ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2023

CEO and co-founder of InvGate Ariel Gesto says the company will continue to expand this year. InvGate’s products are made to simplify IT management for businesses with 50-50,000 employees. Products offered by the business consist of a help desk for employees, security compliance tools, and budgeting software.

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United States Management Mexico Artificial Inteligence 121

Austin Startup

MARCH 20, 2018

My co-founder, Jason Novek, and I got into Y Combinator when there were 27 total companies in the batch and only four YC partners in existence. Besides, getting into Y Combinator is easy: just be wicked smart, create a beautiful product, get millions of users, and build a revenue stream that grows 20% every month. From scratch.

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Cofounder Texas Video Software Review 48

Up and Running

AUGUST 27, 2020

My co-founder Andrew and I built Canny , a SaaS tool to help businesses collect and manage customer feedback and build their product roadmap, from the ground up. Canny is 100% bootstrapped —we haven’t taken any outside funding. We’re profitable, and we just cracked $800K in annual recurring revenue earlier this year.

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Founder Cofounder Bootstrapping 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? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

In their quest for sustainable growth, the elusive dream for most first time founders is that first funding. This can either come from the founder(s) own bank account or from outside investors. If you’re bootstrapping, you don’t need to worry about either of these options. One of the easiest mistake to fix is timing.

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Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2013

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Are revenues and costs reasonable and projected for five years? Another common approach is to bootstrap your first startup to success, possibly with some help from friends and family. Investors are people too. Marty Zwilling.

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Founder Cofounder Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 270

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

I talked to Adam Hempenstall, founder and CEO at BetterProposals , who has been using freemium for three years for his SaaS product: “Honestly, I think it was a mistake. Solving the equation of value and revenue for your SaaS product is not easy. Some companies go even further, requesting an upfront payment at their beta stage.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

Carolyn serves as the co-founder and CEO of Hello Alice. Carolyn Rodz co-founded a free digital platform that connects business owners with the resources they need to launch and grow. She serves as the co-founder and CEO of Hello Alice. Marketing Podcast with Carolyn Rodz.

Entrepreneur 79

Entrepreneur Technical Review Networking Community 79

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2016

Mark Zuckerberg can tell you a horror story about how his early informal breakup with a co-founder ultimately cost him a settlement later worth four billion dollars. A co-founder who loses interest and backs out early will likely be back to claim his half after you reach unicorn status. Don’t give away your business.

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Intellectual Property Due Diligence Non-Compete Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Are revenues and costs reasonable and projected for five years? Another common approach is to bootstrap your first startup to success, possibly with some help from friends and family. Investors are people too.

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Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Cofounder Restful 242

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 16, 2013

Adam Arbolino is the co-founder and CTO of DesignCrowd.com , a logo, web and graphic design marketplace. The site I co-founded, DesignCrowd.com, grew from a garage office to a thriving marketplace with 148,000 designers, and businesses who have created $12 million worth of jobs, in just a few years by applying these ideas.

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Cofounder Analytics Java PHP 159

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2011

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Are revenues and costs reasonable and projected for five years? Another common approach is to bootstrap your first startup to success, possibly with some help from friends and family. Investors are people too.

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Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Cofounder Business Plan 268

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2022

While investors can seem like a solution to countless problems you encounter as a founder, don’t be too hasty to start eating from their hands. 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. You might even ask for it.

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Bootstrapping Startup Equity Silicon Valley 147

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 5, 2012

“The Internet is the first place most people turn to find information and learn virtually anything, but there’s no sense of organization — you have to stumble through, often running into dead ends along the way,” says Kris Chinosorn, who started MentorMob with fellow University of Illinois graduate and co-founder Vince Leung. “At

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Illinois Aggregator Chicago Widget 165

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2010

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Are revenues and costs reasonable and projected for five years? Another common approach is to bootstrap your first startup to success, possibly with some help from friends and family. Investors are people too.

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Bootstrapping Cofounder Business Plan Entrepreneur 242

The Entrepreneurial Mind

AUGUST 16, 2011

Bootstrapping is the name of the game for most startups. A bootstrapped startup also allows the entrepreneur to determine what the market really wants without having to lock in specific long-term expenses tied to a specific business model. In the bootstrap world you fight to survive. You watch every dollar very closely.

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Bootstrapping Cofounder Salary Business Model 72

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

But in today’s world, speed-to-scale entrepreneurship is what we need to improve society, transform industries, and create massive value for customers, employees, and investors. When the market conditions are right, you should blitzscale for the benefit of all stakeholders: customers, employees, investors, and society.

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Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

If the answer to the question centers around “We will achieve revenue soon so our net will improve and give us more runway,” it means the company is in trouble because no product ever ships on time nor achieves the company’s “conservative forecast.” These days revenue is the best source of capital. Who is on your board of directors?

