Building in Public – Establishing a Financial Roadmap

Welcome to the second post of our “Building In Public” series. This time, we’re diving into a topic that will shape the company’s future roadmap: finance. For a startup, finance covers everything from funding and cash flow to revenue growth—and eventually, to either selling or going public. Each decision we make now will set the course for choices we’ll face down the line. At Ultra Cool Tech, this is something we have understood from day one, and we’ve made a few strategic decisions that will influence our journey. Let’s explore these choices together.

Our first decision was about funding. As founders, we had two main options: seek seed funding or go the bootstrapping route. We chose the latter for a few key reasons:

Seed funding at an early stage often comes at a steep cost. In exchange for a relatively small amount of capital, founders typically have to give up a substantial share of the companies equity —capital that might barely cover the costs of the first several months, especially if you’re developing and selling physical products.

Bringing in early investors can mean giving up much control where often decisions could be made for short term return vs. long term category building.

Finally, early investor involvement can significantly impact the financial returns for founders in the event of a successful exit. This potential for dilution was the deciding factor in steering clear of seed funding.

So, bootstrapping was the way forward. We’re funding the initial stages out of our own pockets. For further capital requirements we secured a production loan against our growing pre-orders. This approach gives us more financial flexibility in the medium and long term, and it also simplifies corporate governance as we grow. We recognised that it has been important to invest into product development as well as IP Protection to help secure the future of our innovations.

Our second big decision is how to manage cash flow. Cash flow can make or break a business, especially during the treacherous early days often called the “Valley of Death.” To navigate this, we’re taking a lean approach. We’re not hiring full-time employees at this time; instead, we’re relying on experienced consultants and contractors to help in specific areas. This setup is easier on our cash flow and lets us focus on quickly building out our sales channels. We’ve decided to be a sales-led organisation backed by innovative technology based solutions as we believe that will be the fastest route to achieving positive cash flow. We’ll dive into our sales strategy in a future post.

A potential downside to bootstrapping is that it can lead to slower growth. This is common for many bootstrapped companies, and we’re still evolving and optimising. We’re considering several options to raise additional funds when the time is right to accelerate growth. This includes exploring innovative financial mechanisms linked to digital assets—a new frontier that’s becoming both safer and more regulated.

Our third major decision is… the final destination. Like most startups, we’re keeping our long-term goals open-ended. The traditional paths are clear: you either sell the company or go public. We’re exploring new options, especially within the EU’s MiCa legal framework, which opens up unique possibilities for companies interested in tokenizing their shares and selling them on secondary markets. This hybrid approach offers some intriguing advantages, and we are very excited in pursuing this.

In summary, our journey is still unfolding, with many pieces that have yet to fall into place. But we’re confident that our choices give us the flexibility to pivot as the company grows. Now, it’s time to get back to work and bring this vision to life.

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