
"Lifestyle" CEO bootstraps business to 30 MM unique visitors: The wikiHow story - Krystle
http://www.xconomy.com/national/2011/12/16/how-to-build-a-lifestyle-business-with-30m-visitors-per-month/?single_page=true
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ktrgardiner
_Even many startuppers, who often work insane hours on the assumption that
their options will turn to gold when their company is acquired or goes public,
seem to reserve special pity for lifestyle entrepreneurs who haven’t won Sand
Hill Road money and aren’t perpetually “killing it” or “crushing it” in the
way Silicon Valley culture demands._

Pity for people who make a good living doing what they love? I don't know who
the author thinks he is speaking for, but I highly doubt it's "many" people in
the startup community. Replace pity with admiration and then you have an
accurate statement.

~~~
waderoush
Maybe I overdramatized. My point in the opening of the piece was that in the
dominant Silicon Valley mythology, building a "lifestyle" company is seen as a
less macho and ambitious path than building a VC-backed company that has a
shot at making its founders and investors mega-rich.

~~~
dmix
> in the dominant Silicon Valley mythology, building a "lifestyle" company is
> seen as a less macho and ambitious path than building a VC-backed company

To be fair, I think this is not so much about the common mythology in the
valley. It's more about how the valley PR sites most commonly talk about.

There's so many bad companies in the tech scene, that we often look at the
VC/angel scene as the filter for whats worth looking at.

I'd argue (as a creator a lifestyle business) that there are even more
uninteresting startups with that fall into the lifestyle label - by that I
mean not very pressworthy - not that its a bad business. The companies that
are trying to do big things, usually require capital and that often comes with
getting press and attention.

It's also important to note that most "lifestyle" companies aren't really
startups anyway.. more small businesses... and they aren't the type of
companies that need VC in the first place.

But as soon as any lifestyle business becomes successful, they get a ton of
praise. Especially on HN. Just like any acquisition or exit.

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gojomo
WikiHow is a great story, but the word 'bootstrap' doesn't appear in the
original article headline or text, because the origin story is a little more
convoluted than a simple incremental bootstrap.

Essentially the wikiHow founders bought Web-1.0 also-ran eHow for cheap,
turned it around with new content, SEO, and AdSense, and flipped it to Demand
Media, keeping the wikiHow sideline as something unique and personally
interesting.

There are some scrappy bootstrap elements there, but also, as Herrick is
quoted saying in the article, "It was like a microcap turnaround." It's also
clear that the "very nice deal" with Demand Media has allowed a patience with
wikiHow that might not be available to every bootstrapping team.

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cellis
Minor nit: Zynga has far more than 30mm MAU or uniques. They are somewhere in
the range of 100mm - 300mm, depending on how you deduplicate.

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its_so_on
not to nitpick, but what another poster here calls "Essentially the wikiHow
founders bought Web-1.0 also-ran eHow for cheap,", the article specifies as
$100,000.

Right, quite cheap, if you have that kind of money kicking around you can live
a story that ends up with you bootstrapping to 30MM visitors. Sounds like this
guy's story is very different from the kids who really need the $16k they
first sell 7% of their company for.

I guess I'm more interested in 'bootstrapping' that happens with a laptop and
skype, not already having 100k.

The article doesn't specify whether he got large material support from family
background. But from the story of the point he was at in his education when he
went off to do rock-climbing with a large 'off-budget' travel fund, all after
working briefly as a 23-year-old mgt consultant, it's not hard to piece
together.

If someone has links to similar stories that are more in line with not having
these things, while bootstrapping/not seeking outside investment, would love
links.

~~~
gonein60
I was wikiHow's first (I think) intern. Back in 08 their entire company was
two guys working in a side room in Jack's dad's office and only one tech guy
who was based in Toronto. I don't think that wikiHow was bootstrapped in the
traditional sense as I'm pretty sure his family has a decent amount of money
(or whatever passes for that in the Bay Area these days). That being said,
here's a guy who's passionate about what he's doing and is comfortable
avoiding the start-up rat race. Given all that, the numbers he's pulling are
pretty remarkable.

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LoisWade42
wikiHow is a really cool place to "hang out" on the web. There's ALWAYS
something new to learn... something interesting / fun / odd to read. It's no
wonder that it gets so many visitors! And frankly? Who cares if it's a
"lifestyle" company? It's now MY lifestyle to check the site several times per
day... which can only be a good thing as far as advertisers are concerned.

