Indie Startups - Neil Thanedar

10 years ago, my entrepreneurial goal was to raise $100M+ and make one $1B+ startup.

I’m not anti-VC, I’m just pro-independence.

Indie can be defined many different ways.

In art, music, and gaming, indie means independent from the major producers.
- Many of these “indie” labels still have distribution deals with the big guys.
In startups, most people use indie to mean independence from venture capitalists.
- These startups can still raise seed funding from angel investors and use debt to fund growth.

Prediction: Mittelstands will become more popular in America in the next 10 years.

These businesses can get to $10M+ in revenue with little outside funding.
- They’re usually called “bootstrapped” or “family” businesses, and given less attention than VC-backed companies, but Mittelstands are often much bigger those startups.
Mittelstands are the most consistent path to wealth in America today.
- A 2019 study found that the “typical firm owned by the top 0.1% is a regional business with $20M in sales and 100 employees, such as an auto dealer, beverage distributor, or a large law firm.”
We need more early-stage funding options for pre-Mittelstand startups.
- Most Mittelstand founders use family wealth or preexisting connections to fund their businesses.
  - I want to create an accelerator to help launch many more Mittelstands.
    - See: Y Combinator for Mittelstands (coming soon)

My first three startups used three different corporate structures and funding models:

Avomeen is an LLC that was bootstrapped for 6+ years until it was acquired by a private equity firm. It has since been acquired again.
Labdoor is a C-Corp that has raised $7M+ from accelerators, angel investors, crowdfunding, and VCs and is now profitable.
Air to All is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with all R&D led by a distributed team of volunteers and expenses funded by public donations.

I’m now building Utopic, the Dreamville (or Roc-A-Fella) for startups.

The flexibility of LLCs: The holding/parent company can be an LLC that is 100% owned by the founder and owns many of its own companies.
The fundraising of C-Corps: The startup children can each be registered as C-Corps that raise money individually or through a fund run by the parent.
The independence of Nonprofits: Work on the World’s Biggest Problems, not just the one product that makes you the most money.

Studios are perfect for founders who want to create many indie startups.

Trend: Entrepreneurs are creating holding companies to buy and scale many SMBs.
- Micro M&A can be a great way for new entrepreneurs to enter this space.
This is why I’m creating Utopic Studio.

Indie Startups are one of my solutions to The World’s Biggest Problems.

This idea is a work-in-progress. If you’d like to riff on it, hit me up @neilthanedar on Twitter.

Published by Neil Thanedar