http://www.37signals.com/

But- I'd really like to recommend Ian Landsman at HelpSpot. I corresponded with him briefly last year when evaluating HelpSpot(fantastic helpdesk product btw...and inexpensive too).

I can't speak to his company's profitability, but I can definitely speak to his accessibility, responsiveness, and willingness to be of help.
We had to renew our trial licenses twice(no, we weren't being cheap), and he was totally nice enough to do that. Of course, even while we were in trial mode, he made himself personally available to answer queries we had about the product/installation/configuration/et al.

So...thank you, Ian Landsman. Your personal involvement in the day-to-day running of your business didn't go unnoticed, and in fact, reflected well on you and your company.
I doubt you remember me, but obviously, I do remember you, and I definitely remember HelpSpot.

You can create your own rivalries (e.g. pepsi vs coke), invite your friends to join and have kind of virtual fight with each other.

Hope to hear from you soon. :)

A few of our best practices at Mavin Digital, Inc.

An offshore partner keeps your service offerings competitive.
Hiring well locally only when the headcount is truly needed.
Create multiple opportunities to monetize while using the same in-house assets and resources.
Value your long lasting client relationships. If you help them weather a downturn they'll keep you afloat and you'll be the first to get their business on the upturn.

MyCityFaces.com is a company focused on allowing the average small business to advertise themselves in a personable and professional manner for free. We are a bootstrapped company with big goals and a solid revenue plan to get there.

I feel the VC's and tech media need to look outside their close knit communities and seek out fresh blood. Because of the Internet, companies can exist outside the box of the Silicon Valley and in the future I think many of the power sites will have been started in Small Town USA.

These new companies will work leaner and meaner and will be profitable much quicker than their predecessors. MyCityFaces.com is one of these companies that doesn't need large offices, redundant employees and fancy new computers.

Check out the Phoenix AZ city for an example.

Dan Caplan CEO
MyCityFaces.com

@Ian, from what I've seen with our CEO, I think lack of shame is definitely a part of grittiness - if you can't promote yourself, nobody else will!

What makes a gritty Web 2.0 entrepreneur is one that is only focused on the product and not the money. This industry like every other industry has two types of people in it. Those that are out to make money quickly and lots of it. They will do the bare minimum, over hype their product and bail as soon as then can get a check. Then there are those that are focused on and only on their product. The one that can't stop working on it, talks about it all the time and would rather do nothing else. No VC needed. If its a solid idea, if it changes the paradigm or has a solid business model, then bootstrapping is great.

One last note, I think the Web 2.0 entrepreneur is also one that constantly looks to improve. The one that listens to the users, makes incremental changes, fixes, updates daily, weekly and monthly. Web 2.0 for all its technology, user content and communication is really about quick evolution and change.

My site is...

www.companyresume.com

In a sense we are thinking outside the box, but we are also making an idea what it should/could be. While we are no twitter and the purpose of the site is not an entirely original idea, we are doing it different. We've taken no VC and have no investors. Its all self funded. We also do not have and will never have advertisement on the site. The subscription based business model we use is solid so we don't need any of that. We are currently in an early beta, so I'm not sure we really qualify for the criteria. If all goes well we should be out the beta by the end of the month. Once we are live, we look to constantly update the site with new features. Right now we have about 120+ features waiting in line to be implemented.

Please give us your feedback!

I founded my company, UserScape, in 2005 with no outside financing. Our product is a help desk software app called HelpSpot.

We've been profitable since the first month it went on sale in October 2005 and have been since. Personally in terms of web 2.0 style companies I think those that take money are really putting themselves behind the 8 ball, but I guess it works for some people.

We actually did a lot right I think and didn't have any near death experiences (for the company) just lots of profit growth. Certainly there's a personal toll to this type of startup so that might be interesting to discuss.

Anyway I'd be interested in participating. Thanks!

