Building a Venture Scale AI Company: Observe.AI CEO Swapnil Jain (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What was the idea that you zeroed in on? What was the process? Swapnil Jain: It was a pretty long process that lasted two years. Towards the last two days of my job, I started formalizing some ideas. More often than not, you pivot. I started with one idea. I had eight different

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Building a Venture Scale AI Company: Observe.AI CEO Swapnil Jain (Part 1)

Swapnil makes a very clear distinction between his goal of becoming a Centaur ($100M+ revenue company), not a Unicorn ($1B+ valuation). Read on to learn about his journey. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background?

Best of Bootstrapping: Startups Die From Overfunding

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Funding = Success, right? I wish it did. But entrepreneurial tracks are littered with carcasses of dead startups that were very well funded, some to the tune of hundreds of millions. As a case in point, watch this 2 minutes 31 second video: Death By

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Global E-commerce Venture to $50M

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  When we spoke in 2018, SmartBuyGlasses Co-CEO David Menning had bootstrapped a global e-commerce venture from Hong Kong to $50M. Splendid execution! 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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Thursday, November 9 – 625th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 625th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, November 9, 2023, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 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

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped and Pivoted from the US Midwest

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Co-founder and CEO Paroon Chadha has bootstrapped Passageways from Indiana, now doing business as OnBoard based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he wants to help other regional entrepreneurs succeed. Along the way, he has pivoted from licensed software to cloud software, and made other strategic decisions

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Catching Up On Readings: Democratized Generative AI

This report from Gartner looks at the potential of democratized generative AI to increase productivity, efficiency, and innovation. By 2026, more than 80% of enterprises will have used generative AI APIs and models and/or deployed GenAI-enabled applications in production environments, up from less than 5% in 2023. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph

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Roundtable Recap: November 2 – EdTech Ventures from Around the World

During this week’s roundtable, we coincidentally focused on EdTech. Zambezi Tech Vanguard Next, we had Takudzwa Cinofunga in Harare, Zimbabwe, pitching Zambezi Tech Vanguard, an EdTech venture focused on the African market. Wibly Then Nick Farrenkopf in Fremont, California, pitched Wibly, another EdTech venture focused on new methods of knowledge navigation. You can listen to the

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