I work for a small company in Cambridge, Massachusetts (we have about 60 employees and were founded in 1999; I'm not sure if we count as a startup any more), so it's certainly possible.
My impression is that high-tech startups in the Boston area tend to sell products or services to larger companies, so that each customer brings in five or six figures worth of revenue. All the Valley startups I hear about, by comparison, aim for the mass market.
I know that PG doesn't like the idea of starting a consulting firm and using the consulting revenues to bootstrap product development, but I worked for one company and interviewed at two that did exactly that. (The one I worked for, Kenan Systems, never took a dime of outside investment, until the founder sold the company to Lucent for $10 billion. Things went downhill from there. But I digress.) Maybe the knowledge and contacts such entrepreneurs gained from consulting helped them make their first five-figure sales?...
My impression is that high-tech startups in the Boston area tend to sell products or services to larger companies, so that each customer brings in five or six figures worth of revenue. All the Valley startups I hear about, by comparison, aim for the mass market.
I know that PG doesn't like the idea of starting a consulting firm and using the consulting revenues to bootstrap product development, but I worked for one company and interviewed at two that did exactly that. (The one I worked for, Kenan Systems, never took a dime of outside investment, until the founder sold the company to Lucent for $10 billion. Things went downhill from there. But I digress.) Maybe the knowledge and contacts such entrepreneurs gained from consulting helped them make their first five-figure sales?...