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 now she has the vision and ability to design her own software, capitalizing on modern trends (e.g.

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Our wheelhouse is bootstrapped (or lightly capitalized) SMB SaaS. Bigfoot Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Ask a technical founder about his startup, and he'll proudly describe his stunning software — simple, compelling, useful, fun. Great," I always exclaim, sharing the thrill of modern software development, "so how will people find out about this brilliant website?". We're going to get reviews on blogs.". Frightening honesty.

Software Review 261

Software Review Technical Review Viral Software Developers 261

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

YoungUpstarts

JULY 6, 2017

This strategy, known as bootstrapping, is ideally suited to businesses which don’t need a large influx of capital early on in order to finance growth and which are already generating revenues. Bootstrapping has a number of advantages compared to other fundraising strategies. Understand the Tax Code.

Syndicate 127

Syndicate Syndication Software Review Angel Investor 127

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 31, 2018

Here are some tips for bootstrapping your business. Maybe you’ll get better results from social media, review sites, or blogging. Don’t pay a website designer, when there’s so many good software options that can help you design your own site. Utilize the Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS). Work in a Spare Room.

Software Review 187

Software Review Cloud Social Media Bootstrapping 187

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Any custom manufactured IoT device would require software development as well as hardware customization. Bootstrapping. Sources of funding. ? Government programs.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

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?”. An engineer by training, Founder and CEO Larry Gadea built the MVP of Envoy’s first product, Visitors, by himself using only free versions of software. “I million in revenue a year. .

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Download our free Startup Checklist and review the complete guide for starting a small business. While you may be enamored with becoming an entrepreneur and bootstrapping your business, don’t quit your day job. According to a report from the Harvard Business Review , entrepreneurs who plan are 16% more likely to achieve viability.

Forecast 154

Forecast Software Review Bootstrapping Finance 154

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 20, 2011

I recently helped a friend broker the sale of his small, bootstrapped company. They’ve heard rules of thumb like “A growing software company is worth 5 times their trailing 12-months revenue.&# Even narrowing the field as much as feasible, revenue multiples varied between 1.2x Actually, no.

Sales 260

Sales Channel Cofounder Valuation 260

www.singlefounder.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

I’d like to take a few minutes to dispel the top five myths of software startups. I could point to countless examples of mediocre software being unleashed upon the general population, after which people like you and me have to help replace it with something decent. In fact, not having one can be more helpful than anything else.

Software Review 40

Software Review Software Startup Massachusetts 40

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Most of the great software startups that I’ve been involved in have at least one technical co-founder (and many have more than one.) You should avoid spending your time here and instead focus on finding a way to generate revenue or to attract investors so that you can afford to hire someone.

Technical Cofounder 241

Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Equity Sweat Equity 241

Software By Rob

MARCH 26, 2015

The interesting part is that my own path moving from consulting to products followed the same steps, as you can see in my product revenue chart from the past decade: Each revenue jump is when I made the move to the next step of the Stair Step Approach. Step 3: Recurring Revenue. Step 2: Own Your Time.

Bootstrapping 36

Bootstrapping Technical Review SEO Revenue 36

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?”. An engineer by training, Founder and CEO Larry Gadea built the MVP of Envoy’s first product, Visitors, by himself using only free versions of software. “I million in revenue a year. .

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

The Entrepreneurial Mind

AUGUST 3, 2010

Such facilities can take a lot of cash to launch due to the cost of facility rent and equipment costs, and the aspiring entrepreneur had no ready source of cash. Once the bootstrapped launch of the play center is cash flow positive, all kinds of options for growing and expanding emerge. It was profitable within nine months. 2005 to $4.4

Bootstrapping 75

Bootstrapping Business Model Software Review Programming 75

Software By Rob

MARCH 26, 2015

The interesting part is that my own path moving from consulting to products followed the same steps, as you can see in my product revenue chart from the past decade: Each revenue jump is when I made the move to the next step of the Stairstep Approach. Step 3: Recurring Revenue. Step 2: Rinse and Repeat.

Bootstrapping 41

Bootstrapping Technical Review SEO Revenue 41

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 26, 2016

by Gareth Wilson, Head of Marketing at Fog Creek Software. Despite being a bootstrapped company with little revenue, we over-invested in a central New York City office at a rate of 15% rent to revenue. What’s more, just over three quarters of workers consider their ideas are poorly reviewed and analyzed.

Software Review 100

Software Review New York City Salary Employee 100

Software By Rob

MARCH 26, 2015

The interesting part is that my own path moving from consulting to products followed the same steps, as you can see in my product revenue chart from the past decade: Each revenue jump is when I made the move to the next step of the Stairstep Approach. Step 3: Recurring Revenue. Step 2: Rinse and Repeat.

