Bootstrapping a Web Hosting Company to $60 Million: Christopher Aker, CEO of Linode (Part 7)

Sramana: Why did you make the decision to build your business without external financing? Christopher Aker: Once we started gaining traction, and once the industry woke up and realized where things were going, we have had incredible interest from VC firms. There has been a constant stream of phone calls and emails since the very

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Catching Up On Readings: Tools for Entrepreneurs

A recent article on Entrepreneur.com lists 12 (mostly free) web tools for entrepreneurs. The top one listed is 1M/1M, which it says is a truly interesting source for “starter uppers” to talk about branding, positioning, financing or anything else entrepreneurial. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links. 

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: If we keep on this model where everything is going to be free, then the whole economic structure of capitalism is going to get destroyed. Then, when people who are supposed to provide these services disappear or go out of business, we’re going to be left with an economy full of holes. Vineet

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Serial Entrepreneur David Steinberg’s Four-Startup Journey (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: That IPO was 2004? David Steinberg: That’s correct Sramana Mitra: You stayed with the public company till? David Steinberg: 2007. Sramana Mitra: Is that the timeframe in which you started the current company?

Bootstrapping a Web Hosting Company to $60 Million: Christopher Aker, CEO of Linode (Part 6)

Sramana: Can you talk about your experience of trying to build an executive team and scaling a company with a larger footprint? Also, where are you building the company? Christopher Aker: When the company had just three people, I moved back to New Jersey and that is where we established our offices. We are about

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Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: It’s a piece that I wrote a long time ago. From my recollection, it must’ve been February 2007 or something like that. I define my view of what Web 3.0 should look like. It was basically today’s web. The reason I bring this up is in response to what you just pointed out.

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Serial Entrepreneur David Steinberg’s Four-Startup Journey (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I agree with you. Those are character traits that make great entrepreneurs. Without that, you’re not going to sustain because it takes a lot of work and energy. I’m trying to provide a framework that people can apply to ideas. David Steinberg: What I was going to say is the things that made

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Bootstrapping a Web Hosting Company to $60 Million: Christopher Aker, CEO of Linode (Part 5)

Sramana: Is there any kind of segmentation where you get the most customer traction? You have a fairly sizeable business at this point. What is the distribution of your customer base? Are there any sizing or vertical segments amongst your customer base? Christopher Aker: We track all of that stuff and we compare every couple

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