Bootstrapped startup? Use PipelineDeals sales software for free

The founders of PipelineDeals know what it’s like to bootstrap a company. The former GSI Commerce sales reps built PipelineDeals off the revenue of an ecommerce consultancy that they shut down once they became profitable.

That’s why they’re offering their sales software to bootstrapped companies, free of charge. The offer ends when a company becomes profitable or when it takes outside investment, and it’s completely on the honor system, said cofounder Nick Bertolino.

Based in Wayne, Pa. and Seattle, Wa., PipelineDeals sells sales software for small to mid-sized businesses. The eight-year-old company has more than 3,000 customer accounts, Bertolino said. Yeah, they knew they were going up against sales software giant Salesforce when they started.

“It’s David versus the Goliath,” Bertolino said.

But they’ve built the business on being “the anti-Salesforce,” he said. It’s just cheaper ($24/user/month) than Salesforce’s smallest group plan and real people pick up the phone when customers call, Bertolino said. Many of their customers are ex-Salesforce users.

Bertolino and cofounder JP Werlin left GSI Commerce in 2006, “frustrated by the big company atmosphere,” Bertolino said. They launched an ecommerce consulting company to pay their expenses while they experimented with several products, many of which eventually failed.

But the software they now sell at PipelineDeals stuck. It took somewhere between a year and a year and a half to become profitable, Bertolino said.

About half their 16-person staff works remotely. Werlin moved back to the West Coast in 2010 and opened an office there, while Bertolino ran the Wayne office. One staffer is based in Ohio, another in northern Pennsylvania. Developer Chad Ostrowski works out of West Philadelphia’s new coworking space The Fire Works.

Why go remote?

The cofounders were kind of used to it. They built the company out of their kitchens and coffee shops — they didn’t have an office for the first three years, Bertolino said.

It can be hard culturally, he said. They use Hipchat (like the team at DuckDuckGo), Google Hangout, Skype. They also do company retreats for staffers plus significant others a few times a year. Last year it was Costa Rica. This year it’s Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Bertolino, 48, lives in Downingtown but grew up in South Philly. He said he’s been contemplating a move into the city, what with First Round Capital‘s arrival and news of the second Comcast tower, but it’s not in the cards right now.

PipelineDeals is setting its sights on the international market next — 30 to 40 percent of its customers are abroad and “we’re not even trying,” Bertolino said, adding that he also envisions the company launching more products.