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Built to Enjoy in Utah: Jana Francis, Founder, Steals.com (Part 5)

Sramana: How did you fund the startup?

Jana: I put it on my personal American Express card at first. I covered the first month of product myself. We have never taken any funding, and we have never taken on any investors. We also never had any startup capital. I was able to quickly pay myself back for the product. I would say I put around $5,500 of my own money in before we started the business. I had to get the website built, the logo created, and I had to pay for the baby expo fees. I wanted a self-sustaining business that was cool enough that people would tell other people about it because it was exciting and they were treated well. >>>

Built to Enjoy in Utah: Jana Francis, Founder, Steals.com (Part 4)

Sramana: You spent five months working a full-time job and working your starup business in parallel. What were you able to accomplish in those five months?

Jana: Since our deals start at 9 a.m., I would be at my desk job at work. I would take a break at work and make sure every deal that was supposed to go off went off as planned. After that quick 5-minute break, I would work my day job until lunch, at which time I would run packages to the post office. I would also make phone calls to manufacturers and source products. >>>

Built to Enjoy in Utah: Jana Francis, Founder, Steals.com (Part 3)

Sramana: What is the business model?

Jana: The business model itself is extremely demanding. The name of the company is Steals.com, and we have four niche daily deal websites that cater to women. The first one I started is BabySTEALS.com. We launch one new steal every 12 hours at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Pacific time. It is typically a high-quality product, most often a boutique or higher brand name product, at 40% to 80% off the MSRP [manufacturer’s suggested retail price]. We run the product at that price until it sells out, or until 11 hours have passed. >>>

Built to Enjoy in Utah: Jana Francis, Founder, Steals.com (Part 2)

Sramana: Is that what drove you to become an entrepreneur?

Jana: As I drove away, I realized that I was a capable, smart girl who had been through harder things in life. I was perfectly capable of coming up with something that I would be able to do from home and make enough of an income to support the family. Once I had that realization, the ideas started to flow. I was not trying to think of an idea, they just came in the back of my mind. I also really wanted to spoil my little girl. The reality is that they have cuter things for baby girls than baby boys. I started looking online for all the cute things there were for girls. >>>

Built to Enjoy in Utah: Jana Francis, Founder, Steals.com (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Jana Francis is the co-founder of Steal Network, an interactive marketing company that delivers top-quality brands and products one day at a time to their online communities of women through the websites babySTEALS.com, scrapbookSTEALS.com, kidSTEALS.com, and sheSTEALS.com. Before founding Steal Network, Jana spent her career specializing in advertising and marketing for technology and internet companies in Silicon Valley, California, and for KSL, the largest media company in Utah.

Sramana: Jana, where does your story begin? Where are you from and where did you grow up?

Jana: I grew up in Utah. My father was an engineer. I was raised in a household that had computers in every room when virtually nobody else even had one in their house. We had the original Apple, and my father would teach me how to write programs to get my name to flash across the screen. I was a very early adopter of technology. >>>

Helping SaaS Companies Grow Through Revenue Sharing: Avangate CEO Carl Theobald (Part 7)

Sramana: How does your affiliate market help entrepreneurs grow their business?

Carl Theobald: Affiliates are really a reflection of how this new online world is not only leveling the playing field for start-ups, but providing the resources for entrepreneurs to focus on what they do best and outsource the rest. In this case, they can outsource marketing. In the consumer world we have affiliates such as CNET and Download.com, TopTenReviews, MacUpdate, BitsDujour, as well as geographic specific affiliates, such as SiliconAction in Brazil. Startups of ours, ones with three to four developers building great code, will often leverage the Avangate Affiliate Network to be their virtual marketing team to drive awareness. Perhaps the most useful feature for start-ups is that Avangate only gets paid on a revenue share basis on the business we can drive. >>>

Helping SaaS Companies Grow Through Revenue Sharing: Avangate CEO Carl Theobald (Part 6)

Sramana: It seems that many of your mid-market customers could be coming in through the self-service channel as well. Have you found that to be the case?

Carl Theobald: That is a very good point. Our self-service channel is a very good sales tool. Software AG is a customer of ours that came to us through the self-service channel. They certainly are not a startup. These days, more and more customers want to try before they buy. They just want to get their hands on it and see what happens. We obviously see them come in, which allows us to get into a more formal sales cycle for larger customers. >>>

Helping SaaS Companies Grow Through Revenue Sharing: Avangate CEO Carl Theobald (Part 5)

Sramana: Let’s talk a bit more about how the company is being built. How do you build and scale from here?

Carl Theobald: The company had focused on the self-service market, which meant we had a very small direct sales organization. Once we realized the solution was acceptable for larger customers, as well as the need to scale into North American and Asia, we decided to raised funds. The company is based in the Netherlands, with development centers in Romania. There was no real penetration into North America and the founders realized they wanted some more experienced management. >>>