

What companies that are making at least $1 million a year didn’t take funding? - ronnwer

I'm looking to learn from companies that were started in the last 2 - 3 years that are making at least $1 million a year but didn't take any outside funding.
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percept
You could try the Inc 5000 list:

<http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/the-full-list.html>

It's not exactly what you want, as these companies will have been in business
a little longer, but you can filter the list by earnings and number of
employees to see some higher-earning small businesses from recent years.

For example, there's Logik, discussed here a couple of days ago:

[http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/company-
profile.html?id=2009...](http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/company-
profile.html?id=200901810)

You might also try Mixergy, which has a bunch of profiles.

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keefe
You sir win at being useful, I can't wait to get this list scraped in.

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ronnwer
?

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keefe
it's interesting and well structured data, but it's basically impossible to
query for interesting things in the presented format...

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izak30
37Signals [Signal vs Noise blog] has a feature called "Bootstraped,
Profitable, and Proud" latest is below, there is at least one more I've read.

[http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2385-bootstrapped-
profitable-...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2385-bootstrapped-profitable-
proud-logik)

~~~
staunch
That one is Logik and the other one is Campaign Monitor

[http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2342-bootstrapped-
profitable-...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2342-bootstrapped-profitable-
proud-campaign-monitor)

~~~
izak30
I think that the common thread for many businesses that have bootstrapped to
high-profit profitability in very short order, with little startup capital is
enterprise software that the founding team has either A) created and has a
very good unique value proposition or B) services very well and in either
case, has dedicated sales staff.

Most other businesses take a fair amount of money for either equipment or
marketing. Logik talks instead about how it's first sale was around $45,000.

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pedalpete
I'm amazed you weren't able to get more responses to this, but after racking
my brain it took a bit to come up with one.

How about Threadless? Though I can't seem to find anything that says when they
were founded, I'd guess it's about 3 years, but could be more.

37 Signals didn't taking funding until after they were already successful, and
of course they've been around for more than 3 years.

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harper
threadless was founded in 2000ish. they didn't take money until around
2007ish.

37signals is about the same (time period and what not)

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daryn
and of course there are many non-funded, non-tech, startups that make that
much after 2-3 years too.

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waterlesscloud
I spent a few years managing a bar that grossed that much. It's not a lot of
money for a business.

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chipsy
Are we talking about gross or net here? It isn't clear. But yes, most capital
intensive ventures are going to get a big gross.

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ronnwer
Net

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revorad
Balsamiq - <http://www.balsamiq.com>

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uptown
I'm pretty sure PlentyOfFish.com qualifies.

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dnsworks
They're more than three years old.