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. million in revenue a year. . Qualified.io

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Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Listen to this episode if you want to hear about a founder who has a product and users and paying customers … and is trying to figure out how to take his company to the next level and grow faster. How many employees would a medium-sized business have in your definition? You can’t have 5,000 employees. Jason: Exactly.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. million in revenue a year. . Qualified.io

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Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 14, 2011

It has been very challenging bootstrapping this venture with my financial aid from grad school. Another issue I have come across is securing a co-founder that is both technical and excited about marketing. I’d like to have annual revenue of $10 million, and a team of 60-70 employees in 10 cities.

Small Business 92

Small Business SMS Bootstrapping Viral 92

Up and Running

APRIL 1, 2015

David Daneshgar, Gregg Weisstein, and Farbod Shoraka, the founders of BloomNation.com. But, of course, they need funding—and wouldn’t you know it, one of the founders is a world class poker player. So, from the consumer end, the founders believed they could do better. Creating a better experience for both florists and consumers.

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Venture Capital Startup Cofounder Chicago 60

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. We created UpKeep to fill this void—a cloud-based solution that was affordable for any size business.” – Ryan Chan, founder of UpKeep.

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Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

David Teten

AUGUST 20, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching Revenue-Based Investing and other new approaches to VC. The question I’m asking myself: should a new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing, traditional equity VC, or possibly both (likely from two separate pools of capital)? Greater transparency to limited partners.

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Revenue SBIC Cofounder Venture Capital 60

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 16, 2016

by Evan Varsamis, Founder/CEO at Gadget Flow Inc. Myself and my co-founders were just a bunch of young upstarts with a big idea. It was a way for us to stay creative and it also brought in some revenue. The capital earned in the agency was used to bootstrap the progression of the key business we wanted to launch.

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Greece United Kingdom Ukraine Philippines 100

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

Word of mouth is no substitute for market research, says Ben Price, co-founder of Hard Knocks Brewing, a small brewpub in its second year of operation. Co-founders Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge leased their startup system from a family running a German restaurant out of a former brewpub.

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Oregon Jordan SBA Cofounder 60

Hearpreneur

JUNE 14, 2017

We’ve continued bootstrapping since then — today we are a $2.5 I’m Shelia Fitzgerald, owner and founder of EliteFitz, a destination inspired women’s boutique. We have an amazing co-parenting style that works for both of us, and we’re both happy. Thanks to Emily Reynolds, founder of R PR Firm ! #4

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Entrepreneur South Africa PR Thailand 128

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

No wait, I forgot, actually the question is: What happens when employee #2 makes off with your code and roadmap and marketing data and customer list, moves to Bolivia, and starts selling your stuff world-wide at one-tenth the price? But how does authority convert to revenue? The good news: There are good answers to these questions!

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Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. In later posts I’m going to get into more detail on specific topics like hiring, raising money, what types of ideas have the potential to get big, finding your founders, and the like.

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Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2019

Most small businesses and startups that are looking to grow— hire a new employee , or buy a new piece of equipment, or open a new location —need to think hard about cash flow, or making sure they have enough money in the bank to meet payroll and other financial obligations. I’d been running the homebrew shop for a while,” says Jason.

Oregon 24

Oregon Jordan Software Review Distribution 24

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 14, 2017

He is the founder and CEO of Stackify. I said in the intro and it’s funny how many founders of companies start companies because they can’t find something or they can’t get something solved, so they just solve it by creating a company. As a founder of a company, a CEO of a company. Go check it out.

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Kansas City CTO Hire Las Vegas Software Developers 39

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

If failure is defined as failing to see the projected return on investment—say, a specific revenue growth rate or date to break even on cash flow—then more than 95% of start-ups fail, based on Mr. Ghoshs research. Consider Daniel Dreymann, a founder of Goodmail Systems Inc., Breaking Up (With a Co-Founder) Is Hard to Do.

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Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Respondents deemed between 12%-16% of companies generating revenues to be essentially “worthless” and deemed 20%-26% of their pre-revenue investments to be “worthless.” Been there Done that This is very depressing for all future founders, or even currently early stage founders. Add to this that 72.7% Translation?

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Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 20, 2011

I recently helped a friend broker the sale of his small, bootstrapped company. As you’d suspect, I was similarly ignorant of such things while watching the sale of ITWatchDogs (where I was a co-founder), and still harbored misconceptions as I went into the sale of Smart Bear. I’ve also heard “10x profit.&#.

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Sales Channel Cofounder Valuation 260

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. Joel met his co-founder for Fog Creek software and learned a valuable management lesson. Smart, capable managers would not hesitate to make decisions instead of allowing their employees to make them.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Team Configuration 500 Startups Guerilla Marketing Organizations Entrepreneurship Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs Startups Startup Incubators and Seed Programs Seedcamp Y Combinator TechStars Lean Startups What is the perfect startup team? They are many more examples.

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Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51