An article in The New York Times recently reported that “[v]enture capitalists . . . last year invested the lowest amount in [technology start-ups] since 1997.”

That’s a pretty staggering statistic, though a certainly understandable one, given the economic climate.  Fortunately, though, Cabcorner, LLC and CabCorner.com have been able to survive the downturn and reduced venture interest by pursuing a series of creative, low-cost strategies.  Necessity is the mother of invention.  And invention’s mother is sexy.

First, we’ve pursued a variety of industry consolidation initiatives to work with like-minded entrepreneurs in our sector to combine and leverage pooled resources.  (More information is soon to come regarding CabCorner’s merger with CabEasy.)

Second, we’ve relied heavily on offshore muscle to provide us with both the graphical design and hard coding demands of our website.  In our case, extreme attention to detail and exhaustive oversight have thoroughly mitigated the risks of offshore engagement.

Third, our team is comprised of individuals who have “bought into the project” in the form of cash or (wo)manpower.  In every case, though, our investors play the dual role of managers, making this a project in which all can take pride and are therefore more eager to successfully birth.

A shoestring budget has gotten us extremely far.  In fact, it will take us all the way to development of our second-generation platform.  It would appear, then, that when we finally approach these reluctant VCs, we’ll be doing so with a real product.  All we’ll require is capital for our marketing push.