As you probably know by now, AppSignal, the company I co-founded, raised $22 million in a Series A not too long ago. Overnight, I was no longer the bootstrapper I had proudly identified as since 1998. Enter cognitive dissonance.

For years, whenever someone asked about AppSignal’s origins, I would share how we built the company without any outside investment. That detail wasn’t just trivia; it was a point of pride. We were one of the few. A rare breed. The realization that we had now joined the ranks of the funded, “just like the others,” hit me harder than expected. It led to a strange sense of cognitive dissonance, like a small, deeply rooted part of my identity had shifted.

Although we had grown AppSignal to serve over 2,000 customers, signing the final paperwork made me feel uncomfortable, almost like I had betrayed myself. I thought back to when Thijs and I each invested €1,000 of our own money in 2002. That humble start grew into a hosting and consulting business, which in turn evolved into a thriving, multi-million-euro SaaS company. That journey has always been something I’ve been immensely proud of. And even though raising money shouldn’t diminish that in any way, it felt like it did.

Now we had joined the crowd; those faceless giants that IPO and seem increasingly distant from the communities they once served. Would this funding magically transform us into one of them? Would we lose touch with what made us different?

It took time and soul-searching, but eventually, I realized that raising funds doesn’t mean abandoning our principles. Being bootstrapped might no longer describe our funding model, but it can still define our values.

We can still choose resourcefulness over excess, continue thinking in years instead of quarters, favor simplicity over bloat, and, most importantly, remain relentlessly focused on serving our customers.

Being funded doesn’t erase where we came from. It gives us the means to scale what we believe in. It shouldn’t be the end of our bootstrapped identity, but a new chapter. And we’re writing it our way.