crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 16, 2012

Competitive Differentiation that Matters – [link] 7 Rules for Bootstrapping a Business – [link]. 7 Rules for Bootstrapping a Business – [link]. Marketing the Viral Effect and Not-for-Profit Gold – [link]. Why Do Some People Learn Faster? – [link]. Why Do Some People Learn Faster? – [link].

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

It’s also valuable to talk to potential investors for their views, even if you are bootstrapping the effort. Save your viral campaign and major inventory buildup for later. Plan and execute a pilot or local rollout. Good traction on a limited rollout is great validation of a business model.

Business Model 120

Business Model Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review 120

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

You’re not going to go viral Dropbox style, so having a freemium model doesn’t really work. Let’s take a look at the benefits now: Freemium customers could be a great source of virality. I suspect we’ll get rid of the freemium model at some point soon as there’s no real benefit. Youtube ads. $1 1 freemium.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

This term is used to describe non-traditional ways to incent growth such as social-media and viral marketing. It implies that founders are living on inexpensive Ramen noodles and barely covering living expenses in order to re-invest all returns back into the business. It’s a term of respect and endearment. Growth-hacking” marketing.

Software Review 120

Software Review Sweat Equity Accredited Investor Angel Investor 120

Software By Rob

MARCH 26, 2015

I decided it was time to put pen to paper and lay out what I see as a repeatable path with a higher-than-normal success rate, to bootstrapping yourself to the point of quitting your job. Here’s how it works: Step 1: Your First Product. Or any of the other approaches I would use to grow an app with a higher LTV ($150+).

Bootstrapping 41

Bootstrapping Technical Review SEO Revenue 41

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

Offer reporters an exclusive on the successful, viral campaign that got you there, or a behind-the-scenes look at what your product does and how you’ll deliver on this huge campaign’s promises. Although bootstrapping your startup is difficult, that in and of itself is not unique. That is objectively crazy. You’re breaking taboos.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120

Software By Rob

MARCH 26, 2015

I decided it was time to put pen to paper and lay out what I see as a repeatable path with a higher-than-normal success rate, to bootstrapping yourself to the point of quitting your job. The post The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping first appeared on Rob Walling - Serial Entrepreneur. Here’s how it works: Step 1: Your First Product.

Bootstrapping 36

Bootstrapping Technical Review SEO Revenue 36

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Gadea leveraged his connections in Silicon Valley to seed viral distribution of the product, which, in turn, generated the revenue to hire engineers and scale the company. Now, the fully bootstrapped company is turning 60% of its demos into paid customers and hitting $2.5 They landed their first customer the following March.

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

mashable.com

AUGUST 20, 2011

Startup life is all about bootstrapping, but you need a place to work, right? “There’s simply no budget for [an office], as I bootstrap the company,&# says Paul Molluzzo, founder of Baby Goes Mobile , a web app that lets parents create a private baby book they can view and update from their mobile phones.

Cofounder 81

Cofounder San Francisco Social Media Startup 81

Software By Rob

MARCH 26, 2015

I decided it was time to put pen to paper and lay out what I see as a repeatable path with a higher-than-normal success rate, to bootstrapping yourself to the point of quitting your job. Here’s how it works: Step 1: Your First Product. Or any of the other approaches I would use to grow an app with a higher LTV ($150+).

Bootstrapping 27

Bootstrapping Technical Review SEO Revenue 27

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Products can find sources of validation with impressive stats along a number of dimensions, such as high engagement, viral coefficient, or long-term retention. People talk about funding funding funding, bootstrapping, etc., Transitioning from founder sold bootstrapped revenue to a functioning sales team is certainly possible.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Where they don’t belong is with a bootstrapped founder trying to figure out how many customers she can expect to reach next month on her shoestring marketing budget. Maybe we can’t rely on our freemium, advertising-based, viral revenue model, though. Oh wait, no…that’s right, it didn’t.

