Own Pain Startups

Brian Baderra founded Amplify Relations (originally Grassroots 2.0) in 2009 at age 19 after being laid off from a political ad agency, bootstrapping the startup on student loans with his first client being a former employer client offering a few hundred dollars monthly. The company grew to 13 full-time employees and nearly $2 million in revenue by 2015, specializing in high-margin political campaigns, robocalls, and mass-market advertising for political entities, corporations, and startups. Their differentiation came from licensing a robocall system from Canada that yielded 90% margins on certain projects, while positioning themselves as a full-service agency of record.

Design Online Right is a web development agency founded by Rob Riggs in 2004 that builds technical, functional websites for small businesses and nonprofits. The agency grew from $5,000 in first-year revenue to $1.2M in 2015 with a 30% net margin, driven almost entirely by referrals and relationship-based sales targeting small to mid-market clients and marketing agencies needing technical implementation.

OneUp Repairs is a bootstrapped, profitable cell phone and computer repair shop operating two locations in Austin and San Marcos, Texas. Founded by John and joined by Erica Douglas in December 2014 with a $17,000 investment for 50% equity, the business grew from $62,000 in 2014 to $380,000 in 2015 and was on track to exceed $1 million in 2016. The company's growth has been driven by exceptional customer service, high-quality parts sourcing, and outstanding Yelp reviews (167 five-star reviews), making it Austin's highest-rated independent repair shop.

Alpha Rank is a data science SaaS company founded by 26-year-old Brian Lay that uses time-series analysis to infer network structures and identify influential customers for brands. Drawing from his background in epidemiology and observations of human behavior patterns, Brian created a tool that scores customer influence and predicts network lifetime value. As of 2016, the company had raised $500,000 from angels and VCs, was in private beta doing free case studies, and remained pre-revenue while building out the technology with a team of seven engineers.

Grandex is a media and e-commerce company founded in 2010 by Madison Wickham and a co-founder, starting as a simple one-liner comedy website called Total Frat Move (TFM) targeting college fraternity culture. The company grew from $2,000/month in ad revenue (August 2010) to $10M in annual revenue by 2015 through diversification into branded merchandise (Rowdy Gentlemen), premium retail curation (Man Outfitters), and expanded media properties. They raised $2.3M in angel funding at a $20M pre-money valuation around 2014, and now operate with 40+ employees using owned media channels to drive traffic to their e-commerce and advertising businesses.

Beate Chelette built an image licensing business focusing on architecture and interior photography that became the industry leader, eventually licensing celebrity content to 76 countries. She sold the business to Bill Gates' Corbis in 2006 for a significant multiple of the ~$1M revenue and has since pivoted to coaching creative entrepreneurs and women in business, building targeted email lists of 12,000+ and helping clients scale to six and seven-figure businesses.

Todd Tresetter is a hedge fund manager who retired at 35 and launched Financial Mentor (financialmentor.com) to teach unconventional investment and retirement planning strategies. Starting as a boutique coaching practice, the platform has grown significantly through word-of-mouth, with Todd now converting one-on-one coaching into scalable courses. The site offers free resources including an ebook and a 52-week financial freedom course to build community and provide value-based education.

ZynePak is a custom publication and VIP merchandise agency founded in 2011 by Kim Kaup that creates exclusive fan packages for entertainers, brands, and celebrities. Starting with $600,000 in revenue in 2011, the company grew to $2.8M by 2015 and appeared on Shark Tank, receiving offers from four out of five sharks (though ultimately declining to accept). They work with major artists like Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Katy Perry, and sports teams like the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets, operating on a B2B wholesale model with 20-35% gross margins.

Khalid Salid founded InVesp in 2006, a conversion optimization consulting agency that helps enterprise clients like eBay, O'Reilly, 3M, and Dish Network increase online revenue. Starting with $15-20K in first year revenue while maintaining a $100K+ corporate salary, the company grew to over $1 million by 2011 through high-touch consulting ($8,000+/month retainers averaging 15-24 months). By 2016, Khalid decided to transition the business into a SaaS platform offering A/B testing, heatmaps, video recording, and analytics to compete in the conversion optimization software space.

Hourly Nerd is an online marketplace connecting elite business talent (MBAs, professors, industry experts) with companies needing specialized expertise on a project basis. Founded in 2013 by Rob Biedermann and two co-founders from Harvard Business School, the company takes a percentage (15-20%) of each project transaction and had grown to 21,000 experts serving 5,000+ customers including major clients like GE by 2015. With $10 million raised including a $750K seed from Mark Cuban and a $7.8M Series B, Hourly Nerd reached over $5M in ARR by 2015 with a 58-person Boston-based team.

