There is lots to be said here dealing with grooming in a Startup School in comparison to a bootstrapped Startup. There are many advantages and disadvantages in both cases. The advantage in a Venture Capitalists invested startup is market dominance and guidance. The advantage in a bootstrapped startup is freedom. While learning about Sales cycles for my latest book, The Sales Book, I examined the writing style of Paul Graham, from YCombinator. A brilliant writer and a teacher, who the whole startup community highly respects. His placement of I, We, You, Me and Yours was beautifully placed in the writings. The effort is really to get your startup team ready, to face the real world. All the tools and techniques required. However, I realized as a bootstrapped startup, we are passed that. We are more interested in real customers, for example, Ali Baba splitting with Chinese Government, and the benefits it provides. So in this case, we will have to dive a little deeper into our own business - Look deeper ourselves, and find meaningful connections, and bring them back to the startup community.