Bootstrapping Using Services from Russia: Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO of Ecwid (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  We’ve discussed Bootstrapping Using Services extensively over the years. Ruslan used eLance (not Upwork) to source service projects, then built, first a platform+services business that scaled to over $10 million in revenue. Then he spun off a pure play e-commerce platform business that now has over

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How to Increase the Odds of Getting into YCombinator

YCombinator rejects 97.15% of all applications. Is there a strategy for raising your odds of getting into YCombinator? The short answer is yes. Watch this 2 minutes 11 second video on how Jas Grewal, CEO of CareSkore did it.

Bootstrapping Using Services: Sylvana Caridi Coche, CEO of Gravity Pro (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Sylvana has an aura of no nonsense, no bullshit confidence about her that I find immensely attractive. Read her story to feel the force of sheer energy, smarts, and execution to learn how she did it! Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself

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Catching Up On Readings: WEF 2017

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum was concluded last week in Davos, Switzerland. This year’s edition of the Global Risks Report examines the five greatest priorities facing the world in 2017, their interconnections and the actions necessary to avoid their harshest fall-out. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Successful Pivot from B-to-C to B-to-B: Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: You said you’ve raised about $90 million. With all these changes and pivots, how has revenue in the new model tracked? Are you able to justify that kind of financing from a market cap point of view? I’m not talking about foo-foo market cap. I’m talking about market cap that is derived out

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Bootstrapping With a Paycheck to Techstars: Nevin Shetty, CEO of Blueprint Registry (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: How much investment did you get from Techstars? Nevin Shetty: Techstars always puts in $100,000. Sramana Mitra: How much equity did you give for that? Nevin Shetty: Around 7%. Sramana Mitra: You raised more money coming out of Techstars?

Successful Pivot from B-to-C to B-to-B: Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: When you were starting to see this traction from Starbucks, KMPG, and other corporates, what kind of a business model did you follow in these deals? Matt MacInnis: We knew it was going to be SaaS. We gave Starbucks a very sweet deal. They got extra for the platform for all their district

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Bootstrapping With a Paycheck to Techstars: Nevin Shetty, CEO of Blueprint Registry (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: The customer acquisition is Facebook primarily? Nevin Shetty: It’s transitioning now to Pinterest. You have to think about where your users live. A lot of couples, who were recently engaged, go to Pinterest for inspiration for their wedding. As they’re looking for inspiration for their wedding, they see Blueprint there. Potentially, they come bock to Facebook

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