Bootstrapped to IPO - with Backblaze's Gleb Budman
Nov 27, 2023
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Guest Gleb Budman, co-founder and CEO of Backblaze, discusses bootstrapping, serving mid-market customers, building their own platform, and the advantages of startups. They also talk about building an affordable storage infrastructure and learning from mistakes.
Bootstrapping forced Backblaze to make efficient decisions and build their own platform for a structural advantage.
Deep dives
Focus on Underserved Mid-Market Customers
Backblaze focused on serving mid-market customers who wanted easy and affordable cloud storage, a segment they believed was underserved by Amazon.
Use Low Pricing as a Structural Advantage
Backblaze built a highly efficient storage infrastructure, allowing them to offer storage at significantly lower prices than Amazon. This attracted customers like CloudSpot, a SaaS company for professional photographers, who switched from Amazon due to the cost savings.
Bootstrapping Instilled a Culture of Cost Efficiency
Bootstrapping forced Backblaze to make thoughtful decisions about cash, resulting in a culture that cared deeply about managing expenses. They leveraged content marketing, community engagement, and PR as cost-effective approaches to growth, while experiments with large campaigns and events proved to be less successful.
This week on How To Win: Gleb Budman of Backblaze, which offers affordable, easy cloud storage. You’ll hear how bootstrapping forced them to make efficient decisions, how focusing on underserved mid-market customers helped them compete with Amazon, and how building their own platform gave them a structural advantage.
Timestamps: 01:45 Focusing on underserved mid-market 02:15 Low pricing from efficient infrastructure 07:45 Content and community marketing 11:30 Bootstrapping forced efficiency 13:20 Building own platform from bootstrapping 16:15 Staying power and not getting ahead
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