Best of Bootstrapping: Student Entrepreneurs Bootstrapped an E-Commerce Company to $19M

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

We’ve seen a real trend of zero-logistics e-commerce businesses scaling phenomenally well. Read Wrist-Band Founder CEO Azim Makanojiya’s experience up to when we spoke in 2014.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of educational path did you follow?

Azim Makanojiya:I am from India. My parents shifted from a village to Mumbai city for better opportunities. That’s where I was born. My father came to the US around 1984. My mom was still back there in India. Within two years, we came to Houston and settled down here. I was about a year old then.

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Featured Videos

Mastering Bootstrapping: 6 Essential Courses for Launching a Capital-Efficient Startup

Most businesses can be launched in a capital efficient manner. Most businesses can go a long way in a bootstrapped mode. As long as you’re not taking on capital guzzlers like drug discovery or semiconductor chips, you have many options to explore.

At 1Mby1M, we don’t insist on fund raising. A bootstrapped, capital-efficient, million-dollar business is considered a success in our worldview, as long as you are profitable and sustainable.

What is bootstrapping? It’s what happens when you use your own resources, which you control, to build a business. 

The first six courses below focus on different bootstrapping methods, so if you study all of them ahead of time, you’ll be able to cross the first barrier of getting your venture off the ground.

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How to Use Your AI, ML and Big Data Knowledge to Bootstrap a Startup

Let’s talk about the field of medicine. If you think about what a doctor needs to do to diagnose an illness, she needs to consider all the symptoms, take into account all the test results, consider all the treatment options, factor in all the side-effects of various medications and their interplay with other medications the patient is already taking. 

This is, effectively, a multivariate optimization problem that a doctor has to do in her head. And, she needs to keep up with all the new research and advances in medical science, and factor those in as well. The field of medicine is full of incorrect diagnosis and mistreatment of illnesses. Now, if you replace this whole process with software, which IBM is trying to do with their Watson supercomputer, medical diagnosis becomes a truly scientific, deterministic process. 

I can tell you, if I have the option of being diagnosed by software versus a human doctor, I would always prefer software. It would be far more accurate.

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Building Your Digital Health Startup: From Validation to Funding

Healthcare is one of the fastest-growing startup sectors.

First, a bit of my own bias on the automation versus human debate.

If you think about what a doctor needs to do to diagnose an illness, she needs to consider all the symptoms, take into account all the test results, consider all the treatment options, factor in all the side-effects of various medications and their interplay with other medications the patient is already taking. This is, effectively, a multi-variate optimization problem that a doctor has to do in her head. And, she needs to keep up with all the new research and advances in medical science, and factor those in as well. The field of medicine is full of incorrect diagnosis and mistreatment of illnesses. Now, if you replace this whole process with software, medical diagnosis becomes a truly scientific, deterministic process. I can tell you, if I have the option of being diagnosed by software versus a human doctor, I would always prefer software. It will be far more accurate.

If the medical profession can be automated to that extent, billions of people can have access to quality medical care. Today, this number is relatively low.

Entrepreneurs have a tremendous opportunity ahead.

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The Paradigm Shift in EdTech: Why Online Learning Startups Are the Future

Online learning has exploded in popularity over the last decade. In Covid, the field has found a tremendous force multiplier.

Many founders are now turning to online education for startup ideas. Here’s why: it can be extremely profitable because online courses do not require physical classrooms, startup costs are more affordable, and startup time frames are shorter. The ability to scale fast makes this space very attractive for new ventures.

The education world has made a shift in the last decade from a sage-on-stage model to a guide-on-side model. In the former, teachers lectured to students in an auditorium format. In the latter, kids were assigned YouTube or Khan Academy videos as homework, and they did exercises in class with the teacher assisting as needed.

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Accelerate Your E-commerce Business with Fundamental Courses

Are you new to e-commerce or already scaling your business? Do you want to accelerate? This is a collection of courses that can help you save time and resources by teaching you how to avoid common mistakes through case studies.

The courses are built on real-time examples of successful entrepreneurs, so if you study them carefully, you’ll be several steps ahead of the competition.

You can choose from a variety of different courses depending on your skill level, or experience in entrepreneurship. There are lessons for beginners as well as more advanced users who want to take their business to the next level faster.

Depending on what you’re creating, pick between these courses.

• How to Build E-commerce Startups with Sramana Mitra
• How to Build 2-Sided E-commerce Marketplaces with Sramana Mitra

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March Udemy Coupons for Tech Startup Courses

Over the course of several years, we have fine-tuned our proven methodology for building tech startups. We have packaged the 1Mby1M methodology into short courses on Udemy. This is an extension of our strategy to democratize entrepreneurship education at scale, globally.

Here are the up to 85% off coupon codes for all of our courses on Udemy. These coupons expire on March 31, 2023, so enroll today!

Bootstrapping:

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MMAR2023BTS

Bootstrapping a Startup with a Paycheck with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MMAR2023PAY

Bootstrapping a Startup with Services with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MMAR2023SVC

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Journey of a Child Entrepreneur in India

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.

Varun Shoor is the Founder of Kayako, a company offering advanced helpdesk management software. When we spoke in 2014, Varun was steering the overall direction of the company as customer experience fanatic and lead product architect, taking an active role in the design and development of Kayako. One of Varun’s greatest passions is design. Applying modern, consumer-like design to stuffy business helpdesk software was Varun’s brainchild, and with it he founded Kayako in 2001. ESW Capital acquired Kayako in 2018.

Sramana: Varun, let’s start with your personal story. Where are you from? What is the backstory to Kayako?

Varun Shoor: I was born in Jalandhar, a city in Punjab. I have had no formal education. I started Kayako when I was 17. My family background is industrial by nature. My father is into manufacturing, primary tools such as hammers.

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11 Udemy Courses for Laid-off Techies to Launch Startups

When life throws you a curveball, like an unexpected job loss, it can be disheartening. Yet this could also present the opportunity to start your own business.

Rather than searching for another employer, why not pursue something that you have always been passionate about?

Michelle Munson is the CEO of Aspera, a company she began after being laid off. Aspera was her realization that she could not only control her own career path but also create jobs for other people in a culture she had established. Read Michelle’s story here and see if you get inspired. 

Need more motivation?

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February Udemy Coupons for Tech Startup Courses

Over the course of several years, we have fine-tuned our proven methodology for building tech startups. We have packaged the 1Mby1M methodology into short courses on Udemy. This is an extension of our strategy to democratize entrepreneurship education at scale, globally.

Here are the $12.99 coupon codes for all of our courses on Udemy. These coupons expire on February 28, 2023, so enroll today!

Bootstrapping:

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MFEB2023BTS

Bootstrapping a Startup with a Paycheck with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MFEB2023PAY

Bootstrapping a Startup with Services with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MFEB2023SVC

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