OK, So GooberBlitz is not a real startup, and a $20.45 round of funding isn’t likely to make TechCrunch.  TechCrunch reports on startups and businesses in the Web 2.0 space that are dealing with large VC and angel funding. TechCrunch rarely reports on bootstrap startups unless they are doing something exceptional.

That’s a problem!  Where can the home-grown startups go to share the good news on what they are doing?

Let StartupNextDoor be the TechCrunch for the home-based/lean/bootstrapped startups!

In the next week or two, I’ll start adding in some interviews with startup founders just like you (perhaps even you) along with the normal startup advice articles.

Do you have a bootstrapped startup that’s doing something cool or interesting?  Contact me and let me know what you’re up to.  You may be the first interview.  Include in your email these items:

• your name
• startup name (or working title/codename)
• website (if any, or expected launch date)
• a brief description of your product/service

I’m good at keeping secrets.  I’m not going to leak your info like some sites do.  So if you’re going stealth, don’t worry.

I still won’t report on $20.45, but at least there’s a site that cares.

Update Apr. 20, 2010: Since this posting we’ve done two interviews with home-grown startups:

• Earndit Interview
• KnowEm Interview

I’m still looking for great companies to interview.  If you’re building your own self-funded web company, contact me and let’s talk.

Next post: using web programming frameworks

If you have VC or angel funding, you can spend money without regard for current or future costs.  Lucky you.

If you’re building your business on a shoestring, free is great.  But you don’t want free stuff that will cost you an arm and a leg later.

The good thing about Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) is that it is free and free to scale.  It costs $0 to install on one server and $0 to install on 10,000 servers.  You’re only paying for the IT staff to do the install and management, unless you can do it yourself, then it’s still $0.

Part of The Startup Next Door philosophy is to start your business with as little money as possible and let the merits of  the business model pay for scaling the site as it gets more traffic.  If your business model stinks and you’re getting too much traffic that you can’t afford to keep up, you’ll likely always be behind until you change the way your business makes money so it can fund itself.  If you have to pay $1,500 for the software on a new server, or $25,000 to install another database server, your business better be making lots of cash. You’ll run in to these issues if you’re running Windows Server, SQL Server, Oracle, etc.  The startup costs are just too expensive to bootstrap, unless you have lots of your own money in the bank and are willing to pay from your savings.

I’ll reiterate from an earlier article, I’m not a Windows hater (I’m writing this on Windows).  But for small business trying to keep startup costs and scaling costs low, it’s not a very affordable option.  I’m not a software hater at all.  It’s just software. Nothing to get political about.  I’m just being practical because I’m cheap.

Why PHP?

Because it’s what I know, and it’s free, and I can give most of my good IT advice based around it.

You’re also more likely to find a PHP programmer than most other open-source runtime languages.

Here’s my somewhat dodgy evidence:

From the internet engineer jobs section and the resume section on Craigslist Seattle (this is where half of my jobs have come from):

Yes, Java is quite popular in there, but I only know a little Java. And Java isn’t just for web, so it’s somewhat misleading here.  If you’re going Java, I know very little about their workflow or tools, so you’ll have to get details elsewhere.

And for the curious, Windows technologies:

There are lots of folks out there who can write your web software on Windows.

My Programming Background

Perl was my first “web programming” language.  I learned it on my own, and my first real programming job was mostly Perl, and I did it for 4 years.  Alongside Perl I had also had the opportunity to learn ASP (not .Net) and Visual Basic.  It wasn’t until I started my first real startup that I learned PHP (because my business partner knew it and not Perl).  I’m not going to tell you that PHP is better or any of that garbage.  It’s just what I know, and I can configure a server and do everything I need to in PHP without spending a dime.

I also was using PostgreSQL long before I ever touched MySQL. And in my career I’ve used SQL Server, Ingres, and Oracle, too.  PostgreSQL and MySQL are both free and there are many free resources for them.  But since I know more about MySQL and there are many pre-built applications that work well with it, so that’s what I’ll help you with on Startup Next Door.

Where I’m Going with This

Since I’ll be offering advice soon on how to optimize your programs and server and this experience comes from my expertise in PHP and MySQL, please forgive my bias.  If you or your site implementer is going with something else, that’s fine.  You can use the same concepts I bring up and find solutions that match on your server stack and language.

P.S. Don’t give in to software hate.

Next post: some special news

Great video from This Week in Startups, featuring an interview with David Heinemeier Hansson of 37Signals, whose remarks mimic the Startup Next Door philosophy, where your revenues dictate the scale of your business, and how taking other people’s money is a mistake that stifles your “hunger” in building your business profitably and efficiently.

This video begins 47 minutes into the show, where the interview starts, and after a brief history of his programming career, we get to the meat of the interview.

I’ve changed the privacy tag to “stealth”, and changed “Private Enterprise” to “Stealth Startups”.  This should lessen the confusion.

