Bootstrapping a Virtualization Services Company: Chris Grandi, CEO of Abacus Group (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is it about the hedge fund space in terms of work flows or virtualization? What specifically is different in that space versus other verticals? Chris Grandi: There are really two things that make the hedge fund space different. One is the level of service. Because of what hedge fund managers do and

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Concept Financing from Andreessen Horowitz: Andrew Rubin, CEO of Illumio (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What year does this bring us up to? Andrew Rubin: It was in 1998 that I graduated from university. Sramana Mitra: How long did you work in the first job? Andrew Rubin: I stayed in my first job for under five years. Sramana Mitra: This brings us to about 2003 then? Andrew Rubin:

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A Serial Entrepreneur’s Process: Todd Dunlop, CEO of RingPartner (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: How much did you sell it for? Todd Dunlop: Unfortunately, I can’t disclose that. Sramana Mitra: You’ve made a substantial amount of money in that exit so that whatever you then chose to do next, you had capital available? Todd Dunlop: That’s correct. Sramana Mitra: What was the next venture? Todd Dunlop: From

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Bootstrapping a Virtualization Services Company: Chris Grandi, CEO of Abacus Group (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What was going to be the new company? What did you find that warrants doing another company? Chris Grandi: This is one thing that I always tell the entrepreneurs I speak to. You always hear about entrepreneurs who start a company when they’re super young and don’t have a lot of experience, and

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Concept Financing from Andreessen Horowitz: Andrew Rubin, CEO of Illumio (Part 1)

Concept financings are extremely rare in the industry these days, but here is a story of an entrepreneur who did raise $8 million on a concept from Andreessen Horowitz. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

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A Serial Entrepreneur’s Process: Todd Dunlop, CEO of RingPartner (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What were the implications on your team? What did you need to do to scale from a team point of view? Todd Dunlop: One of the things that we always did was try to figure out how to get the best professional services. Very early on, when we went from four people to

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Bootstrapping a Virtualization Services Company: Chris Grandi, CEO of Abacus Group (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What year does this bring us up to? Chris Grandi: 2001. At the end of 2001, I was essentially committed to taking off six months to figure out what I was going to do about starting my next company. Despite not making money in that first entrepreneurial endeavor, I was committed to starting my own

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Feminist Father vs. Chauvinist Father

We hear a lot of complaints about sexism and chauvinism in 21st-century Silicon Valley. I want to share some stories from India in the mid-20th century. It may sound prehistoric, but it wasn’t that long ago. I was born into an old family in Calcutta, India. We were a traditional extended family with about 25

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