A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 29, 2013

Even after the first hundred customers, half of those were serendipitous one-offs, not representative of repeatable, controllable customer acquisition, and the scale of the data isn’t statistically significant. The answer for a funded startup is “Bid as much as possible, to get as many customers — and data!

Bootstrapping 285

Bootstrapping Affiliate Cofounder Channel 285

VC Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2021

Amazon Corporate Development – Notable acquisitions include Whole Foods ($13.7B), smart doorbell system Ring ($1.2B, 2018) and autonomous mobility technology Zoox ($1.2bn). AWS Marketplace Startup Program – the ‘app store’ for B2B startups who are interested to sell their product to AWS customers. Support Programs.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Incubator 174

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 24, 2017

One characteristic remains: the products subscription businesses can provide, ranging from magazine subscriptions to literally anything, can appear on a customer’s doorstep every day, week, month or year. Through customer acquisition, you’ll work to grow the revenue and then, use that revenue to cover operational costs.

Churn Rate 134

Churn Rate eCommerce Business Model Bootstrapping 134

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

According to Lee M Von Kraus, PHD and a mentor at Clarity.fm, “Early stage startups are usually pre-money startup that are bootstrapping the early development of a product.”. Here is what you should do: You market and try to acquire initial customers, enough to get you going. Next, get better at learning from customers.

Startup 104

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 104

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Of course, if you are able to bootstrap your startup, and don’t anticipate the need for outside investors, you can technically ignore the first two points. The resulting entity will gain complementary skills, economies of scale, new customer sets, and hopefully a larger growth opportunity.

Exit Strategy 289

Exit Strategy Entrepreneur IPO Startup 289

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

Freshdesk First, Girish Mathrubootham from Chennai, India, pitched Freshdesk , a SaaS company that provides small and medium businesses with on-demand customer support software that offers multi-channel social support. Freshdesk introduces itself as a kind of Salesforce.com for customer support so to speak.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically).

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Haystack

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

By all accounts, the Utah-HQ’d company did everything the right way, was an overnight success 16 years in the making, and only raised venture capital as a growth company after years of bootstrapping. Of course, SAP or others could’ve made a run at Qualtrics earlier, and who knows – maybe folks had tried and failed.

Acquisition 105

Acquisition Utah IPO Venture Capital 105

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 20, 2011

I recently helped a friend broker the sale of his small, bootstrapped company. But one thing they do have is a “channel,&# meaning an established pipeline wherein a product can be pushed (often by salesmen) into customer’s hands. That’s where acquisition comes in — if you can’t make it, buy it!

Sales 260

Sales Channel Cofounder Valuation 260

Hearpreneur

MARCH 21, 2021

I took an opportunity selling food trucks and noticed the industry needed improved customer service. 7- I was the victim of a horrible acquisition. I started my business because I was the victim of a horrible acquisition (can you name a good one?). Thanks to Omid Semino, Diamond Mansion ! #7- Photo Credit: ????Jay Jay Helms.

Entrepreneur 137

Entrepreneur Technical Review Acquisition Software Review 137

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 21, 2012

Bootstrap, bootstrap, bootstrap. First mover advantage usually isn’t an advantage anyway, and imitators tend to also become an acquisition of those they copy. His advice? Don’t innovate, imitate. Don’t be a hero. Failure is not failure if you learn.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Acquisition 175

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Thus it’s a waste of time for most entrepreneurs to be looking for investors until they have a product and some customer revenue. Most founders bootstrap product development. Business success requires customers to see a solution as exciting, and they rarely care about the technology behind it.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 14, 2016

It made risky bets in untested markets and tried to grow bigger than its customers were ready for. Before a quiet acquisition by PCH Innovations for just $15 million, Fab had raised 11 rounds of VC funding at a $900 million valuation. One company we work with creates custom rewards programs for sports fans. Talk to the crowd.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Securities and Exchange Commission New York City Cofounder 100

Eric Friedman

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

It’s evident in the rise of companies like WhatsApp and Instagram that employed a mere 20+ people before their acquisition. Shipping Faster is About Caring About Your Product, Your Team, and Your Customer. They can bootstrap what they want to see in the world in a way that makes more sense for them.

Engineer 78

Engineer United States Software Engineering Bootstrapping 78

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 23, 2023

He is the co-founder of Boast.ai, where he leveraged the Community-Led Growth model to bootstrap the company. Lloyed explores the intricate art of harnessing the community’s strength as your ultimate acquisition channe l, brand differentiator, feedback source, retention lever, and catalyst for transformative change.

Community 54

Community Kuwait Cofounder Bootstrapping 54

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2016

Of course, if you are able to bootstrap your startup, and don’t anticipate the need for outside investors, you can technically ignore the first two points. The resulting entity will gain complementary skills, economies of scale, new customer sets, and hopefully a larger growth opportunity.

Equity 120

Equity Exit Strategy Private Equity Startup 120

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. They are gaining valuable customer data.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2023

Gesto decided to scale InvGate after bootstrapping for the past 14 years. Companies can increase their revenue potential and access new customer bases by expanding into new markets. InvGate, like many other IT management firms, recognizes that expanding its customer base is essential to the company’s long-term success.

