A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

Freeloader — On $3m invested, sold for $38m in 1996 — shut down in 1997. After I sold Smart Bear, that division has increased revenue and profit every year, for five years, even through the 2008/2009 economic disaster. Support.com — On 2.5m invested, IPO’ed in 2000 for $32/share — stock price now $2.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

K9 Ventures

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

I graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1997 and decided to use my OPT to give the company a proper shot. I was bootstrapping the company and started with $5,000 that I had saved up from a prior summer internship. This meant that I had to either show enough revenue, or find investors who would be willing to put money into the company.

United States 114

United States Founder India Venture Capital 114

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

And from a financial perspective, any investor would be better off buying stock in Amazon than buying and share of a corner bookshop; if you invested $100 in Amazon’s 1997 initial public offering (IPO), those shares would have been worth about $120,000 in 2018. Publishers and authors (like O’Reilly and us) also benefit from Amazon’s success.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28