Haresh Bhungalia is the CEO of Casepoint , a technology company focused on solving for data and business workflow challenges. In 2023, global startup funding dried up, reaching its lowest number in five years . This forced many startups to close their doors—pushing thousands of employees out the door with a pink slip and stalling late-stage exit strategies. 2024 isn't expected to be much different; venture capital investment is likely to remain muted in the face of still-high interest rates and an uncertain economic outlook. Early-stage or late-stage, it's a risky time to build a company. However, that shouldn't be a surprise to serious entrepreneurs. It's always a risky time; the current VC drought is just another challenge for startups to solve. As an entrepreneur who has founded and built (and sold) multiple companies, I know it's possible to build, fund and grow a technology company in a way that fosters long-term resilience and durability. Your startup can navigate the impossible—whether it be a lack of funding, a pandemic, an overcrowded market or a product-market fallout. You can nurture the adaptability, nimbleness and agility required to survive the ebbs and flows and stand the test of time. Choose Your Funding Path Carefully Relying on VC isn't the only way to fund a company. Bootstrapping or taking small investments from angel investors along the way can often be more appropriate for steady, sustainable growth—especially right now with the volatility of VC. Bootstrapping offers early autonomy; you don't have to show returns by a set date, cater to investor preferences or spend time preparing for board meetings. Without balance sheet stress, you can concentrate on product fit opportunity and scalability, forging a stronger foundation for the future. If you're entering a crowded market, for example, you can spend this time getting really clear on what your core differentiator is to better market your product. Without VC oversight, you'll have more control over decision-making and the opportunity to really get to know your people—making it easier to navigate challenges and drive culture over time. Of course, VC also has its benefits (resources to hire, access to expertise, the opportunity to move and win quickly), but it's important to remember it's not the only option. Focus On Product-Market Fit Getting to product-market fit quickly can be the difference between success or failure, especially when bootstrapping since you need a product that starts making money as soon as possible. Your goal during those early days should be to spend time seriously engaging with your customer base. What keeps them up at night? What specific challenges are they struggling with? What is their core problem statement? Take a close look at their workflows and the bottlenecks that hold them back; look for recurring themes and build a product roadmap around them. Remember to talk to as many customers and prospects as possible for a diversity of opinion. If you define your ideal customer profile (ICP) too narrowly, your product may not be viable in the long run. Once you've found a fit, that doesn't mean the work is over. Staying viable over time demands constant vigilance for the way your product is situated in the market and how customers are responding. Looking out for the signals of product-market fallout—customer churn, negative reviews, prospects dropping from the sales funnel, to name a few—and taking meaningful action against those indicators will help you adjust, evolve and keep your doors open. Pivot When Necessary On that note, another key to startup viability is remaining genuinely open to the ways customers can push and shape the product—even if it takes you in a completely new direction. This customer-first mindset is crucial for adaptability and identifying new opportunities. If certain customers are finding success on your platform even though they fall outside your ICP, perhaps it's time to pay closer attention to that audience and start tweaking your product direction—especially if it opens up larger revenue streams and growth opportunities. Take Shopify, for example. Its founders originally built the product to sell snowboards online but soon realized that their real customers weren't snowboarders; they were people who wanted to easily set up an online shop too. They pivoted and started selling a customizable, online storefront builder instead, becoming profitable two years after launching. It can be extremely difficult to make decisions like these, particularly when you've been building one thing, one way, for one customer for so long. However, being open to change and responsive to customer needs can make all the difference when it comes to survival. Practice Agile Leadership Leading a startup through product pivots and an endless stream of obstacles demands a special kind of leadership that's flexible, humble and transparent. Agile leaders empower the company to make decisions in the face of uncertainty and take pointed action with incomplete information. During a crisis, they ground themselves in their core values and connect them directly to that of the company, creating the conditions necessary for calm collaboration and decision-making. These are the voices that help startups make tough decisions quickly, like whether it's time to replatform to next-generation technology or time to market to a new audience. Agile leaders do what's right—even when no one's looking—because they know that's what will help the startup prosper in the long term. That means, for example, they make sure the company stays compliant when it comes to taxes, HR and data privacy decisions. They also work tirelessly to build trust and ensure that honest, direct communication flows throughout the business. They operate from a human place and seek out meaningful ways to connect, perhaps inviting the team over for a meal or taking one-on-ones offline over a cup of coffee. To develop your leadership agility, it's important to become a lifelong learner—to get genuinely curious, eager to explore ideas and unafraid to reflect and make changes when things go wrong. You'll also need to practice humility when it comes to customer and employee feedback, keeping an open mind so you can make better decisions informed by their critical perspectives. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?