You should be a tight arse

Mark Fletcher is a brilliant business man. He founded ONElist and Bloglines, two immensely successful companies. His advice is priceless, and those present at Startup SIG were lucky enough to hear words of wisdom from the man himself. Fortunately Niall Kennedy posted a transcript and Ben Barren picked up on this little beauty;

Uh, cheap. I am a cheap bastard when it comes to startups. With ONElist I was, you know, $55,000 got us through a million users. With Bloglines it was $200,000 from start to finish. It’s so cheap to start and run these web companies, especially if you do it virtually. Like, with ONElist, we didn’t have an office for the first year; we all kind of met at my townhouse once or twice a week. With Bloglines, we were all just, we just sat on IM in a chat room all the time, and it didn’t really matter where anybody was. So there’s no need for an office. There’s no need for business cards. There’s no need for any of that stuff. It just doesn’t matter. And besides all that, you know, somebody said the phrase, “Money is oxygen for startups,” and that’s true. Without money, you die. So the less you burn through, the longer you can live; the less you have to raise, the better position that you’re in. So be as cheap and as frugal as possible. I cannot emphasize that enough.

An absolute classic and so very true. Co-working has arrived, and this guy has championed the thoery to prove you can run a massively successful business without an office. And without business cards. And without most things most companies have. Another brilliant man once said;

The less the have the more I gain

and never before has this been more true.