Kiplinger: Maybe a million bucks isn’t what it used to be (there are nine million households worth seven digits in the U.S. today). But by the same token, making a million is a more-attainable goal than ever. Not there yet? Then let us inspire you with the stories of 7 men and women who started off just like you and then made it. Each of them offers advice you can use.

Millionaires #1 & #2

Caterina Fake’s entrepreneurial spirit first surfaced when, as a kid, she tried to sell her crayon drawings for a nickel apiece. It may also have been in her blood; her father left his corporate insurance job at age 55 to start his own business.

Stewart Butterfield’s parents had always worked as a team in a real estate business in Vancouver, British Columbia. So it wasn’t surprising that Butterfield and Fake joined forces to start their own company soon after their marriage in 2002.

Both had experience in Web design, and they wanted to develop an interactive computer game. The prototype, launched in spring 2003, attracted thousands of users.

But there were still some bugs, and money was tight. The couple had already tapped their family and friends for help, and venture-capital firms weren’t enthusiastic about Web-based businesses at the time.

Flickr, the popular online photo-sharing site.

Butterfield and Fake both wanted to abandon the online game and concentrate on Flickr. But they could afford only one project, so they had to persuade the majority of their team to support the new one. “It was a tie,” says Fake. “Stewart guilted someone into voting for Flickr.”

That was on December 8, 2003. The first version of Flickr was launched by February 2004, and it was an immediate hit. “From the outset, potential acquirers knocked on the door,” says Fake.

Unlike other photo-sharing sites, Flickr focused on building an online community. Fake and a colleague spent days and nights greeting people on the site and introducing them to each other. “If you build a social network that takes off, that’s the Holy Grail,” says Fake.

Fake and Butterfield met with several venture-capital firms and potential buyers, including Yahoo. In the middle of their presentation, the program developed a major bug. “Bad timing,” says Butterfield. “They didn’t call back.”

But six months later, in March 2005, Yahoo bought Flickr for about $30 million. Butterfield and Fake celebrated by buying a new Prius. They moved their offices from Vancouver to San Francisco, and their entire staff of 24 moved with them. Butterfield continues to run Flickr for Yahoo, and Fake is in Yahoo’s technology-development group.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Columns, Success Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.