Paycheck Financing: A Great Way To Bootstrap Your Startup

The idea behind Voziq started with Vasu and two fellow IT professionals, all of whom had spent fifteen-plus years working with over 100 Fortune 500 companies. Vasu realized that while most companies utilized some form of data analysis, they didn’t often move past that point. By his estimation, 95 percent of companies that purchased advanced analytics and business intelligence solutions weren’t utilizing the data to its full potential. Technology was sitting on shelves, not delivering value.

Vasu realized that there was an untapped opportunity there, and Voziq is the platform that he and his associates built from the ground up. It focuses on social media analytics and helps to reveal the insights in large volumes of data. Using categories, benchmarks, and custom reports, Voziq transforms the voice of the customer, the voice of the client’s competitors, and the voice of industry influencers into actionable scenario-based information for various departments within the client’s organization.

As a self-funded start-up, Voziq’s finances were always tight, and so its co-founders decided to retain their day jobs until they had achieved reasonable validation with actual customers. Vasu says that Voziq was able to reach this goal by utilizing oDesk and other freelance contractors outside of North America, where they were able to obtain quality work for a relatively lower cost.

Voziq’s situation illustrates the scenario of a startup with two or more co-founders. Vasu notes that not all of the startup’s founders needed to move out of their day jobs at the same time; one or two could continue working while others are firming up the business plan and reaching out to prospects. This way, he says, you can fund your company through your paychecks while others are executing the core ideas of the startup.

He also emphasizes the importance of being willing to sacrifice when first validating the business idea. Since each of Voziq’s co-founders maintained their day jobs, they each took a chunk of business and product development tasks and executed these during evenings and weekends. Once they began to see some traction, they each took on roles as independent consultants in related areas to continue to earn a paycheck while they continued to focus their outside efforts on Voziq.

Vasu his associates have transitioned into Voziq 100 percent in 2014, as they bring in more customers and revenues.

While getting off the ground and becoming profitable are the ultimate goals for any venture, these are especially significant milestones for a self-funded startup. With these goals within reach, Vasu says that Voziq plans to continue to follow the 1M/1M methodology, looking to customers rather than investors as a way to further bootstrap and validate their work. They have successfully transitioned into a cash flow-positive scenario, and are ready to take Voziq to the next level of success and profitability.

What I find gratifying about the Voziq story is that it can be a template for numerous other entrepreneurs that we hear from constantly. Hundreds and thousands of professionals around the world harbor entrepreneurial dreams. Most of them lack capital. For these entrepreneurs—heavy in expertise, light on funding—bootstrapping with a paycheck is a fine path to get going!

At 1M/1M, we're formalizing the process of 'bootstrapping with a paycheck' actively, in recognition of the fact that in many parts of the world, there isn't much of a seed capital eco-system. Thus, somewhere between 6-24 months of bootstrapping while holding on to a full-time job is a reasonable option for many aspiring entrepreneurs.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that most aspiring entrepreneurs ought to start their entrepreneurial journey while sitting inside a corporate umbrella. Especially for technical people, it allows for the enhancing of their technical skills, while also developing the bricks needed to build a venture.