Do More Faster India, 2nd Edition

Chapter 60You Don’t Have to Raise Money

Joe Aigboboh and Jesse Tevelow

Joe and Jesse are the cofounders of J-Squared Media, a company that builds applications for social networks that are used by millions of end users. J-Squared completed Techstars in 2007 and quickly bootstrapped itself to profitability. The company changed its name to PlayQ and is a leader in mobile gaming, building high-quality games for iOS, Google Play, Amazon, and Facebook. PlayQ has never sought outside funding.

We entered the inaugural class of Techstars in 2007 with a simple concept for a content-sharing site. On the second day of the program, we decided to abandon our idea in search of a better idea. Within weeks, Facebook announced its platform and opened it to developers. While our business model was still unclear, we recognized the Facebook platform was a great opportunity to distribute products to a large and growing user base.

After about a week of experimenting, we launched our first app—Sticky Notes—that allowed users to send customized notes to their friends. The app grew to more than 10 million users in a matter of months, bringing in considerable revenues from banner advertising. By the time Techstars ended, we had funding offers from VCs as well as several acquisition offers. While most companies were seeking funding, we felt our early success had put us in a position to bootstrap our company.

The decision to bootstrap will affect many of your future operating decisions. We quickly realized ...