When talking about the new benchmarks for growth, I joked that I had heard early stage companies that expect to raise VC now have to grow from 1-10M of revenue in a year to be interesting.

“More like 1 to 15” they said, without flinching.

Growing that fast doesn't just require supernatural growth, it takes something supranatural, a term I had to look up in Webster’s dictionary meaning: “phenomena, powers, or beings that transcend or exist outside the ordinary laws of nature”.

An exceptionally small number of companies will grow that fast. Sure they do exist, but my bet is that as the new benchmarks set in and VCs realize they increasingly must pursue ridiculously massive outcomes, the number of truly venture-backable businesses will dwindle.

If anything, the 1-15 mandate solidifies a long unspoken truth: very few businesses are good fits for venture. In my view, that’s something we should celebrate.

The upside? There are going to be more companies than ever that won’t fit the VC model. They’ll be the companies growing 2-3x a year, built in niches by founders who care more about their actual products, customers, and communities versus some headline valuation.

At Seeking Solutions Collective, these are the types of founders we are building for. Instead of thinking “How big of a business can I build?” and finding ways to ride each hype cycle, they are asking “How can I solve a real problem that I genuinely care about in a way that feels meaningful?”

If the latter sounds like you or someone you know, please reach out (info@getssc.com) or comment below.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this chat with Michael because it became clear from the outset that he built his business like an artist, not some quant or data scientist.

Michael and I both come from the world of VC where faster growth, bigger and better numbers are usually how folks measure success.

After bootstrapping for more than a decade, I was surprised to hear that his guiding mantra has nothing to do with ARR or growth rates.

“Business is an instantiation of your energy” he says. So what should we do with our limited time on earth?

Follow your energy.

A full recording and transcript of this talk is available for SSC Members.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Buckle up for the long haul. Entrepreneurship is hard, so work on things you care about and with great people. Michael suggests being ready to fail for up to 3 years before getting it right.

2. Product Market Fit is more than just a number. Yes NPS scores matter, but time and time again Michael came back to the same heuristic he used to asses consumers interest in Skylight’s first product (frames) and second (Calendar): Do people’s eyes light up when you describe your product?

3. Not everything needs equity capital. By designing Skylights main products to be simple, Michael avoided the need for outside capital to fund expensive engineering salaries. Similarly, he found credit providers for working capital needs, thereby avoiding giving up equity.

4. Follow you energy. Michaels biggest message is that entrepreneurship is not a act of business. It is a spiritual and energetic act. Being bootstrapped allowed Michael the freedom to pursue things that gave him and his team energy. Examples include doubling down on the calendar business even when conventional investors would likely killed it. The conviction to do this came from conversations Michael had with a subset of customers. Ultimately, it was following the energy that steered them to the business they are today.

In this chat, Rob shared his story of bootstrapping his enterprise software Sheltera, growing the deal size from a mere $100 to $60K (!) today all while keeping a sales cycle under 6 months.

How’d he do it? By simplifying his product, rapidly experimenting, cutting costs. Oh and, and last but not least, treating his end customers like human beings. Turns out b2b buyers have feelings too.

Probably my favorite of this talk though was at the end. When I asked Rob what he wants more of, he had a clear answer: community.

As the founder of Seeking Solutions Collective, that moment gave me a jolt of energy. I can’t wait to bust more myths, share our stories, and have a few great laughs along the way.

A full recording and transcript of this talk is available for SSC Members.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Simple isn’t always bad: Robert started off building something super complicated but no one bought it. His breakthrough? switching to vegetation management product was far simpler to build, but crucially even simpler to sell.

2. Get paid first, build second: Robert’s first customer paid him a mere $100. That was enough though, to prove that someone was willing to pay. Chasing a larger existing budget, the deal sizes quickly ballooned, from $1500 to $10K and now $60K ACV.

3. Bootstrapper advantage: Not having money meant Sheltera’s tech was built for a fraction of the cost and delivery at a higher speed than VC backed competitors. Lean into what you can do well.

4. Enterprise buyers are human: Buying decisions are not just financial, they are emotional. Robert used humility to appeal to a buyer that was historically disrespected, and customization to appeal to their bespoke needs versus traditional package offerings.

