A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 12, 2010

Software patents are especially useless for small, bootstrapped startups. In all the interviews you've read about founders' success, how many credit their MBA program? Except in certain industries (e.g. food, drug, medical), I'm unaware of companies who stave off quality competitors through patent holdings. How many even have MBAs?

Intellectual Property 319

Intellectual Property Bootstrapping Software Review Open Source 319

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. He is also the co-founder of Traction, a community empowering over 100k innovators through connections, content, and capital. He is the co-founder of Boast.ai Then another time was when we were bootstrapping both.

Community 53

Community Cofounder Bootstrapping Kuwait 53

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

Using a tool like SparkToro , you can uncover the channels and influencers that your audience is most engaged with. Interviewing them will provide you with their wants and needs from a messaging perspective and uncover topic ideas and distribution channels. Cash flow is a matter of life or death when bootstrapped and pre-funding.

Audience 127

Audience Non-Compete Distribution Channel 127

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 7, 2007

This is typically called “bootstrapping&# and it is fraught with potential pitfalls and dangers. But when done well it can really help get a company going fast, professionally and without the founders having to give up much (if any) equity - or bankrupting themselves. What is bootstrapping? Why bootstrap?

Bootstrapping 41

Bootstrapping Offshore Startup EC2 41

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. Project based on your market size how many widgets you will sell in every channel. Controlling cash flow is critical as founders move from working “in” the business to working “on” the business.

Forecast 369

Forecast Burn Rate Startup Widget 369

Gust

JUNE 19, 2012

Tim Berry , Founder, Palo Alto Software. For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping your growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Martin Zwilling , Founder and CEO, Startup Professionals. Tim Berry , Founder, Palo Alto Software. June 19th, 2012.

Startup 180

Startup Forecast Angel Investor Software 180

Austin Startup

AUGUST 2, 2018

It’s been 6 month since my co-founder and I started Reset ?—?a In July I spoke on a panel at 3 Day Startup Global Roundup, an opportunity that sprung out of a connection in a Female Founders Facebook Group. In Austin alone, the group has over 3K members, an active Slack channel and plenty of events.

Austin 57

Austin Software Review Technical Review Entrepreneur 57

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Test your channel and support strategy.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Test your channel and support strategy.

Technical Review 399

Technical Review Product Advisory Board Business Model 399

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. Raise your first round of money, or bootstrap. You either do it on your own, taking all risks and responsibility yourself (“bootstrapping”), or you find investors that believe in your company. 60-70% for founders.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Europe 120

Up and Running

MARCH 8, 2016

You will also find information provided by two people currently involved in the industry: Matthew Mercuri, Digital Marketing Manager at Dupray, and Simon Brooks, the founder of Squiffy Clean. Let’s review them: Bootstrap your business with a side business. Overview of the industry. Take out a loan. Cleaning Service Business Plan.

SBA 60

SBA Technical Review Software Review Bootstrapping 60

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Clavier began his presentation at the beginning of a company's lifecycle, asking how many co-founders a startup ought to have. If you like this kind of advice, check out my coverage of a talk by Paul Palmieri, Co-Founder and CEO of mobile advertising service Millennial Media, titled " Investing in Your Influencers. ".

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

At Hustle Fund, we back both first time founders as well as repeat founders. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Another way is to have unique promotion channels, but these must be scalable.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

At Hustle Fund, we back both first time founders as well as repeat founders. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Another way is to have unique promotion channels, but these must be scalable.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

Pamela Poole is a blogger, translator and tech writer, and founder of Francophilia.com , a social startup for Francophiles. Big names like Microsoft BizSpark and Sun Startup Essentials have a presence here, of course, and The Funded recently launched their Founder Institute in Paris as well. The Funding. But what about the little guys?

France 163

France Technical Review Incubator Early Stage 163

Early Growth Financial Services

MAY 27, 2014

CHANNEL YOUR INNER SETH GODIN “When I was starting TalentEgg, I read a lot of Seth Godin, and one point stood out to me in particular. ” — Lauren Friese | Founder, TalentEgg DEVOTE RESOURCES TOWARD CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT “Bootstrapping is the act of scaling a product based on its merit.

Bootstrapping 35

Bootstrapping Advertising Marketing Channel 35

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Human Resources Play Video Shark Tanks Barbara Corcoran on Bootstrapping a Growing a Business (Video). When you're getting started, sweat equity is often a critical component of your negotiating leverage with co-founders, early stage employees and others who aren't paid market wages to help you grow your business.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

A lot of entrepreneurs attended the event as evident by business cards with “Founder&# listed. Presenters: Sarah Allen (Co-Founder & CTO, Mightyverse) and Paul Lundahl (Creative Director, Mightyverse). Presenter: Jennifer Bonnett (Founder & CEO, Nexpense). Mobile Track — Pitch 2010 Finalist — Nexpense.

CTO Hire 49

CTO Hire Cofounder Fractional CTO San Francisco 49

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 26, 2012

MJ Charmani, founder of iStart Jax, a business accelerator, and one of the key organizers of the event, introduced today's session with additional reports on last weekend's event. To make a case of the business he proposes, he would have to, somehow, channel the search traffic from Google to his site. Armex Zero Suit. SustanAbin.

Jacksonville 114

Jacksonville Florida PPC Programming 114

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2019

Bootstrapping, saving funds over years, borrowing from friends and family, taking out a bank loan and pitching investors are all viable options, but some will work better than others for your specific business. . The garage sale approach is a simple, fiscally safe and effective approach to bootstrapping a services-based business.

