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The government has announced its carveouts for its proposed changes to the capital gains tax (CGT), and I think it’s hard to argue it's anything other than a resounding victory for startups, small businesses, and the innovation ecosystem. Here's what's been proposed: 1. Increasing the 'annual turnover' threshold to qualify for a small business tax concession Small business owners are already eligible for a range of generous tax concessions when they sell their business. However, the threshold for the definition of a small business hasn't been revised in decades. The government has proposed raising the 'annual turnover' threshold for the 'active asset reduction' from $2 mn to $10 mn. The reduction gives business owners a 50% CGT discount when they sell business assets. According to the ABS, this will cover 2.7 mn small businesses, or 98% of all active businesses in Australia. The vast majority of active businesses in Australia will receive a 50% discount on capital gains from asset sales. 2. Making the first $10 mn of capital gains on equity in innovative businesses eligible for a 50% CGT discount A key concern about the removal of the CGT discount was its impact on innovative startups: that taxing exits at 47% would dampen risk-taking appetite and drive talent offshore. The government has proposed making the first $10 mn of capital gains from shares in ‘innovative companies’ eligible for the 50% CGT discount, capped at a lifetime concession of $2.4 mn per person. There will be a consultation on which companies qualify as 'innovative'; it's been signalled that existing frameworks such as ESIC will be used as a point of departure. It's also been signalled that the definition will favour smaller companies (<$50 mn of annual turnover) and younger startups (<10-years-old; 15 years for medtechs and biotechs). The upshot is that the vast majority of startup operators and early investors will be covered by this carveout, and continue to receive favourable treatment on capital gains. Founders will be covered for the first $10 mn of their capital gain, and those who knock it out of the park will pay the top marginal income tax rate (currently 47%) on the remainder. These carveouts are modelled to have a relatively modest fiscal impact: a $475 mn cost to the budget over the next four years. What I like about this proposal is that the 'winners' are the smaller end of town: the 'risk-taker' who builds a small business that does up to $10 mn of annual turnover, or who joins an early-stage startup and gets up to a $10 mn windfall in sweat equity upon exit. These are the people that those who so virulently opposed the proposed changes purported to be concerned about; not the founder who would have to pay more on their >$100 mn exit. There will continue to be debate about these concessions over the next few weeks. I'd say, watch out for people who continue to be in opposition. Whose interests are they really watching out for?

This is the exact framework that helped many founders grow companies and exit with more than 50% ownership 95% of startups raise money at the wrong time. They either raise too early and dilute unnecessarily, or wait too long and run out of cash. After working with 100’s of founders, here's the exact roadmap that separates winners from casualties Stage 1: Bootstrap Phase (₹0 - ₹50L Revenue) ⤷ Focus entirely on product-market fit ⤷ Keep burn rate under ₹2L monthly ⤷ Validate unit economics with first 50 customers ⤷ Don't even think about external funding yet ⤷ Use personal savings, family money, or revenue to grow ⤷ Hire only essential team members (2-5 people max) Stage 2: Revenue-Based Debt (₹50L - ₹2Cr Revenue) ⤷ You have proven PMF and positive unit economics ⤷ Monthly revenue growth of 15%+ for 6 consecutive months ⤷ CAC payback period under 12 months ⤷ Customer retention above 85% ⤷ This is where debt financing makes perfect sense ⤷ Raise 6-12 months of runway to accelerate growth ⤷ Use funds for marketing, not team expansion Stage 3: Growth Equity (₹2Cr - ₹10Cr Revenue) ⤷ Strong unit economics with LTV/CAC ratio of 3:1 or better ⤷ Clear path to ₹50Cr+ revenue within 3 years ⤷ Market size of ₹1000Cr+ that you can capture ⤷ Need significant capital for market expansion or R&D ⤷ Team of 25+ people with proven leadership ⤷ Only raise if you can 3x revenue within 18 months Stage 4: Scale Funding (₹10Cr+ Revenue) ⤷ Approaching or at profitability ⤷ International expansion opportunities ⤷ Acquisitions or new product lines ⤷ Series B/C rounds make sense here ⤷ You're competing for market leadership When NOT to Raise Money ⤷ You haven't proven product-market fit ⤷ Burn rate exceeds 50% of monthly revenue ⤷ Customer acquisition is broken ⤷ You're raising to extend runway without growth plan ⤷ Market size is unclear or too small ⤷ You can achieve next milestone with existing cash + revenue The Hard Truths ⤷ 80% of companies never need equity funding ⤷ Most successful companies are profitable by ₹5Cr revenue ⤷ Raising too early kills more startups than not raising at all ⤷ Debt is almost always better than equity if you qualify ⤷ Every funding round should 5x your valuation within 2 years Note: These figures are based on my experience and may vary across industries and markets. Use this as a framework, not absolute rules. Decision Framework Bootstrap → Build until ₹50L revenue with strong unit economics Debt → Scale from ₹50L to ₹2Cr while maintaining profitability path Equity → Only when you need ₹5Cr+ for rapid market capture The companies that follow this roadmap keep 60-80% ownership at exit. The ones that raise too early end up with 10-15%. Which path are you on? #startups #funding #bootstrap #debtfinancing #growth