Next post: Cross-startup stealth

I live where I work, at my home, and my startups are my cattle. I keep a stable of them, add new ones to the stable when I can, and work to feed them to get them strong enough to take to market. Some are weak little runts, and no matter how much I may try to feed them or exercise them, they’ll never be worth the effort because their competition will always be better. On a ranch, a rancher might use them for meat, and in my case the weak performers are killed and used for their code. I tend to reuse code in other things, and each startup is an opportunity to improve my coding and create solutions to new problems, and eventually those problems may become routine. So with each startup, even the weak ones, I learn something new and useful.

It’s not a perfect analogy, because I may never sell any of my startups, but they’ll generate income. A rancher may not sell any cattle, but he can get the milk as long as he needs. More startups, more milk.

Next post: how to get a cheap, professional logo

Photo by Spider.Dog / CC BY 2.0

When I come up with another idea for a site, I’ll do a good bit of research to make sure it hasn’t been done already, will see how much I’ll need to pay for resources, and basically try to guess if it’s worth the effort. If it’s a really good idea, I’ll put in the many hours to build it, add in a registration and payment system, and leave it for a while and watch as traffic increases. I’ve also been known to advertise using Adwords, Twitter, and friends to get the word out.

A good startup site is a self-serve site: one where you can go on vacation for a week or two and it will take care of itself.

I don’t need a sales team to sell it, because it has clear marketing copy to explain the benefits and a self-sign up system. The registration system has a password reset function so people don’t need to e-mail or call me for help. The user can purchase on demand, since my sites are software as a service (SaaS), with a payment gateway for single sales and recurring monthly subscriptions. The interfaces are simple and clear, lowering the need for support calls or even a help/instructions area. The user can cancel on their own through the account area when they wish, without the need to call.

Throughout the entire process above, I’m out of the equation. I can check in from time to time to look over sales, check logs for errors (even better have it email you when an exception occurs), and even add new features that customers have requested. But working on the site is not a daily job. It pays for itself over time, without the constant babysitting. It’s a money making machine you leave on 24 hours a day.

This hands-off approach leaves time for more important pursuits: time with family, making memories, getting rest, and making more startups.

Over time, building an ever-growing group of such self-serve sites will help you generate multiple sources of income from an initial burst of effort.

Next post: the benefits of an umbrella company

• Bootstrap business philosophy
• Startup advice
• Tips for business privacy
• IT advice for the non-techies and experienced IT folks
• Free and cheap services to outsource your work so you can work more efficiently
  

  Ernst Stavro Blofeld

I also plan to feature bootstrapped startups with founder profiles, interviews, and information about these ambitious companies.

Over time as traffic on StartupNextDoor increases, I’ll be adding tools to the site to help people get their startups rolling (see more on Coming Soon). You’ll have to wait and see. If I told you all of my secret tricks, you would build it before me and take all my lovely internet friends away.

Next post: the Startup Next Door philosophy

Art by Nicholas Anderson

I’m John Washam. I’m a web programmer, startup junkie, and lifelong friend of the coffee bean.

My startups are different than most. I’m the VC, the chairman, the programmer, the marketing department, the copywriter, everything. No employees, no office space. But I make money because I work hard to create services that people like. With the right business model, some of those people pay me.

In 1997, I started making web sites as a hobby using website building apps like NetObjects Fusion, so didn’t really learn webpage markup or website programming until January 2000. I studied it on my own for a year and a half and landed a nice programming job in Seattle, WA.

A few months later I was planning a startup on the side with a co-worker. We spent a year and a half building the entire application and launched it in 2003, completely self-funded. We closed it at the end of 2006.  

The process of building that site from beginning to end: web design, user interface design, database setup, backups, email service, web server setup, sysadmin tasks, advertising, customer service, and application programming gave me a wealth of knowledge that I’ve applied to jobs and other startups ever since.

Even as that business was running, I continued to create and improve my own sites when I saw a need to be filled. I can’t stop. I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more startups.

As you read my posts, you’ll learn more about my experiences and my sites. Enjoy.

Next post: my evil plan

If you work at a startup that has VC or Angel funding in the millions of dollars, is featured on TechCrunch, has scaled for 500 million monthly page views and is hoping to be the next Facebook/EBay/Craigslist, your company will not be featured here.  Enjoy your nice office space and good luck with that IPO.

StartupNextDoor only cares about the little guy: the software developer who goes home and works on a side project, the marketing analyst down the hall who knows she could run the company better if she was in charge, the salesperson who scribbles diagrams on a cocktail napkin about what a customer relations system should look like.

This site is for you. To help you be successful in your venture.  Your venture WITHOUT capital.

That’s right – creating a bootstrapped company, funded with as little money as possible, but still offering quality web-based services that can scale and get you where you want to go.

Next post: about me and my experience