I'm curious what the criteria is for "highly successful".
It might be too much to ask, but I wish I could see/know revenue or profit for all the companies on the list–especially the freemium ones.
Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
51–60 of 69 posts
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#52Bootstrapped startup owner here... I am of the opinion that if a business on the Web needs millions of dollars to get off the ground, then it's probably a business that isn't worth getting off the ground. I realize that there are exceptions and there are ideas that need funding to get going, but the whole incestious culture of venture capitalists, investors, and startup idea owners often doesn't foster real innovatio…
I couldn't agree with you more; it doesn't take millions to build an innovative product that actually helps people. Of course you'll run into hugely successful companies like Gilt that require significant upfront capital, but no real innovation is going on there. Yes they have a great business model and great execution going on, but if your mindset is that you need millions to go after a big idea, you're probably thinking the wrong way.
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#53The media needs the sports-like entertainment that lives inside startups to sell their stories, don't get upset because these other successful businesses are not talked about all the time, they just are not that mainstream and IMO some people don't like the attention, so they go low profile and still are extremely successful, just like you know someone did something great at some point that changed your life, and you never got to know who did it.
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the companies you've never heard of are the most interesting of all, in some ways. It means that "being famous" isn't part and parcel of their success. 37signals, while being a good group of people, seem to have found success in a way that I'm not sure is as easy to repeat as some of those companies that just crank away doing their thing and making their money without needing a hugely followed blog, books, we…
Fair point about 37signals, but remember they didn't start with the popular blog, books, and framework. it took years to get to that point. Everyone starts somewhere. That said, I've noticed some of the advice (mostly about marketing) doesn't really apply when you're just starting out.
This is where we started: http://37signals.com/manifesto
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#5537signals? :-)
Although they were bootstrapped for a while, they ended up accepting a private investment from Jeff Bezos (mainly to get Jeff as an advisor). So, I'm not sure if we can call them truly bootstrapped anymore.
For the record: That money wasn't used to fund operations. 100% of operations have always been funded by customer-generate revenues.
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#56I'd add MutualMobile. They are the largest mobile consulting and services firm in the market and straight out of Austin UT, started in a college dorm.
Self-funding is pretty much the default for consulting companies, because all you're doing initially is collecting an hourly that you theoretically could have collected working for some other consulting company or going to work for someone FT.
Consulting is also a common way of bootstrapping a company (see Joel on Software for his history of starting Fog Creek this way), because you use consulting revenue to keep the company afloat while working on an actual product in any time you have left over. The goal is to grow the product to where you can build a revenue base from it and wean the company off of consulting revenues.
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#57Hmm. Let's see. We're AirBnB. After 4 months of bootstrapping by selling Obama-O's, do we take $20K from YC? Of course! It's YC, and we can still bootstrap if we want. After a few more months, do we take $600K from Sequoia and another firm, and let rapacious VCs into our tent? Well, we're hungry because the Obama-O's ran out, so OK. The next year, do we let Ron Conway and Ashton Kutcher(!) and others give us $7.2M more? Tough decision--we can control everything and have a nice, small business like--what was that highly successful company? Carbonmade--and bring in $1M in revenues a year, 100% ours, or give up a third of the business for seven times that. What to do, what to do? We cave in to The Man and take the $7.2M. What, you seriously wouldn't want to hang with Ashton and Demi? Another year goes by and Mark Andreessen and Jeff Bezos want to join in with a crazy Russian and give us $112 million for another 10%. No way! This kind of offer insults our bootstrapping dignity. Besides, if we're highly successful like Carbonmade, we could make that much in 112 years on our own and keep 100% of it, after expenses. But we sell out anyway, at a billion-dollar valuation. We might each get a few hundred million with a successful IPO, but it's just not worth it compared to the satisfaction we could have if we owned 100% of a million-dollar company. Paul Graham must be ashamed of us. We drown our sorrows in an apartment in Saint-Tropez that we rented through AirBnB with Ashton and Demi. Bruce Willis stops by to say, "What's with the sad face, boys?" He's not as tall as we expected. We give him a glass of absinthe. The Mediterranean sun is not unpleasant.
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'm curious: does the term "bootstrapped" apply only to how you begin the business, or to the entire history? I tend to read it that way, but I can see where others might disagree.
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#59Surprised no one's mentioned Atlassian - started by two guys in their garage with $10,000 and now earning over $100 million in revenue per year. More info here: http://blogs.atlassian.com/news/2009/02/from_startup_to.html
It actually says "$100 million in all time sales." Which means that they had sold $100 million worth of software since the time the company was founded. Still impressive, but very different than $100 million in revenue per year.
Re: Highly Successful Bootstrapped Startups
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it a lack of coverage or just strategically staying under the radar? I think the lopsided press coverage of VC-backed vs. bootstrapped makes sense when you think about the incentives: VCs are focused on liquidity events (acquisition, IPO), so their startups might aim to be in the tech press and divulge details about revenue, growth, etc in an effort to pump up their valuations. If you run a profitable bootstrapped…
"If you run a profitable bootstrapped company and you are reaching your customers, why speak to the tech press and discuss your financials? It would attract competition and I can't think of any upside." I don't know about disclosing financial details, but the answer to the rest of your question is ego. Many people succumb easily to the desire for social recognition, even at the cost of strategic advantage. Speaking f…
It's fair to say validation and feedback from peers is a valid reason too, not just ego.