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 This is John Jansen.

Community 53

Community Kuwait Cofounder Bootstrapping 53

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 14, 2016

by Keith Smith, co-founder and CEO of Payability. It made risky bets in untested markets and tried to grow bigger than its customers were ready for. When you’re constantly chasing investors, it’s tough to focus on growing your brand and attracting new customers. Let’s not forget the bootstrapping option.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Securities and Exchange Commission New York City Cofounder 100

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 29, 2013

Even after the first hundred customers, half of those were serendipitous one-offs, not representative of repeatable, controllable customer acquisition, and the scale of the data isn’t statistically significant. The answer for a funded startup is “Bid as much as possible, to get as many customers — and data!

Bootstrapping 285

Bootstrapping Affiliate Cofounder Channel 285

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

That’s why I recommend that they find a co-founder who loves business challenges, including marketing and finance. Thus it’s a waste of time for most entrepreneurs to be looking for investors until they have a product and some customer revenue. Most founders bootstrap product development.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

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.

Greece 100

Greece United Kingdom Ukraine Philippines 100

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

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. Four uncomfortable seconds later, a smile breaks across the founder's face. We're going to use an affiliate program so our customers sell it for us.". We're going to get reviews on blogs.".

Software Review 261

Software Review Technical Review Viral Software Developers 261

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 11, 2021

With their affordability, you can invest in several and gain more return by earning customer trust before a sale occurs. They’ve built more trust with their followers, so customers might be more willing and trusting when they check out your website after the micro-influencer recommends you. 17- Saturated with bootstrapped businesses.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Technical Review Social Media Bootstrapping 126

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

by Amit Damani , cofounder of Vista Rooms. Bootstrap was term coined from the computer lingo ‘booting’ which means starting a computer or starting a chain of processes which eventually starts up the operating system. Bootstrap mentality is critical for a startup to succeed, irrespective of whether it has raised funds or not.

Bootstrapping 100

Bootstrapping Cofounder Startup Sales Cycle 100

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

According to Lee M Von Kraus, PHD and a mentor at Clarity.fm, “Early stage startups are usually pre-money startup that are bootstrapping the early development of a product.”. You are looking for cofounders that can help you build a product. You have finally found a cofounder that can take care of the startup. Commitment.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 7, 2012

7 Crucial Lessons from an Embarrassing Customer Service Trainwreck | Help Scout - [link]. Seth’s Blog: The cycle of customers who care - [link]. Attention founders: Here’s how you respond to an unfair post about your company - [link]. Questions to Ask Potential Cofounders: The Master List | Founder Dating - [link].

Social Media 104

Social Media Small Business Design Media 104

View from Seed

JULY 7, 2015

I recently sat down with the remarkably thoughtful (and insanely scrappy) Patrick Campbell , co-founder and CEO of Price Intelligently. Startup Lessons You’ll Learn: What tradeoffs a bootstrapped startup’s CEO makes. The moving story of Patrick beating cancer and the surprising way that changed him as a founder.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Founder Boston Cofounder 120

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. Jason: So how many of those 20,000 people are paying customers? Edwin: Okay, I have different types of customers.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

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.

Revenue 60

Revenue SBIC Cofounder Venture Capital 60

Up and Running

JUNE 4, 2018

This is clear when you do anything from checking in your baggage for a flight, to contacting a large company’s customer service department! It’s easier to bootstrap. It’s important to note that while the likes of Facebook and Dell are often referred to as bootstrapped, that’s actually a bit of a myth. These include: 1.

Bootstrapping 66

Bootstrapping Colorado Internet Software Review 66

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!

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

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. A description of the problem you’re solving for your customers, and your solution to the problem, which is usually your product or service. Solve a problem you can relate to.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

Days before the conference started, I was asked (and felt honored) to lead two workshops on bootstrapping vs. raising money. Having started and sold 3 successful bootstrapped businesses, and am now running 1 venture capital backed business ( Coach ), this is a topic I know a thing or two about. Hello, debt. Competition is everywhere.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

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

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

ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2023

CEO and co-founder of InvGate Ariel Gesto says the company will continue to expand this year. Gesto decided to scale InvGate after bootstrapping for the past 14 years. 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

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. This is a choice that every startup founder must make , so I’d like to dig in deeper. maximizing per-unit profitability).