The funding decision you make today determines which opportunities you can say yes to in 12 months. I see this constantly with founders & partners I speak with. They make a capital decision that seems fine in the moment, then 9 months later they're stuck watching opportunities pass by because their options are locked. It's about understanding what each choice unlocks (or closes off) down the track. Three founders I spoke to recently: → Founder A: Raised a big seed round early They raised a significant seed round with early traction but hadn't proven the model yet. Loads of runway, time to build, pressure off. 12 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳: Brilliant progress. Strong growth. Ready for Series A. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮? They've burned most of the seed getting there. VCs want the next milestone. A few months of runway left. Their options now: 😰 → Raise a bridge (signals poor planning) → Slash the team (kills momentum) → Series A early (worse terms) The scenario: Making decisions from urgency, not strategy. Negotiating from weakness. → Founder B: Bootstrapped as long as possible Built to solid ARR completely bootstrapped. Zero dilution. Proved the model without giving up ownership. 12 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳: Category heating up. Competitors raised & are scaling fast. Market window closing. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮? Speed matters now. They don't have the capital to compete. Their options now: ⏰ → Raise quickly (weaker position vs competitors) → Grow slower (miss the window) → Expensive revenue-based financing The scenario: Watching funded competitors grab market share whilst constrained by cashflow. → Founder C: Layered their capital stack Raised a smaller seed, got to decent ARR, used bridge capital to extend runway & hit stronger metrics before Series A. 12 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳: Raised Series A at much better valuation. Less equity given up, strategic investors, still owning significant chunk. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮?  There isn't one. Their options now: 🎯 → Strong balance sheet, strategic partners → Runway to be deliberate → Multiple paths forward The scenario: Making decisions from strategy, not desperation. Selective about opportunities, partners, timing. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵: Thought about funding as a stack, not a sequence. Used different capital types strategically. 📊 The pattern: Your funding decisions compound. Each choice expands/contracts future options. → Too much equity too early? Locked in dilution before proving your worth. → Bootstrapping too long? Miss market timing or get out-positioned. → Only equity? Paying highest cost of capital for everything. The founders who get this right ask: "𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘯 12 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴?" That's what a funding stack does - gives you optionality. 𝘙𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦. What options are you keeping open? Happy to chat about what that looks like. 🚜

Most startups don’t fail because founders lack effort. They fail because they start with unvalidated assumptions. Research consistently shows that lack of market need is one of the top reasons startups collapse. The real advantage at the idea stage is not speed of building. It is precision of validation. Bootstrapping Playbook for Idea-stage Founders - At the center of this framework is a simple but disciplined approach: 1) Find Your Edge: What's your domain expertise? Your unfair advantage? Pinpoint a pain point only you can solve. 2) Validate Mercilessly: No code. No outsourced MVP. If the idea doesn't validate? Discard. Start over. 3) Learn from Success: Study structured Case Studies, not anecdotes. Absorb lessons. 4) Refine Your Thesis: Iterate with real customer feedback loops. Is this idea strong enough for a decade of your life? 5) Immerse in Customers: Talk to at least 50 Ideal Customers. Understand their world. 6) Nail Positioning: Refine your precise positioning based on customer feedback. 7) De-risk Your Market: Master Market Sizing and Competitive Analysis. Avoid walking into a noisy market blind, hoping for funding. This is not about inspiration. It is about eliminating false positives early. The Core Principle: Validate Before You Build - Idea-stage founders often confuse motion with progress. But the real sequence follows a clear order. First, you define your edge by clarifying why you are the right person to pursue this idea. Next, you talk to real customers rather than relying on friends or assumptions. You then run structured validation before building anything, without writing code or creating an MVP. After that, you eliminate weak ideas quickly based on what you learn. Finally, you strengthen only the ideas that survive evidence. If your idea cannot survive structured scrutiny, it should not survive into development. Come talk to me at a free mentoring roundtable and ask questions of the 1Mby1M AI Mentor: https://lnkd.in/g3VwPX_S

