Come for the Ride!

Bootstrapping a startup is certainly not all fun and games and unlike a day job, you can’t clock out and you don’t get benefits.  We are coming up on our year one of operations as a team.  What started as an idea over a year ago has now blossomed into a tangible service with over 1.8 million cars serving almost 80,000 users a month.  We basically have 50% of AutoTrader’s inventory right now and looking to grow like Dubai skyscrapers.  What a difference a year makes.

Due to increasingly busy schedules and to-do items, we haven’t updated this blog too much over the last few months.  While I would love to say that a lot of crazy things have gone on, the truth is we developed a simple playbook and have been hammering it like annoying telemarketers with a huge list of numbers.

So the pay stinks, the job can be boring, why do this at all?  Why not join a large corporation with a nice salary, huge benefits, and a chance to travel?  Well, at the end of the day, its the love that keeps us going.  We’re not doing this to get on to Mashable or TechCrunch though being recognized would help our ultimate goal.  What keeps us going is the fact that we know we have a better mousetrap and when its complete, we want to make sure the world realizes it too.

It’s funny – of all the people I’ve networked with in the past year who were dedicated to their ideas, many of those startups no longer exist.  Maybe the pay cut is too deep, maybe they learned quick their idea won’t fly or maybe the lack of passion killed it before it ever had a chance.  Whatever it is, it’s amazing to see what a difference a year can make.

Someone once asked me if you found something you loved doing, would you really do it for free? I guess the answer is yes – with some contingencies of course.  But one year later, I’m really glad to see the progress we’ve made and to experience everything we have learned.  Despite the struggles, sleepless nights and developing a habit of talking to my dogs to get their opinions, I probably wouldn’t trade it at all.

It will be interesting to see where we are another year from now.