I bootstrapped my company over the last ten years. It is now about a 50 person company. For the first five years it was essentially me and I didn’t pay myself anything. Over the last 10 years I paid myself $50k on average.
I just closed my first round ever ($3.6m) raised from our clients. We ended up being over subscribed by a couple of million dollars ($5.25M). My company is now worth over $30M+ and I own 66%+ of it.
This is the biggest accomplishment of my life and I don’t have anyone to celebrate it with. Even talking about it makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable. It just feels like bragging but I also want to celebrate and if I am being honest probably be celebrated.
No one I know is a business owner.
I just don’t know how to relate to other people about things like this.
Posted by sbrownell400
10 Comments
hey man, entrepreneurship is a lonely journey. the more successful you are, the lonelier it feels because most people can’t relate.
congrats on the amazing achievement! i’m bootstrapped as well with a team of 9 atm.
What industry are you in?
Congrats. That’s amazing.
And, yes. It’s a lonely and unthankful job and will get worse if you not proactively do something about it. Especially as bigger it gets.
I’ve always felt that five years is the point where you really master the basics of the operation and you’ve been able to tweak it to a point of basic perfection. And that next five years you could really do some earning.
You’ve done amazingly well for yourself and you should feel very proud. However, I feel like you’re correlating your success and the fact that your lonely too closely together when in fact they may not be related. How are you as a person? Are you pleasant to be around, a good listener, empathetic…a good friend?? Do you place yourself out there socially? These are things you need to consider. Being successful doesn’t automatically mean people have to be friends with you, especially if you suck to be around. Good luck!
Hey man. Congratulations. Take a moment because you have earnt this position you are in. If you don’t mind where are you based and what do you do? The reason I ask is there are groups of entrepreneurs that can help with the loneliness part, but it depends what you are looking for.
First start paying yourself a good salary. I made your mistake too and I regret it. Companies can fold faster than you expect.
Make a plan, execute on it and get better with every iteration. Just like you did with your company.
Find genuine friends far away from your company/industry. Don’t tell people about your background so you not falling for gold digger and get even more disappointed. (Common)
I found joining certain sport groups (surfing, kite boarding, triathlon, fill in extrem sport) that cater to type A people a good ground to make serious friends even if you not that sporty. If you a workaholic you likely also have dopamine management challenge and will need things that are thrilling to be engaging.
Sounds like you need to join something like Hampton or a close networking group for successful business owners.
https://joinhampton.com/
https://dynamitecircle.com/
https://www.score.org/
https://www.vistage.com/
Side question:
How did you support yourself when you paid yourself nothing the first 5 years?
This is why it’s important to connect with other entrepreneurs. “Regular people” don’t get it. And because they don’t get it we can come off as bragging or full of ourselves. But when with others that think and act like us it’s not seen as bragging, it’s at worst viewed as a strategy session. I love hearing my peers successes. We often hold friendly competitions to see who can hit a certain goal first (winner gets to pay for lunch when we meet next and gets to “brag” about winning).
Fucking incredible. Well done. Takes a ton of courage to do that for that long. Inspiring stuff
That’s amazing! Congratulations you are now a millionaire. Enjoy your life! Do you plan to retire now or what? What’s next?