Before you earn a single dollar as a business the IRS already has a plan for how to tax you. It's based on one thing. Your business structure. And that choice can save or cost tens of thousands. 4 main business structures in 2026: Sole Proprietorship: → default if you work for yourself → no separate business tax return → profits go straight on your personal return (Schedule C) → you pay income tax + full 15.3% self-employment tax → simple to set up, least protection, most exposure. Partnership / Multi-Member LLC: → two or more people running a business together → business files Form 1065, but pays no tax itself → each partner gets a K-1 and pays tax on their share personally → same SE tax exposure as a sole proprietor S-Corporation: → the structure many small business owners switch to — specifically to cut taxes → still a pass-through (no double tax) → you pay yourself a reasonable salary — that salary gets hit with payroll tax → remaining profit comes out as a distribution — no SE tax on that portion $150K net profit as a sole proprietor → $22,950 in SE tax $150K as S-Corp: $80K salary + $70K distribution → ~$12,240 in SE tax. Savings: over $10,000. Same income. Different structure. C-Corporation: → flat 21% federal corporate tax rate → popular with startups raising investment or planning to reinvest profits → downside: dividends paid to shareholders are taxed again (double taxation) → right structure for some — wrong for most small businesses 2026 bonus that applies to ALL pass-through structures. The 20% QBI deduction (Section 199A) is now permanent. What this means: → sole p, pships, s-corps: deduct 20% of nbi → full dedn available: ~$203,000 (single) / ~$406,000 (married) → minimum $400 deduction if your QBI >= $1,000 → wider phase-out range: more higher-income owners now qualify → c-corps do NOT get this deduction That 20% can be worth more than the SE tax savings from an S-Corp election alone. Run the numbers before assuming one structure wins. The most common mistake? Staying a sole p long after your income outgrows it. Once your net profit consistently hits $50,000–$80,000+, the S-Corp conversation is worth having with a CPA. The structure you start with doesn't have to be the one you keep. The IRS even lets you elect S-Corp status via Form 2553 mid-way — just file by March 15. Share this with someone who might be thinking of starting a new business. Follow me on Instagram @thetaxsaaab for more such posts.

Startup founders - is your runway tighter than it should be? Here’s a simple tax tool to unlock blocked cash and extend your working capital runway: Apply for lower/nil TDS Certificate under Section 197 of Income-tax Act What’s this all about? Imagine, a startup earns Rs. 1 Cr fee/ income. Without 197 certificate: Rs. 10L TDS is deducted. With 197 certificate @ 1% (assumed): only Rs. 1L is deducted → Rs. 9L freed up for growth. Many startups receive payments that are subject to TDS (Tax Deducted at Source). But if your actual tax liability is low or nil due to early-stage losses, exemptions, or deductions - that TDS is excess tax sitting with the government until you claim a refund later. Solution? Apply for a section 197 certificate - this allows your customers or partners to deduct tax at a lower rate or not at all. Why it matters for startups: a. Keeps more cash in your account now, not 12 months later b. Reduces dependency on future tax refunds c. Improves liquidity during critical growth or fundraising phases Ideal for: a. Startups in loss-making or break-even stage b. Entities with carry-forward losses or MAT credits c. DPIIT-recognized startups with tax holidays d. Businesses earning interest income or large B2B payments Tip: Apply early in the financial year via the TRACES portal for maximum benefit. #Startups #CashFlow #Section197 #TDS #TaxPlanning #StartupFinance #Founders #WorkingCapital #RunwayExtension #TaxTools #IndiaStartupEcosystem