Graham Williams co-founded Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2006 with Tim Leigh, growing it from a single-day event with 3,000 attendees and a $100k budget to a three-day festival attracting approximately 20,000 people with a $4-5M production budget. He also built Transmission Agency, a year-round booking and promotions company that operates across Texas. The business model generates revenue primarily through ticket sales (approximately $1-2M), sponsorships, and bar/beverage sales.

Yo Shirt is a mobile app enabling users to design and order custom on-demand apparel directly from their iOS device. Founded in 2014 by Ben Williamson (former senior-level Apple engineer), the company raised $1.1M in a priced equity round in early 2015 and reached $3M in revenue by end of 2015, with projections to hit $10M in 2016. Growth was driven primarily through strategic brand partnerships (notably Fallout Boy, which generated over 1,000 units in a single tour activation) and organic marketing including Apple App Store features.

Laurie Lane Zucker founded Impact Entrepreneur Center after 10+ years in social enterprise and impact investing to build an ecosystem for entrepreneurs focused on triple bottom line business (financial, social, and environmental returns). The organization operates as a LinkedIn-based network of 10,700+ members across 150+ countries and generates revenue through consulting engagements, success fees on funded deals (typically 5% of seed rounds), retainers, speaking engagements, and mentoring. Laurie is now scaling the model into a physical center combining incubation, acceleration, remote learning, and regional economic development initiatives in Massachusetts.

Doorman is an on-demand package delivery service founded by Xander Adel, a former Pixar technical director, that solves last-mile delivery problems by allowing customers to schedule package arrivals at convenient evening hours (6 PM to midnight). By 2016, the company had raised over $3 million, built a team of 10, and delivered over 100,000 packages across three markets (San Francisco, Chicago, and New York) with both direct-to-consumer and retail partnership models.

Pixie is an image optimization SaaS platform launched in 2014 by Holly Cardew that helps e-commerce merchants automatically edit and optimize product photos for multiple platforms within 24 hours. The company is self-funded with $150k in angel investment, operates with a distributed team of 16 (plus 100+ freelance designers), and is processing hundreds of thousands of images with over 7,000 customers. Holly grew the company to breakeven by 2015 and found the most explosive growth through an affiliate program that generated 1,000 signups and 70 paying customers in just three weeks.

Steve Sims is a luxury experience broker who has built an agency connecting high-net-worth entrepreneurs and self-made individuals with exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime experiences (meeting celebrities, private performances, etc.). Operating since at least 2015 with just under 3,000 clients worldwide, the business generated just under $10 million in revenue in 2015, operating with a lean team of 11-12 people. Steve's core differentiator is his credibility chain networking approach—leveraging relationships to gain access to otherwise unreachable people and opportunities.

Juice Land is a bootstrapped organic juice bar chain founded by Matt in Austin, Texas, with origins tracing back to 2001. As of 2015, the company operates 16 locations across Austin, Houston, and Brooklyn with $10M in annual revenue and 275 employees. Growth has been driven by word-of-mouth and location selection based on foot traffic observation, with a focus on premium organic ingredients and product consistency despite razor-thin net margins of approximately 5%.

Cool Leaf is a B2B SaaS platform that helps mid-sized businesses and Fortune 500 companies organize, communicate, and track employee engagement efforts. Founded in 2011 by Prem Bhatian and co-founder John, the company has evolved from an initial B2C focus to a successful B2B enterprise with 26 active customers paying an average of $25-30k annually. By March 2016, Cool Leaf had raised $800k in funding (including from 500 Startups), generated less than $500k in 2015 revenue, and was aiming to hit $1M ARR by end of 2016.

Glintz is a career discovery and talent marketplace founded in late 2013 by Chin-Un Luy that connects employers with young graduates and fresh talent in Singapore. The company grew from $7,000 in first-year revenue (2013-2014) to nearly $500,000 in 2015, achieving 15% month-over-month talent database growth while spending less than $1,000 per month on marketing, primarily through word-of-mouth and direct university partnerships.

Map My Fitness (Map My Ride, Map My Run, Map My Walk, Map My Hike) was founded in 2006 by Robin Thurston after a cycling trip in Switzerland. The company grew to 20 million monthly active users by 2013 through purely organic, word-of-mouth growth with no paid customer acquisition. At exit, the company had $17 million in trailing 12-month revenue across multiple business lines (advertising, subscriptions, and SaaS API licensing) and was acquired by Under Armour for approximately $150 million.