“Having venture capital would actually mean that you can offset your truth seeking... you can kind of delay your product market fit so you can hope that people would come on board. But that's not a luxury that bootstrap businesses would have. So almost every bootstrap business should do a lifetime deal.”

Bootstrappers Should Default To Lifetime Deals Because They Can’t Afford To Delay PMF

Pren argues subscription-first pricing is a VC playbook because it lets you delay PMF while hoping users show up. Bootstrappers can't afford that runway, so an LTD forces immediate truth-seeking: people either hand over real cash today or they don't, and you find out quickly whether to keep building.