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Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

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Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#41

Post by replicatorblog »

lynnetye wrote: post #31
replicatorblog wrote: post #11

I'm one of the authors of this post and plan on releasing an updated version with some companies that we missed on the first pass. If you know of other substantial startups that went far before raising capital, please let me know: JoeFlaherty@FounderCollective. The current list of misses includes: + Grammarly + 37 Signals/Basecamp + Zip Recruiter + Outcome Health + Wistia Who else?

i'm sure you've seen the interviews on indiehackers.com, but there are many more bootstrapped companies on their way up! many to watch out for.

For sure! IndieHackers is great and I hope to include many of those companies in the future. What we were trying to do was show that you could build big and substantial businesses. Too many people dismiss bootstrapping as a way to build lifestyle businesses when in fact it's a way to build public companies.

In some cases we featured some companies that had $10M+ revenues and extraordinary success in PR (Cards Against Humanity) or found some cool funding method (e.g. Kickstarter and CMON). LMK if there are any IndieHacker interviews you think deserve inclusion.

Thanks!

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#42

Post by replicatorblog »

cr0sh wrote: post #38

Isn't this the way companies, until fairly recently, have always been started and grown? Basically, come up with an idea/product, reach around to back pocket (or into your purse) and fund it ad-hoc. That, or take out a loan or such. It seems like this was the way things were always done - until fairly recently. It seems like things changed sometime around the early 1990s. I tend to wonder if this had anything to do w…

The birth of VC as an asset class is generally considered to be in the mid-1940s and created by Harvard Professor George Doriot. The early employees of Fairchild Semiconductor built on the model in the 1960 and helped give birth to Silicon Valley. You're are correct that VC moved into the popular psyche in the 1990s in the run-up to the dot-com boom.

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#43

Post by werber »

triangleman wrote: post #35
ssharp wrote: post #8

> Wayfair: The home goods e-commerce company was profitable from its first month of operation because they skipped brand advertising and bought up hundreds of domain names that were exact matches for common search terms. I remember buying a TV stand from TVStands.com about a decade ago.

So, how did they convert all those sites over to wayfair.com without losing a lot of Google link juice?

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-behind-wayfair-2014...

I don't know how they paired it down and maintained their google magic, but their sister sites (AllModern, Joss&Main, etc) work pretty seamlessly with Wayfair

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#44

Post by replicatorblog »

dclusin wrote: post #37
replicatorblog wrote: post #11

I'm one of the authors of this post and plan on releasing an updated version with some companies that we missed on the first pass. If you know of other substantial startups that went far before raising capital, please let me know: JoeFlaherty@FounderCollective. The current list of misses includes: + Grammarly + 37 Signals/Basecamp + Zip Recruiter + Outcome Health + Wistia Who else?

Valve

Great call!

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#45

Post by inthewoods »

triangleman wrote: post #35
ssharp wrote: post #8

> Wayfair: The home goods e-commerce company was profitable from its first month of operation because they skipped brand advertising and bought up hundreds of domain names that were exact matches for common search terms. I remember buying a TV stand from TVStands.com about a decade ago.

So, how did they convert all those sites over to wayfair.com without losing a lot of Google link juice?

I actually had a chance to ask one of the co-founders about this very subject as I was working on a similar, albeit it much smaller, problem.

Their approach: suck it up and take it. Literally, they did almost nothing special and followed standard techniques. The result was a dip in search results and revenue, but that was expected and part of their plan for moving to a single brand.

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#46

Post by [deleted] »

triangleman wrote: post #35
ssharp wrote: post #8

> Wayfair: The home goods e-commerce company was profitable from its first month of operation because they skipped brand advertising and bought up hundreds of domain names that were exact matches for common search terms. I remember buying a TV stand from TVStands.com about a decade ago.

So, how did they convert all those sites over to wayfair.com without losing a lot of Google link juice?

[deleted]

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#47

Post by inthewoods »

ssharp wrote: post #8

> Wayfair: The home goods e-commerce company was profitable from its first month of operation because they skipped brand advertising and bought up hundreds of domain names that were exact matches for common search terms. I remember buying a TV stand from TVStands.com about a decade ago.

The Wayfair founders also had made millions on selling their internet services firm to a company called iXL years before - so they had the money to fund the venture.

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#49

Post by dvt »

dclusin wrote: post #37
replicatorblog wrote: post #11

I'm one of the authors of this post and plan on releasing an updated version with some companies that we missed on the first pass. If you know of other substantial startups that went far before raising capital, please let me know: JoeFlaherty@FounderCollective. The current list of misses includes: + Grammarly + 37 Signals/Basecamp + Zip Recruiter + Outcome Health + Wistia Who else?

Valve

Valve was founded by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, both of whom had a 7-figure net worths because of MS shares. I'm not sure if it really counts.

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#50

Post by [deleted] »

cr0sh wrote: post #38

Isn't this the way companies, until fairly recently, have always been started and grown? Basically, come up with an idea/product, reach around to back pocket (or into your purse) and fund it ad-hoc. That, or take out a loan or such. It seems like this was the way things were always done - until fairly recently. It seems like things changed sometime around the early 1990s. I tend to wonder if this had anything to do w…

[deleted]
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