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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

#111
post #14
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

We're building a company in a similar, but different space ( http://www.massagejoyspa.com : in home and office massage therapy), and I'd love to spend 15 minutes on the phone with you picking your brain - can you add a contact email on your HN account, or shoot me an email at lexsebro@stanford.edu? Thanks!

Are you the person who runs this site? I think it could be streamlined a lot; there is just so much information on the front page. Who's really going to read all of that?

Also, I'm not seeing any FavIcon and the Lobster icon just doesn't resonate with me at all. Joy is a really powerful word, but it just gets lost in your typeface logo.

Just some friendly advice.

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

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

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 sounds like quite a claim. Can you shed some lights on how the world works from an MBA's perspective?

Well...I can't speak from an "MBA's" perspective, because there isn't 1 MBA perspective.

In terms of the way the world works, I can say that politicians are not in the business of running the world the way it should be run - they are in the business of politicking.

It has become fanciful in the last decade or so, to blame bankers, wall street, the 1%, capitalism, etc. for all the worlds ills - but that's just not the case.

Politicians (many who I support also) are just as guilty.

Here is 1 truism that no politician of a heavily indebted country will say - bond markets are dead right.

If they demand a higher yield on a country's debt - it isn't because there are some "nefarious speculators" trying to make bank off of the demise of the poor people in that country. It's because the stupid policymakers and politician s have fleeced the country, the affairs are not in order and in order for them (bond market investors) to lend to your country in the crappy state it is in, they charge more than they will charge to lend to the US Treasury, Germany, etc.

Likewise, if the bond markets are showing very low yields to America despite all the rhetoric of America's economy in shambles and the debt-to-GDP ratio being too high at 90% - clearly something else is at work and the situation is not as bad as it seems. Financial markets are forward looking indicators - and by all indications, as a general rule, when it comes to properly (and easily) communicating what is TRULY happening with the state's finances, they tend to be spot on.

The issue is that politicians hate it because bond markets show up their lies and untruths. So they blame 'wreckless speculators' and tax bankers. When half of the time, the investors that are wrecking their bond yields are not even BANKERS!

But...it sounds good in a newsbyte because people like to believe conspiracy stories about the wealthy bankers that are enslaving the masses with interest on debt.

The fact is, debt, equity financing & capitalism in general have been the best mechanisms for growth, poverty reduction and standard of living increases over the past few centuries.

Most things you hear politicians blame things on, are just simply scapegoats that people accept because they know no better.

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

#114

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…

You're attacking a straw man here. We've funded lots of companies started by people who weren't programmers. In the YC FAQ, we recommend that such people find cofounders who are, if they can. But we don't insist even on that.

http://paulgraham.com/identity.html

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

#115
post #95
post #8

Good read. I recently became a father and suddenly the need for hiring baby sitters,nannies, house cleaners is critical and like the blog says "it is not rocket science but not as easy as ordering book on amazon", I totally concur. My wife and I have been struggling to find "good" and "reliable" cleaners, or babysitter even though we have tried craigslist, care.come (for nannies) etc. Basic household needs have many…

Working on addressing 'Food and Cooking', would love to get your feedback. Send me a note, email in profile

Best of luck with this Jeffyee, to reach out to us email us at contact@myclean.com and mention that you'd like to get in touch with Michael Scharf.

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

#116

Were there difficulties, or things you had to learn business-wise, when switching to the model where you employ the cleaners yourselves? Can you talk about what was involved in that in terms of researching liability (e.g., is your company liable if there are injuries on the job or while traveling to the job?), taxes, paperwork, things like that?

Lots of challenges Bratsche. Most of the liability is handled by carrying very expensive insurance. The taxes are also expensive and there is a lot of paperwork involved with having so many employee's.

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

#117
post #107

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…

"why I bristle when many in the Valley - PG included - keep disparaging non-technical people when they want to start a tech company." PG's outlook (if you are correct) is based on his background perhaps - this from his wikipedia page: "Graham has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Cornell University.... He then attended Harvard University, earning Master of Science (1988) and Doctor of Philosophy (1990) degrees in…

If you don't know what you're talking about, then why are you talking about it?

"Morris is devious for his worm, which is a quality helpful in business." You don't have any idea what Robert is like.

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

#118
post #114

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…

You're attacking a straw man here. We've funded lots of companies started by people who weren't programmers. In the YC FAQ, we recommend that such people find cofounders who are, if they can. But we don't insist even on that. http://paulgraham.com/identity.html

Eventually Mike Scharf realized he needed some true technical expertise in house. Once we nail this component sky is the limit!

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

#119

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…

This is such macho-induced cliche drivel that I feel like you're caricaturing one of these 'MBAs'.

First you try to belittle geeks for having been friendless, then call them ignorant. Then you break out the whole 'number one' nonsense, and even utilize a pound sign. And my favorite part is when you turn to the tautology of the 'unshakeable will to figure it out and get it done'.

Ha. Yeah, people who do can do X are the ones who can get X done. Hard to argue with that. And this group of 'MBAs', while they posses no uses that can actually be communicated or quantified, they have tons of je ne sais quoi to get it done with. And they'll fucking pwn the shit out of business with their endless supply of je ne sais quoi. And nerds? Ha, MBAs have more je ne sais quoi leaking out of them after slaying two 10s.

The point of dismissing these so-called 'MBAs' is not that a masters in business is some inherent flaw, but it's in calling that degree (or the concept of doing nothing, but 'being' awesome) an asset. It's in the type of person who does nothing, but wants to take from everyone else's pool of human capital and ride in their wake while pretending that the 'decisions' they make on the golf course while other employees are off actually working mean anything.

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

#120
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello Marcamillion, without going into too many specifics about our numbers we actually get a lot less than 30k unique visitors per month. However, 80% of our business is from repeat customers and our customer retention numbers are very strong. This is the core of our business and how we plan to grow. We have done basically zero off-line marketing.

If this is truly done with zero offline marketing, then I stand corrected. It's indeed impressive that non-techie bootstrappers accomplished this.

Thanks sizQuarks, now that we have some technical expertise in-house. Stay tuned. The best is yet to come!
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