model canvas framework and the authors of that book are Oscar Walder and Pignur and it's called Business Model Generation. If you Google that, you'll easily find that book. I would use that framework as opposed to a traditional business plan to build my bootstrap business because built into that is placing small incremental bets on the development of your overall canvas. You're making assumptions about who the customer is and what the product is and what they wanna get out of that and you test it incrementally. And so once you've gone through that whole process and you've got a business model that is successful in the market, then you should be thinking about writing a business plan to grow and scale that particular business. Now you all both talked about resources. We have a viewer who asks what kind of non-university organizations could we go to to find more resources about entrepreneurship and bootstrapping? Do you all have additional suggestions? Helder and Lisa? Sure. Well, again, it depends on the nation but first are there networks of either formal or informal networks of entrepreneurs and probably the first place to start is online to see what kinds of groups are being formed, networking groups are formed online to share their experiences and challenges and starting a business. Then local business communities, are there local business associations or organizations? Are there international associations or organizations that you could tap into that are in your particular area whether it's software or other types of technology? So those are some of the places that come immediately to mind to me. Thank you. And Lisa? Yeah, he hit a lot of the high points that I would touch on. I'd say professional organizations, they often have a facet of their programming where they're trying to reach out and help mentor others in the field. Retirees, people that have already reached their goals and still have a lot to offer but they don't need to work as much full-time, they're willing to share their skill set. If you call the folks up and talk to them about the fact that they're experts and just wanna hear their story, you'd be amazed what kinds of things you can learn there. And again, Helder mentioned business associations, get, you know, do a Google search on the market that you're interested in and or the part, again, going back to the business model canvas, maybe you're looking for something that has to do with marketing which you know nothing about. There are lots of people online, virtual mentoring groups there that people that will help you there as well. So I would say that professional organizations, retirees, business associations, online groups, there are professional groups on LinkedIn, leverage those as well. There's just some great resources, thanks to you both. Now we have a few more online questions but we wanna remind our viewers to respond to the live poll on your screen. All right, so let's get back to the questions. An online viewer asks, when opening an online business, how should we prioritize investing available money to maximize bootstrapping? Lisa, do you mind answering that question? Sure, I would say make sure to spend money for an online organization on the things that you are not good at. I mean, security is gonna be a big issue for an online activity. Make sure that you hire the people you need to that you have that locked in really well and that you look professional. This is gonna, your whole branding and presence, first impressions matter when people see you online. So make sure that your website looks professional and that it's done well. The bottom line is you should be spending your money on acquiring customers and making sure when they're there, they have a great experience. Fantastic. Now we have another question and Helder, I'll turn this to you. The viewer would like to know how he or she can present the startup in front of potential investors to convince them to provide funding. Well, so it depends on when you're presenting. If you're presenting and in the spirit of today's topic on bootstrapping, if you have bootstrapped your business and you now have customers, you have a viable business model and you're going to talk about funding for growth, you focus on, first of all, that you bootstrapped. And by the way, that really resonates with investors. They respect the fact that you have built this from your own pocket. You had your own investment. You started with your own investment because they're tired of people coming to them asking for them for money to prove their business, someone asking an investor to prove their business versus having proofed it. So you prove your business and so you focus on growth potential in that kind of presentation. The other type of presentation to an investor if you haven't bootstrapped and you haven't proved your model is a much tougher conversation frankly because now you're dealing in hypotheticals of what you think the market potential is, why you think your particular idea is a great idea and you're going to get a lot of tough questions and you're going to have a, in my opinion, in my experience, you're going to have a harder time, you're going to spend more time talking to a lot more people than you will if you've already have a viable business model and you have built this business through Bootstrap. And actually, Helder, we have a question that's kind of related to that. Our online viewer, Didi, asked if it's possible to get early funding when you're still at the idea stage with your startup. You've kind of touched on that, but do you have any suggestions for Didi? It depends, you know, there are certain government and different kinds of programs that might be available in your country, your region that might support certain types of development where you might get grants or, you know, a small loan. But again, the intention there is to give, for those of you that saw the video loop before the program started, to give you seed capital, something to help you bridge you to the point where you can then develop your business model and go for more conventional growth financing. But initially, there's not a lot of investment for relatively small businesses that are looking for money to sort of figure out what they should be doing in terms of their business. