Bootstrapping to $10 Million from Helsinki, Finland: Mikko Valimaki, CEO of Tuxera (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What year was this happening? Mikko Valimaki: This happened in 2008. Sramana Mitra: The first order of business was to get an open source product going right? Mikko Valimaki: We thought this whole thing through and we figured out that it cannot be a big enough business for us to grow this company

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May 19 – 307th 1M/1M Mentoring Roundtable For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 307th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable mentoring session on Thursday, May 19, 2016, 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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Building a SaaS Company with Operational Discipline: Betterworks CEO Kris Duggan (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Kleiner invested $15 million in Bettelworks on a concept. It’s an unusual financing that only experienced entrepreneurs can pull off. Read how Kris is building the company. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born,

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Startup Idea to Help Women Return to the Workforce

As I am thinking through the solutions needed to help older engineers reconfigure their careers [Ref. A Startup Idea To Help Older, Laid-off Engineers], I am also thinking about a related issue: older women trying to get back into the workforce. I know too many talented women who are now in their forties and fifties, and

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Bootstrapping to $10 Million from Helsinki, Finland: Mikko Valimaki, CEO of Tuxera (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  In our effort to bring you stories from the global startup ecosystem, here we introduce you to a wonderful success story from Finland. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what

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Catching Up On Readings: Disrupt NY 2016

This feature from TechCrunch looks at the highlights of Disrupt NY 2016, the three-day conference held last week in Brookklyn, New York. The winner of the Disrupt Hackathon was  AlexaSite, which lets designers update websites using their voice. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

From High School Drop Out to $20M in Revenue: Brad Lea’s Journey with Lightspeed VT (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is your customer acquisition strategy? Were you basically calling these people who have motivational speaking or other kinds of training programs and just direct-selling them into your technology? Brad Lea: Yes, pretty much. We would find and select a target and camp outside their office. We would knock on doors and wait until

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Thursday, May 19 – 307th 1M/1M Mentoring Roundtable For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 306th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable mentoring session on Thursday, May 19, 2016, 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

Read Full Article »