Today’s entrepreneurs have a misconception that in order to succeed, you need outside money, and you need others to validate and invest in your idea. Below are 5 major companies to prove that theory wrong. You’ll probably recognize these 5 successes below and you’ll be more impressed with the fact that they didn’t receive any funding to become successful.
1 – SPANX
Sarah Blakely started her $400M company with about $5000 in her bank. At the mere age of 27, the wild idea of her new to be found startup came while she was getting dressed for a party. At the time, she even researched and wrote the patent herself in order to save money on hiring an attorney. Fast forward to 2016, her company reportedly worth $400 million and she owns 100% of her company.
2 – GoPro
Nick Woodman started the company with $35,000 in cash borrowed from his mother. The idea of GoPro came to him while watching other surfers struggle with their cameras on his trip in Australia. He bootstrapped the company until much later when the company was already successful, raking in millions worth of income, that he decided to finally take in investment money. GoPro went public with a valuation of almost $3 Billion.
3 – Craigslist
Who doesn’t know Craigslist? Craig Newman founded (he didn’t incorporate it until much later) Craigslist in 1995. At the time, it was far from being a startup or a business for him, which was why he didn’t bother to incorporate the company until 1997 when it reached over 1 million visitors. Craigslist never fully took in any outside money and was recently valuated at $1.3 billion.
4 – Github
If you’re a developer, chances are you’re using Github, have used Github, or should be using Github. The online code sharing platform was founded in 2008 by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, and PJ Hyett. The company cost them several thousand dollars in private money to start. Due to low funds, they didn’t bother getting an office, and instead worked in local coffee shops to save money. Once they pivoted their pricing model and began charging subscription to use the platform, profit began rolling in. And today Github is worth about $2 billion.
5 – Tough Mudder
Who’d ever thought people would pay to run through mud, dirt, and painful obstacles? The idea sounds more like boot camp than anything remotely fun, yet in 2010 Will Dean and Guy Livingstone thought it was a good idea and decided to invest about $10000 into the business. They had a website, and spent about $8k on facebook ads. Their efforts proved fruitful 2million runners later and generating over $100 million in revenue.
6 – GrassHopper
If you’re an entrepreneur starting out and looking for a cheap phone system, chances are you’ve ran into Grasshopper. David Hauser and Siamak Taghaddos founded Grasshopper in 2003 with the vision of making it easier for entrepreneurs and startups to have a professional image when just starting out. They pair came together with $250,000 if personal money and savings. Their business model requires a lot of equipment, therefore although they had more cash in hand than most of the other startups on this list had, they still had to deploy wise strategies in order to make the most out of their capital.
Grasshopper also went an nontraditional route by being narrowly focused on their target audience. Instead of opening their services up to VOIP or going after larger companies that would pay more, they hyper focused on startups with 1-5 team. This narrow focused allowed them to become profitable within the first 2 months, break half a million by the 1st year, and almost $10 million by the 3rd year.
7 – AppSumo
Noah Kagan launched his startup AppSumo in 2010 with the sole mission of offering discounted digital goods and web apps to consumers online. Having some knowledge in programming, he outsourced a developer to help him build App Sumo’s backend, meanwhile coding the front-end himself. He generated his first 200 sales through Reddit Ads, and eventually grew his customer base by providing exceptional customer service and always making sure his customers are happy. Within 18 months, AppSumo grew to over 18,000 customers.
There you have it, not all startups need to raise funding in order to succeed. And even if you acquire funding, it doesn’t mean you’ll succeed either. These 7 startups proved that their ambition, willingness to work, and their genuine love of their art got them further than any amount of capital could have.
