Cloud Stocks: Analysis of IBM’s AI Platform Strategy

IBM (NYSE: IBM) recently announced results for its first quarter and its plans to acquire cloud software maker Hashicorp for $6.4 billion.

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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 transactions.

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? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Steven Annese: I’m a child of an Italian immigrant. I was born in New Jersey. It was in the 70s when most of the Italians migrated.

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Video FAQs

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, the founder of Active Capital. He ended up leading our round.

Colors: Blocks V

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Blocks V

Blocks V | Sramana Mitra, 2022 | Watercolor, Pastel, Ink | 8  x 8, On Paper

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.

Colors: Blocks IV

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Blocks IV

Blocks IV | Sramana Mitra, 2022 | Watercolor, Pastel, Ink | 8  x 8, On Paper

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 spend more on ads, I’d get more customers. I was building a partner network to be able to convert those bookings into actual customers that actually use the service.