Rise of entrepreneurs with (small) big ideas

Bootstrapper miniconferences signal an increase in cost-conscious and pragmatic dreamers

Virtual goods are the new monetization panacea for venture-backed companies. That's old news. But a less-hyped, side effect of both the virtual goods and micropayment waves is the increased potential for bootstrapped companies.

If you can slap together an app in your pajamas, why worry about a W2?

Former CIA Chief James Woolsey said in a talk at the World Economic Forum in Davos a while back that the world labor force is moving towards a contracted-worker model where labor is highly flexible and less tied than ever to a single corporation.

Since companies need to be more flexible to respond quickly to increasingly rapid changes in markets, it makes sense for workers to specialize in a skill, market themselves and use new technologies to match up with different clients at different times, or sell virtual goods directly in the consumer market. In short, continued specialization and new media is destroying the bonds that bind workers to corporations. One consequence of this is a proliferation of small businesses.

You know a prediction has become a trend when it gets a conference. On Thursday, Ultra Light Startups is hosting a panel discussion on how startups should finance their ideas. A number of VCs will be on hand to discuss when their investment should and should not be pursued. Mark Davis of DFJ Gotham Ventures, one of the featured panelists, is not shy about discouraging VC financing. "There are financing structures for companies that have small potential and structures for companies that have big potential,” he says. “There is not a one-size fits all strategy for capitalizing a company."

The group is a year and a half old and now holds monthly meetings where early-stage entrepreneurs practice pitching eachother. Besides a panel of VCs and consultants convened by founder Graham Lawlor, only bootstrapping entrepreneurs are allowed, in order to maintain an atmosphere of trust.

As America’s economic pre-eminence is called into question, a shift to our strategic advantage—entrepreneurial chutzpah—makes sense. Now that a growing portion of technology companies can be financed independently or with small angel funding, it’s up to those quadrants of laid-off tech workers to dust off their boots and throw together a biz plan.

image credit: blog.guykawasaki.com