> It probably won't last forever, but it's simple and it feels authentic.
(Inexperienced armchair take:) it's more likely to last 'forever' (which I take to mean 'to retirement'/'as long as you want it to'/etc.) than taking investment/being acquired. Sure that could lead to lasting 'forever' on a bigger scale (as a more stable bigger company, or a longer 'forever'), but at a much lower probability.
I don't think you're weird - I'd love to be in your shoes in this regard. Can't say for sure I'd have the stomach to turn down cash offers of course, but the VC route has never been a dream/had the appeal for me it obviously does to many. I think perhaps because I'm not so interested in 'having a successful company' for its own sake, I wouldn't want to have to 'pivot' for example, I'd rather build something I care about, and the business side would be just doing the best I could to support that; maybe that would be a large cash injection in exchange for equity, but you don't mention any massive expensive changes you want/need to make. (That sounds pretty stupid and obvious when I write it out, but it's definitely a lot more of a traditional approach than taken by most that would use the term 'startup', or really the vast majority of new software/genuine tech companies.)
Depending on the market and competition there may be paths where it doesn't last forever or it gets into a steady state business.
I suspect what happens to a lot of bootstrapped SaaS companies as they grow is the founder(s) have to take on the CxO roles and then aren't in the trenches doing the actual work. Those roles don't sound fun to me. I wonder if the fun part is the bootstrapping to where VC come knocking on the door? If that is the case then taking on VC might work to take some money off the table but the other option of selling the entire business off could work too.
(Inexperienced armchair take:) it's more likely to last 'forever' (which I take to mean 'to retirement'/'as long as you want it to'/etc.) than taking investment/being acquired. Sure that could lead to lasting 'forever' on a bigger scale (as a more stable bigger company, or a longer 'forever'), but at a much lower probability.
I don't think you're weird - I'd love to be in your shoes in this regard. Can't say for sure I'd have the stomach to turn down cash offers of course, but the VC route has never been a dream/had the appeal for me it obviously does to many. I think perhaps because I'm not so interested in 'having a successful company' for its own sake, I wouldn't want to have to 'pivot' for example, I'd rather build something I care about, and the business side would be just doing the best I could to support that; maybe that would be a large cash injection in exchange for equity, but you don't mention any massive expensive changes you want/need to make. (That sounds pretty stupid and obvious when I write it out, but it's definitely a lot more of a traditional approach than taken by most that would use the term 'startup', or really the vast majority of new software/genuine tech companies.)