Bootstrapping a Big Data Company Using Services: DataSong CEO John Wallace (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How much did you do in terms of revenues in the first couple of years? John Wallace: It probably took us four years to get to a million dollars. Sramana Mitra: How many people were involved? John Wallace: There were about four people. My original hypothesis was that there would be a lot

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Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ in Revenue Without Dropping Out: Course Hero CEO Andrew Grauer (Part 6)

Andrew Grauer: Then, moving on to the other question on the engagement level, engagement is quite high. I think the difference between other online education sites like Coursera and edX is that their users are looking just to learn for learning sake. Our supplemental resources are really focused on helping students who are already enrolled

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Thursday, May 1st – 213th 1M/1M Mentoring Roundtable For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 213th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable mentoring session on Thursday, May 1, 2014, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. India IST. If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea to Sramana Mitra. You’ll gain straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and she’ll answer any

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Ultra-light Startup with $6 Million Revenue: Car Part Kings CEO Michael Dash (Part 6)

Sramana: Your policy of being selective with distributors makes perfect sense. How many relationships do you have with distributors in order to allow you to serve the entire car parts market? Michael Dash: I have one distributor who covers 99% of my aftermarket parts requests. For my body parts, I have one distributor that I

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Catching Up On Readings: The Sharing Economy

This feature on Wired traces the evolution of trust which has led to increasing number of services and startups based on the sharing model. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Bootstrapping a Big Data Company Using Services: DataSong CEO John Wallace (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You were kind of an applications engineer? John Wallace: It was a great opportunity. Sramana Mitra: That brings us to 2003? John Wallace: Yes. In 2003, I started a firm doing analytic consulting. I thought that I would be more impartial to what software we use to solve a problem and be more focused on

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Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ in Revenue Without Dropping Out: Course Hero CEO Andrew Grauer (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: From the end user’s perspective, is the end user using your platform largely in a web self-service mode? What percentage of that user uses self-service versus a tutor assisted usage? Andrew Grauer: It’s probably going to be something like 70% to 80% self-service. Sramana Mitra: I’m trying to gauge how big the tutoring

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Ultra-light Startup with $6 Million Revenue: Car Part Kings CEO Michael Dash (Part 5)

Sramana: Are your distributors well equipped to handle the fulfillment directly to consumers? Michael Dash: Yes, they have large warehouses that stock these auto part inventories. Those warehouses are set up as shipment and fulfillment warehouses. When somebody orders a part from me, I electronically transmit that to them. They pick that part and put

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