Less than 1% of customers leave BIS Safety's eSafety software each year, according to Practical Founders, which says that low churn created compounding growth without aggressive sales spending. Dan MacDonald has bootstrapped it for nearly 20 years, as of January 2026.

"It was about two years before we decided to pay ourselves." Rella's Natalie Barbu on the unpaid stretch, when "my co-founders had to find side projects" while still building Rella full time. Raises came once Rella 2.0 made more money.

Hubilo started as COVID virtual events tech, raised $150M, rebuilt how it sells until new webinar revenue and legacy customers split 50/50, and Brandlive bought it in 2025 for the webinar product, with about 80% of the team moving over.

Investors reaching 51 percent ownership of Snagajob ended with a new CEO in 2013. Founder Shawn Boyer says "there is just as much risk in going too fast as there is in going too slow."

Josh Allen's first platform landed five clients in about three years, while he took on well over a million dollars in personal debt. He repaid every penny in late 2023 and has never taken outside funding.

If your Maryland shop is within a quarter mile of the Purple Line tracks, MDOT offers grants up to $50,000. You must be a small business open before January 1, 2025. Round 3 is due November 7, and MDOT says grant payments are taxable income.

A $50,000 VIPC grant for Virginia startups that don't have a product yet, and it takes no equity. You do need a 1:1 non-dilutive match, capital or in-kind, and no angel or VC raises. Cycle 7 closes October 30 at noon Eastern.

Dinakara Nagalla says EmpowerMX was extremely profitable the year he sold it to IFS, and his equity partners were happy.

Missive co-founder Philippe-Antoine Lehoux says maybe 30 percent of the growth in new users comes from the affiliate program. The team built it themselves and hosts it inside the app, and it still drives a lot of revenue.

Flodesk was profitable from the second week after launch, according to a March 2025 Practical Founders episode.