A faster route to self-employment with bootstrapping.

Every SaaS idea starts with the same question: How are we going to pay for it? After all, a scalable software product doesn't happen overnight – and it certainly doesn't come for free. The traditional way is to look for investors, build a pitch deck, and secure funding.

But what if you just go it alone?

That's exactly what bootstrapping is. The term is reminiscent of Baron Münchhausen, who supposedly pulled himself out of the swamp by his own hair – a nice image when you consider how many founders feel in the project business.

With bootstrapping, you do without external capital. No pitching marathon, no nervous investors. Instead, you finance your growth with your own resources – and work towards a specific goal: the development of your product.

Why bootstrapping means more freedom

The biggest advantage: you stay in control.

Without external investors, you don't have to explain to anyone why you're not showing hockey stick growth. You can make mistakes, take detours, completely change your business model – without the pressure of investors breathing down your neck.

And you save time. The search for funding can take months – time that you can better invest by improving your product and winning real customers.

But be careful: just “keeping your head above water” is not real bootstrapping. If you just survive from month to month, you will never have enough margin to invest in a product team. Bootstrapping needs a goal – and the will to work systematically towards it.

Efficiency instead of investors – and lean as the key

If you do without external funding, you have to become more efficient internally. Every euro counts, every hour has to be well spent. The key to this is lean thinking. This method helps you to identify waste and to focus resources on what really matters.

“Muda”, the Japanese word for waste, is everywhere: waiting times, bugs, unnecessary meetings, poorly planned tasks. With lean thinking, you can turn your team into a productivity machine – without burnout, but with structure.

And that's exactly what it takes to free up time and money for a real product at some point.

Leadtime was developed for exactly this situation. It helps you to make your service company more efficient, to create standardized processes – and to gradually free up capacity for your product. Not on credit, but with a system.