Page 148 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

UNCONVENTIONAL FUNDRAISING
FROM

KICKSTARTER TO UNLIKELY CAR
LOANS.

“Money is better than poverty,
if only for financial reasons.”

—WOODY ALLEN

Naomi Dunford was a teenage mother and a high-school dropout. By the time

she was pregnant with her second child, she was living in a homeless shelter.
After making it out of the shelter by working odd jobs, Naomi was determined to
improve her circumstances however she could. Despite the obvious
disadvantages—being a mom at age seventeen, leaving high school—she also
had a few things going for her. Her dad had built several businesses from
scratch, imparting knowledge and experience along the way. Her mom was a
marketer. And back in the day, her grandfather was in advertising. In other
words, marketing was in Naomi’s blood, so it wasn’t a huge stretch for her to
imagine herself in a different life.

Without sharing her background with potential customers at first, Naomi
opened a consulting company called IttyBiz. Tag line: “Marketing for businesses
without marketing departments.” Later she would add products, courses, and
referrals to other professionals, but Naomi started with a single consulting
service: the service of brainstorming. Over the course of an hour and for an