Bootstrapped and Virtual
The legendary stories of tech companies that have succeeded from humble beginnings provide hope to optimistic bootstrapped start ups, like RememberItNow!
Humble is a good description of RememberItNow! today. We’ve taken full advantage of low-cost or free Web 2.0 technologies to quickly, and inexpensively build our business.
For starters, our organization is almost entirely virtual. “Headquarters” is a home office loft in Orinda, Ca. The rest of our team is scattered throughout the United States, Asia, and South America.
Having a virtual company allows us to work with the most talented people, wherever they live. We haven’t had the distraction of finding and moving to an office, and we don’t have to worry about the overhead.
Most of our employees are contractors. And, while I love the fact that we don’t have to worry about paying salaries right now, there are definitely times I wish I had their undivided attention. Even in this recessionary environment they stay very busy. We often have online meetings after 9:00 pm. We may be a small start up, but our business runs 24×7.
How We Do It
We stay connected through instant messaging. Either Yahoo! Messenger or Google Talk. Skype takes care of the rare international call. FreeConferenceCall.com works fine for team meetings in the US.
Google Docs has nearly replaced MS Office for many of us. Collaboration is painless, and it eliminates the need to send emails and track revisions.
The core team at RememberItNow! has worked together before. Our mutual respect and trust for each other has helped us build great software, ahead of schedule.
When we do need to hire extra help, we look online to find the best talent our budget allows.
Twitter and LinkedIn are two great social networks where you can ask for referrals. We’ve used eLance to find writers and quality assurance folks. Be sure to check ratings and see work samples. The quality can be hit and miss.
CrowdSPRING is an amazing resource to find talented graphic artists. You post your project and designers work on spec. You’ll get loads of ideas and connect with a designer that shares your vision. If you need help with your blog, we’ve found the quality of writers on the ProBlogger Job Board to be a notch above the rest.
We’re not entirely virtual. When it came time to hire a marketing assistant I wanted someone local, that would work directly with me. You can only IM so much and I was getting lonely.
I quickly learned that CraigsList has a wide following, be prepared to review hundreds of resumes. If you need administrative help, try your local college. It’s where I found Alex, who takes care of this blog, and a million other things.
Job prospects for this year’s college graduates are poor. You’ll have your pick of top students who will contribute now, grow along with your company, and provide a testament to your humble start up story.
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