5. Run parallel Experiments: Robert figured he had two key experiments to test: Could he shorten sales cycle to under 6 months? And Could he raise the 10x price point. He ran these sequentially but now is now testing “8 new revenue streams in parallel”.

6. It’s all about cutting costs: It’s easy to make money, but it’s had to keep it. Getting to breakeven was about obsessively cutting costs. For bootstrappers, this is easily almost as important as growing revenue!

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Thank you Dhruva for inspiring us!

A full recording and transcript of this talk is available for SSC Members.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹: Dhruva thinks about hiring the same way a salesperson thinks about pipeline. Last year, 16,000 applications led to just 50 hires. At Lumiere, they think about channels, working backwards to figure out target hires.

2. 𝗛𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: Lumiere has almost never hired someone with prior experience in the specific role. They hire smart, hardworking generalists — typically in their first or second job — and trust them to learn on the job.

3. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆: Everyone is in a hybrid role today, so building trust online is more important than ever. Dhruva’s approach: multiple interviews, references, and interestingly: live role play to test candidates ability to think on their feet.

4. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗙𝗧𝗪: Bringing people on for smaller projects is a great way to derisk new hires. People can use AI to game an interview, but once they are on the job, it’s much easier to asses them.

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So why do it?

Because there is some energy you get when you see a customer’s eyes light up. I’ve had glimpses of this with SSC. At some of our recent events, I’ve felt an energy boiling up inside me when founders meet and realize they aren’t the only ones trying to do this.

There’s still a lot to figure out with SSC but one thing I know for sure: there is a growing need for a community for founders building on their own terms. I plan to build SSC into just that, because, well, that’s what gives me energy!

Dhruv, Seeking Solutions Collective

Scaling Software Organically with Marie Martens (Tally)

On Thursday, May 7th, we’re chatting with Marie Martens, Co-founder of Tally.so.

One of the things I love most about Tally’s story is how obsessed Marie and her team are about building a genuinely delightful product.

They even decided this year to forgo any revenue targets to focus on product quality. This is something no VC-backed company could ever do.

The result? They actually ended up growing more, hitting $5M ARR just a few months ago.

Scaling Software Organically 5/7

Hire Like a Champ with Dhruva Bhat (Lumiere Education)

Last month, we were lucky to chat with Dhruva Bhat (SSC’26) about his story building a team of over 100 FTE with Lumiere Education. From a mere 12 students in their first program 6 years ago, to over 10,000 today, his remarkable story is proof that bootstrapping isn’t a cap on ambition. Dhruva shared his team's playbook for successfully hiring over 100 employees. Thank you Dhruva!

Dhruva's Hiring Playbook

Full transcripts, takeaways and video links for all SSC events are exclusively available to SSC members.

Hi there 👋, my name is Dhruv and I run Seeking Solutions Collective (SSC), a private community for founders building on their own terms. Prior to SSC, I spent several years in the world of venture at Bessemer Venture Partners, first in New York and then opening up their London office. In 2022, after becoming disenfranchised with the boom and bust cycle of venture, I left VC and set out to bootstrap my own business. Along the way, I sought like-minded founders looking to build on their own terms, so I started writing about my journey on this substack and voila.. SSC was born!

Today, I'm focused on building SSC into a worldwide community for founders building on their own terms. Join SSC below. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

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Hold on a second.

Steve Jobs once said the biggest element of building a business is the huge amount of craftsmanship involved. I still think there’s a lot of truth to that.

I’m not saying there is no place for automation. If you’re scaling and doing hundreds or thousands of customer calls, by all means automate away. But if you’re just getting started, here’s an idea: forget automation mode. Instead, try craftsman/craftswoman mode.

Craftsman mode could look like individually spending unreasonable amounts of time with your first 10 or 50 customers. Building bespoke products for each one of them, or trying to develop a sales channel that doesn’t look like it could scale.

I’m using this approach for Seeking Solutions Collective. Yes at times it’s a slog, but each time I get to meet a founder, I get to hear their story, understand their goals, and find a way to empower them with white glove service all along the way.

