Lots auf Germany's hidden champions are bootstrapped after World War II. Most famous example aldi, they own trader joes in the us.
Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
101–110 of 139 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't $60 million in venture capital make this NOT an example of a bootstrapped company?
You don't think that surviving for 8 years without raising funding counts as "bootstrapped"?
The important question is: did it get to the billion dollar level before raising funds?
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't $60 million in venture capital make this NOT an example of a bootstrapped company?
You don't think that surviving for 8 years without raising funding counts as "bootstrapped"?
Um.. no. and simply "surviving" for 8 years doesn't say anything. I can register a company today and in 8 years tell you that it "survived" for 8 years.
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#104GitHub's valuation 2 years ago was $750mm. I'd be shocked if they hadn't cracked the $1bb marker yet. http://allthingsd.com/20120709/github-valued-at-750m-with-fi...
GitHub raised $100M from Andreessen.
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't think that surviving for 8 years without raising funding counts as "bootstrapped"?
Um.. no. and simply "surviving" for 8 years doesn't say anything. I can register a company today and in 8 years tell you that it "survived" for 8 years.
This is quite pedantic. It's pretty clear that Atlassian survived in the context of employees, offices, and revenues.
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#106Dell, Apple, Cisco, Oracle, & Intel. Weren't those all bootstrapped?
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#107Dell, Apple, Cisco, Oracle, & Intel. Weren't those all bootstrapped?
According to a New Yorker article currently on HN, Intel's founders took VC investment as soon as they decided to quit Fairchild and start their own company.
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is definitely not my forte but if VC thinks they could flip the company isn't there a more direct route than buying into a round for the sake of press?
You've got to own some shares to make money in an acquisition. It's not for the press.
wish i could delete my comment, i wasn't thinking
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 te…
Fascinating - thanks for the explanation on this. I'm often surprised at how slow accounting practices are to catch up on business models that we see as commonplace in the tech world.
Re: Ask HN: Do bootstrapped billion-dollar companies exist?
#110Dell, Apple, Cisco, Oracle, & Intel. Weren't those all bootstrapped?
Multi-millionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation of Apple.