Bootstrapping to $7M with DIY Business Apps: Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps (Part 3)

Sramana: You have mentioned your SEO and ad word marketing campaigns. What were some of your other successful marketing techniques?

Andrew Gazdecki: One of the biggest turnarounds came from our initial press. We were very fortunate that we got picked up by big publications such as TechCrunch. We were in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. We did that by drumming up interest. I did the PR activities at that time.

Sramana: What worked in your PR strategy? What did you do to make it successful?

Andrew Gazdecki: In my opinion, PR is like fishing. Sometimes you get a bit and sometimes you don’t. There is an element of luck where you need to catch a reporter at just the right time. We did a few things well. We had an interesting product and a very interesting story to tell. Combining those things is a surefire way to get some press.

If you make an amazing product and people are excited to use it, then it is hard for press to ignore you. Building a company from the ground up and telling that story is a great way to get press. We had a few things that worked for us. First, we had a new type of solution. We were targeting the small business market, which was not being done by too many of our competitors. We were one of the first app builders to go after the small business market. We made a decision from day one of the company to target that market. We wanted to mobilize every small business in this nation. We wanted to go after lawyers and restaurants. That put a unique spin on the story that helped us get a lot of press.

The second key was having a beautiful product. You really do have to have something to stand on or the stories will not come. Finally, there was an aspect of persistence. You have to reach out to your favorite blogs. Make a list of places you would like to be featured nd be proactive in your reach out to those blogs. Tell them when you have new features or you have signed new partnership deals. That is press-worthy information. The more frequently you talk to them, the better. Your chances of getting pieces written are much higher when you are proactive.

Sramana: How much angel investment did you raise?

Andrew Gazdecki: We actually did not raise too much. We raised $50,000 initially, and then four months later we brought on an additional $50,000. In essence, we were really bootstrapped. We had a very small office. We focused on getting clients, and we really listened to our customer base. By doing that we were able to tailor a solution that solved a problem for a lot of people. We have the mindset that our customers know what they want better than we do. We may not have raised a lot of venture capital, but we had that type of mentality when dealing with our customers, so I tell people that we raised customer revenue instead of venture capital.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Bootstrapping to $7M with DIY Business Apps: Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps
1 2 3 4 5 6 7