Finance 92

Finance Sweat Equity Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 92

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

Look out for bootstrapped CarGurus , one of the leading used-car properties, targeting over $150M in revenue this year. The next big consumer company could be BookBub , with millions of users, a ravenous fan base on social channels, and global reach. Want the next TripAdvisor or Wayfair? Thought leadership originating in Boston.

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 18, 2016

by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com. While some investors, especially those at the early stage of the company, tend to take a hands-off approach and let the founders take important decisions, others may prefer to play a more hands-on role. This would effectively require the founders to “report” to these investors.

Startup 100

Startup Equity Bootstrapping Early Stage 100

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Burgeoning Startup Founder writes: After a year of work, my startup is now doing about $6,000/mo in revenue and $3,000/mo in profit. Find a consistent reseller channel, like an agency who needs your service fifty times a month. Since you’re bootstrapping, “cash now” is far more valuable than “cash later.”

Affiliate 261

Affiliate Revenue Bootstrapping Campaign 261

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

A lot of entrepreneurs attended the event as evident by business cards with “Founder&# listed. Presenters: Sarah Allen (Co-Founder & CTO, Mightyverse) and Paul Lundahl (Creative Director, Mightyverse). Presenter: Jennifer Bonnett (Founder & CEO, Nexpense). Mobile Track — Pitch 2010 Finalist — Nexpense.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Cofounder Fractional CTO San Francisco 40

Hearpreneur

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

As a bootstrapped company, fuelling your own growth can be challenging and comes with many lessons learned. This is exactly what Matt Buchanan and his co-founder have done while leading a technology company that offers local lead generation solutions, based in Austin, TX. Tell us your story. Why did you start your business?

North America 72

North America Bootstrapping Lead Generation Demand 72

YoungUpstarts

JULY 8, 2014

by Ross Beyeler, founder of Growth Spark. Fund R&D: Bootstrapped raising funds is far ‘cheaper’ than debt or equity. Tactically, you’ll want to establish a few ‘communication channels’ to facilitate marketing and support. Establishing Sustainable Sales Channels.

Campaign 197

Campaign Channel Bootstrapping Database 197

Hearpreneur

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

As a bootstrapped company, fuelling your own growth can be challenging and comes with many lessons learned. This is exactly what Matt Buchanan and his co-founder have done while leading a technology company that offers local lead generation solutions, based in Austin, TX. Tell us your story. Why did you start your business?

Bootstrapping 62

Bootstrapping North America Lead Generation Demand 62

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 10, 2017

I’ve posted about the massive founder crush my partners and I have on Eric Gundersen, the CEO of Mapbox. When we led Eric’s first financing — a $10 million round and the first capital into the bootstrapped team — we believed mobile location and mapping would be big.

Afghanistan 82

Afghanistan Bootstrapping Venture Capital Channel 82

Steve Blank

AUGUST 23, 2016

Thinking big, destiny and naysayers — three things in the life of a startup founder. Why founders need to be their own boss and how they capitalize on business opportunities were the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. You can bootstrap it. Stan Gloss. Matt Armstead. That’s a mistake.

Silicon Valley 134

Silicon Valley Cofounder Entrepreneur San Francisco 134

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 16, 2013

Adam Arbolino is the co-founder and CTO of DesignCrowd.com , a logo, web and graphic design marketplace. Web businesses with at least two co-founders , ideally a technical founder and a non-technical founder are more likely to get investment than solo-preneurs. Do you have a business idea keeping you awake at night?

Cofounder 159

Cofounder PHP Analytics Java 159

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2016

A solution would be to find a co-founder with the requisite background or investors who know you. In fact, it is your job to show how the technology will be embodied in a solution that satisfies a painful customer need, what channels will be used for sales and what business model maximizes return.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Accredited Investor Angel Investor Reputation 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 23, 2016

Thinking big, destiny and naysayers — three things in the life of a startup founder. Why founders need to be their own boss and how they capitalize on business opportunities were the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. You can bootstrap it. Stan Gloss. Matt Armstead. That’s a mistake.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Cofounder Entrepreneur San Francisco 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 16, 2010

Let's get the self-aggrandizing plea for attention out of the way: Please vote for my SxSW panel entitled "A Bootstrapped Geek Sifts Through the Bullshit.". He's is biased, of course, because he leads the 200+ company Y-Combinator incubator, but his predictions have already come true for many founders I know personally.

Exit Strategy 246

Exit Strategy Angel Investor Incubator Finance 246

Steve Blank

JULY 19, 2016

The show follows the journeys of founders who share what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more. Peter Arvai , co-founder of Prezi , an interactive presentation platform. Peter and his co-founders were committed to making Prezi a global company.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Sweden 120

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process. More on that in a moment. They are close to breakeven.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Customer Lean Hockey Stick 167

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

This article was a guest post by Bronson Taylor who is the host and co-founder of Growth Hacker TV , where the experts on startup growth reveal their secrets. Let’s say you have a bootstrapped SaaS product and you get 20 new customers in January, 10 in February, and 15 in March. Channels can be smaller. Startups'

Hockey Stick 69

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Cofounder Acquisition 69

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2015

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. Project based on your market size how many widgets you will sell in every channel. Controlling cash flow is critical as founders move from working “in” the business to working “on” the business.

Forecast 120

Forecast Entrepreneur Burn Rate Widget 120