Lessons Learned: Spend little to go as long as possible
Yardbarker started out as a Digg for sports. It's iterated a lot since its early days, and it's found a business model to boot - to be an ad network for blogs/publishers targeting males. It's no wonder, Pete Vlastelica, co-founder and CEO is very cognizant of money that's being spent. “Spend as little money as possible to prove as much as possible to go as long as possible," he said.
"We bootstrapped the company for 12 months and paid ourselves nothing," Pee added.
Indeed, according to Bambi Francisco even Peter Thiel (Vator investor) has said that he doesn't invest in entrepreneurs who are willing to pay themselves at the expense of the company.
Pete has a lot of wisdom to share. Keeping the burn low was wise. "By the time we got to the point where we were ready to bring outside investors, our model was completely different," he said.
If Pete could do it all over again, he said he'd try to make money sooner.
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Yardbarker is a network of 700+ independent sites -- mostly sports blogs -- that target the new generation of guys online. The hub of the network, Yardbarker.com, is a community site where fans and celebrity athletes hang out, interact, and talk sports.