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Some startups choose to bootstrap from the beginning while others find themselves forced into self funding by a lack of investor interest or a business model that doesn\u2019t fit traditional VC. FarmboxRx<\/a> decided to bootstrap because founder Ashley Tyrner didn\u2019t like the advice she was getting from potential backers.<\/p>\n Tyrner told TechCrunch\u2019s Found podcast<\/a> that when she went out to raise money for FarmboxRx, a direct-to-consumer produce box company meant to solve food deserts at the time, she found that venture investors were interested if, and only if, she agreed to pivot her company toward a hot trend of the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery VC we talked to, any of them that were actually even remotely nice to us at the time wanted us to become a meal kit,\u201d Tyrner said. \u201cThat\u2019s not what our focus was. We did not want to jump on the meal kit bandwagon. Now looking back, I\u2019m really glad that I never raised any capital and we still haven\u2019t raised any capital to this day. Most of the meal kits are, you know, they\u2019ve slowly died.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, the company leaned into its existing produce box-focused model and the supply chain it built around that strategy, and built a new revenue stream on top of that.<\/p>\n