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What companies that are making at least $1 million a year didn’t take funding?
I'm looking to learn from companies that were started in the last 2 - 3 years that are making at least $1 million a year but didn't take any outside funding.
- pedalpete 16y agoI'm amazed you weren't able to get more responses to this, but after racking my brain it took a bit to come up with one. How about Threadless? Though I can't seem to find anything that says when they were founded, I'd guess it's about 3 years, but could be more. 37 Signals didn't taking funding until after they were already successful, and of course they've been around for more than 3 years.
- harper 16y agothreadless was founded in 2000ish. they didn't take money until around 2007ish. 37signals is about the same (time period and what not)
- izak30 16y ago37Signals [Signal vs Noise blog] has a feature called "Bootstraped, Profitable, and Proud" latest is below, there is at least one more I've read. http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2385-bootstrapped-profitable-proud-logik http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2385-bootstrapped-profitable-...
- staunch 16y agoThat one is Logik and the other one is Campaign Monitor http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2342-bootstrapped-profitable-proud-campaign-monitor http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2342-bootstrapped-profitable-...
- izak30 16y agoI think that the common thread for many businesses that have bootstrapped to high-profit profitability in very short order, with little startup capital is enterprise software that the founding team has either A) created and has a very good unique value proposition or B) services very well and in either case, has dedicated sales staff. Most other businesses take a fair amount of money for either equipment or marketing. Logik talks instead about how it's first sale was around $45,000.
- daryn 16y agoand of course there are many non-funded, non-tech, startups that make that much after 2-3 years too.
- waterlesscloud 16y agoI spent a few years managing a bar that grossed that much. It's not a lot of money for a business.
- ronnwer 16y agocan you list any you can think of please?
- izak30 16y agoI've known a specialized contractor who has done as well in his first year.
- uptown 16y agoI'm pretty sure PlentyOfFish.com qualifies.
- dnsworks 16y agoThey're more than three years old.
- percept 16y agoYou could try the Inc 5000 list: http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/the-full-list.html http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/the-full-list.html It's not exactly what you want, as these companies will have been in business a little longer, but you can filter the list by earnings and number of employees to see some higher-earning small businesses from recent years. For example, there's Logik, discussed here a couple of days ago: http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/company-profile.html?id=200901810 http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/company-profile.html?id=2009... You might also try Mixergy, which has a bunch of profiles.
- revorad 16y agoBalsamiq - http://www.balsamiq.com http://www.balsamiq.com