Marketing 64

Marketing Matching Software Review Bootstrapping 64

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

We’re a bootstrapped company that started with more time than money. For viral growth, you want most of your traffic coming from “Browse features,” which consist of YouTube’s home screen, subscriptions, and other browsing features. As a bootstrapped company, profitability is one of the highest priorities for our paid marketing.

Channel 129

Channel Metrics Algorithm Video 129

Spencer Fry

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Set monetary/sales goals: After you've modeled out your potential revenue growth, setting sales goals will give you a better understanding of when you can raise money on good terms or quit your day job and bootstrap. I recommend Tumblr , because it's easy and you can get some virality through re-blogging.

Startup 78

Startup Ruby XML Email 78

Austin Startup

AUGUST 3, 2017

If it doesn’t require much capital to get started and make money then it might be a better idea to bootstrap it. We believe the risk of low consumer adoption will be addressed if we can show a Viral Coefficient of 1.5 In either case, the best kind of funding comes from customers, not investors. with 95% Monthly Active Users.

Startup 69

Startup Technical Review Texas Email 69

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

By far, the majority of new businesses I know are self-funding (bootstrapped) from your own savings and prior assets. It helps to advertise your new presence with a grand opening, viral video, and traditional advertising to highlight entry into the arena. Explore multiple sources based on your level of need and risk.

Intellectual Property 245

Intellectual Property Social Media Angel Investor Metrics 245

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Gadea leveraged his connections in Silicon Valley to seed viral distribution of the product, which, in turn, generated the revenue to hire engineers and scale the company. Now, the fully bootstrapped company is turning 60% of its demos into paid customers and hitting $2.5 They landed their first customer the following March.

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Bootstrap – Online bookkeeping software that lets you track sales and expenses, organize your records for tax time, and more. Shoutlet – Distribute and track viral marketing campaigns across social media outlets. Invoice Journal – Free invoicing program. What will you find here? Join the 2.3

Software Review 78

Software Review Social Media Social Network Software 78

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

You could bootstrap your startup and do most of the tough legwork on your own, perhaps while you hold down another job. On the one hand, bootstrapping your business gives you much more control over it. Producthunt.com is a great resource for viral marketing for the product launch as well as community feedback.”.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 4, 2010

I feel myself transforming into the Dr. Laura of bootstrapped entrepreneurs.). Gee, is this therapy for me or for you ? Probably both. So over the next few months I'm going to run a few guest posts. Ground rules. I will still post every Monday, as usual.

RSS 139

RSS Viral HTML Social Media 139

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2017

It could also work well with a viral app (e.g. photo editors for Instagram) although you may find that the hype tends to pass quickly even for the most popular apps that went super viral. Therefore the better idea might be to take a look at a bootstrapped startup who is in a market for several years. Is it virality?

Startup 173

Startup Viral Silicon Valley B2C 173

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

We naively thought we would have a viral campaign, but it took us 4 months to create and cost us $25,000. As soon as I would say, “We’re bootstrapped,” I would see their eyes go over my shoulder and look for someone more valuable to talk to. . How do you have proof that they’ll pay for this?”

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 267

The Entrepreneurial Mind

JUNE 7, 2010

Keep operating costs down Bootstrapping -- the collection of tools and tactics that entrepreneurs use when they have limited resources -- already has become a crucial business skill in today's tough economic climate. Help is available for those who want to use bootstrapping to recover from the flood.

Bootstrapping 53

Bootstrapping Nashville Small Business Administration Viral 53

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

Even if you are funding the project yourself (bootstrapping), you should be asking yourself the same question before you have burned all your resources. Word of mouth and viral marketing alone are not adequate, and a website is not all you need for credibility. Sell at least one at full price to a real customer to show traction.

Angel Investor 147

Angel Investor Distribution Bootstrapping Viral 147

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 14, 2017

We saw the issue of how do we get people to know that our free tool exist, and it has grown organically very well, it has a viral effect at this point, but the other thing we really did a year ago was double down on our content marketing, so one of the biggest challenges we have is our customers are software developers.