United States 121

United States Management Mexico Artificial Inteligence 121

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Typically, people who are going to watch these videos are already customers or at the very bottom of the funnel. It’s a great way to bring value to your customers, but you’re missing out on the leverage that YouTube provides. We’re a bootstrapped company that started with more time than money. sports, coffee, etc.).

Channel 129

Channel Metrics Algorithm Video 129

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 9, 2010

First, there are two primary aspects that have to be managed: inventory financing and customer acquisition costs. At the same time, we also have seen several examples of entrepreneurs who have successfully bootstrapped their e-commerce companies without any external financing until much later in the game. Or, bootstrap longer.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Malaysia India China 117

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 14, 2021

While they were initially bootstrapped, they had already raised over $200 million before this year began, gaining the coveted unicorn status back in July 2019. The capital boost is intended to be used to fund acquisitions as well as launch new products.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Bootstrapping Valuation Social Media 167

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 16, 2012

Competitive Differentiation that Matters – [link] 7 Rules for Bootstrapping a Business – [link]. Repeat after me: business is always about the customer – [link]. Repeat after me: business is always about the customer – [link]. Secrets of the acquisition process from EA and Zynga – [link].

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Up and Running

OCTOBER 1, 2014

What about bootstrapping? Keep customers at the forefront, and listen to them. “Let your mission, values, and customer happiness be the guiding force behind everything you do, and remember you are not the customer. ” The post Dragons, Bootstrapping and Women in Tech appeared first on Bplans Blog.

Bootstrapping 107

Bootstrapping Cofounder Portland Burn Rate 107

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

This company provides a crowdsourced customer service solution to enterprises. Gio pitched it to me as a crowdsourced BPO, but I think he will have more success if he simply focuses on customer service as his core value proposition. They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 11, 2010

We're going to use an affiliate program so our customers sell it for us.". WhenBusy is a bootstrapped startup that lets people schedule meetings with you in currently-available time-slots without you having to share your calendar [disclosure: I'm an advisor]. some would be ready to become paying customers. Frightening honesty.

Software Review 261

Software Review Technical Review Viral Software Developers 261

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

First is that there are, perhaps, a thousand people in the world of entrepreneurship who know what they are doing when it comes to dealing with issues like financing, positioning, market sizing, customer validation, customer acquisition and other seemingly obvious topics that all entrepreneurs need to deal with. Rangrut.com.

Silicon Valley 114

Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

Company A has 1,000 customers each paying $10/mo. Company B has 10 customers each paying $1,000/mo. Why the obsession with raising money, what if you don’t want a huge company, what if you want to bootstrap, don’t you know raising money isn’t a measure of correctness or success, … I agree!

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Having turned down all overtures for investment, Zoho continues merrily on in its bootstrapping path. Parallel6 is already clocking over $1 million in revenue and is looking to enhance its customer acquisition and also raise some financing. Zoho is already over $100 million in revenue and is seeing tremendous traction.

North Carolina 116

North Carolina San Diego Entrepreneur Balance Sheet 116

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

I received the following question from a reader: I was wondering if you had any thoughts on cost of customer acquisition for freemium businesses. Our lifetime value of a customer is only around $1 when you factor in a high initial churn and all the free users. Have you seen paid acquisition work for freemium businesses?

Acquisition 56

Acquisition Customer Bootstrapping Viral 56

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Increasingly, seed rounds occur after some sort of pre-seed or at least some period of bootstrapping. And the ultimate uncertainties for a seed stage company are around talent and customer demand. Some early customer acquisition data may also be determined by spending against an offering that is described but doesn’t actually exist.

Seed Stage 180

Seed Stage Bootstrapping Demand Early Stage 180

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Since we bootstrapped Backblaze, early on we would have months when the company did not have enough cash from sales to buy the additional servers it needed. He convinced me to ship the Mac version and it has since become over 60 percent of our customer base. Shoulder – not to cry on, but to lean on.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

Although bootstrapping your startup is difficult, that in and of itself is not unique. Editor’s note: You can find more resources around PR, content marketing, and customer acquisition for seed-stage startups in the Marketing & Growth section of our platform. As with No. Above all, avoid cliches.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

But, what constitutes success for the parties involved – investors, entrepreneurs, employees, and customers – can vary dramatically. Can you bootstrap your way to positive cash flow? Can you bootstrap your way to positive cash flow?   If the answer is relatively soon, then bootstrapping is a very serious consideration. 

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 25, 2014

The Ultimate List of Customer Development Questions – crowdspring.co/1nHT6tS. The Ultimate List of Customer Development Questions – crowdspring.co/1nHT6tS. Corporate Acquisitions Of Startups — Why Do They Fail? 15 Useful Bootstrap Tools and Generators for Web Developers | DJDESIGNERLAB – crowdspring.co/1iDkMPO.

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 13, 2019

Whether a brand new bootstrapped startup or corporate giant, your altitude, sustainability, and traction has everything to do with your team. Smaller companies with hotter brands can make for great acquisitions. Distribution & Customers. Customization is time-consuming and expensive. It’s risky too. A Great Story.

Intellectual Property 101

Intellectual Property IP Acquisition Startup 101

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 21, 2010

At today's roundtable, we had some very interesting discussions on creative bootstrapping. Justin is looking for a more efficient customer acquisition model, and my suggestion to him was to look into using distributors, instead of trying to do all the development and then also all the distribution himself.

Bootstrapping 113

Bootstrapping IP India Silicon Valley 113