robenkleene
08/18/2020, 4:22 PMUnfortunately innovation has become more about your access to capital such that you can go buy the future versus the grit and creativity of bootstrapping something really exceptional.To support this statement from my own observations, I recently wrote about how OS X was an incredible hotbed of innovation in the early 2000s (https://blog.robenkleene.com/2020/06/26/remembering-the-oreilly-mac-os-x-innovators-contest/). There are a few examples there, another one that I didn't highlight but should have is VoodooPad (https://www.voodoopad.com/) which was the first implementation (that I'm aware of) of using a wiki for personal information management. A concept that is finally seemingly reaching a wider audience these days with Roam Research. Contrast these products, which introduced innovative concepts, and were (as far as I know) entirely bootstrapped, and generally were released, and became profitable after 1-2 years of development. Versus what I would consider an innovative product today: Something like Figma and Notion, which were founded in 2012 and 2013 respectively, each spent ~5 years before really having their breakout moments, and have raised over $200m combined. So is innovation primarily being primarily driven by access to capital today? If so, what's changed since the 2000s? And if not, what are some examples of success stories today where smaller, bootstrapped companies are releasing innovative products?
Jack Rusher
08/18/2020, 8:01 PMrobenkleene
08/18/2020, 10:26 PMyoshiki
08/19/2020, 4:32 AMrobenkleene
08/19/2020, 9:48 AMKonrad Hinsen
08/19/2020, 12:35 PMyoshiki
08/21/2020, 2:10 AMKonrad Hinsen
08/21/2020, 7:44 AMyoshiki
08/21/2020, 8:49 AM