Isn't apple and Microsoft?
Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
81–90 of 139 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#82I'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?
The question asks for billion dollar bootstrapped companies. Almost by definition, if a company is worth a billion dollars, investors will be "begging to throw money at it." :)
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#83I'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... )
Very sad to see you guys leaving Australia. Best of luck!
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#84Epic, which delivers most of the Electronic Medical Records software for large healthcare organizations in the United States, has never raised any funding. With revenues over $1.7 billion a year, their valuation is certainly greater than $1b.
There's a story on "The Daily WTF" that's almost certainly about Epic Systems. Epic apparently uses an obfuscated 60's-era language called MUMPS.
See http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/A_Case_of_the_MUMPS.aspx
I found another article that says Epic prefers to hire fresh college graduates because they're easier to mold into the "Epic Way."
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#85I heard that EMC never raised VC
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#86I'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... )
Doesn't $60 million in venture capital make this NOT an example of a bootstrapped company?
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am pretty sure Parson's previous company, Parson's Technology, was boostrapped as well. He used, and apparently nearly lost, the millions he earned on that sale to fund GoDaddy until it was profitable.
GoDaddy is actually not profitable. In 2013 the company lost $199.88 million and in 2012 they lost $279 million . http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/09/godaddy-files-for-100m-ipo/ (just a minor correction as I am not the biggest fan of GoDaddy)
This is an artifact of a longstanding issue that they've had with GAAP. They sell non-cancelable non-refundable multi-year services (like domain registrations) and receive cash up front for them. GAAP requires that they book that revenue on a pro-rata basis over time.
This means that if it costs them $200 to acquire a new customer and that customer immediately whips out their CC and buys $1k of domains spread over ten years then, at the end of the year, they "lost" $100 on that customer and have to console themselves by drying their tears on $800 in cash.
It also makes their balance sheet look over leveraged due to the $900 in unearned revenue booked as a liability.
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#88I'm not 100% sure, but I think IKEA was bootstrapped for pretty long time. But I can't find any reference about this:(
To my knowledge it's still privately held.
By a charity.
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#89Epic, which delivers most of the Electronic Medical Records software for large healthcare organizations in the United States, has never raised any funding. With revenues over $1.7 billion a year, their valuation is certainly greater than $1b.
There's a story on "The Daily WTF" that's almost certainly about Epic Systems. Epic apparently uses an obfuscated 60's-era language called MUMPS. See http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/A_Case_of_the_MUMPS.aspx I found another article that says Epic prefers to hire fresh college graduates because they're easier to mold into the "Epic Way."
I used to work at Epic, but it was over six years ago at this point. Their entire stack at the time was MUMPS and VB6. No idea if that's still the case, mind you -- there were some modernization efforts underway when I left. Although from what my friends that work at Epic hospitals tell me about their software, it likely hasn't changed much.
And I almost certainly got hired there because I actually knew MUMPS from a previous job. Of the developers they hired during my cycle, every one of them was on an H1-B or fresh out of Carnegie Mellon or MIT; meanwhile I was a kid with a sub-3 GPA from a liberal arts school with a Political Science degree.
(If you do some light searching, you can find another famous story on TDWTF that I wrote about MUMPS.)
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#90I'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... )
Very sad to see you guys leaving Australia. Best of luck!
They're not going anywhere. The recent change to the corporate structure has been for tax purposes. They will continue to grow overseas, but I don't see them closing Sydney any time soon.