From $0.19 to $1.9M: What does it cost to start up?

So, one of the partners (DL) has some friends who’ve started up some sort of software program that works with Outlook and doesn’t make much more sense to me than that. Fortunately for them, it makes sense to a VC somewhere, who’s offered them $1.3M… and they’re still in production/development.

Let’s set the record straight. We have no VC… and we actually —- honest and true —- have never sought any or ‘wanted’ any. (And, in turn, we’ve never been offered any. )

About a week or two after the idea for what-customers-say.com was ‘born’, we watched a presentation (I can’t find it anymore) by one of the founders of 37signals… whom we absolutely love. In that presentation, David Heinemeier Hansson gave some sage advice: Start ups shouldn’t be building with the hopes of:

1) getting VCs to put up millions, or
2) selling out to the Googles and Amazons of the world

Instead, we should focus on doing what we really love doing.

And that’s what we at www.what-customers-say.com is doing and will continue to do.

So what? Why am I bringing this up now?
Well, during our day jobs today, we attended a company-wide meeting in which there was a brief discussion about start ups. The idea is for big companies to think like a start up… which is great for the four of us who’ve started WCS.com.

Someone mentioned that start ups don’t take a lot of money to get their product out the door. Truer words have never been spoken.

So, proudly and without further ado, here’s what we’ve spent so far on www.What-Customers-Say.com:

• Logo - $300
• Designer - $1500
• Starbucks and Tim Hortons coffees - $50 (give or take)
• Breakfast to celebrate launch - $19
• Hosting - $60 (I think)

Grand total is under $2000. When you factor in the hours, however… um, we’ve spent a helluvalot more than that.

Best of luck, all you start ups…….

Joanna of www.What-Customers-Say.com