Bootstrapping Start-ups In Southern California

Demand Media acquisition rumor on Tech Crunch. A ...

2009-12-14T13:44:21.688-08:00

Demand Media acquisition rumor on Tech Crunch. A couple of sources have told us that they’ve recently been talking with Yahoo, AOL and Google about an acquisition, and would like to exit for $1 billion or more.

http://bit.ly/53F4xh

Most of these companies were bootstrapped in the e...

2009-10-22T08:57:41.062-07:00

Most of these companies were bootstrapped in the early stage. The larger rounds were done primarily for expansion and partial liquidity (for founders) when these companies had more than 8+ figures in revenue.

The top 4 guys you mention have north of $60MM in ...

2009-10-21T18:44:30.834-07:00

The top 4 guys you mention have north of $60MM in funding-- doesn't sound like bootstrapping to me! But hats off to these guys! ReachLocal is one of our competitors.

For us, bootstrapping is buying used office furniture, sleeping on friend's couches to save money, and using coffee shop wifi.

Jeff, really helpful info. Like you, I see great ...

2009-10-21T17:33:06.243-07:00

Jeff, really helpful info. Like you, I see great potential in the region, these companies are a great example. It is now far easier to bootstrap a company, opening the doors to innovation that would not have had a chance before the bar was lowered. It's a great time to be in the company building space.

Consumer spending is driven by equity market appre...

2009-07-10T10:27:47.448-07:00

Consumer spending is driven by equity market appreciation. Please remind your anti-neighborhood friendly and anti-consumer hedge fund managers that we will see zero job and economic growth until the Dow Jones rises the psychological levels of 10,000 and the S&P 500 rises above 1,000.

I have a video of the band Nirvana, and some other...

2009-03-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

I have a video of the band Nirvana, and some other sub-pop bands taken at a club in Seattle. It is great and a fight breaks out, it is totally original. No one else has it. How can I sell it?

One of the biggest frustrations media buyers at ad...

2009-03-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest frustrations media buyers at ad agencies had in the pre-Web era was not having enough tracking tools to know whether a spot on the Tonight Show or an ad in People magazine would work -- and be worth buying.

One way media buyers deal with this challenge is to choose an editorial environment that attracts buyers of the advertiser's products. This is why you see more cosmetic ads in fashion magazines than in car magazines, and more car ads in car magazine than fashion magazines.

The editorial environment is important because it's easier to sell a product to someone who is "in the market" to buy that product. This is, of course, why Google's search ads work so well.

In the online world, media buyers have a somewhat easier time determining if a particular site is working by monitoring the traffic and conversions of people from that particular site. However, the increased transparency of analytics can work against certain Web properties.

I love analytics -- I've got a ton of data on our visitors. But more analytics doesn't mean more ad revenue.

I'm sure someone could create a video site that focuses strictly on the unusual behavior of cats -- the more unusual the better. Audience engagement and loyalty would probably be very high. But could the site's sales team sell a media buyer on placing ads on the site? In other words, are the site's visitors "in the market" to buy the advertiser's products?

If you're the media buyer for Purina, sure, it could be a good deal.

However, is it a good ad environment for all the other types of products? Yes, at a price. When only a small portion of an audience will buy a product, media buyers bid down the price of ads on the property until the cost/visitor or cost/conversion matches other sites.

The owners of many content sites focus on increasing traffic, time on site, and other metrics, but don't focus on creating a positive ad environment for sponsors and advertisers.

A good publisher -- whether it's a magazine or a Web site -- knows that their role is to create an editorial environment that brings together the audience and advertisers so that a sale is made.

A lot of people design a Website or have one built...

2009-02-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

A lot of people design a Website or have one built for them with little or any thought given to SEO, Landing Page, and the need for business Web intelligence/analytics. It doesn't matter how great your site looks if you aren't driving traffic there.

I heard a great quote on the radio today. America...

2009-01-21T11:06:11.206-08:00

I heard a great quote on the radio today. American needs to innovate because today the USA is known around the world for "making hamburgers, passing around paper and suing each other."

Item #4 shows how important it is to network with ...

2009-01-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

Item #4 shows how important it is to network with people who have good contacts themselves.

I expanded on that for my readers.

Good list...

2009-01-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Good list...

Thanks for sharing the wisdom Jeff. This is a ver...

2009-01-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

Thanks for sharing the wisdom Jeff. This is a very interesting post. Were there any particular industries that fared better than others, particularly those founded during recessions?

Spot on! I put a link to this on my bloghttp://mic...

2008-11-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

Spot on!

I put a link to this on my blog
http://microstartups.blogspot.com

Thanks,
Ake

The VC industry is praying for tons of hedge funds...

2008-10-28T14:10:06.657-07:00

The VC industry is praying for tons of hedge funds to blow up in the next few weeks. A 20-30% rally in a few days will do that quickly. The VC industry has lost billions of dollars under management due to LP’s allocation to the hedge fund asset category. That can change quickly if the bubble bursts!!! Get a new SEC Chairman, open up the IPO window, show some liquidity and let innovation and the venture industry thrive again!

Well said.. This is the fact of todays life cycle ...

2008-04-16T05:21:00.000-07:00

Well said.. This is the fact of todays life cycle that people are frustrated with entrepreneurs who focus too much on product design without careful consideration of how to get distribution. but iam free from this frustration, because recently my problem was solved regarding the entrepreneurs.
software development companies

Unfortunately most of the aerospace companies have...

2008-03-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately most of the aerospace companies have left the area due to rules and taxes in California. All that is left in So. Cal., or California for that matter, is Service industries and Entertainment. We need manufacturing again not only in California but in America as a whole. The USA cannot survive being a service provider to the world, or to each ourselves for that matter.

So. Cal. still has enough land mass to do this versus the Bay Area. Let's work to bring back that which made So. cal. great.

Not if they have downtime issues highlighted today...

2008-02-15T19:33:43.829-08:00

Not if they have downtime issues highlighted today in a
Tech Crunch Article