A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Great," I always exclaim, sharing the thrill of modern software development, "so how will people find out about this brilliant website?". 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].

Software Review 261

Software Review Technical Review Viral Software Developers 261

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

ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2023

Gesto decided to scale InvGate after bootstrapping for the past 14 years. Companies can reallocate resources back into core business activities and new product development by streamlining IT operations. Companies can increase their revenue potential and access new customer bases by expanding into new markets.

United States 121

United States Management Mexico Artificial Inteligence 121

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

In How To Defend Your Dream Against All Odds , Alex and I explore the company's journey to $200 Million in revenue, while their VCs wrote them off. Zoho is already over $100 million in revenue and is seeing tremendous traction. Having turned down all overtures for investment, Zoho continues merrily on in its bootstrapping path.

North Carolina 116

North Carolina San Diego Entrepreneur Balance Sheet 116

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

The first step of developing a successful YouTube strategy is choosing the right content types for your brand. We’re a bootstrapped company that started with more time than money. As a bootstrapped company, profitability is one of the highest priorities for our paid marketing. This drives multi-million dollars of revenue for us.

Channel 129

Channel Metrics Algorithm Video 129

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues. Because customer financing equals revenue, not equity. Why not go further, develop more valuation, customer experience, and really, deeply validate the business? Her main questions were around customer acquisition and financing.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

Can you bootstrap your way to positive cash flow?   If the answer is relatively soon, then bootstrapping is a very serious consideration.    Even if it isn’t soon, early bootstrapping can reduce risk and increase chances for success, resulting in more aligned interests for entrepreneurs and investors.

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

In this article, I’ll outline how to create an agency content strategy that fuels your business development efforts and generates the optimal kind of organic traffic. Developing a clear content strategy. Mining your clients for pain-points, success, and topic ideas.

Audience 127

Audience Non-Compete Distribution Channel 127

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? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

He says that one is too lonely, two is good and three is a great number if they can combine their skills to cover design, development and distribution. Every company has a forecast for how it will get to an arbitrary $100 million in revenue and they all hit it on year five. How to Hack the Investment World. The stages of funding.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 21, 2010

At today's roundtable, we had some very interesting discussions on creative bootstrapping. PerBlue develops and markets its own game, and today, is at about a $35,000-$40,000 per-month run rate from 200,000 users. PerBlue develops and markets its own game, and today, is at about a $35,000-$40,000 per-month run rate from 200,000 users.

Bootstrapping 113

Bootstrapping IP India Silicon Valley 113

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. It certainly will be a better way to bootstrap the company. million in revenue.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2015

Most have developed their own financial “rules of thumb” that will help them decide if your startup is fundable, in conjunction with their assessments of your team and your basic business concept. I recently saw a startup projecting $50 million in revenue for the first year. Revenue projections show penetration of target opportunity.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Startup Initial Public Offering Equity 120

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 8, 2019

2- Transformative development. 2019 was full of transformative development for Intellifluence. On the heels of seeing the 10% influencer base increase the referrals process yielded, the team at Intellifluence pushed to create a brand-to-brand referral program as well, intent on creating user acquisition flywheels wherever possible.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 117

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

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. If you can convince investors that your startup will generate a solid revenue stream, and the market won’t go away any time soon, they may see an opportunity for an ever larger return.

Exit Strategy 264

Exit Strategy Private Equity Equity Technical Review 264

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

Sacha demonstrated the benefits of selling many copies of an eBook at a low price, while Jarrod pointed out the advantages of higher prices, bringing in more revenue with 1/6th the number of units sold. In that case, A can’t keep growing forever, so its revenue is limited, which is a bad spot. maximizing per-unit profitability).

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

Chapter 2: Defining and Testing the Story…Start Out By Admitting You’re Wrong, A Lean Business Plan Template, Problem, Solution, Key Metrics, Unique Value Proposition and Unfair Advantages, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure and Revenue Streams. Chapter 3: Telling the Story to Your Investors…The Business Plan is Dead.

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Of course, growth and development are really a continuum. At this stage, your startup better be selling a commercial offering, have price and cost validated, with significant customer sales and a real revenue stream. This normally means more then 30 employees, and more then $1 million in revenue. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Investment Bankers 241

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 241

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

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. If you can convince investors that your startup will generate a solid revenue stream, and the market won’t go away any time soon, they may see an opportunity for an ever larger return.

Exit Strategy 376

Exit Strategy Startup Private Equity Equity 376

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

How about Jana , which brings internet access to the developing world and boasts 30 million global users? Look out for bootstrapped CarGurus , one of the leading used-car properties, targeting over $150M in revenue this year. Want hardcore futuristic technology? Want the next TripAdvisor or Wayfair? Much more funding.

