Since 37Signals famously built a business providing well made web apps for small business, there have been a host of great services launched in their mold. One of my favourites has always been a company called LessEverything. A small (but growing) team out of Florida, the guys at LessEverything have a deservedly successful app called LessAccounting that does just what it promises. Built on a freemium business model the app has been followed by LessTimeSpent and LessProjects along with a whole bunch of neat, quirky and fun side projects. I caught up with co-founder Allan Branch to talk about development, marketing and the business of web apps! (more…)
In a time when layoffs abound, it’s unusual to find a startup that is not only retaining staff, but in fact adding them as Netvibes, the provider of customizable start pages is doing. In fact there’s a lot to be surprised about with Netvibes. They have forgone the obvious route of ad dollars and experimented with a series of innovative and successful monetization strategies including enterprise services and brandable products, while still sticking to their core product. CEO Freddy Mini took some time out to talk to the Netsetter about the process of consolidating a startup, the French startup scene and the future of start pages. (more…)
When Todd Garland launched his company BuySellAds just over a year ago I can remember thinking “Oh happy day” because finally there was a site to help automate what was a rather painful task – managing sales of ad inventory on our various blogs. In the intervening months BSA has come out of beta, signed up publishers by the armful and is today serving well over 1 billion ad impressions a month. I caught up with Todd to ask him how life is going at the helm of a startup in a notoriously tough industry. (more…)
The FWA: Favourite Website Awards is a site founded in the heady days of 2000 with the goal of showcasing brilliant web design on the cutting edge. Now approaching a decade online, the site has become something of an institution in its field and to have one’s work featured there is high praise indeed. Thanks to paid submissions, a popular job board and advertisers to the 80,000 odd daily visitors, the site has not only achieved popular but also financial success.
TheFWA’s founder Rob Ford comes from a background in finance, sales and project management and created the site without external funding. Rob took time out, 9 years on to tell us about his experiences building not only a respected awards site, but a solid business around it. (more…)
