In stark contrast to today’s heavily-financed mega-startups such as Facebook, Groupon or Color, consider the unassuming and newly profitable Ninite, maker of a bulk software installation tool for Windows and Linux.
Ninite co-founders Patrick Swieskowski and Sascha Kuzins, the startup’s only employees, run a lean operation out of a San Francisco-based office and have no interest in raising flashy amounts of venture capital. Instead, their focus is on being the easiest way for software geeks, regular folks, grandmas and even system administrators to get software.
“The most frequent feedback we get from users is, ‘I love you,’” says Swieskowski.
The primary reason for the user-love is that Ninite gives them the ability to install dozens of applications with just a few clicks — it strips out all the tedious navigation and unnecessary dialogs usually involved in the software installation process.
“This is way software downloads should be,” Swieskowski says.
Users seem to agree. One and half years post-release, Ninite’s site now sees 2 million pageviews each month.
Second Time’s the Charm
Ninite’s origins date back to early 2008, when Swieskowski and Kuzins launched BaseShield, a virtualization project for Windows that would run applications in secure containers.
The original idea and product had enough merit to graduate from Y Combinator and help the co-founders raise a small angel round. But the general public wasn’t responding with the same fervor. “It was hard t o package that up and...
