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How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

myclean.com

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Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#81

Post by modarts »

marcamillion wrote: post #69

I love this story. This is also why I bristle when many in the Valley - PG included - keep disparaging non-technical people when they want to start a tech company. I never understood this. For a group of people (programmers) that presumably have been ostracized, shunned, and picked on in their formative years, why do so many in the valley do this to 'MBAs'. It's ignorant at best. The fact is, as has been shown time a…

I think a lot of the disparagement comes mainly from interactions many of us have with a lot of these types of individuals.

A lot of the time the "MBAs" place an overemphasis on the ideas themselves being more important than the ability to execute on them from a technical perspective (although i'd have to say that a lot of developers may have the reverse disposition)

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#82

Post by ThomPete »

marcamillion wrote: post #75
ThomPete wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe it's the MBA but rather the experience people have that make them able to do run a successful company. MBAs aren't making you a good businessman anymore than studying philosophy is making you a good philosopher. You still need the experience and the insights in order to create something like this. But I wholeheartedly agree that you don't need to be a technical co-founder to do a company like this. Ho…

Well...my point was simply that there is no silver bullet other than a dogged will to get it done. There are many brilliant programmers who will never build a sustainable business because they just don't have the will to get it done. Likewise, there are many MBAs that will be middle management in LargeCo. all their lives for the same reason. It has become Valley lore that u need to be a geek to build a successful bus…

I think it has become the lore that you need to be a geek to build a successful software business.

There are always exceptions.

With regards to MBA's is there any evidence that getting one makes people more sucessful in their careers?

I know it helps if you already have a job to climb the ladder, but I don't think there is much in an MBA that isn't covered in a book like "The Personal MBA" and isn't much you will learn the hard way that isn't covered by starting your own company or joining a startup.

But each to their own.

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#83

Post by marcamillion »

modarts wrote: post #81
marcamillion wrote: post #69

I love this story. This is also why I bristle when many in the Valley - PG included - keep disparaging non-technical people when they want to start a tech company. I never understood this. For a group of people (programmers) that presumably have been ostracized, shunned, and picked on in their formative years, why do so many in the valley do this to 'MBAs'. It's ignorant at best. The fact is, as has been shown time a…

I think a lot of the disparagement comes mainly from interactions many of us have with a lot of these types of individuals. A lot of the time the "MBAs" place an overemphasis on the ideas themselves being more important than the ability to execute on them from a technical perspective (although i'd have to say that a lot of developers may have the reverse disposition)

I understand where it comes from - but that doesn't justify it.

The focus should be on the issue - i.e. people focusing on ideas and less on execution - rather than an archetype.

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#84

Post by mkbrody »

medell wrote: post #63
orangethirty wrote: post #22

This is a classic case of removing purchase friction. There is a market that wants to hire cleaners. There are cleaners who want to be hired. The traditional way of hiring a cleaner or finding a cleaning job requires a lot of effort on both parties. myclean.com goes ahead and reduces that friction with a website. They allow both parties to meet without issue. No wonder they are doing well. Now, can you do this too? Y…

Thanks for sharing what worked and what didn't, especially the part about bringing on in-house cleaners. My friend's cleaners are all word of mouth immigrants who likely aren't insured or bonded, but your service solves a problem. Way to hustle and use tech in a non-glamorous industry to solve a make people's lives easier!

You're welcome Medell. If your friends live in the NYC area we'd love to clean for them! Our rates are competitive with certain "off the books" cleaners and we are fully insured and bonded. We'd be happy to offer a $25 first time credit as well. Have them reach out to us at contact@myclean.com.

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#86

Post by mkbrody »

jeremyarussell wrote: post #55
orangethirty wrote: post #22

This is a classic case of removing purchase friction. There is a market that wants to hire cleaners. There are cleaners who want to be hired. The traditional way of hiring a cleaner or finding a cleaning job requires a lot of effort on both parties. myclean.com goes ahead and reduces that friction with a website. They allow both parties to meet without issue. No wonder they are doing well. Now, can you do this too? Y…

Hopefully they'll fix the blog thing when they roll out the new site. You're right though, linking to the main site is generally what someone naturally expects a logo to do.

Hello Jeremyarussell, all of this will be fixed on the new site. Launching in just a few weeks!

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#87

Post by mkbrody »

clientbiller wrote: post #48
orangethirty wrote: post #22

This is a classic case of removing purchase friction. There is a market that wants to hire cleaners. There are cleaners who want to be hired. The traditional way of hiring a cleaner or finding a cleaning job requires a lot of effort on both parties. myclean.com goes ahead and reduces that friction with a website. They allow both parties to meet without issue. No wonder they are doing well. Now, can you do this too? Y…

Logo links to the blog because that is the blog your reading. I clicked it too thinking it would take me to the site.

Sorry clientbiller, here's the site: https://www.myclean.com/

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#88

Post by at-fates-hands »

>>>>"choosing to focus on their strengths instead of role-playing Steve Jobs paid off."

This a thousand times.

Too many times I've heard founders bragging to me about how awesome their website looks while completely missing how crappy the user experience is which is driving away business. Good to hear these guys really focused on the core of the business and what made it great.

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#89

Post by mkbrody »

cpeterso wrote: post #77

There is no link from myclean.com/blog to the myclean.com home page. To read more about the company's services, I had to manually enter "myclean.com" in my address bar. Even the "© Copyright 2013 - MyClean.com" footer links the text "MyClean.com" to myclean.com/blog!

https://www.myclean.com/ Thanks!

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#90

Post by marcamillion »

ThomPete wrote: post #82
marcamillion wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well...my point was simply that there is no silver bullet other than a dogged will to get it done. There are many brilliant programmers who will never build a sustainable business because they just don't have the will to get it done. Likewise, there are many MBAs that will be middle management in LargeCo. all their lives for the same reason. It has become Valley lore that u need to be a geek to build a successful bus…

I think it has become the lore that you need to be a geek to build a successful software business. There are always exceptions. With regards to MBA's is there any evidence that getting one makes people more sucessful in their careers? I know it helps if you already have a job to climb the ladder, but I don't think there is much in an MBA that isn't covered in a book like "The Personal MBA" and isn't much you will lea…

So...I guess I disagree with the premise. There is no single educational achievement that anyone can get that will single-handedly assure success in their career.

Have there been many success stories of people with MBAs? Yes. Have there been many success stories of people with law /medicine/accounting degrees? Yes. Do each of those guarantee success. Hells no.

Does an education guarantee success? No. The only thing that guarantees success is determination to be successful.

For me...my MBA taught me how the world works. It is surprising how few people understand how it truly works - yet they speak as if they know. For that single achievement alone, I would encourage everyone to get an MBA. That being said, does that mean that everyone that gets an MBA understands the world? No. I think it was more my finance/economics slant that did that.

Even still...does everybody with those slants achieve the results I did? Absolutely not.

So as I said.....it's not about the single data point that will make you a success - it's more than that. Survivor's bias (not sure if that is the correct term here) does lead people to link the two - i.e. the people that are more likely to be successful are the ones that are more likely to get a degree like that.

That being said...all people who get those degrees won't be "successful" and all successful people won't have those degrees.

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