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
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
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.