Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Equity funding is just one source of funding for your startup. There are many others such as bootstrapping and barter.

Bootstrapping is using your own funds and that of initial customers to launch your business. 

Investors find this a great test to see how much skin in the game you are bringing to it in addition to sweat equity.

If you can find prospective customers who will prepay at least some part of the price, then it demonstrates market validation.

When you spend your own money you’ll find you spend less of it. 

Also, barter is a useful tool to reduce cash expenditures.  

Consider providing your services to businesses that can provide you with something you need in return for services such as bookkeeping, accounting, legal, and financial work.

For investors, this demonstrates resourcefulness and ability to negotiate.

When you barter you’ll find yourself negotiating the price you pay for non-barter goods and services. 

Bootstrapping and bartering build skills that will help you throughout the life of your business as you’ll start with a lower cost basis, spend more carefully, and negotiate better throughout.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let’s go startup something today.
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Disclaimer:
Hall T Martin is the director of Investor Connect, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the education of investors for early-stage funding. All opinions expressed by Hall and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Investor Connect. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for the basis of investment decisions.