Tech stocks on public markets have crashed. Startups slowing down hiring. Valuations took a hit. Investors are catious when writing checks.
YCombinator – whose top startups are valued more than $300 billion – emailed its portfolio companies just some days ago and told them to prepare for the worst: cut costs and extend the runaway within the next 30 days.
There seems to be a lot of uncertainty. Investors and companies are careful.
But how does this affect microfounders?
As companies are more careful with their expenses, it could mean that it can be harder than usual to find paying customers. But as microstartups often provide very straightforward value for their clients and they usually don’t cost that much, the impact could be minimal.
Also, founders who are bootstrapping their startups usually have a different mindset from the VC-founders: every dollar counts, all expenses are carefully considered, and they hire when it already hurts.
"It’s interesting to look at this VC/market downturn from the bootstrapper’s perspective. What they recommend now is what we specialize in. We always "plan for the worst". We keep our costs low, focus on being sustainable and have a product people find useful / want to pay for."
– Marko Saric, the microfounder of Plausible ($66k/mo)
