

Bootstrapped Consumer Web Startup Stories? #Win and #Fail - iusable

There have been a number of great threads on HN by/for self-funded startup stories.<p>I would love to start a new discussion on bootstrapped (non-venture backed) startup experiences focused on the consumer web space. Wins and Fails are both welcome!
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2pasc
I have a good story to share for this from a very close friend of mine.

He started a blog/website about mobile app reviews in 2008 in France, grew the
traffic organically to something like 150K UV/month after one year, was making
some money with affiliate (iTunes) and advertising - 3-5K/month basically.
Then he started building apps and wanted to promote them using his blog. He
built a few and realized that his blog was not enough to promote it, and heard
about FreeAppADay. He decided to start a FreeAppADay equivalent in France
first through a newsletter, then through a mobile app.

Now, their app is installed by 25% of iPhone owners in France, Spain, and it
is catching up in many other countries as well in Europe and South America...
and the Company is selling premium placements to brands, publishers and app
developers who get tons of downloads thanks to them...They will make multiple
millions of dollars in revenues this year!

I think it is much easier to bootstrap a consumer play when the core is
content and community (vs. engineering).

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iusable
I think you are referring to www.AppGratuites.com

Really interesting story and thanks for sharing! It sounds like quite a
journey for him to go from a review blog to become a meaningful marketing
channel. Respect!

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2pasc
I am indeed. It was quite a journey indeed! Do you know the service?

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iusable
I know of them, but don't know the founders personally. I had done some
research on such distribution/marketing channels & they were on my list.

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sagacity
I guess those falling under #Win are too busy growing/spending (the later
applies to exits :)) and those under #Fail are too disappointed/dejected to
post here.

If you don't mind something that has neither Won nor Failed yet, here goes:

<http://GetLocalNe.ws> (my self-funded startup).

Launched about 10 months ago. Have been at it since then (using a goodish
number of people I employ), pumping in cash/time/effort etc.

Still working largely on back-end, but it seems to be gaining at least a small
(and growing) user base slowly. Started averaging 5k unique visitors/day since
the beginning of this year/month.

Will keep at it through 2012. :)

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iusable
Thank you for sharing! I should have mentioned 'midway' or 'undecided' to the
list as well. Duhh.

Its kinda topical what you are trying to do. If you see the Summify exit and
the News.me uptake afterwards, it seems you are in a hotish space.

I would think that your landing page needs a UX/IA review. The onboarding
process should be super easy in this case and instead of giving me a form to
start with, you would be better off pre-loading relevant/contextual content.

Hope that makes sense.

ps - I hope you didn't mind my $0.02

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iusable
Thanks for the votes folks :)

Would love to get some discussion going here.

