Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#1

Post by mdunn » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:27 PM UTC

It seems like all companies that are valued at $1BN or more raised money in their early days.

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#2

Post by selectout » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:43 PM UTC

Craigslist I believe was bootstrapped and while it's still private I believe it's valuation is north of $1 billion.

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#3

Post by wsh91 » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:43 PM UTC

I'm part of one, Atlassian, which was last valued at $3.3 billion and started with $10,000 in credit card debt, taking $60 million in venture funding eight years in.

(For more on valuation and the background, http://www.businessinsider.com/atlassian-helps-employees-poc... )

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#4

Post by jlangenauer » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:44 PM UTC

37Signals (Yes, yes, I know it's called Basecamp now) would be valued north of $1b. Though they did take an investment of $1m from Jeff Bezos at one point.

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#5

Post by hbbio » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:45 PM UTC

Microsoft raised just $1M.

Ok, it's off-topic as this was in 1981, but the valuation is way north of $1bn...

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#6

Post by wmf » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:46 PM UTC

Ubiquiti. The founder wrote a retrospective on it: http://www.rjpblog.com/2012/06/11/post-3-bootstrapping-strat...

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#7

Post by 31reasons » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:50 PM UTC

I think ESRI was also bootstrapped.

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#8

Post by ctdonath » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:52 PM UTC

wsh91 wrote: post #3

I'm part of one, Atlassian, which was last valued at $3.3 billion and started with $10,000 in credit card debt, taking $60 million in venture funding eight years in . (For more on valuation and the background, http://www.businessinsider.com/atlassian-helps-employees-poc... )

Does "bootstrapped" include "investors begging to throw money at it"? or purely self-made?

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#9

Post by therealarmen » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:53 PM UTC

Lots of non-technology companies.

Out of tech companies -- Craigslist, Atlassian, 37Signals, possibly MailChimp.

Fringe examples -- Indeed sold for $1B and only took a small amount of later-stage funding [1] from USV. WhatsApp took $8M from Sequoia but apparently didn't spend any of it [2].

[1] http://avc.com/2012/09/indeed/

[2] http://forbesindia.com/article/the-worlds-billionaires/the-$...

Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?

#10

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 24, 2014, 8:56 PM UTC

[deleted]