Sramana Mitra: Total funding of under one million dollars and a little bit of government fund. Talk about the customer development process. Where did you get the customers from? What type of customers zeroed in on your value proposition? Abinash Saikia: Before these guys put in money, we were able to acquire a reputable customer.
I did a startup in 1998 by applying AI to the lead generation and qualification problem. It was early. The data was not yet rich enough. Now, the data is there. Can the problem finally be solved at the right level of sophistication? Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where
Abinash Saikia, Co-founder of EnCloudEn and former 1Mby1M Premium member, has successfully bootstrapped his venture to an exit and discusses the process in great depth. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to the premise of EnCloudEn. Abinash Saikia: I have had a pretty good education from IIT Chennai
Sramana Mitra: Talk to me about the customer acquisition strategy. Beyond the partnerships through which you got to the first base, what did you do from a sales and marketing point of view that got you to the next level? Joris Kroese: There are different phases there, but we started simply by appointing people who
Sramana Mitra: Business model is SaaS? Joris Kroese: It’s SaaS. Our clients are the brands where we basically add these e-commerce capabilities on a fixed fee per month per country. Sramana Mitra: It sounds like your primary channel was tagging along with the sales team of this content syndication company. Was that the only channel?
Sramana Mitra: How long did you do the IT services work? Joris Kroese: For a year and a half, after which, I sold the company. I actually had a new business idea in my mind while I was still running the e-commerce business. We did a lot of turnovers. We were a much-appreciated business partner
Entrepreneurs are invited to the 573rd FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, April 28, 2022, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others
Andrus Oks is Founding Partner at Tera Ventures, based in Estonia. We have a great discussion on entrepreneurship in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries in particular.