Bootstrapping 27

Bootstrapping Technical Review SEO Revenue 27

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

When I started Shapeways, complex software needed to be built and when I first reached out to developers, a lot of them laughed and told me it was impossible. If your product is getting good reviews and people are willing to pay for it, you’ve got something.”. Figure out what your milestones are – customers, pageviews, revenue, etc. –

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

Rob Go

DECEMBER 28, 2011

So I thought I’d jot down some of the highlights I have seen from my vantage point in this 2011 Boston Consumer Web Year in Review. 61M in Q3 revenue, up 28% YoY. Zipcar: Ok, not exactly consumer web/software, but a great consumer tech company nonetheless. IPO’s/Exits. Tripadvisor: An amazing entrepreneurial story.

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Boston Software Review IPO 54

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2018

From jewelry to dog food to SaaS (software as a service) products, startups are popping up in virtually every field around the world, despite the risks. Your business model must show the potential to increase the revenue with minimal expenditure in the coming months or years. Bootstrapping or self-funding. Spend wisely on tech.

SBA 84

SBA Angel Investor Technical Review Startup 84

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

First up was Brad Barrett presenting GrillGrate , a grill accessory with which Brad has built a year-to-date revenue of $400,000. Next, Umakant Soni discussed Vimagino.com , a software for Web-based Q&A support to engage customers better on sites that are trying to draw people in and convert them into customers. GrillGrate.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

K9 Ventures

JULY 21, 2016

Computing and software came a few years later for me as access to computers wasn’t as easy or affordable. Software is awesome as it gives you instant gratification. It requires a higher level of discipline than software does. You make a change, compile, and voila you can see the effect of what you did.

Software Review 48

Software Review Forecast Portfolio Distribution 48

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

At today's roundtable we had some interesting companies and a lot of fundraising discussions, and I will review them shortly. Sub-$2 million pre-money, it is better to bootstrap. Next Igor Protsenko presented Profitero , an enterprise software product for helping retailers with price comparison and optimization.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Up and Running

JUNE 4, 2018

Due to automation and other technological advances, many jobs that existed just a decade ago are gone forever. It’s easier to bootstrap. Bootstrapping your business , which involves self-funding everything as you go along, without resorting to raising money from anywhere else, keeps you in complete control of your company.

Bootstrapping 66

Bootstrapping Colorado Internet Software Review 66

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

We run into this kind of software services every day—Google, Youtube, Instagram, and so on. By offering a free trial you are basically telling your customers that there are no strings attached and they are not obliged to pay unless they like the software. Solving the equation of value and revenue for your SaaS product is not easy.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 17, 2017

John Imlay of MSA occasionally took me on road shows with analysts to talk about his new acquisition Peachtree Software. Hurricane Irma had a major negative revenue impact on one whose fall book of business was mostly in Florida. But, credit is due to all these CEO’s for perseverance. I got the message. May you be disturbed.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Atlanta Software Review Early Stage 48

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. Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please! where he leveraged a community-led growth model to bootstrap the company. Then another time was when we were bootstrapping both. My guest today is Lloyed Lobo.

Community 53

Community Kuwait Cofounder Bootstrapping 53

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

Computer Software. Media & Marketing. Small Business. More Industries. Accounting. Advertising. Broadcasting & Entertainment. Computer Hardware. Consumer Products. Defense & Aerospace. Financial Services & Insurance. Food & Tobacco. Hospitality. Industrial Goods & Services. Marketing & Strategy. Media Agencies. Metals & Mining. NAME Comcast.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

ConversionXL

JANUARY 29, 2014

of businesses are actively seeking & collecting customer reviews on an ongoing basis. Customer loyalty expert Fred Reichheld also reports in his book “ The Ultimate Question ” that businesses saw an average of 2x revenue growth by simply increasing their overall brand advocacy by only 12%. when influencing purchasing decisions.

Software Review 126

Software Review Stock Video Advertising 126

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

He is a self-taught software engineer and technologist. Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please! Having founded active campaign as a means to fund his education, Jason pursued a degree in fine arts until shifting his focus entirely to growing the company and his self-taught software engineer and technologist.

Chicago 49

Chicago Campaign Software Review Software Engineering 49

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

and * on a bootstrapped budget* : We first engaged in customer surveys and validated a huge problem?—?several You might notice what’s not on that list above: revenue, investors. No revenue isn’t always a problem for venture-style businesses; no investors + no revenue = challenges for most founders without tremendous self-funding.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

DECEMBER 9, 2010

CEO of a software development outsourcing firm (Ukraine). Polling code must be open sourced , can’t have propriety code. Jill Tarter, Director of the Center for SETI Research - new turtle mascot, open source code, cloud services from amazon, telescopes. President of The Tech Museum. Founder of JackCards.com.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Las Vegas Software Review Bangladesh 76