Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $100 Million from The Netherlands

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Pierre and Fred Guelen bootstrapped Planon, a very significant company from The Netherlands, using the bootstrapping using services principle. Read this conversation from 2016 to learn more. Sramana Mitra: We’re going to start at the very beginning of your personal journeys. One of you please

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Thursday, May 9 – 639th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 639th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, May 9, 2024, 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,

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590th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Sramana Mitra, The Future of Capitalism

When I gave this talk in 2016, I spoke on the Future of Capitalism. I discussed how mass-scale automation engineered by Artificial Intelligence stands to render human beings useless. With nothing to do. With no mechanism to earn a livelihood. The Economic impact of AI on society was my primary concern. My general conclusion was

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A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey into FinTech: Felix Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of finally (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: When you raised the credit capital, you got four term sheets from the credit capital side. How many customers or SMBs were on your platform? Felix Rodriguez: A little over 500. Sramana Mitra: And what was the total amount of transactions that you were seeing on that? Felix Rodriguez: Half a billion a year in

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Niche E-commerce Venture

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  I’ve always been bullish about niche e-commerce. Here’s the story from 2016 of an entrepreneur who had successfully bootstrapped a company in high-end light fixtures, Elite Fixtures CEO Steven Annese. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from?

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A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey into FinTech: Felix Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of finally (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Did you raise the seed round through your own network or through a startup network? Felix Rodriguez: We had a process to raise funding, and they certainly made introductions. But I had taken matters into my own hands. I was inviting investors to Demo Day. I sent out a cold email to Pat Matthews,

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A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey into FinTech: Felix Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of finally (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What you’re talking about is there are certain categories of businesses that are not bootstrappable. Felix Rodriguez: That’s right. Sramana Mitra: Being a FinTech company as a lender is not necessarily a bootstrappable business.

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey into FinTech: Felix Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of finally (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: And in those four months, what kind of metrics did you have to show to be able to raise the series? Felix Rodriguez: I’ll never forget how the numbers went. In the first month, our revenue was $4K. Then it was $16K, $40K, and then $80K. It was really a driver of if I

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