diff --git a/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/components/__tests__/angular-slickgrid.component.spec.ts b/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/components/__tests__/angular-slickgrid.component.spec.ts
index ea609ae2a..5d6755c71 100644
--- a/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/components/__tests__/angular-slickgrid.component.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/components/__tests__/angular-slickgrid.component.spec.ts
@@ -454,13 +454,14 @@ describe('Angular-Slickgrid Custom Component instantiated via Constructor', () =
     expect(component.gridOptions.enableMouseWheelScrollHandler).toBeTrue();
   });
 
-  it('should throw an error when [gridOptions] and/or [columnDefinitions] is undefined', (done) => {
+  it('should throw an error when [columnDefinitions] is undefined', (done) => {
     try {
-      component.gridOptions = undefined as any;
+      component.columnDefinitions = '' as any;
+      component.gridOptions = gridOptions;
       component.ngAfterViewInit();
       component.dataset = [];
     } catch (e: any) {
-      expect(e.toString()).toContain('Using `<angular-slickgrid>` requires [gridOptions] and [columnDefinitions]');
+      expect(e.toString()).toContain('Using `<angular-slickgrid>` requires [columnDefinitions]');
       component.destroy();
       done();
     }
diff --git a/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/components/angular-slickgrid.component.ts b/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/components/angular-slickgrid.component.ts
index 275068586..715a8cab4 100644
--- a/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/components/angular-slickgrid.component.ts
+++ b/src/app/modules/angular-slickgrid/components/angular-slickgrid.component.ts
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ export class AngularSlickgridComponent<TData = any> implements AfterViewInit, On
 
   @Input() customDataView: any;
   @Input() gridId = '';
-  @Input() gridOptions!: GridOption;
+  @Input() gridOptions: GridOption = {};
 
   @Input()
   get paginationOptions(): Pagination | undefined {
@@ -359,8 +359,8 @@ export class AngularSlickgridComponent<TData = any> implements AfterViewInit, On
   }
 
   ngAfterViewInit() {
-    if (!this.gridOptions || !this.columnDefinitions) {
-      throw new Error('Using `<angular-slickgrid>` requires [gridOptions] and [columnDefinitions], it seems that you might have forgot to provide them since at least of them is undefined.');
+    if (!this.columnDefinitions) {
+      throw new Error('Using `<angular-slickgrid>` requires [columnDefinitions], it seems that you might have forgot to provide the missing bindable input.');
     }
 
     this.initialization(this._eventHandler);
@@ -424,8 +424,10 @@ export class AngularSlickgridComponent<TData = any> implements AfterViewInit, On
       }
       this.backendServiceApi = undefined;
     }
-    for (const prop of Object.keys(this.columnDefinitions)) {
-      (this.columnDefinitions as any)[prop] = null;
+    if (this.columnDefinitions) {
+      for (const prop of Object.keys(this.columnDefinitions)) {
+        (this.columnDefinitions as any)[prop] = null;
+      }
     }
     for (const prop of Object.keys(this.sharedService)) {
       (this.sharedService as any)[prop] = null;
@@ -459,7 +461,7 @@ export class AngularSlickgridComponent<TData = any> implements AfterViewInit, On
   }
 
   emptyGridContainerElm() {
-    const gridContainerId = this.gridOptions?.gridContainerId ?? 'grid1';
+    const gridContainerId = this.gridOptions?.gridContainerId || 'grid1';
     const gridContainerElm = document.querySelector(`#${gridContainerId}`);
     emptyElement(gridContainerElm);
   }
@@ -502,7 +504,7 @@ export class AngularSlickgridComponent<TData = any> implements AfterViewInit, On
     this._eventPubSubService.publish('onBeforeGridCreate', true);
 
     // make sure the dataset is initialized (if not it will throw an error that it cannot getLength of null)
-    this._dataset = this._dataset || [];
+    this._dataset ||= [];
     this.gridOptions = this.mergeGridOptions(this.gridOptions);
     this._paginationOptions = this.gridOptions?.pagination;
     this.locales = this.gridOptions?.locales ?? Constants.locales;