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. We have a viewer, Ann Constance Bardu, who asks if there is any place in Bootstrapping for a free start offer. What this person means is, can you ever give your product away for free or do you always need your customers to pay for it? Lisa, would you address this question? Absolutely. I think there is a time and place to offer free versions. You see this all the time with software. In fact, some companies hit big growth spurts by going from a fully paid model to a freemium. MailChimp is one of those companies that had a product that was a great product. It was basically an e-newsletter company that was moving along, but it wasn't growing the way the founders wanted it to. So they created a version that was free, increased the user experience for a whole lot of people, got access, and then you pay for the next step up features and products. So you see that all the time with software. I think that's an instance where giving away something free to get people interested and familiar with the product and loyal as customers and to get feedback that you need and to know what people need in the product, that's a great way to move forward. So then, Helter, I'll turn this question over to you. We have the viewing group at Embassy Monrovia, and they want to know, does bootstrapping follow the user-centered design thinking of desirability, viability, and feasibility? Absolutely. And so does the process, that the lean launch process that Lisa was talking about, and we talk about the business model canvas, that's exactly what you're doing. The first round in your bootstrap startup is to figure out, do I have customer product fit? Is there a customer out there who has a pain, compelling pain, that they would buy something today if I had the right solution to pay for? And then the next step is, can I actually execute this? And what's it gonna take for me to execute this with the resources that I have available? And then finally, can I make money doing this? So it kind of ties to the prior question about do I give it away for free? And if I give it away for free, how do I make revenue down the line? So bootstrapping is very much hand in hand with this concept of placing small incremental bets to prove the desirability, feasibility, and viability of your business. Thank you, Helder. Now, Lisa, we have a question from an online viewer for you. This viewer asks, what type of business organizations do you suggest partnering with during the early startup phases? And you touched on this a little bit earlier, but if you could expand upon it a bit. Absolutely. I would say it's important to somebody earlier asked whether this would be outside the university setting. Yes, and do make use of those alumni networks. So go to folks, again, use LinkedIn to figure out who's connected to whom. If there's somebody that you want to meet, do everything you can to get a warm introduction. So if I wanted to meet Helder, for instance, we hadn't met before this chat, I would go online on LinkedIn and I'd see who he's connected to. He's connected to 15 people I know. I go to those folks and I say, hey, can you introduce me to Helder? One of those 15 is gonna say yes. So then you get that introduction and then Helder can tell you about professional groups in his field. He can tell you who's important, who are the influencers, who are the thought leaders, where do you want to be seen and where do you wanna be heard and where do you wanna listen most importantly? So you wanna be in the right spaces at the right times. He can tell you what conferences to go to. He's a subject matter expert in his field. So you wanna find those people who are thought leaders and they can direct you to some of the organizations, the professional groups, the... And there's one for every organization, right? There's safety organizations. There's professional groups for every little niche and there's just literally tens of thousands of them. So it's a gold mine out there to be mine. You just have to get in touch with the right people who are already connected to those groups. Yeah, and I would just add that Lisa makes a great point here that regardless of where you are in the world, you are not geographically limited by tapping into expertise due to platforms like LinkedIn. And if you have more Facebook contacts, then you have LinkedIn contacts. I suggest it's time to start focusing on LinkedIn a little bit more. That's really great advice. That's a good point. Yeah, absolutely. We have a viewing group in Guatemala that asks, what are bootstrapping strategies for customer retention? Heldar, do you mind starting us off? Sure. Well, I think the biggest customer retention strategy early on is to make sure that once you sell your first generation of your product or service to this customer, you do not wait for them to tell you whether or not they're going to be a repeat customer. You do not wait for them to tell you whether or not they were happy with the product. You proactively engage that customer. You make them feel like they're part of your team, that their feedback and their input is incredibly important to developing the process. Because these people, again, these first customers become your ambassadors. You can't afford a full-fledged sales force. So use your first customers as your sales force. And in order to do that, you've got to make sure they're incredibly happy and they feel invested in your success because you are investing in their success. So how can you encourage them after you reach out to them to ask them to support your product or your business? It should come somewhat organically, but again, you know, step one is soliciting feedback. Step two, you might want to offer some incentive. So, you know, if you have something that could be a subscription-based service, you offer someone an incredibly good deal. They've had a taste of the product that kind of leads to an earlier question about free and freemium. One of the responses that Lisa gave. So is there a way for you to incent someone to continue to do business with you? So part of it is just reaching out and acknowledging this first customer is really important. These first customers are very important. The other is then you can provide some sort of incentive to continue them because you need cash flow early on, especially when you're bootstrapping. So if you can convert someone from a one-time purchase to