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When Arman Mottaghi set out to build his company, Properate, he did what most first-time founders do and looked for venture capital.
“The moment I entered the field of startups, I saw that you have a bunch of founders pitching investors, talking about valuations and showing hockey-stick growth projections,” says Mr. Mottaghi.
Properate, a Vancouver-based company focused on helping homeowners improve energy efficiency, went through accelerators, created pitch decks and sought investor meetings. But at some point, Mr. Mottaghi realized something unexpected: “It was just easier to land great customers than to get venture money,” he says.
Instead of continuing down the traditional startup funding path, he pivoted toward bootstrapping. Today, Properate is cash-flow positive and growing.
Bootstrapping, a term that dates back to the 18th century and originally referred to the impossible act of pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps, has come to mean building a company without relying on external funding.
In Canada, bootstrapping is not uncommon. According to data from Startup Canada, the majority of startups in the country are self-funded. While venture capital gets the headlines, many founders quietly build successful businesses without it.
Bootstrapping has its advantages, but it also comes with challenges. According to Mr. Mottaghi, some of the main benefits come down to control and sustainable growth.
“The way I see it, I am only accountable to two cohorts of people: our clients and our employees,” says Mr. Mottaghi. “I feel really energized by that.”
Without investors pushing for rapid expansion, bootstrapped companies can grow at a more natural pace.
“People assume bootstrapping means slower growth, but that’s not necessarily true,” he says. “Our growth has been strong, but it hasn’t been forced upon us to show growth just for the sake of it.”
Plus, Mr. Mottaghi says bootstrapping can also position companies to raise capital in the future.
“If we ever want to raise capital, we can do it on really good terms. We don’t need the money to survive, we’d be raising to do something big,” he says.
As for challenges, Mr. Mottaghi says that working with limited resources meant making tough, strategic decisions.
“I had 10 baskets to fill as a founder, but only three eggs. I put one into understanding users, one into understanding the industry and one into talking to customers. The basket I left empty? Hiring a UX designer,” he says.
For founders considering bootstrapping, Mr. Mottaghi offers two key take-aways:
- Don’t assume you need venture capital: ”A lot of startup advice comes from a very particular era – Silicon Valley in the early 2010s,” he says. “That environment was different. The same playbook doesn’t always apply today.”
- Do the things that don’t scale: ”Instead of focusing on things that grow quickly, focus on things that are hard to do but meaningful,” he says. “For us, that meant deeply understanding our customers before worrying about hiring a designer or building a polished interface.”
For Properate, bootstrapping wasn’t just a necessity – it turned into a strategic advantage. By focusing on customers rather than investors, Mr. Mottaghi is building a sustainable business on his own terms.
And in a startup world obsessed with raising capital, that’s a success story worth paying attention to.
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