Very inspiring. If you watch the video interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFaCkCRhl2I) she talks about generating traffic and using inbound marketing (including some sneaky tactics!).
They are doing 350,000 uniques a month now with ZERO paid marketing.
I think this highlights the difference between justifying to yourself that you are doing everything possible to make it work... and actually doing everything possible to make it work. The difference is significant but often hard to see when it's yourself.
The persistence that Suster describes in Tracy is what's most impressive. She simply did not stop. She had a goal in mind and no challenges were going to stop her, she would find a way around them. Love it!
One of the easiest way to figure out if an entrepreneur is going to make it or not is by asking them about their challenges. In my experience people either fall into the category of making excuses about why they haven't overcome their challenges or they tell incredible stories of how they found a clever way to overcome them...note: they themselves don't think its incredible, they just did what was necessary.
Pffft. Typical women entrepreneurs with their bootstrapping to stability and growing their business steadily and by not taking crazy, stupid, and extreme risks or clearing out their kid's collage funds and piling on debt.
Going by the reply to your comment(which is dead - I have 'show dead' set in my preferences), I see Poe's law in action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poes_law
Airbnb aside, it's nice to read articles about actual boot-strapped startups, free of the Silicon Valley VC infrastructure. The force-feeding from SV gets tiresome.
Not really sure what compelled you to comment here.. but why the negativity? Yeah, there are a ton of ways to raise $28k. This article is about how she did it. Of course she could have moved into a smaller apartment. Or she could have lived almost free with family/friends. Or she could have saved all her money and lived on the street. /facetiousness
The takeaway is that she had a goal and she made use of her resources to accomplish that goal.
Regarding your second statement - that's just ignorant.
As another entrepreneur who subsidizes his income by renting out a room using AirBNB - I can assure you that AirBNB reports this to the IRS, and provides me with the appropriate form at the end of the year.
I happen to own my home, and so moving to a smaller place isn't achieved with a snap of the fingers. The ability to rent out to the tune of $10k+/yr greatly helps offset the mortgage for over half the year!
I have never used AirBnB but I would be very surprised if they would send someone $28k without also reporting it on a 1099. I learned that the IRS does keep track of those.
How come are you so sure about the income was not reported to IRS?
Anyway, this is just a story to inspire people, the way you can fund your start-up in an alternative way.
They are doing 350,000 uniques a month now with ZERO paid marketing.
Rand from SEOmoz would be proud.