10 ms·
I'm one of the authors of this post and plan on releasing an updated version with some companies that we missed on the first pass. If you know of other substant
by replicatorblog 9y ago
I'm one of the authors of this post and plan on releasing an updated version with some companies that we missed on the first pass. If you know of other substantial startups that went far before raising capital, please let me know: JoeFlaherty@FounderCollective. The current list of misses includes:
+ Grammarly
+ 37 Signals/Basecamp
+ Zip Recruiter
+ Outcome Health
+ Wistia
Who else?
- johnny_reilly 9y agoCV Library / Resume Library?
- pinaceae 9y agoVeeva, funded in 2007 - raised a total of 7m (3m angel, 4m from Emergence Cap). Now public at close to 9bn market cap.
- replicatorblog 9y agoHuge fans of Veeva! We feature them in another post: https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/15/overdosing-on-vc-lessons-from-71-ipos/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/15/overdosing-on-vc-lessons-f... I tried to keep the focus on companies that went for long stretches before they raised capital, but Veeva raised so little they probably merit inclusion.
- asanwal 9y agoIs there a cutoff for length of that stretch? (minimum) Or minimum revenue before they took outside capital?
- rukd 9y agoZoho Corporation, founded in 1996 with over 4500 employees - completely bootstrapped and profitable :) (disclaimer: I work for Zoho)
- bitL 9y agoJetBrains
- lynnetye 9y agoi'm sure you've seen the interviews on indiehackers.com, but there are many more bootstrapped companies on their way up! many to watch out for.
- replicatorblog 9y agoFor sure! IndieHackers is great and I hope to include many of those companies in the future. What we were trying to do was show that you could build big and substantial businesses. Too many people dismiss bootstrapping as a way to build lifestyle businesses when in fact it's a way to build public companies. In some cases we featured some companies that had $10M+ revenues and extraordinary success in PR (Cards Against Humanity) or found some cool funding method (e.g. Kickstarter and CMON). LMK if there are any IndieHacker interviews you think deserve inclusion. Thanks!
- replicatorblog 9y agoFor sure! IndieHackers is great and I hope to include many of those companies in the future. What we were trying to do was show that you could build big and substantial businesses. Too many people dismiss bootstrapping as a way to build lifestyle businesses when in fact it's a way to build public companies. In some cases we featured some companies that had $10M+ revenues and extraordinary success in PR (Cards Against Humanity) or found some cool funding method (e.g. Kickstarter and CMON). LMK if there are any IndieHacker interviews you think deserve inclusion. Thanks!
- mschaecher 9y agoCraiglist generates tons of cash, wildly profitable, no investment Bose has always funded itself via profits for 50 years with no outside investment. $3b-$4b revenue last year. Beats waited 4-5 years and was huge before taking first equity investment from HTC
- replicatorblog 9y agoAll good examples! Thanks so much!
- sbov 9y agoWasn't Beats founded by a celebrity? I feel like this kind of goes against the spirit of the list.
- kingnothing 9y agoJimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.
- artur_makly 9y agoa fluff doc on them coming out: http://www.npr.org/2017/07/07/535920449/the-story-of-dr-dre-and-jimmy-iovines-partnership-in-the-defiant-ones http://www.npr.org/2017/07/07/535920449/the-story-of-dr-dre-...
- nuggien 9y agoa celebrity with very deep pockets.
- wyldfire 9y agoRecent docu-series "The Defiant Ones" on HBO [1] features the story of Iovine and Dre regarding their partnership on Beats (and beyond). [1] https://defiantones.com/ https://defiantones.com/
- sogen 9y agoAFAIR eBay had an investment in Craigslist. Might be wrong.
- dclusin 9y agoValve
- replicatorblog 9y agoGreat call!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dvt 9y agoValve was founded by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, both of whom had a 7-figure net worths because of MS shares. I'm not sure if it really counts.
- replicatorblog 9y agoThat's helpful context, thanks! I think they definitely deserve to be in an update, but that's a pretty important qualifier to call out.
- badlogic 9y agoJetBrains?
- p_rude 9y agoMathWorks
- hchasestevens 9y agoSkyscanner
- wspeirs 9y agoDatto, Inc. - First CT unicorn, started in a basement and made it very far before taking VC money: http://www.courant.com/business/hc-datto-startuprecovered-mon-nov-21-140400-2016--20161122-story.html http://www.courant.com/business/hc-datto-startuprecovered-mo...
- doug1001 9y agoGitHub
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mpenn 9y agoWolfram Research (Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha) - 700 employees, no outside capital.
- mywacaday 9y agoTeamwork.com, entirely self funded by two guys who had a web agency and scratched their own itch in PM software, now doing over 100m in annual revenue. They dropped nearly $1m to change domain which they say paid for itself in three months. Now offering free deskspace and mentoring for other startup SAAS
- totallymeat 9y agoCrutchfield. A company that has been around a bit longer than some of the other ones on this list, but one that has stayed relevant in electronics since the 1970s despite its lack of initial capital investments. Grew by leveraging direct sales to customers through mailed catalogs, even claims to be the first company to sell consumer electronics online circa 1995. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crutchfield_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crutchfield_Corporation