The short but successful history of a young technology startup born in Italy and sold after 18 months of happy life to a US company.

1. Startup to Exit in
18 Months
Lessons learned bootstrapping and selling a
technology startup from Milan to San Francisco.
Federico Feroldi - @cloudify

2. Federico Feroldi
In the web industry since 1996
Co-founder and president of
Coderloop, now acquired by
Gild.com
I’m a geek and a programmer,
trying to master the art of
entrepreneurship.

3. About Coderloop
“A technology than enables employers
to evaluate technical candidates
effectively based on programming
puzzles and interactive challenges.”

5. Milestones
Full 2K
IDEA Time users
1st
cust.
Acquisition
proposal
FEB, 15TH JUN, 1ST DEC, 1ST FEB, 20TH JUL, 12TH
.2010 .2011
FEB, 23RD JUL, 1ST FEB, 1ST APR, 5TH JUL, 22ND
1st line Launch!
of code
Inc. 1st Term
Sheet EXIT

6. Bad decisions
✓ Didn’t verify our business model
✓ Realized too late that market size
was too small
✓ Didn’t set a price on the product
from the 1st day
✓ No personal income for 18 months

7. Good decisions
✓ Stayed focused: do one thing!
✓ Stayed frugal: used only free tools!
✓ Kept the team small
✓ Waited for investors to come to us
✓ Been transparent, asked for advice
✓ Targeted the international market

8. Best lesson ever!
Solving a problem that we had is the
best decision we ever made.
If you have a problem that your
product solve, you are you own
customer.
If many other people have it too, then
you have a market for your product.

9. Thanks
federico@cloudify.me
@cloudify