I used to think bootstrapping a biotech company was impossible. So far, we’re doing it anyway - and we aren’t alone. Media City Scientific is following an unusual - but not unheard of - playbook for biotech companies. While external capital isn’t necessarily off the table long-term, when we first registered the company, we challenged ourselves to get to market without raising. This might sound crazy, and I get it. During my PhD, I dropped 10k on antibodies before 8am on a Tuesday. Wet-lab R&D is expensive, even before you factor in facility costs, working capital for manufacturing, and go-to-market logistics. But over the past few years, we’ve been quietly building a chemically defined FBS replacement (FRS) without raising a pre-seed, without a big team, and without a large facility. Just a few scientists, some creative business strategies and laboratory hacks, plus a stubborn belief that FBS should not be the standard. Oh, and a lot of nights dreaming about cell culture media ingredients. We’re not the first to take this approach. 🧫 Abveris bootstrapped an antibody discovery service business using revenue from early contracts. They scaled steadily and were acquired by Twist Bioscience in 2021. 🧪 Promega Corporation was founded in the 1970s. Starting with just a few enzymes, it slowly expanded into a global life sciences powerhouse, largely funded by revenue growth. 🔬 Invitrogen began in a garage in the 1980s, selling kits for molecular biology. Similar to Promega, they grew steadily on product revenue and later became part of Thermo Fisher. 🇩🇪 NanoTemper Technologies has been super generous about sharing their nearly 20-year history via blogs and Philipp's LI posts. No VC, just steady, boot-strapped growth from grants and direct sales to scientists. Today, they’re a global leader in protein characterization technology, with over 150 employees world-wide. They’re still founder-owned. I’ve lived both the bootstrapping and VC-backed playbooks for biotech. They’re very different games. Different challenges, different opportunities, and while some problems absolutely require substantial investment to get off the ground, I’ve enjoyed learning about the commercial teams who took the unconventional path to bring their science to the world. Turns out, the assumption that “biotech startup” equals “must raise VC” isn’t necessarily true. I’d wager most scientists have heard of at least one of the companies above. I love hearing stories of how biotech companies got started without large amounts of capital - so if you have another example, please share!

In UX research, you often find yourself working with small sample sizes and imperfect data. Maybe you're running a quick usability test with just 8 participants. Maybe you’re working on a niche product with a hard-to-reach user group. Or maybe you’re in the early design phase, and the timeline doesn’t allow for full-scale recruitment. Whatever the reason, you're expected to show insights, quantify user responses, and somehow still sound confident. But traditional stats are not built for these messy, underpowered situations. They rely on assumptions that rarely hold in real-world UX work. This is where bootstrapping and confidence intervals become essential. A confidence interval gives you a range around your estimate, helping you express uncertainty more honestly. For example, instead of just reporting that the average usability score is 78, you can say it likely falls between 70 and 86. Bootstrapping makes this possible without needing your data to follow a perfect bell curve. It works by resampling your dataset with replacement, many times over, and then calculating your statistic each time. These thousands of results build an empirical distribution that you can use to generate confidence intervals. You are not relying on strict formulas. You are using your actual data to tell you how stable your findings really are. When used together, bootstrapping and confidence intervals offer a simple but powerful way to get more trustworthy insights from limited data. Say you have 9 participants who rate two versions of a product. You can use bootstrapping to compare the average ratings and generate a confidence interval around the difference. If the range is wide and includes zero, it tells you the difference might not be meaningful. If the range is tight and clearly favors one version, you have stronger evidence. This approach works well with Likert scales, SUS, NPS, or any rating-based measure. It helps shift the conversation from "is this better" to "how confident are we that it's better," which is far more useful. That said, bootstrapping is not magic. It cannot fix biased samples or poor study design. If your data do not reflect your target users, no amount of resampling will help. And while bootstrapping gives you a sense of uncertainty, it does not increase the amount of information you actually have. It just helps you be more transparent about what your small dataset is saying, and just as importantly, what it is not. For UX researchers working in the real world, that kind of honesty is not a limitation. It is a strength. If you want to learn more or adapt this method for your own projects, I’ve shared a clean, general-purpose R script and documentation on GitHub that you can build on: https://lnkd.in/eV3n-fyp Feel free to use it as a foundation and customize it to suit your own UX metrics or research needs.

