Bootstrapping vs Venture Capital: How Founders Should Decide

When Intuit closed its purchase of Mailchimp on November 1, 2021, it paid about $5.7 billion in cash and $6.3 billion in stock. None of it went to venture capitalists, because Mailchimp, co-founded by Ben Chestnut, had never taken outside investment in 20 years. TechCrunch called it confirmation that “you can build decacorns” without venture money, a landmark moment in the long bootstrapping vs venture capital debate. Now think about Shopify. Tobi Lütke’s Ottawa company was already profitable when it raised a $7 million Series A from Bessemer Venture Partners in December 2010. It went on to raise more, went…