Heck, I recently got on a 8 hour flight to California just to meet with just 3 of our SF based founders! Is that scalable, repeatable or efficient? Not really. Was it worth it? Absolutely, especially because it made me realize what I enjoy the most about SSC is the energy I get from meeting smart founders in person.

Automation is an exciting trend, especially for entrepreneurs building on a lean budget. For now though, I’m excited to lean into a more artisanal style of building. For now, I’m leaning into craftsman mode.

SSC London Meetup Tuesday March 3rd

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Founder Type 1: Build a landing page with the words “AI” in it, raise as much as fast as possible, rip paid marketing to inflate growth. Pray to god you can cash out on secondaries before the bubble bursts.

Founder Type 2: Build a product you love for a problem you had yourself. Try to get paying customers without raising money. Stay incredibly lean (often solo for a while). Focus on organic growth strategies that compound over time. Reinvest proceeds and build the sustainable business of your dreams.

Sure this divide has always existed, so what’s new in 2026? Unlike previous years, founder 2 types are getting just as much if not more attention than founder 1 types.

A great example of this is Maor Shlomo, founder of Base44.

Maor was a founder 1 type, previously raising hundreds of millions for his tech company Explorium. In an interview, he literally says the thing he cared about most with Explorium was “raising as much as possible”-> textbook Founder 1 type behavior.

Then, he quit, took some time off and one day decided to build Base44, an app-builder, for his girlfriend. This time, though, he decided to do things differently. From the outset, he said he would “not try to build the biggest thing”, instead, he wanted to just build something he would really enjoy using.

The results? In just 6 months, he sold Base44 to Wix for $80M, doing it solo and completely bootstrapped!

Maor’s story is fascinating because you can see his journey from founder 1 mode to founder 2 mode.

With Base44, he built something he genuinely cared about, found paying users upfront, and utilized scrappy tricks like building in public to grow for free. Best of all? He likely pocketed more from this exit than most VC backed founders typically will ever earn.

I probably need a better terminology for founder 1 vs founder 2 and I recognize that Maor’s success is extreme... but it’s a valuable example of a vibe shift that’s happening fast.

I’m increasingly convinced there are tons of founder 2 types out there (I’ve been meeting many through SSC!) If you or someone you know fits the founder 2 type mold, please leave a comment or reach out to me at (info@getssc.com). I’d love to chat!

Thanks to Alex for sharing Base44’s story with me.

Lenny's Podcast Interview: Maor Shlomo

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While being a bootstrapped founder has given me the freedom to grow at my own pace, it’s also been incredibly lonely.

With no board, co-founders, or investors, who could I talk to about new marketing strategies? Or how to invest in new products or assess my businesses growth rates?

Should I talk to my partner? My parents? My friends working normal day jobs??

The truth is, I needed other sharp, talented builders who shared my values. Folks who wanted to build sustainable businesses without falling prey to the latest hype cycles.

Last year, I set up Seeking Solutions Collective (SSC) to do just that.

Today, SSC is an eclectic mix of founders from all backgrounds, including those who’ve built VC businesses and even some former VC’s as well. While we all live in different cities, including SF, Austin, Atlanta, NYC and London, and we’re all at different stages, some are doing millions in revenue, and a few who are just getting started, we do have two things in common.

We’re all interested in building on our own terms and everyone is down to help each other.

I’m excited to kick off 2026 with SSC meetups in San Francisco (January 13th) and New York City (January 15th).

SSC SF-Bay Area Meet Up 1/13

SSC NYC Meet Up 1/15

These meetups will be an informal chance to hang out and meet other founders interested in building on their own terms. They are open meet ups, all are welcome, please feel free to share these links with friends.

Looking forward to meeting many of you in person and kicking off 2026, a year of building together, not alone!

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Having the right idols is just as important as having the right tech stack or pricing model. And, as we continue to build out Seeking Solutions Collective (SSC), I’m starting to come across examples of companies that have scaled bigger than ever on their own terms.

On the consumer side, companies like Letterboxd have inspired me with their focus on a niche and community-driven organic growth. The fact that they bootstrapped to a $50M exit is even more impressive.

