628th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

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

Featured Videos

Best of Bootstrapping: The Journey Through Failed Experiments to Traction and Exit

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

Entrepreneurs love to discuss success. Few are willing to discuss what they tried and failed at. When we spoke in 2019, Robly Co-founder Adam Robinson did a terrific job of sharing his journey through various failed experiments to a model that was gaining traction. Robly was bootstrapped to an 8-figure exit to private equity in 2021.

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?

Adam Robinson: I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I went to Rice University. I graduated in 2003. One of my friends had an internship at Goldman-Sachs the year before. I didn’t know anything about it, and somehow convinced people to give me a job as a derivatives trader at Lehman Brothers. For 10 years, I traded these real estate-related, credit default swaps. It was the most interesting job for someone in their 20’s. Everybody who was doing what I was doing was making a ton of money.

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Catching Up On Readings: Biggest VC Funding Rounds in 2023

This report from Crunchbase looks at the top 10 VC funding rounds in 2023, many of which were for AI startups like $10 billion for OpenAI. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Video FAQs

Colors: Meadow with Wildflowers

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 – Meadow with Wildflowers

Meadow with Wildflowers | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

Colors: Le Dedans 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 – Le Dedans IV

Le Dedans IV | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

Roundtable Recap: January 4 – Many Substantial Conversations on Startup Strategy

During this week’s roundtable, we had many substantial conversations on startup strategy based on specific startup scenarios. Much to learn from them.

Hample.com

We had Krishna Prasad from Ranga Reddy, India, pitching Hample.com, an e-commerce idea.

In general, all those of you who are getting yourselves ready to launch a venture, please study our material and get prepared with real knowledge. Do not shoot from the hip and make perfectly avoidable mistakes.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Cloud Stocks: C3.ai Banks on AWS for AI Expansion

According to recent reports, generative AI is expected to become a $1.3 trillion market by 2032. Goldman Sachs estimates that AI could increase corporate profits by 30% in the next decade, and that generative AI alone could raise the global GDP by 7%. Tom Siebel’s C3.ai (NYSE: AI) is investing in this high growth market through partnerships and product innovation.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to Over $10M and a Big Exit

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

CEO Carl Ryden and his co-founders had bootstrapped PrecisionLender to over $10 million from North Carolina when we spoke in 2017. This is a superb story, including how the company has formulated an AI agent, Andi. Q2 acquired PrecisionLender for $510 million in 2019.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Carl Ryden: I was born in North Carolina. I grew up in eastern North Carolina in a little town called Goldsboro. Folks don’t know where that is. It’s about halfway between Raleigh and the coast. For folks who do know, I would later confess that I’m not really from Goldsboro. I’m from an area of a county that’s closest to Goldsboro, deep in the rural part of North Carolina.

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