There are way more women running tech startups that have VC funding than there are with bootstrapping.
Really? I'm not so sure. Perhaps it is just hard to hear about the women that are bootstrapping tech companies. Companies that are being bootstrapped typically are pre-traction, and have not received the buzz in the tech media that comes with raising a funding round.
Women aren't launching tech/web/software companies at twice the rate of men, so that's irrelevant. Few other fields do VC the way tech/web/software does.
Correlation, causation, everybody's heard that old saw. I certainly didn't say what you claim I said. What I said was: Few other fields do VC the way this one does. By which I mean, most fields don't do VC.
At all.
VC is almost purely a tech/bio/med thing. Most small businesses - which is what startups are, by the way - take loans. That's how it usually works.
There are lots of bootstrapped companies that are not "pre-traction," and, in fact, making hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions). You'd be very surprised. The "startup" press (including HN) is a real echochamber, and this lack of awareness about bootstrapping is one of the side effects. Check out my speaker list at http://schnitzelconf.com.
That's why I asked everyone I knew - and asked them to ask everyone they knew. I have my feet planted very high on the hierarchy of "famous devs" in more than one circle, so my reach is greater than the average joe. In addition to browsing every women entrepreneur's directory I could find. Including http://startupprincess.com. No joy.
Nary a female product bootstrapper around. Except the lady who's part of the team at Mite.
Agreed, but once a company is already making lots of money I tend to drop the "bootstrapping" adjective to refer to their present state of operation. :)
There are a few women in the NYC startup scene who are "bootstrapping" their companies for months (or longer) until they have revenue or are ready to raise funds.
Your speaker list looks great. And if you are only looking for women coders, who have built successful product companies, that have never taken VC then I agree they are hard to find! But keep in mind that there are not many startup teams that raise VC where there is a founding female coder either.
Hi Marilyn. Awesome. But by "pre-traction" are you referring to List Central? Because, by my definition, that isn't a product. Bootstrapping to me means you have to charge.
It's not that hard to find women heading up traditional web 2.0 properties, like social networks and social media tools (that don't charge).
Wooohoooo!! Welcome to the beautiful land of products that make money. It's a nice place to be!
Let me give you a little piece of advice-- unstealth yourself!
When we shipped Freckle, we had $1500 in monthly billing at the end of the first round of 30-day trials, because we put up a little teaser page just like this (for our 2nd SaaS product): http://charmde.sk/.
We had about 400 names on it, from tweeting and talking about it, and a pretty decent conversion rate on that. That headstart was worth at least $18k that year (and probably more, since our main factor for growth is word of mouth). We now have 320 names on the Charm list and that's a much narrower audience, so I think our actual rate of emails vs audience is even better.
Typically speaking, "stealth mode" doesn't do a lick of good for paying products. Most people are too stubborn to make a paying product to begin with, much less copy one that isn't out yet. On the other hand, people love the opportunity to put their name in for a new product that will help them -- and if you don't capture their email, they'll just forget about it.
Perhaps you should fix the typo in the who is this for section: "You are the technology guy responsible for the product, whether your title is Lead Developer, CTO, or VP Engineering, or "The technical guy"."
Depending on the school grad students are not necessarily cheaper to a professor than Postdocs due to the overhead/fees paid for students versus that paid for postdocs. Also the current academic job market in the US is bad. Taking a postdoc for 1,2,3 years has been very common in Computer Science for people seeking faculty positions in the last couple of years.
I've heard that it's possible (not easy) for statistics Ph.D.s to jump directly to faculty positions, but I think this is becoming less common. I think that economics Ph.D.s also often jump directly to faculty positions.
Still a ways off getting there with humanoids! The small size league is one of the most fun to watch. It moves very fast, the robots work properly in their teams, and they even chip kick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNXiSE7MoVU&feature=relat...
I think a lot of people miss how cute the Sony AIBOs were though!
There are private equity groups that acquire companies with profits of this size. But I don't know the industry well enough to suggest names. I would try and get some names from any investment bankers you know -- maybe alums from your biz school if you don't know anyone personally.
Currently if a woman wants to wear jeans in a new brand or style, you are right, it is a good idea for her to try them on before buying them. Depending on the woman, she may or may not consider going jeans shopping a chore.
In your proposed system, the woman instead needs to measure her waist, hips, thighs, inseam, and probably some other things too. Having done some dress making in the distant past, I know it is easier said than done to measure yourself in the correct places. And it is not fun. But sure, if you offered jeans that were customizable on enough size points, as well as in styles, perhaps you could sell your jeans online without a lot of returns.
I think the key to the success of a new brand of jeans though is not just about how well it fits. Just take a look at all the women in ill-fitting skinny jeans out there! My hunch is that women on average have a less utilitarian attitude to fashion than men (men often just want something that looks decent and fits well?).
Perhaps instead of taking on the risk and challenge of building a new fashion brand, you could leverage the brands of others. Take measurements of all the popular jeans brands in all the major sizes and then write the matching tool. Its not as lucrative a revenue model (it would be affiliate), but it would help you test part of your idea.
The long hours issue is not unique to startups. I've seen happy couples where one partner works long hours and the other does not, and when both work long hours. But obviously it depends on the couple and what they both want out of life and the relationship.
The issue that is more specific to startups that can arise is money. Bootstrapping a startup can involve lower or no pay for an extended period. Both partners need to be on board with that, since money is apparently one of the main things most couples argue about!
If your plan is for the company behind the platform to buy you, you need to consider carefully the kind of cash they have for acquisitions and how often they do talent acquisitions. The chance is much higher with some companies than others (assuming your product is worthy).
Really? I'm not so sure. Perhaps it is just hard to hear about the women that are bootstrapping tech companies. Companies that are being bootstrapped typically are pre-traction, and have not received the buzz in the tech media that comes with raising a funding round.