more of a regular repeat purchase, that benefits your bottom line in terms of continually bringing a stream of cash into your business. Right. So now we have a question for Lisa. The viewing group at Embassy of Monrovia wants to know how can a bootstrapping entrepreneur increase productivity in a low-income environment? Really good question. This is a good question. I would say that this kind of a setting is going to develop, you're gonna develop habits and discipline based on your limited resources. So you're gonna become more productive as you learn to do something. You're not gonna waste time because you know time is your most valuable resource and you're not gonna accept that from the people around you. So your productivity is gonna be directly in alignment with the nature and the attitude that you're growing in your business. And I would say having an authentic curiosity about and trying to find out from your customers, trying to learn things you don't wanna hear, trying to find out what those pain points are so that you can tackle that right away, that's gonna increase your productivity and do that within your organization as well. That's gonna help. Thank you. Now the Binational Center in Nicaragua asks, what type of financing is required to open a business focused on services and not on a specific product? Helder, do you mind starting us off? Yes, I think it depends on the service. It depends on the complexity of the service, but to me, product or service, bootstrapping is still where you start, friends and family, and then moving on to customers and then moving on to growth. There's not sort of a separate sort of category for services financing, but again, depends on in your particular area where those opportunities are in terms of financing sources, but there's no sort of specific bucket for services. Understood, thank you. Now let's check out the results of the poll question we shared with you earlier. We asked, what component of your business would you apply bootstrapping principles to? You can see the results on the screen. Helder and Lisa, what are your reactions to the poll? My question is, why didn't we have an all of the above? Yeah. Because, yeah, I'm surprised to see zero on product development and marketing. I'll speak to product development and Lisa, I think you speak to the marketing part. You can apply bootstrapping to everything. Now, you don't wanna cut corners in product development, but it's how you think about product development. If you think I'm not going to release my product until everything is perfect, that's the wrong use of bootstrapping principles. So I'm gonna keep as much money as possible for product development. If you should be using the bootstrapping mindset and saying, I'm gonna play small incremental bets in my product development till I get the product right. So I still think bootstrapping applies in that context. And I'll turn it over to Lisa about marketing. Yeah, absolutely. I think that bootstrapping is, as we said earlier, an attitude and you're building a mental model, right? So this all feeds into everything you do, the way you look at it and the way you look at your resources. Again, you don't wanna cut corners where it's gonna hurt your business in the long run, but you do wanna be able to have the right attitude that you can streamline your efforts and that there are things that you can do with very limited resources. If you guys are entrepreneurs, you're about making opportunities and taking advantage of chaos. So know that you can do that and you're gonna be able to succeed. Excellent advice, thank you. Now, it looks like we have time for a few more questions from our viewing audience. Again, NBC Monrovia Liberia asks, what are the major disadvantages of bootstrapping? Lisa, would you mind starting us off? Maybe I'm not the best person to answer this because I love bootstrapping. This is my favorite area to work with technologists and industry people. But I guess the major disadvantages to bootstrapping is I mean, you're not gonna be able to undercut an enormous multi-billion dollar corporation necessarily and having the resources to file enough patents to protect your intellectual property. That might be something that's difficult in a bootstrapping situation. Helder, what would you say? I would say two things. One is you will grow more slowly. So if you're going to choose bootstrapping to understand that you're in for the longer duration than the typical company that goes for funding and is spun out in five to 10 years. So bootstrapping is a long-term play. And if you're not interested or willing to wait that long and you're not really trying to build a legacy for your company, your family, your community or your country, then maybe bootstrapping may not be the right approach for you. The other is there is a limitation in the kinds of businesses. If you're in a business that's very extremely capital-intensive, for example, biotechnology, you almost have to at some point, very early on, go for outside funding just because of the magnitude of the dollars that are involved and the length of time it takes to take a product to market. So if you find yourself in that kind of market environment, then bootstrapping may not work for you. Good to know. Now, we have a question from Angel Lopez from Venezuela who asks, can you recommend strategies or ideas for bootstrapping in a volatile economic environment? Liso, would you address this question, please? Wow, that's, as I sit here in the United States with the many advantages we have here in some of the government programs that held or referenced, which I've worked with several companies that have taken advantage of those, it's very difficult for me to answer this question. I don't understand, and I'm not an expert in the particular challenges you have in that country. I imagine that if I were in that situation, what I would like to do is to reach out to more stable environments and see if those resources can be infused into the environment where I was today. So that's potentially a possibility. It does, it's an advantage for another country like ours to help surrounding countries to make sure that they're economically stable. So I think there are some pipelines for resources and funding and expertise from our country to others around the world. And I think the rules of thumb that are particularly