Instructor Resource
Neck, Entrepreneurship, 1e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Case Notes
Chapter 12: Bootstrapping for Resources
Goldstar
Summary
Goldstar is a successful online event ticket reseller founded in 2002 by entrepreneurs Jim
McCarthy, Rich Webster, and Robert Graff. Like most entrepreneurs, McCarthy and his
colleagues got off to a rocky start. They bootstrapped for initial seed funding from their own
Analysis
Like the founders of many entrepreneurial startups, Goldstar’s founders—Jim McCarthy, Rich
Webster, and Robert Graff—did not start out wealthy, nor did they possess assets to leverage
seed money to launch their venture. As a result, they had to bootstrap for whatever resources
were required to get their company started; and that is exactly what they did.
Their bootstrapping efforts included pooling a small initial sum of money ($1,000) from their
Instructor Resource
Neck, Entrepreneurship, 1e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Sample Answers to Case Questions
1. What kind of bootstrapping strategies did the Goldstar co–founders use to start their
business?
Sample answer: First, they also acquired quality educations and great professional
experiences that afforded them with fine-tuned critical thinking abilities and other
2. What kinds of bootstrapping strategies did they not use?
3. How might the co-founders have utilized crowdfunding to further bolster their initial
seed capital?
Sample answer: They might have experimented with crowdfunding or crowdsourcing on
4. What risks does an entrepreneur take by bootstrapping for resources instead of
securing seed capital?
5. What risks does an entrepreneur take by securing seed capital instead of bootstrapping
for resources?