Having spent over 20 years in software design and engineering and the last 12 years focused on usability, I have the perspective that profitability is greatly affected by usability. This may seem like an obvious statement to some (i.e. if you’ve thought about it) but I believe far too many entrepreneurs/software vendors do not make the connection.

All too frequently there is an overemphasis on functionality and too little attention given to usability. The end result is that applications can die on the vine or just not evolve in a sensible and usable manner.

That’s why I define usability as ‘practical functionality’ - because if no one can use the application then any inherent functionality is effectively nullified.

I do believe that the shift to the rapidly changing world of ‘Web 2.0’ is causing some change and that more executives/entrepreneurs are becoming aware that user experience matters a lot. One example is Freshbooks.com. Although as a user I find there are still usability hurdles in their on line application, I am impressed by the great care they have taken to provide a smooth and productive user experience. I’m sure readers of this site will think of many other similar examples.

I think it’s worth pointing out in the context of this post that a key component for software application survival in a tough world is to make that connection between profitability and usability. The alternative is to expose any and all software development efforts to massive user rejection and hence a greatly increased risk of wasting the entire investment in a given application.

M Baynger

We have never taken VC money and we are cash flow positive. We provide our customers with state-of0the-art social networking platforms and are expanding our product offering to include 'platforms' in general.

So look for CMS, aggregation engine and a general purpose, direct manipulation publishing system - to go along with our PeopleAggregator platform.

We are gritty, we give our customers what they want, we are the ONLY SNS platform to offer the kind of flexibility customers demand - that is SaaS AND source code licensing.

And we're keeping up with the Joneses and will have Facebook Connect and MySpace Data availability support in soon.

A strategy of low cost, high productivity and live within means helped us create a solid foundation. Our survival is in our hands we need investors only for growth. We will surely survive the downturn, may not be able to grow as fast as we want to.

Talk about Entrepreneur 2.0, the E.Factor is just that! A site made for and by Entrepreneurs, the E.Factor connects over 50K Entrepreneurs and Investors both online and off. With 50K members in the past 6 months, Entrepreneurs all over the world are flocking to the site to gain knowledge, advice, network and of course find funding.

Furthermore, The E.Factor is the only social network with a real business model that is not derived from Sponsorships or Ads. By combining new technology networking with an old-school business model based on premium membership fees, technology licensing via its' satellites, and fees for a variety of services the E.Factor is setting precedents in the online social media space.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/06/prweb1036794.htm

My company, ion interactive, used to be a web development shop. Several years ago, we shifted to developing a software-as-a-service product for "post-click marketing". Our product, LiveBall, lets marketers build, test, and analyze advanced landing experiences -- everything from landing pages, to conversion paths, to highly-targeted microsites -- without any IT overhead. We sometimes call this Landing Pages 2.0, because we help marketers create much more interactive landing experiences and take advantage of them for behavioral segmentation and analysis.

We license the software on a subscription basis and provide strategy and creative services for customers who want a boost up in their post-click marketing. The results for our customers are usually anywhere from a 100% to 1,000% improvement in their conversion rate or ROI from online advertising. (And if you think that sounds too incredible coming from me, the guy selling the software, take a look at the last post-click research from Compete.)

We're profitable and cash-flow positive and growing one customer at a time. It's definitely an in-the-trenches battle to build a company like this organically -- aiming at the big picture to change the way marketers and agencies look at online advertising through what happens after the click -- but we love what we do and do what we love.

• Charge the companies only for tests. Educational institutes can offer the courses online, manage their students for free.


• Have your own URL, Logo etc.


• Detailed analysis for students performance, not just the rank and marks. see sample at: http://docs.google.com/a/sonhoz.com/Doc?id=dhgvs9bn_5n3c468gc


• Have your own question bank.


• Different Test modes, public, private and invitation only


• Almost any aspect of test creation process can be configured.


• Different business models e.g. out sourced, hosted and in-house deployment.

After open-source beginnings, they have rewritten the app from scratch and offered it as a for-fee download (code and all), with no external funding of any kind.