Getting VC funding does not mean you are a success. Most VC funded companies fail. To have a real business, to be a real entrepreneur (not just a power point sales guy), you actually need to make sure income > cost and you need to actually grow the business. Not just fund growth with VC money until it runs out.
Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
111–120 of 121 posts
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#112Does Wizards of the Coast count? :P
Wizards of the Coast was bootstrapped from a basement.
Curiously, they're now a wholly owned subsidiary of Hasbro, which was also bootstrapped -- in 1923.
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I definitely have my issues with David Rose, I am floored that you think this business had a "clear path" to a large business. They are essentially trying to become a web portal for every service imaginable, but need $2M to build a website to do this? There are just too many red flags. I don't understand what you see here.
By no surprising coincidence, you've written nearly an exact quote from a VC in the alternative universe mentioned in my first paragraph. After the engineer was turned down, another VC happens to say to him: >[To the engineer from 2117:] While I definitely have my issues with David Rose, I am floored that you think your business has a "clear path" to a large business. >You are essentially trying to completely replace…
Reasoning from imaginary evidence.
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
A bunch of capitalists who have norms against competition. Cool.
Read with a critical eye as I, obviously, wasn't present: in this case it seems likely the Financial Advisor screwed up or simply misunderstood the industry. "Shopping the deal" is only anathema if you've signed a term sheet. Many companies receive/solicit multiple term sheets and accept their favorite.
Or perhaps the Financial Advisor was also a friend or advisor to the venture capitalist, hence if they got them a really good deal they would have solid well paid work for the next few years.
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks fine to me on a galaxy s8+
I could be wrong, but I doubt that "recent" phone would be a referring to anything near a flagship phone's specs. You're what, 8 cores and 4GB ram? They still sell single core phones with less than a gig of ram.
Worked fine for me with a 100$ China phone too
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#116I'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?
Crutchfield. A company that has been around a bit longer than some of the other ones on this list, but one that has stayed relevant in electronics since the 1970s despite its lack of initial capital investments. Grew by leveraging direct sales to customers through mailed catalogs, even claims to be the first company to sell consumer electronics online circa 1995. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crutchfield_Corporation
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to take away anything from the incredible achievements of autodesk, but $60,000 in 1982 was roughly $155,000 today. That's a non-trivial amount of cash to be able to dump into starting a company.
Really? That's less than the cost for opening most franchises.
Add to that: working your ass of for pennies for the first year or so...
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
By no surprising coincidence, you've written nearly an exact quote from a VC in the alternative universe mentioned in my first paragraph. After the engineer was turned down, another VC happens to say to him: >[To the engineer from 2117:] While I definitely have my issues with David Rose, I am floored that you think your business has a "clear path" to a large business. >You are essentially trying to completely replace…
Reasoning from imaginary evidence.
yes. powerful technique.
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read with a critical eye as I, obviously, wasn't present: in this case it seems likely the Financial Advisor screwed up or simply misunderstood the industry. "Shopping the deal" is only anathema if you've signed a term sheet. Many companies receive/solicit multiple term sheets and accept their favorite.
Or perhaps the Financial Advisor was also a friend or advisor to the venture capitalist, hence if they got them a really good deal they would have solid well paid work for the next few years.
While possible this doesn't feel likely to me (not that my feelings have any bearing on what actually happened). It would be a breach of fiduciary duty, or at least compromised advice if the advisor wasn't a fiduciary.
Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money
#120Adafruit: $33M revenue is not "earns" $33M. Could be running at a loss for all we know.
adafruit is not running at a loss, we've always been profitable. we have no loans, no vc, no outside funding in any way, 2017 might be about $50m in revenue or so, we'll see!