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Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2023

Despite not going to university, Ash became a serial tech founder and the first marketing director of a unicorn startup – Just Eat). Well, you're gonna judge it by the team, by the co-founders. And when you're judging it by the co-founders, that's when you have to try and decide, okay, what have they got going for themselves?

Audio 86

Audio Cofounder Framework Early Stage 86

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

To determine whether freemium is right for you, do the simple math: Figure out how many paying customers you need to run the company. If you charge every user $50 and spend $10K to pay the business bills, you need at least 200 customers to break even. In our example, it’s 20K non-paying customers.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Yet many entrepreneurs rely on expensive outside services and outside money, rather than do the networking for a co-founder or two who have the right skills to work for equity. Bootstrapping not only reduces cash needs, but increases commitment. The need to hire staff immediately. A desire to roll out on a massive scale.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Cofounder Equity Agile 120

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

Customer interviews allow you to uncover: Why they decided to do business with you; Why they love working with you; What other challenges they have in their business; Where they go for new information. Your customers can provide you with pain-points to write about, as well as success stories to attract new clients.

Audience 127

Audience Non-Compete Distribution Channel 127

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.

Founder 120

Founder Cofounder Bootstrapping Startup 120

K9 Ventures

MAY 28, 2015

At K9 we invest in companies which have a clear/direct revenue model and typically don’t invest in companies that follow the Ubiquity first Revenue Later (URL) revenue model made famous by Eric Schmidt in 2007. I call this Revenue Development and have written about it before. Why did the customers buy your product?

Revenue 48

Revenue Startup Burn Rate Cofounder 48

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Some of the finalists were generating revenues already and/or have very promising strategic partnerships lined up. Note to self, this event is not for alpha products with no customers. The business model for residential solar panel company: contract with customer, local rebates, and tax benefits.

CTO Hire 49

CTO Hire Cofounder Fractional CTO San Francisco 49

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Who says a bootstrapped startup can’t succeed? Here are 10 bootstrapped companies that did it on their own with no outside funding. No venue wants to be told that their product is worthless, and no customer wants to go see a show that’s unsellable,” said Robert Graff. Startup #1: Goldstar. Startup #3: Litmus. How’d they do it?

Bootstrapping 78

Bootstrapping Startup Cofounder Salary 78

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 17, 2011

Entrepreneurs from Latin and Central America were given first priority to pitch their businesses at today's roundtable co-hosted by Innova Tiquicia and Startup Weekend Costa Rica. He needs to bootstrap it to a certain level, and following the 1M/1M methodology would be a good start. and each book costs $375 retail.

Costa Rica 114

Costa Rica America Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 114

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2013

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Customer needs and benefits first, then product features. They are able to weave their solution into the market, the opportunity, and customers, in a way that sounds like a natural fit, rather than a product sales pitch. Marty Zwilling.

Founder 270

Founder Cofounder Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 270

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

How founders find the determination to push through tough times was the focus on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. 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. Jacqueline Ros. Christina Stembel.

Entrepreneur 260

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 260

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Some of the finalists were generating revenues already and/or have very promising strategic partnerships lined up. Note to self, this event is not for alpha products with no customers. The business model for residential solar panel company: contract with customer, local rebates, and tax benefits.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Cofounder Fractional CTO San Francisco 40

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. How cofounders can collaborate without going crazy. But we managed to grow a few customers, so that’s good, in spite of the name. So what do you do?

Widget 204

Widget Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 204

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

What CEOs, management teams and shareholders care about is growth —revenue growth, greater user adoption, increased market share, bigger margins, etc. There are co-working spaces in basically every city in the world—from Nepal to New York. Here’s how he’s shaping the future of corporate innovation. in developing these new models.

Lean 326

Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 326

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