Indie.vc has a list of large bootstrapped companies at the bottom of their FAQ. Some like ESRI are unicorns and have a near monopoly but have been around for 40 years http://www.indie.vc/faq
I believe there is an opportunity for innovative private companies in the "conservative" environmental, construction, etc sectors to have a similar approach where 1 large enterprise works with tech company to solve X and then other enterprises pay back the first co. Almost like corporate investment but product specific and tech co gets 1st big co reference customer, revenue and future customers. Coca Cola thru CC Founders is one similar model without the future customers paying them back.
As PG wrote - persistence is key (http://www.paulgraham.com/really.html). Resources (runway, personal savings) can let you outlast the competition or exist long enough to let the industry you are changing/creating catch up to your innovation.
A company in the SF Bay Area tried to start a ship breaking on Mare Island, but couldn't make it work. Many ships are taken to Brownsville Texas for ship breaking, including the ghost ships (old navy ones) in Suisun bay.
1. I love to cook for fun.
2. I like the creative side of cooking, so no planning ahead. We get a vegetable CSA box which makes things interesting and a challenge each week to cook with new veggies.
3. I slow cook meats a lot and use a lot of tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, and onions in dishes.
4. No diets. Unprocessed food as much as possible
5. Many have mentioned it, but be organized, get a good knife, and find a good pot/pan.
Have a few basic tools and just create - I have cooked on stones on backpacking trips and made my own spoon once out of a tree branch, but a good sharp knife is tough to find.
I had a very similar experience. I love the cleaning lady I found through a more traditional route: word of mouth. But when I heard about Homejoy I had to give it a try, it is a little cheaper. But the cleaner they sent did a significantly worse job than my regular cleaner. Cleaning isn't something that everyone knows how to do, in fact most people don't really know how to clean. Without training, I don't see how Homejoy can offer any guarantee of quality, which is why I won't be using them in the future. Booking online is nice, but if the quality isn't there, it isn't worth it. I do pay my cleaner significantly more than $10/hour, but I feel fine about it. Since I have met her and see her pretty regularly, I would feel guilty if I felt like I wasn't paying her enough to live off of, and $10/hour in the Bay Area isn't enough to live off of. It might not be as convenient as online booking, but all the money goes directly to her, and I feel good about that.
Yes at the surface. However, I think there are opportunities in enterprises at the lower levels or through guerrilla style tactics (e.g. Yammer). Through a combination of free and price points that allow individual or middle management authorization there are opportunities.
Very true. However, having a woman in a lead technical role to provide mentorship and inspiration to female developers is very important for encouraging more women to become developers and stay in the industry.
I agree it would be difficult. They could make assumptions based on founders' degree, but difficult to tell as some technical people don't have a degree in EE or CS. Also, people with a EE/CS degree are not necessarily filling a technical role.
New app asks for founder's gender. Should have much better data with this class on the number of female founders and percentage of total. Also should have better data on number of technical female founders.