Many people want to start a small software company and wonder if it can work. Here is a list of small, bootstrapped companies that made it. A proof positive it’s possible. 1. GitHub Source: http://thechangelog.com/post/352878673/episode-0-1-0-chris-wanstrath-from-github Started by 3 people in October 07 Beta: January 08, people could sign up if had invite Launch: April 08 – started charging, still had jobs First hire by the end of 08 In October 08 started paying themselves a salary (started at 10% desired salary). Reached desired salary in the beginning of 2009. 2. Red Sweater software Source:
Daniel Jalkut launched in 1999 (while still working at apple), quit apple in 2002, became primary business in 2005. In 2007 moved from being a full-time consultant to full-time developer. Products: FlexTime $19, MarsEdit $30, Black Ink $25, FastScripts $15, Clarion $15 Black Ink (MacXword) acquired in Jan 2007, released in March 2007 as Black Ink (ported from Java to Objective-C) Mars Edit acquired in Feb 2007. 3. Panic Source: 13 people in 2009 Products: Unison ($30), Transmit ($30), Coda ($99), Desktastic ($13), CandyBar ($29), Stattoo ($13) Released Transmit (first app) in 1999, 2 people then (Steven Frank, Cabel Sasser) 4. Flying Meat Source:
Products: Acorn ($50), VoodooPad ($20), FlySketch ($25) Started by Gus Mueller. VoodooPad was the first commercial app released in May 2003. Reached full-time salary in December 2004. Hired first employee in Jan 2008. 5. Pixelmator Products: Pixelmator ($60) Started in 2007 by 2 brothers, released Pixelmator in May 2007. Profitable enough to take 3 months off at the end of 2009. 6. Hamachi Source:
Alex Pankratov started Hamachi (peer-to-peer VPN system) in early 2004, launched in December 2004 and sold it to LogMeIn in 2006. 7. Cocoatech Source: http://theappleblog.com/2009/06/25/interview-steve-gehrman-of-path-findercocoatech/ Products: Path Finder ($40) Steve Gehrman started writing Path Finder as a way to learn Cocoa after he was laid of from a dot-com job in late 2000. He wanted to get a job as a Mac programmer but kept working on Path Finder during his job search. At some point it became good enough to be sold and now it’s his full-time job. |