On the B2B side, Tally.so recently reached $4M ARR without a signal dollar of outside capital. Their relentless focus on a magical product with baked in virality has led to breakaway organic growth, even in one of the most competitive software markets in the world.

And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I recently learned about Black Magic Design a video software business doing $300M revenue and Surge AI, a data labelling company at $1B revenue scale, both totally bootstrapped!

After spending most of my career focused on VC-backed companies, I’m now searching for new idols. Specifically, I’m looking for companies that were built on their own terms, either bootstrapped or with very minimal outside capital.

There’s just one issue: these companies are difficult to find, their founders often avoid interviews and the traditional media like the plague. So, I’m asking you all for help.

Who are your idols? Which companies inspire you and why? Leave a comment below and we’ll collect all the results into a database for the community.

Thanks to Kashish, Ethan, Robert, and Ben for feedback and inspiration for this post.

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While we’re here, I’d like to also clarify what “building on your own terms” means to me.

First and foremost, it doesn’t mean we are anti-venture capital.

When I worked in VC, I saw many examples of great bootstrapped businesses that later raised money. When those founders raised money, they did so in a measured, careful process, usually after being profitable for years. Most importantly, they raised money on their own terms, not the VCs.

Building on your own terms means giving yourself a choice.

Try to build a real business that generates money upfront. If along the way you encounter explosive demand and your product can scale quickly, raising some money can always be done later (and I promise you, there’s no shortage of investors looking for capital efficient businesses!).

How you build your business is nuanced, but ultimately it’s your time, your family, and your life. Why not build in a way that works for you?

Forget team “bootstrapped” or team “VC”, I’m team build on your own terms.

SSC London Meet up Nov 19

Not in London? SSC members meets regularly via our online WhatsApp Community and weekly masterminds. Apply to the SSC here.

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In fact, it’s more than likely that if you change your LinkedIn profile to “stealth”, you’ve got random investors inbounding you with increasingly insane offers.

I get it. I too would get excited by someone sliding into my DMs offering to invest $2, $5 or even $10M off the bat on some uncapped SAFE. Heck, it’s a life-changing sum of money. An amount my parents could flex at dinner parties, and, even if my company doesn’t work out, I’m basically set right?

Not so fast.

Raising a “huge” seed round upfront might seem wise in hyper competitive markets like AI. What I think most people get wrong is that $2, $5 or even $10M is nothing in comparison to the amount of money your competitors have. If you're legitimately expecting to compete against the Googles and Metas of this world, you’ll probably need to raise a lot more and a lot faster.

Just look at the playbook for the few darling companies that reached venture scale recently: Tiktok, Shein, and OpenAI. What do all of them have in common? They raised massive amounts of capital, very, very quickly.

You may say, that’s all fine and dandy but I’m just going to raise this seed round, build a profitable business and never raise again. Sounds lovely. Genuine question here: which (good) seed investors are actually signing up for that deal? How does their fund math work? In my experience, the best seed funds are swinging for massive outcomes, as are all folks in the venture community.

There are two types of entrepreneurs in this world, those who see a massive mountain and try to climb it, and the others who see it, turn around and find an alternative path. Building a VC backed business in the world of AI feels increasingly like climbing a mountain that’s getting higher every minute. Frankly, it might actually be a terrible idea.

For the entrepreneurs who instead are curious to find that alternative path, we’ve started a new private community: Seeking Solutions Collective (SSC) for founders building on their own terms. Thank you to the 75 (!) founders who have already applied! I’ve been positively overwhelmed at the level of interest and am looking forward to building SSC together with you all.

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I had one objective as an analyst: source deals. Doing so involved talking to 15-20 companies each week, followed by an adrenaline-inducing weekly sessions pitching two precious logos to a live audience of partners.

Back then, capital efficiency was king. We literally had a set of criteria each company had to meet: bootstrapped, profitable, cash flow positive, $5M+ in ARR, etc.

For several years, the VC industry felt sustainable, a healthy mix of competitive firms and founders building enduring businesses. By 2020, however, it started to change. I had just moved to London to help open an office, and as more capital came into the industry, the hype started to follow.

