Open Source Tools, Social Media and Other Readily Available Technologies Support the Bootstrapping of New Ventures

When veteran entrepreneur Christine Mason McCaull and her partner started their newest venture, ClickMasters, a social media strategy company, they discovered that access to open source resources and other technologies has dramatically driven down the costs of market entry.  In fact, in a recent blog post, McCaull states that what would have cost a minimum of $500,000 in 2004 can be accomplished today for as little as $20,000.
She has identified five major tech-enabled trends that contribute to these savings and to accelerated market launch for startups.  These trends include:

• The Open-Source Movement – which makes it easy to launch a functional, commercial and robust Web presence at a fraction of previous costs.
•  Access to a Global, Distributed, Specialized Workforce – that allows instant access to contract and project talent from around the world.
• Social Networks  -- which connect companies with highly connected interest groups and supports the targeting of marketing messages to specific audiences at literally no cost other than the labor. 
• Software as a Service – which puts professional level functionality tools (version control software, online task and project management tools, etc.)  at the fingertips of smaller companies at an affordable price point.
• Online Productivity and Communications Tools – such as Skype, eFax, mobile phones and the iLife suite of media tools from Apple, which help reduce overhead and administration costs. 

McCaull says that these trends and tools have freed her company up to invest their money and time in the development of their company’s core business offering, to run very lean and to bootstrap their company through sales revenues not other people’s money.

Kevin Gadd, director of IT commercialization for TechColumbus agrees with McCaull’s observations.  “We are indeed seeing an increase in IT startups built on open source platforms with a heavy emphasis on social media.” 

“Not only is the region’s culture conducive to IT startups, but these new tools are helping these ventures bootstrap themselves up by getting the product developed, online and sales-ready very quickly and very economically.” 

 The increase in interest in bootstrapping within the region has led to the creation of a local membership organization, the International Bootstrapping Association, that meets regularly at TechColumbus and at the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center.  Through the association, local entrepreneurs support each other as they navigate the uncertain waters of bootstrapping a business in this economy. 
For more information on bootstrapping strategies, read Christine McCall’s blog post in detail here 
 
For more information on the International Bootstrapping Association, visit the website