Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped with a Paycheck to $7M

This conversation from 2023 with AIScreen CEO and Co-founder Nikita Sherbina is a classic bootstrapping story with a very small team to serious revenue.

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?

Nikita Sherbina: I was born and raised in Ukraine. I moved to the United States about six years ago without knowing anything about this land.

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Building a Venture Scale Cyber Security Startup in the Age of AI: Alon Jackson, CEO of Astrix Security (Part 1)

Alon comes from the rich ecosystem of Cyber Security entrepreneurs in Israel. He has built an excellent, high growth AI Cyber Security company. You will find an in-depth discussion on his strategy that has included raising $85M in funding.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Ray Wu, Alumni Ventures AI Fund (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Yes, but I was not asking you about AI rollups. I’m asking you about this Y Combinator model of starting a full stack company from scratch.

Video FAQs

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Ray Wu, Alumni Ventures AI Fund (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. There is a completely opposite trend, but it’s kind of similar. Y Combinator put out the types of companies they’re looking for a few months ago. One of the types of companies is full stack AI.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Ray Wu, Alumni Ventures AI Fund (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: If you were to highlight some themes that you’re seeing in the deal flow right now, what are some of the trends that you’re seeing?

August 21 – 699th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 699th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, August 21, 2025, 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, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to Attend to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat.

You can learn more here and and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Register and you will receive the recording by email, even if you are unable to attend. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be Interested.

698th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

Roundtable Recap: August 14 – Two AI Startup Concept Discussions

During this week’s roundtable, we had two entrepreneurs discuss their AI concepts.

Aevum

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Sumitha S. from Kerala, India, pitch Aevum, an AI health and wellness coach.

Vedanta School ERP

Next we had Rajesh Dagar from New Delhi, India, pitch Vedanta School ERP, a new kind of AI phone number.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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