Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups • Hacker News Board

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#21

Post by webwright » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:15 PM UTC

davidw wrote: post #10

diolpah wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those of us who are running profitable bootstrapped companies tend to put less effort into getting our name in the tech or business press. It is more important that we get our name into the minds of our customers, as our cash flow does not come from Sand Hill Road. So, this lack of coverage should come as no surprise.

That's something I've been wrestling with lately. LiberWriter has started to turn a profit, and I'm wondering if I should copy Balsamiq's transparency / blog posts about early success. In some ways I'd like to, because publicity should help a bit in any case, but getting on HN really isn't going to get us any new customers.

If SEO is a meaningful part of your marketing strategy, then you should invest time in getting links. Linkbait on HN and elsewhere is a good path for this... Though you'd obviously be better served getting links from places where your customers spend their time, that's not always available/easy.

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#22

Post by g-garron » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:19 PM UTC

The great thing about not having to report to investors, is that you can focus on your job, and on your product. You do not have to focus on profit (provided you can afford living with low income).

I love the story behind GitHub, they managed to live to a few bucks, and with patience all their effort is paying themselves, not having to share their effort with others.

Congratulations to those guys behind those Bootstrapped Startups.

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#23

Post by fbuilesv » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:21 PM UTC

Some of you might already know about this, but 37Signals produces a series called Bootstrapped, Profitable & Proud where they interview bootstrapped companies with more than 1M in revenues.

You can see a list of interviewed companies at: http://37signals.com/bootstrapped

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#24

Post by jonpaul » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:26 PM UTC

fbuilesv wrote: post #23

Some of you might already know about this, but 37Signals produces a series called Bootstrapped, Profitable & Proud where they interview bootstrapped companies with more than 1M in revenues. You can see a list of interviewed companies at: http://37signals.com/bootstrapped

I really enjoy this series and they do a good job of writing about the companies. However, I don't think it's fair to call companies that took an angel investment as being "bootstrapped." What does the rest of HN think? Is that being pedantic? Please share your thoughts.

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#25

Post by 3am » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:31 PM UTC

jonpaul wrote: post #24

fbuilesv wrote: post #23

Some of you might already know about this, but 37Signals produces a series called Bootstrapped, Profitable & Proud where they interview bootstrapped companies with more than 1M in revenues. You can see a list of interviewed companies at: http://37signals.com/bootstrapped

I really enjoy this series and they do a good job of writing about the companies. However, I don't think it's fair to call companies that took an angel investment as being "bootstrapped." What does the rest of HN think? Is that being pedantic? Please share your thoughts.

I don't think it's pedantic. I read bootstrapped to being self-funded by either the founders money and/or cash flow.

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#26

Post by MicahWedemeyer » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:32 PM UTC

diolpah wrote: post #8

vaksel wrote: post #5

half of them I never even heard of...just goes to show the lack of coverage for self funded companies

Those of us who are running profitable bootstrapped companies tend to put less effort into getting our name in the tech or business press. It is more important that we get our name into the minds of our customers, as our cash flow does not come from Sand Hill Road. So, this lack of coverage should come as no surprise.

+1000 on this. It took me a long time to realize, but I can either spend my time trying to be a big deal in the tech blogosphere, or try to engage with my actual customers.

If HN users aren't your customer base, then coverage in TC or HN frontpage will do nothing for you. It may stroke your ego, but it won't pad your pocketbook.

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#27

Post by ditojim » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:40 PM UTC

bootstrapping makes your scrappy. the success is ever sweater when you did it yourself.

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#28

Post by sixtofour » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:45 PM UTC

jswinghammer wrote: post #14

davidw wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's something I've been wrestling with lately. LiberWriter has started to turn a profit, and I'm wondering if I should copy Balsamiq's transparency / blog posts about early success. In some ways I'd like to, because publicity should help a bit in any case, but getting on HN really isn't going to get us any new customers.

I would say don't do it. I'm in a similar position (profitable company with an interesting back-story) and it seems like a bad idea to start giving out your personal financial details to the world.

But there's probably an interesting middle ground.

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#29

Post by davidw » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 3:46 PM UTC

jswinghammer wrote: post #11

vaksel wrote: post #5

half of them I never even heard of...just goes to show the lack of coverage for self funded companies

Right but in many cases the companies don't really want to share their revenue numbers. It's sort of saying to people who would like to compete here is how little it cost to build, how much people have been willing to pay, and how big of a win starting this business would be. I don't really see myself talking about revenue numbers for my company. Not sure how I benefit from it besides the ego and status boost which i…

Certainly good points. A counterpoint might be patio11's bingo card thing. If there's anything where "I could build that in a weekend!", it's something like that. I'm not sure if the publicity here helped his bingo business at all, but it doesn't seem to have killed it either, and it certainly opened up other profitable avenues for him.

Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups

#30

Post by ddon » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 4:03 PM UTC

Fotki.com never got funded, always were profitable and we are online for 13 years now. And I agree that bootstrapped companies mostly do not get covered by the press. When we did talk to the press in the last 13 years, one of question they ask is who are our investors, and when we tell them that we had no investors, their tone would change, and then they would loose interest, or just mention once about us somewhere at the end of the article :)