By 2022, things went from bad to worse. A guy named John from a firm called Tiger Global was DMing founders with checks on WhatsApp before even meeting them. Capital efficiency went out the window. It was time to leave.

After quitting, I initially experimented with raising some money from an angel, only to realize after 6 months that 1) I had no idea what I was doing and 2) I did not want to get on the venture track right away. I returned the money and decided to go another way.

I knew I wanted to build a company on my own terms and eventually ended up starting an IRL social club. Our group initially met on Wednesday evenings, the name stuck, and Wednesdays was born.

Unlike the companies I used to work with in venture, Wednesdays is not in a “hype” category like Crypto or AI, and it’s small by VC standards. For a while, I felt ashamed of this. Lately, however, I’ve been feeling proud.

Proud of myself for building something I love. Proud of myself for not giving in to the latest hype, and proud of myself for writing about the journey here.

As a former VC and now solo bootstrapper, I believe that we entrepreneurs can help each other, which is why I'm thrilled to share the first launch of Seeking Solutions Collective (SSC), a private community dedicated to entrepreneurs building on their own terms.

Whether you're exploring building something new or are already on your way, our first product is an online space to discuss and help each other, share inspiration, meet other like-minded founders, organize meetups and masterminds, and more.

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I believe there has never been a better time to build on your own terms. However, unlike the past generation of indie hackers focused on building micro-saas tools, in 2025, I don’t think trying to build some differentiated piece of tech is a good idea.

Even if you are able to assemble a dedicated research team with huge amounts of funding, the tech you build will likely be built better by someone with more money.

Instead, pick something you can compete on. What big tech companies lack in generic customer service and bland product experiences, you can make up for with bespoke products and services. Start with a problem tied to a very personal and often niche use case, and go from there.

One example: building paid communities of human beings around a niche. I recently came across two interesting ones: Bookworm Reads and Health Tech Nerds.

Bookworm Reads was launched by Amelia Goodman, a friend from my university days. Amelia has created a very cozy space online for people to log, rate, and discuss books. Sure, there are many apps like this out there, like Amazon-owned Goodreads, so how does Bookworm Reads compete? Not necessarily on raw tech horsepower, but instead on community and UX. The people are what make the bookworm community special, along with its distinctly funky layout.

Another example is Health Tech Nerds, a community one of our readers Phil pointed out to me recently. This is a 5k+ -strong online community of passionate health tech execs. I joined recently to check it out and was amazed at the online slack community that’s pulsing with intros, growth tips, operational insights and spontaneous meetups. Once again, I believe the key behind Health Tech Nerds is not the tech, it's the nicheness of the people in the community.

Are these communities good businesses? I think the answer is a resounding yes, as they take limited capital to get started, can be set up solo, and benefit from recurring revenue business models.

And, those that tap into larger categories, can get very large. Just look at Letterboxd, which bootstrapped an app for a community of cinephiles to a $50M exit with over 10M users!

What other communities are worth adding to this list? Comment below, let us know your feedback and fill out our very own community interest form here👀

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Try as I could, I couldn’t hide from the fact that I wasn’t like them. For example, I’m not passionate about B2B software or crypto and never have been. I could pretend, but only to an extent.

Starting my own company was a fresh start. A chance to work on a problem I personally cared about, not because it was expected to be lucrative or seemed “interesting”.

Now, I am building in an industry where I care about my customers and business partners, and derive just as much joy from my product as my own customers. Especially when business has been tough, these intangible things have been invaluable to keep me going.

If you’re looking to start a company, don’t go looking for another hole to hide in. Sure, you can work on something with the sole goal of making money. In fact, you can probably get away with some clever hacks to do it. More likely, however, you’ll hit a wall and be run aside by people who actually care.

I had to go back and reread my very first post of this newsletter to remind myself why we are here: to build a community of people building on their own terms, people seeking solutions, not capital. In hindsight, I should have also added seeking solutions to problems you genuinely care about. Because the truth is, you can’t hide forever.

If you are building on your own terms, and are eager to meet and be apart of a community like this, please fill out this mastermind interest form. A big thanks to the 16 people who have already filled out this form!

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