on paper

Bootstrapping, seedstrapping, venture-backed…it’s all about what kind of company you’re aiming to become, not how much money you could use.

I’m talking to more companies building niche tools like family assistants or vertical AI for long-tail industries. The beauty of the build getting cheaper is that ideas that weren’t fundable before are fundable now. The question is to what extent?

“Venture scale” moved up while cost structure moved down. Decacorns aren’t rare anymore, and they’re the ones taking up all the mindshare. That’s where growth expectations and valuation multiples are set, everything flows downstream from there. VCs are raising larger and larger funds, so to “return the fund” and then some, they often need to be underwriting $5–10B+ potential outcomes now, not $1B.

So do the math before you chase that next round. After all, owning 100% of a $250M business beats owning 10% of a $2B one. And every round costs you 20–30% of the company, between investor dilution and the employee pool refresh.

If you don’t see a real path to $5–10B, or well over $100M in revenue, the leaner path (bootstrapping or “seedstrapping”) isn’t a consolation prize. It’s the better trade.

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Hi! I'm Monica, a former venture investor turned operator. Currently advising, investing, and writing On Paper about what building companies looks like from both sides of the table.