Kansas City 62

Kansas City CTO Hire Las Vegas Software Developers 62

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 28, 2023

Should you bootstrap? Viral videos on YouTube summarizing it. And essentially that was the idea behind the book, and that's what made us think about how we can help people to gain that kind of self-awareness to know what kind of business to go for, to know what kind of strategy to go for. Should you raise funding?

Framework 94

Framework Cofounder Early Stage IPO 94

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2023

Should you bootstrap? It's really popular on Good Reads, it's on YouTube, it a lot viral videos on YouTube's took, summarizing it. And that's what made us think about like how we can help people to gain that kind of self-awareness. To know what kind of business to go for, to know what kind of strategy to go for.

Audio 96

Audio Cofounder Framework Early Stage 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2018

It’s also valuable to talk to potential investors for their views, even if you are bootstrapping the effort. Save your viral campaign and major inventory buildup for later. Execute a pilot plan in with a limited geographic scope. Good traction on a limited rollout is great validation of a business model.

Product 137

Product Advisory Board Business Model Cofounder 137

www.iubenda.com

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Dissection of a viral launch. Many of you asked, so I decided to write this blog post, dissecting the launch of iubenda and the viral system we invented. The viral system. We built our custom viral system based on the best examples out there, adding some further fresh ideas we had during the process. iubenda blog.

Viral 47

Viral Bootstrapping Email Web 47

Spencer Fry

JUNE 29, 2011

The Viral Strategy. We're all familiar with the idea of viral user acquisition: Your current users invite other users to use your service. Foursquare and similar viral success stories (Instagram, etc.) You want to be able to track how new viral users are coming into your system. Another issue is server growing pains.

Philippines 77

Philippines Viral Bootstrapping Europe 77

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

It certainly will be a better way to bootstrap the company. The game has started getting some traction already, and has a good virality index. I suspect Ryan is keener on building a consumer Internet play, but my business experience says this would do better as an add-on residing on the sites of other retailers. SOCO Games.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

The big enterprise software companies almost all bootstrapped their way to profitability before they got their first external investors (typically via an IPO). But the enterprise software bootstrapping past was based on upfront license fees where the customer took the financing risk. SaaS transfers risk from the buyer to the seller.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 14, 2011

It has been very challenging bootstrapping this venture with my financial aid from grad school. I think the craziest story comes from a serious conversation I had recently, with my team, about me running on Wrigley Field in a panda suit to help QRazy Panda go viral. What are some industry specific challenges you faced?

Small Business 92

Small Business SMS Bootstrapping Viral 92

The Startup Toolkit

MAY 18, 2012

I’ve begun the £10k bootstrap challenge , where I’m trying to bootstrap my way to profitability with a new set of products before running out of money. Think of it as joining me on the bootstrap challenge. The most nefarious slip-up is treating Twitter as a viral strategy: Sign up here!

Bootstrapping 32

Bootstrapping RSS Viral Video 32

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

I’ll admit up front: I’m not a fan of using freemium in a bootstrapped business. I don’t know of any bootstrapped business that have used freemium successfully (though I’d love to hear about them in the comments), and I know of many funded businesses that have not used it successfully. My Thoughts.

Acquisition 56

Acquisition Customer Bootstrapping Viral 56

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

We naively thought we would have a viral campaign, but it took us 4 months to create and cost us $25,000. As soon as I would say, “We’re bootstrapped,” I would see their eyes go over my shoulder and look for someone more valuable to talk to. . How do you have proof that they’ll pay for this?”

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 120

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 29, 2019

And that’s when I created the Bootstrapping summit where I highlighted, where I documented the journey of 100 Bootstrap entrepreneurs, and that helped me get exposure to about 5,000 people, that is 5,000 subscribers, and was actually a lot more than 5,000. Abdo Riani: Exactly. I like this idea. Abdo Riani: Oh, a lot.

Community 68

Community Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Distribution 68