Scaling an Energy Management Venture: Martin Manniche, CEO of Greenwave Systems (Part 6)

Martin Manniche: The companies said, “We don’t own the industrial design. So the product that we are getting out from our client partners could be the same that our competitors use. We don’t control the software inside it. We are giving a spec, but the software is owned and built by someone else. That means that

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Learning From Mistakes: Roy Peleg, CEO of FirstImpression.io (Part 1)

FirstImpression is Roy’s fourth startup. The prior ones had all failed, and Roy candidly discusses how and why they failed. There is much to learn from failures and mistakes, possibly even more than from successes. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born,

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Scaling an Energy Management Venture: Martin Manniche, CEO of Greenwave Systems (Part 5)

Martin Manniche: During the process of starting an energy management system, we built proof points on smart cities and smart country. We built proof points in consumer to consumer with connected lighting technology. We build integration with connected cars. We then said, “We need to control the home network.” We make them and get it out

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Thursday, February 9 – 339th 1M/1M Mentoring Roundtable For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 339th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable mentoring session on Thursday, February 9, 2017, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/9:30 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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How Did Mark Zuckerberg Preserve 26% Equity in Facebook?

Raising money too soon for a startup creates a number of serious problems. You get diluted out of your ownership. You destroy your cap table and follow-on funding becomes complicated to negotiate. Watch this 2 minute 20 second video to learn how Mark Zuckerberg played the funding game and preserved 26% equity in Facebook.

Building a FinTech Company in Brazil: Sergio Furio, CEO of BankFacil (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Your core business model is the origination fee business model? Sergio Furio: We call ourselves an originator of secure loans. That’s where our value add is. If you think about it, a collateralized loan is very complex to originate. If you can create a business that excels in processing the loans for home

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Scaling an Energy Management Venture: Martin Manniche, CEO of Greenwave Systems (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Whom did you raise that money from and based on what investment thesis? Martin Manniche: We raised the money from a combination of strategic partners. These are partners who have invested in previous companies. Then of course, myself and my brother invested to show that we were serious about this. That first round

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Catching Up On Readings: January Jobs Report 2017

This feature from The Wall Street Journal looks at the first jobs report of the new year. The US economy added 227,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.8%. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.