At several Mixergy events, I introduced Varien's founders to investors. They were always courteous, but they had little interest in getting outside funding. They're funding their baby the old fashioned way, through profits. Here's what I learned from them.

Buy low - Google ads were really mis-priced when they bought them. They bought cheap Google ads to advertise their consulting business. The ads costs them pennies, but they earned millions in consulting work.

Blog - They've told me several times before that having a blog helped them build an audience, which helped them build their business. In today's interview they told me that their blog was written for free by an intern.

Invest - Profits from their consulting business are now being plowed into their new project: Magento, an open source ecommerce platform.

Don't sleep - I love visiting startups because you can feel the determination in the room. While everyone else is sleeping, these guys are developing or responding to their community's issues.