“As a bootstrapper, the number one thing that you've got to strive for is profit. There are many decisions you could make as money starts to come in that could creep into your profit.”

Profit beats growth — the things that creep in once revenue arrives are what kill bootstrappers

Once revenue arrives, expensive agencies and shiny product pivots quietly eat the margin that keeps a solo operator alive. The discipline is to protect profit over chasing growth, because profit is what funds the next bet without outside capital. Growth-at-all-costs is a VC game, not a bootstrap one.