SCRIPT CHECK · 60 SECONDS
Five quick questions show how often it appears, how believable it feels, and what it makes you avoid. You’ll get one private next step.
This is not a diagnosis and there is no pass or fail. It measures the current frequency, credibility, and behavioral cost of “Another founder just raised a seed round and I'm still bootstrapping”, including the private rule underneath it: Under this thought, outside capital gets treated like a scoreboard and your bootstrapped revenue gets demoted to something you have to defend. The private rule says funded founders are playing the higher league, so your job is to shrink…
QUIET
“Another founder just raised a seed round and I'm still bootstrapping” appears, but it rarely gets the final say. Keep this line available for higher-pressure moments: “Their round is capital with a burn schedule. My revenue is smaller, but it’s real.”
PRESENT
“Another founder just raised a seed round and I'm still bootstrapping” wins some small decisions before you catch it. Your useful interruption is: “A seed check is a bet, not a trophy. I do not grade myself by other people’s bets.”
ACTIVE
“Another founder just raised a seed round and I'm still bootstrapping” is shaping action often enough to deserve a deliberate counterexample. Start privately and concretely: Open your revenue tracker or bank export, note the current MRR on a blank note, and underline it once. Leave the note on your desktop for five minutes, then close it without changing anything else.
DOMINANT
Right now, “Another founder just raised a seed round and I'm still bootstrapping” is steering many of the moments you measured. That is a pattern reading, not a diagnosis or character verdict. Begin with one reversible receipt: Open your revenue tracker or bank export, note the current MRR on a blank note, and underline it once. Leave the note on your desktop for five minutes, then close it without changing anything else.