When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Times are now tougher. Which makes most people head home. The half-hearted entrepreneurs, the wannabes who thought it was going to be easy, the folks with connections to VCs who could get a $5m Series A for a copycat app. Who will be left? The gritty entrepreneur of the old school who knows that it is really, really tough to build a great company. At ReadWriteWeb we celebrate these gritty entrepreneurs and in a series kicking off today we will be writing about them - and for them.
In a word - profit. We are looking for companies that have some Web 2.0 characteristics. But we can be loose in that criteria. We are not looking for a "pure" Web 2.0 characteristics. Whatever works, works. But something that is using online technology to disrupt an existing market, maybe using SaaS, user generated content, social media, whatever works in the Web 2.0 bag of tricks.
But we do want to write about companies that have crossed the most important threshold, the one where cash flows from the business and not from investors. So, as we don't believe in overnight sensations, the company was probably founded before 2004. We want to hear from the CEO, who maybe the original founder or somebody who took over when the original business had failed.
We want to hear about massive skepticism, huge mistakes, changes of tactics and even of strategy, near death experiences, all the usual tales of derring-do.
The company can be bootstrapped, or funded by angels, friends and family or VC. No matter where the financing came from, the entrepreneur can now say to them a) no more dilution, and b) thanks for your help, enjoy the ride.
We are launching this series later today with a profile of Jigsaw and their Founder CEO, Jim Fowler. Our earlier profile of Zoho (Part 1 and Part 2) fits the bill too.
We will also give unsolicited advice to these gritty entrepreneurs about the Great Credit Crisis (we're hoping you help us out in the comments on this).
If you know any gritty entrepreneurs, or you are one yourself, we want to hear from you. Send us an email or leave a comment below.
Obligatory cat pic: pasma
UPDATE: Gritty Entrepreneurs: Jigsaw, a Profitable Web 2.0 Venture; the first post in this series
Comments
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neat, looking forward to it.
Posted by: rama | September 29, 2008 1:06 AM
I'm also looking forward to reading more.
Posted by: frank | September 29, 2008 3:50 AM
Here's one gritty entrepreneur, from a background which taught him to be gritty: Ilija Studen is founder of Area 51, a company based in Novi Sad, Serbia, which is publishing its Web-based project managements application activeCollab.
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.
Posted by: Berislav Lopac | September 29, 2008 4:38 AM
Looking forward to reviews of companies with a business models that actually work. Struggling to become one of those. Not quite yet, though..
Posted by: Pavlo Zahozhenko
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September 29, 2008 4:49 AM
Hi,
http://www.sonhoz.com, A privately funded, SAAS tool which enables educational institutes, staff augmentation companies, corporates, learning centers to create, conduct tests online for their students/prospective employees.
Sure sonhoz can help conducting test, but what are the Salient Features:
Posted by: Ashutosh Mittal | September 29, 2008 5:24 AM
As the co-founder and CTO of a bootstrapped company, I have great admiration for any fellow entrepreneurs who are in a profit-or-bust, stare-down-the-odds, change-the-world-through-innovation-and-sheer-force-of-will vision quest. I'm with you, brothers and sisters.
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.
Posted by: Scott Brinker | September 29, 2008 5:30 AM
I am looking forward to this as well. I would like to nominate Marion Freijsen, Adrie Reinders, & Roeland Reinders, co-founders of the E.Factor, http://www.efactor.com
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
Posted by: Stephanie | September 29, 2008 5:58 AM
Not into revenues yet but we have done everything differently (defy the conventional) and totally secured ourselves from market fluctuations. Getting good response from prospective customers.
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.
Posted by: Sumeet | September 29, 2008 6:30 AM
Most web 2.0 companies are rely on investors.
Posted by: gowers | September 29, 2008 6:36 AM
That's us - Broadband Mechanics.
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.
Posted by: Marc Canter | September 29, 2008 7:57 AM
I’m looking forward to this series too. And as a user advocate I want to point out the importance of usability awareness as part on the definition of entrepreneurial ‘grittiness’.
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
Posted by: user advocate | September 29, 2008 8:32 AM
It feels a little icky to sponsor myself for this sort of thing, but having no shame is part of being gritty I suppose :-)
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!
Posted by: Ian Landsman | September 29, 2008 10:09 AM
I think the Web 2.0 entrepreneur is the one thinking way way outside the box. Sometimes this involves take an existing idea and turning it into what it should/could be. Take Google for example. All they did is create a simple search form and a simple results page. That's it, that's what search should have been. Other times its creating a whole new idea that makes way too much sense. These are the hardest and the ones everyone wonders why they didn't think of. This is Twitter! Its simple and brilliant that's it, that's what blogging, messaging, texting or whatever could have been!
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!
Posted by: Justin Sebe | September 29, 2008 10:20 AM
Congrats to all of you who're already there! We're on our way, starting to see paying customers and every day more sure of where we're going, so hopefully we'll be joining you all soon.
@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!
Posted by: Emily Williams | September 29, 2008 10:53 AM
I too am looking forward to this series and would love to see more reviews on companies and websites that can actually do some good in this challenging economy. Companies that will make a difference to the small business world and the little guys.
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
Posted by: Dan Caplan | September 29, 2008 12:02 PM
a Web 2.0 entrepreneur keeps things lean and nimble regardless the economic state.
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.
Posted by: Jessica Valenzuela | September 29, 2008 12:38 PM
Thanks Emily, I feel better now :-)
Posted by: Ian Landsman | September 29, 2008 12:54 PM
Kudos to these kind of entrepreneurs...they are the best ones and definitely keep our economy going - especially through the hard times.
Posted by: Nick Stamoulis | September 29, 2008 7:31 PM
I would like to nominate myself here as gritty entrepreneur. I have co-founded Rivals4Ever.com, a community based on Rivalries.
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. :)
Posted by: Abhishek | September 30, 2008 2:35 AM
We hope to qualify also as gritty entrepreneur as we first focus on delivering a web service for B2B with LEADSExplorer, that has a real market demand as any company needs leads and wants to make sales.
The solution integrates website data with a CRM making the CRM a source of useful information.
Thus the web service will be used internally for ourselves in order to get sales as being used by our customers.
Posted by: Engago Team | September 30, 2008 4:25 AM
entracity, inc. is a privately held technology corporation based in Carlsbad, CA. entracity's “Systems and Processes for Real Time News Aggregation and Publication” are U.S. Patent Pending. These technologies comprise scalable solutions for aggregating streams of data, content and/or other media (including visual media) that are timely, highly robust, truly dynamic, fully coordinated and best tailored for quality presentation using any number of varied formats, programming languages, target application platforms and interactive client applications (including widgets). The preciseNews family of site(s) and services (http://www.preciseNews.us) use these capabilities to deliver Breaking News Every Few Minutes (24/7), leading to a plug-n-play web experience including suites of Widgets, Gadgets and more including "Editor's Choice" on Pageflakes.
Posted by: Steven W. | September 30, 2008 1:29 PM
Okay, our start-up doesn't qualify yet because we're just starting out.
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.
Posted by: preetam mukherjee | October 4, 2008 10:48 AM
Thanks Preetam! After a quick search back in our HelpSpot installation to refresh my memory I do remember! Thank you for the kind words.
Posted by: Ian Landsman | October 6, 2008 5:56 AM
37 signals?
http://www.37signals.com/
Posted by: Keren Dagan | October 6, 2008 8:20 PM