Companies like HP, Cisco, and Salesforce share anonymized data in a cooperative fashion to extract signals from the aggregated content-consumption habits of business users.ДЇounded in 2014, Bombora took its name from the waves that form over an offshore reef, creating a surge coveted by surfers, and the surge in business data has powered BomboraвЂ™s own growth. BomboraВ aims to do the same inside a business-to-business context. Tech giants like Amazon and Facebook have built fortunes by collecting and studying behavioral data online. When you have more people like us coming, itвЂ™s not about taking resources, itвЂ™s about bringing in strategic partnerships to make a bigger pie.вЂќ The data-surge surfer вЂњI love New York, and we pulled up stakes to come here. Goldman sees the rise of tech hubs like Reno as not so much a story of migration but of what she calls вЂњcross-pollination.вЂќ RenoвЂ™s business community вЂњis a combination of people who were raised here and who moved here,вЂќ she said. But we have people here who want to stay here and raise families,вЂќ she said. вЂњAny honest employer will tell you recruiting is hard. To anyone skeptical about heartland tech, Goldman points to tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Tesla - all of which have facilities in Reno - along with tech workers ready to work for a local startup. But there is a lot of business opportunity here.вЂќ вЂњAnd you do not have the developed capital ecosystem relative to New York or Silicon Valley. вЂњYou still have to drive three hours to San Francisco,вЂќ Goldman told VentureBeat.

And there is a talent pool of digital natives.вЂќД¬apstak launched in New York City in 2015 but discovered enough talent in Reno to persuade the company to transplant its operations there, starting with hiring its chief technology officer. Now AWS has fundamentally changed the ability to build a company. вЂњBack then, the cloud was called вЂhosting servicesвЂ™. вЂњFor one thing, you donвЂ™t have to explain to anyone what the internet is anymore,вЂќ Goldman laughed. The second startup was an entirely different experience. In 2015, she founded Capstak, based on the same notion, only this time leveraging Amazon Web Services and the internetвЂ™s other evolutions of the past decade. Heather Goldman realized this early on, founding CapitalThinking in 1999 and selling it five years later. But the financing of it has become increasingly global in the age of the internet. вЂњWe may not become a unicorn,вЂќ Pearson said, вЂњbut weвЂ™re expanding on what weвЂ™ve built to create a great coaching environment.вЂќ The cross-pollinating transplant The startupвЂ™s next goals are incorporating more outside analytics and adding more planned workouts.

That approach also allows TrainerRoad to focus on training its customers without worrying about investor exit strategies. вЂњThereвЂ™s not just one way to do it, especially if youвЂ™re not shooting for the moon.вЂќ вЂњItвЂ™s possible to build a successful startup without VC investment and hiring in the Bay Area,вЂќ Pearson told VentureBeat. Engineers are recruited via sites like Stack Exchange and mostly hail from outside the Bay Area. In contrast to the invest-to-grow-fast attitude of many Silicon Valley startups, TrainerRoad hires employees as it can afford to and markets to a niche user base through its podcast and a support staff that responds to mentions of the app on biker forums. Instead, Pearson and his cofounders bootstrapped the company with $10,000 they scraped together and have since financed its growth through cash flows.

Since then, TrainerRoad has grown to 56 employees and become a net-profitable enterprise - all without any venture or angel funding.

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