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

www.thestartup.eu

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home RSS About Contact Advertise Partners How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. Entrepreneurs, which by definition are stubborn entities are therefore finding creative and cheap ways to bootstrap their startups. Development: using DjangoPeople and Elance a very international team was born. TheStartup.eu

Bootstrapping 49

Bootstrapping Italy Sweat Equity Europe 49

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

Of course, growth and development are really a continuum. At this stage, your startup better be selling a commercial offering, have price and cost validated, with significant customer sales and a real revenue stream. This normally means more then 30 employees, and more then $1 million in revenue. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 231

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2022

In this article, you’ll learn how bootstrapping makes you a better business – a leaner, smarter, more agile company that can roll with the punches. Bootstrapping Minimizes the Number of People Cashing in on Your Success. Bootstrapped founders don’t have these concerns. Plan for investment early as you would plan for acquisition.

Bootstrapping 147

Bootstrapping Startup Equity Silicon Valley 147

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Diving in a bit more into some thoughts here: 1b) Ad-based revenue streams generally have terrible unit economics. This is obvious. 2) B2B startups have high margins.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Diving in a bit more into some thoughts here: 1b) Ad-based revenue streams generally have terrible unit economics. This is obvious. 2) B2B startups have high margins.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

Of course, growth and development are really a continuum. At this stage, your startup better be selling a commercial offering, have price and cost validated, with significant customer sales and a real revenue stream. This normally means more then 30 employees, and more then $1 million in revenue. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 24, 2017

Subscription business brings recurring revenue. This allows you to enjoy a constant source of incoming revenue, as long as you’re keeping the subscribers satisfied (that is of course essential). Through customer acquisition, you’ll work to grow the revenue and then, use that revenue to cover operational costs.

Churn Rate 149

Churn Rate eCommerce Business Model Bootstrapping 149

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 3, 2011

It's a bit all over the place, trying to cater to everybody and their mother (literally), including refugees from developing countries. Then Greg Snead, also from Tacoma, discussed Orbiter , an RFID venture that is moving along quite nicely, having clocked more than $700,000 in revenue last year. Happy Grasshopper. Social Pulse.

San Jose 115

San Jose Entrepreneur United States Washington 115

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2011

We started this week's roundtable with a discussion of all the resources we have brought together over the last three years to help entrepreneurs, including a comprehensive curriculum for entrepreneurship development on a large scale. John already has a couple of customers, and needs about 50 customers to get to $1M in annual revenue.

Vertical 115

Vertical Web San Francisco Entrepreneur 115

NZ Entrepreneur

JUNE 11, 2019

While larger businesses tend to make more tempting targets for international acquisition, thus siphoning profits out of New Zealand and into the pockets of foreign shareholders, small businesses are generally closely held, with profits staying in the hands of New Zealanders. 2) Small businesses keep profits in New Zealand.

New Zealand 75

New Zealand Small Business Global Dividend 75

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

How does a social app such as Snapchat get funded vs say a developer tools company like New Relic? Open source libraries (such as TensorFlow) make technology more accessible for less skilled or self-taught developers such as myself to use. When I was an entrepreneur, I had no idea how this all worked. So what is in this category?

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

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. If you can convince investors that your startup will generate a solid revenue stream, and the market won’t go away any time soon, they may see an opportunity for an ever larger return.

Exit Strategy 289

Exit Strategy Entrepreneur IPO Startup 289

Spencer Fry

JUNE 29, 2011

You may see a lot of signups by a certain type of user, but that cohort may bring in only half the revenue of another cohort that may provide fewer total signups. We're all familiar with the idea of viral user acquisition: Your current users invite other users to use your service. This kind of data is especially valuable.

Philippines 77

Philippines Viral Bootstrapping Europe 77

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

They should be built organically, bootstrapped, and get to sustainability. A sustainable business = (customer + revenue + profits). It would go a long way in validating his assumptions and possibly also bring in customer revenues if the value proposition really resonates. Investors are optional in this equation. CricketWeekly.

Incubator 116

Incubator Silicon Valley Idaho Entrepreneur 116

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

The big enterprise software companies almost all bootstrapped their way to profitability before they got their first external investors (typically via an IPO). You have to do this; addressing real customer needs releases revenue dollars that you need to survive. The sailboat startups don't invent a product out of pure imagination.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

Even if you’re in the pre-revenue, pre-seed or seed stage, there are still ways to get on a reporter’s radar. No, but a publication that gets into the nitty gritty of mobile development will want those details and then some. This one is tricker in the pre-revenue stage. If you don’t want to irritate a reporter, do not….

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120