I'm not really convinced VistaPrint is the best example to learn from. Allegedly, they do some pretty shady things with their customer data[1][2]. Something about signing people up for some useless service with recurring monthly fees without their explicit consent.
I guess that's one way to compensate for not getting outside investment, but it seems pretty shortsighted to me. It certainly was enough to scare me off when I was ordering business cards a little while back...
While I didn't know anything about those useless service, I don't think Vistaprint becomes a $1.9B company just because they do shady things. As an entrepreneur, I would love to learn about how others build their companies but it doesn't mean we have to agree all of their moves.
I don't want to argue about the ethical issues here. But I believe every company has done something in the gray area. Do you think all those Google ads on domain parking pages are click scam? I do.
I guess that's one way to compensate for not getting outside investment, but it seems pretty shortsighted to me. It certainly was enough to scare me off when I was ordering business cards a little while back...
[1] http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5174090 [2] http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/vistaprint.html