Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Matt Hulett
I am sure that everyone has read the amazing story of entrepreneur Markus Frind and his business, Plentyoffish.com. It’s amazing to think about how one clever and smart guy created a $10 million a year business. Inc.com did an interesting piece on the man and the company.
I have run into a bunch of these ‘lifestyle’ businesses over the years that are basically run by one or two people that make millions of dollars. In the online shopping space, there are a large number of deal and coupon sites that basically driving organic traffic thru the search engines and generate meaningful revenues. Often times these characters are what I like to call “disenfranchised front lobes.” The model is typically a programmer that starts to play around with different schemes to make money. They plug away at it and automate the various feeds, systems, and processes behind their idea so that literally they can work less than 4 hours a week. No venture funding. Most of these businesses wouldn’t be purchased for crazy multiples by a company. These businesses are what I would categorize as Web 1.0 — meaning that they are basic web sites that don’t use all of the slick Web 2.0 community features that have seemingly permeated the Web.
I actually joined the Board of a company like this, called TangoWire. I won’t disclose their financials but they have figured out how to drive a very interested dating business. It was founded by a couple of smart guys — one of whom worked with me at AtomShockwave named Bryan Brown. The company was recently purchased by enterprise software wonk, Shaun Wolfe. Looking at this company and others like it, it gives me hope that interesting businesses can be built in a bootstrap fashion. It also makes me continue to worry about the venture model over-funding companies that may be good ideas.
