“Any plans to raise funds?” is a question I get a lot. Here are a few of the reasons why we intend to stay bootstrapped.

Conventional wisdom says you start building an MVP, maybe acquire a few customers and raise funds. If you go to events, most stories start with a variant of this. But there’s a catch here.

Building a SAAS generating $30k MRR is hard but doable. It’s enough to have a great lifestyle for a team of 3. You can work remotely, host company retreats in amazing places and keep full control.

Raise funds, and you’re losing this freedom. Investors will rightly ask for a decent exit, and a team of 3 won’t allow this. So you’ll try to grow to a team of at least 20 to increase the value of your company. Of course, a profitable 3 person team will often break when you try to scale it.

It all boils down to what is enough to make you happy. A 30k MRR company can provide an amazing lifestyle. If it is enough to make you happy, you’re highly increasing your odds of success. But if a 100 person company is what you need, then hopefully you’ll enjoy the trip, as you most likely won’t get there.

A company needs to reach a certain bar to ensure the happiness of its founders. But this bar is often a lot lower than we think. Let’s avoid falling for the hedonic treadmill.