Tales of seven bootrappers from 2006
Since starting this blog in June of this year, we've had a chance to profile a wide variety of bootstrap entrepreneurs who have used imagination and inventiveness to make their dreams come true.
Here again for 2006 are seven tales of bootstrapping business showing what can be done with determination, perseverance and very little in the way of outside capital.
I encourage you to follow the links and read these stories again as inspiration for the coming year to see just what can be accomplished with the commitment and self-reliance that are at the heart of the bootstrap approach.
1. Fashion entrepreneur Cara O'Callaghan, Santa Barbara, CA, used an investment of just $4,000, a bare bones e-commerce site and some prototypes created by her graphic designer husband to launch Preggers n' Proud, a brand of maternity slogan T-shirts that have captured the attention of some big time celebrities as well…(Read More)
2. montana entrepreneur Andrew S. Field turned his successful regional printing business into a premier online supplier of printing services using the revenue from his original business to fund his high tech ambitions…(Read More)
3. Texas small business owner Denise Aday turned a layoff from her job for a hospital non-profit into an opportunity by launching Aday VA Solutions providing some of the very services she had for her previous employer on line…(Read More)
4. Bra strap entrepreneur Shelli Styles took a unique approach to assisting her husband's impoverished South American family marketing a product her relatives can manufacture to lift themselves into a better standard of living…(Read More)
5. Romanian software and web design entrepreneur Cristian Dorobantescu built his company energybyte.com with referrals from his previous employer then made his first equipment purchases with money from his first clients…(Read More)
6. Pennsylvania artist Michelle Prestileo has used a fan website created in her second year of high school to get feedback on her drawing talents and hopes to gain support for an independent on line comic about her experiences at Penn State University…(Read More)
7. Haika Powell and Jed Rapoport launched their bake shop earlier this year using only Haika's baking talents, some money from one of Rapoport's previous businesses and a great niche for organic and natural products including mail order service on line…(Read More)
See you next year!
January 2nd, 2007 at 11:01 am
Thanks for the great mention Shawn! I’m looking forward to more of your great profiles this year.
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:19 pm
It is much easier to solve for risk preferences than for risk assessment. Starting a company is analogous to the first night in a casino for some entrepreneurs. If you are fortunate enough to create a small, but meaningful trove of winnings early in the night, you face the decision of taking a modest win home or staying longer and winning bigger or losing it all. If the early win is meaningful enough and if you were forced to stay and keep placing bets, most players would move to a ‘don’t lose’ strategy rather than a ‘win big’ strategy
May 29th, 2007 at 7:24 am
It is much easier to solve for risk preferences than for risk assessment. Starting a company is analogous to the first night in a casino for some entrepreneurs. If you are fortunate enough to create a small, but meaningful trove of winnings early in the night, you face the decision of taking a modest win home or staying longer and winning bigger or losing it all. If the early win is meaningful enough and if you were forced to stay and keep placing bets, most players would move to a ‘don’t lose’ strategy rather than a ‘win big’ strategy