Entrepreneurship is not a career. It is a way of life.
For me, this journey began as a graduate student at MIT in 1994. The world watched Netscape go public that spring, and the Internet swept over us like a virus. As I wrote my Masters thesis, I also wrote my first business plan. We were, as a generation, shaping the Internet during those early years, and, my degree in hand, I was ready to jump into the unknown – from then on really, I have been jumping into unknowns at every turn.
>>>Deepak tells a textbook story of a developer turned entrepreneur. He and his cofounder started by bootstrapping with a paycheck, validated the hypothesis, and then quit their jobs. We love stories like this, as you know.
Sramana Mitra: Tell me where you’re from, born, raised. What kind of background?
>>>Peter has led a terrific vertical cloud business from Ireland and now runs a global SaaS company that is kicking ass.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
>>>Todd has built a public FinTech business with $7M of family money and another $8M of debt. OppFi went public in 2021. Impressive, capital-efficient, fundamentals-oriented journey.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, and raised, and in what kind of background?
Todd Schwartz: I was raised in the suburbs of Chicago. I lived there most of my life. I went through the Northbrook Illinois school system. I enjoyed my childhood there.
>>>Numerous developers around the world are turning into successful entrepreneurs. Julien provides a textbook case study of a brilliant journey that is a highly repeatable blueprint to follow.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
>>>Sankaet is building interesting infrastructure products for FinTech. Lots of insights, also, on open opportunities within the field for new entrepreneurs to latch onto.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to Synapse.
Sankaet Pathak: I’m the Founder and CEO of Synapse. If you haven’t heard of Synapse, we are what’s considered a Banking-as-a-Service provider based in San Francisco.
>>>Victor bootstrapped Quintiq to $30M, raised funding, and then sold the company for over $300M. ActiVote is his second startup, currently self-funded.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start from the beginning. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
>>>RegTech is emerging to become a category of its own with numerous risk and compliance issues getting addressed by technology solutions. Alex has bootstrapped a wonderful business and is now doing a private equity-driven roll-up within the space.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
>>>Min tells a wonderful story of building a scaling a PropTech company with significant funding at a $100M+ valuation.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
>>>Lachlan has built a wonderful company from Brazil that has emerged as a pandemic beneficiary.
Read on for the nuances of his journey.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised and in what kind of background?
>>>Gabino and Stephen have built a wonderful FinTech company and tell their story with wonderful flair and candor.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where were you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background? You are twin brothers. I think this is my first case study of a twin-brother entrepreneur.
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