Ultralight Startups

Ultralight startups:  little capital, just computer is an interesting article by the SF Chronicle's Tom Abate. It is about a UC Berkeley student who started a custom T-Shirt printing company in high school and continues to run it at college. 

The company is ooShirts.com and the founder, Raymond Lei, expects to earn over $700,000 this year from the business. 

Lei's total investment in ooShirts was $2,200. 

There is a lot of talk and discussion in Silicon Valley these days about bootstrapping and lean startups.  Eric Reis is credited with coining the term "lean startup" and preaches a "low burn rate" approach to running startup companies.  Many startups are incorporating lean operating methods. 

Lei's company is even leaner than lean startups.  ooShirts outsources almost everything and is tightly focused on keeping costs to a bare minimum. 

A recent WSJ article, Start-ups on a Shoestring, also covers ultralight startups.  The article profiles a series of companies that got started with less than $150 in invested capital. 

The trends driving the growth of ultralight startups are strong.  Technology is making starting companies of all types much cheaper.  The Internet makes finding and selling to customers easier.  Contractors can substitute contractors for employees and outsourcing services are available for almost all product and services categories. 

We expect strong growth in the number of ultralight startups over the next few years. 

Comments

[Nikki]

Of course ooShirts is going to make that much money! Just try to make a return per their "guarantee"...running light here means that there is literally NO STAFF to work with customers and any problems. I have been trying to get someone there to help me for 3 weeks, but they only have one phone number to take orders with and no other numbers or people to talk to. No corporate headquarters. No customer service. No nothing. They don't appear on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, I'm sure that this is because they don't want to be found. I cannot find a single working number for them other than an answering machine and the order line. Running light in this case means running a pretty unethical business model. And the online reviews are piling up for you, Mr. Lei. Trust me.

[Avondaleaz]

BTW, my post is at http://www.atouchofbusiness.com/info/small-business-ideas-on-a-small-budget

[Avondaleaz]

While there may be different terminology between what's 'lean' and what's a 'shoestring,' I think things are looking up these days (finally). There was somewhat of a silver lining to the recession because it prompted people to think seriously about starting their own businesses.

I thoroughly enjoyed this post and responded in more depth (referencing back to this), in my own post this afternoon at A Touch of Business Info.

As I wrote at the end, "Starting a small business on a shoestring is more than possible. As with any other endeavor, it all comes down to the passion and dedicated hard work—above all—to get one off the ground."

[David Locke]

Government contractors start out with a computer and a phone, because having more causes problems later. The government provides money to cover everything once you get the contract. That computer and phone won't be part of the ongoing operation.

My own take on it is to never code on my own dime. Find a client, so you don't build something without customer input, or something that doesn't have a market.

[SuppliesGuys]

The other point to consider is that while this was a "lean" start-up it also didn't require anything besides the founder's own expertise and hard work. Not all start-ups are this fortunate. Adapting lean operations is however a good idea no matter who you are.

[Smeade]

Be careful not to co-mingle the term "lean startup" with low-cost or cheap. As meant by Eric Reis and Steve Blank, "lean startup" is not about cost. http://steveblank.com/2009/11/02/lean-startups-aren%E2%80%99t-cheap-startups/