acute in a situation such as the person who posed the question is living and working in, is that you really have to rely on your creativity in terms of bartering, borrowing and seeing what you can get for free. So in these kinds of environments, you see a very strong, for lack of a better term, black market and people will barter, because at least that's something they control and they can control how much of a particular service they will provide in exchange for someone else providing a product or a service. So I would rely, I'd get very creative and I'd have to rely on my skills in terms of bartering, borrowing whenever I can, free space, here in the US, people will use, if they're developing a food product, they'll borrow a kitchen from two in the morning until a five in the morning when the kitchen is not operating during regular business hours and use that time to make their own product. So you just have to get extremely creative regardless of where you are, but when you're in a situation like the questioner's situation, you just have to really become extremely good at the bartering and borrowing kind of approach. Yes, that's excellent advice. Thank you both. We talked, we touched on marketing a little bit earlier, but what are the best ways to market your venture that costs little or no money? I'd like to address that. I think if you can get people interested, get your product or service in front of the people that are referred to as thought leaders or experts in the field, and if they like it, you're golden. They can share that information, that technology or product with others who were influencers and who can be on the leading edge. And if you can get them to be early adopters to tout your product on social media so you get news, columns written, any of those types of things, those are all free. And or if you can be seen or somebody at your company can be seen as a subject matter expert, then the opportunity to present about your technology at a conference or to others, industry people or professional organizations, that's a great way to get free marketing. Fantastic. We have finally reached our final question. It's from a viewer who asks, what are some ways to navigate existing debt while bootstrapping a business? Helder, would you respond to this question, please? Absolutely. Negotiate, I guess, is the first thing. Try to work down that debt. And I guess it depends on the severity of the debt. If you have so much debt that you really don't have any resources that you can apply to your venture, it's gonna be difficult. And then you have to be looking at friends and family either to help get you out of the debt that you're in or to help fund the venture that you hope to pursue. So even if you didn't bootstrap, you would be a difficult risk. You'd be a bit of a risk depending again on the amount of debt you already have if you went and looked for conventional financing. So you have to think of yourself as a banker or an investor. Would you invest in someone who's got as much debt as I have? And how can I restructure or get out of this debt? And maybe translate some of that debt into a stake in the company. I don't know, but that's a good question. But it's ultimately about sort of cleaning up your personal balance sheet before you move on to your business. That was a good question and a good response. Thank you, Helder. Now it looks like we're almost out of time, but before we conclude, I would like to ask each of our panelists, what would you say is the most important takeaway for our viewers? Lisa, could we start with you, please? Absolutely. I think the most important takeaway from today is that you have more resources than maybe you thought when you started today. And keep that kind of mindset. Feel richer and more connected today than you did when you started, because you are. Just look around you, the people in the room, go online if you're watching from home or your office and look at your networks and start really looking at those places and those people as resources or connections to money, information, expertise. You have a lot of resources. You just have to go out and ask people to help and it's really gonna be, it's gonna work. You're gonna be able to do this. Fantastic, Helder. Don't embrace bootstrapping as a last resort. Embrace bootstrapping as a strategic choice about how you're going to build, manage, and grow your business. It gives you control. When you seek outside funding, you seed control of your business. You seed control of the future of your business. You seed control of how your business is going to grow. Also, bootstrapping is about risk management. You are your own venture capitalist, even though it's a very small amount of money you're working with, because you're placing like a venture capitalist does, you're placing small bets along the way and increasing your chances of success because of it. Thank you both. Thanks so much for joining us today and a special thanks to everyone viewing today, especially to the hosts of the viewing groups around the globe for maximizing and mobilizing your entrepreneurial communities. We had audiences at the American Corner, Tirana, Albania, American Spaces, CCNN, Managua, Nicaragua, IHCI, and Tegucigalpa, Honduras, IGA, Guatemala City, Mark Twain Library in San Jose, Costa Rica, Colombo Americano in Medellín, Colombia, U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Embassy, Monrovia, Liberia, Youth Network for Reform, American Center in Winhoek, Namibia, American Center Abijan, Cote d'Ivoire, American Corner, Yamosucro, Cote d'Ivoire, GIST's I-Hubs at El Spaz in Tunisia, Oasis 500 in Jordan, and UTEC Ventures in Peru. Before we end, I would like to tell you about the GIST's Tech Eye Competition, an annual competition for science and tech entrepreneurs from around the world. Aspiring innovators have submitted their ideas and you get to decide who will move on to the Tech Eye Finals at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul. Make sure to go to gistnetwork.org to vote for your favorite semifinalists. You can vote once per day, so check back often. Please continue to send in questions in the chat and on Twitter at hashtag gisttechconnect as our panelists will stick around for a few more minutes to answer those questions. I hope you enjoyed our discussion today and thanks again for joining us. Goodbye.