What I learned bootstrapping - lessons they don’t teach in books Software Finder was profitable from day one and never took a loss while growing into a 200+ employee company. What we did may have seemed risky - closing deals early, taking bold marketing swings, saying yes before we were ready, but it worked. If you’re bootstrapping, whether by choice or challenge, here’s what our lived experience taught us: 𝟏. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 In the early days, our platform wasn’t polished but we still went ahead and closed sales. But it solved a real problem and customers paid 𝟐. 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 In a startup, adaptability beats deep expertise. You need people who wear multiple hats and move fast. A nimble, hungry team is your biggest asset. 𝟑. 𝐒𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 We closed deals we weren’t fully ready to deliver on. Scary? Yes. But it forced us to move faster and get smarter. Waiting to be “ready” is how you miss growth. 𝟒. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐧 Your product won’t sell itself. Without strong sales, growth stalls. Master it early or hire someone who can, because everything depends on it. 𝟓. 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐬 We didn’t blend in, we stood out. We went straight at the giants: - More personal. - More affordable. - More invested in success. Big brands play safe. You don’t have to. 𝟔. 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 No big budget. No waste. No fancy offices, extra tools, or hires “just in case.” Scarcity forced discipline and it still guides us today. 𝟕. 𝐆𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞 80% of our early pipeline came from two channels: outbound and cold calls. We focused, refined, and only expanded when ROI was clear. Depth wins early on. Spray-and-pray doesn’t. There’s no one way to build a company. These worked for us, what worked for you? Drop your best lesson below!

Bootstrapping vs. Early VC The startup world pushes one dominant narrative: raise venture capital early, raise fast, raise big. For underrepresented founders, that pressure is amplified—VC feels like validation and belonging. But here’s the truth that rarely gets airtime: early VC isn’t always the smart move, even when you can get it. Choosing whether to bootstrap or raise venture capital should be a strategic decision, not a reaction to ecosystem pressure. Underrepresented founders face unique signals that VC is the “only” legitimate path: Funding announcements dominate industry media Accelerators emphasize investor readiness Advisors question bootstrapping Peers equate fundraising with success The result? Founders pursue VC because it feels required—not because it fits their business. VC funding comes with influence: board seats, voting rights, and pressure to optimize for exits. Early VC may be the wrong move if: Your market is misunderstood. Investors may push pivots that dilute mission or ignore lived experience. Your advantage is insight, not speed. Product decisions rooted in lived experience often outperform “market logic.” You’re building for durability, not a 5–10-year exit. Bootstrapping supports long-term ownership and optionality. Bootstrapped companies consistently outperform VC-backed peers on survival and profitability: Higher five-year survival rates Greater likelihood of reaching profitability Less time spent fundraising Full ownership of the asset you’re building For underrepresented founders, sustainability equals leverage. VC works best in winner-take-all markets. Many businesses don’t fit that model: Service businesses can fund growth through revenue Niche products often scale better through community trust than paid acquisition B2B solutions may benefit more from pilots and partnerships than large sales teams If capital isn’t the bottleneck, VC may introduce unnecessary pressure. VC introduces external timelines and constant performance scrutiny. Bootstrapping allows founders to: Grow at a pace aligned with personal capacity Avoid nonstop fundraising cycles Reduce burnout amplified by bias, microaggressions, and stereotype threat Sustainable businesses require sustainable founders. VC can be the right choice when: Significant upfront capital is unavoidable (hardware, biotech, regulated industries) Speed creates defensible advantage You’ve found aligned investors who add real value You’ve proven traction and can negotiate from strength The issue isn’t VC—it’s timing and fit. To decide, ask yourself: Do I have 12–18 months of runway without VC? Can I reach early profitability without it? Have I explored non-dilutive options (grants, revenue-based financing, loans)? Do I understand investor expectations? What does my version of success look like? Bottom Line VC is a tool, not a requirement. Many successful companies bootstrap first, raise later—or never raise at all.