Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $80M from Canada

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

Adding to our incredible roster of stories of entrepreneurs who have bootstrapped decisively, Power2Motivate CEO Rob Purdy’s story as shared with me in 2017 is an incredible journey of precise execution.

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

Rob Purdy: I was born in Ontario, Canada. Our family is very blue collar. I grew up in an environment centered around a steady out by 7 in the morning and home at 3:30 kind of routine. We were in an area of the city where General Motors dominated the local landscape. Everyone in our neighborhood worked for that company. It was an interesting background and a great lifestyle to grow up in. It also taught me that I wanted to get outside of that and move into a different environment – more entrepreneurial and less structured.

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Featured Videos

January 4 – 628th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 628th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, January 4, 2024, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 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 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. All are welcome!

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Virtual Company to Over $5 Million

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

Can you bootstrap a virtual company to over $5 million? Renaissance Periodization CEO Nick Shaw has done just that. He has built a very interesting e-learning company and addressed scalability with nifty strategic choices. You’ll learn a lot from our conversation from 2018.

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?

Nick Shaw: I was born and raised in the state of Michigan. I grew up with the goal of wanting to go to the University of Michigan. It’s a top-level school. I was lucky enough to be accepted there. I started in the Sports Management program. I originally wanted to be an athletic director.

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Video FAQs

Colors: Le Dedans I

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 I

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

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a 2-Sided Marketplace to $10M

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

CEO Sal Akbani had bootstrapped Gateway Classic Cars to over $10 million in revenue when we spoke in 2017. This is a great story of how a two-sided marketplace was masterfully seeded and scaled in a niche market.

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?

Sal Akbani: We have the same ancestry. My parents were from India. I was born in Pakistan. My mother is from Calcutta. My dad is from Bombay.

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Analysis of Cisco’s Splunk Acquisition

Global networking solutions provider Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) recently announced its first quarter results that outpaced market expectations. But the market headwinds are troubling the company as it reduced its outlook significantly for the coming year.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Follow-on Venture to Over $100M

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

I have long believed that Go BIG or Go HOME is complete BS. I have seen entrepreneur after entrepreneur build a small but profitable, slower growth business as a first outing, followed by a much larger, higher growth business as a follow-on venture. When we spoke in 2017, Ultra Mobile Co-founder Rizwan Kassim had done exactly that. He is also Co-founder of Mint Mobile, and the parent company of both Ultra Mobile and Mint Mobile was acquired by T-Mobile in 2023.

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?

Rizwan Kassim: My mom is from East Africa. My father was born in Karachi. They both came here in the 70’s. I was born in Simi Valley, California, and lived there for about a decade and then moved up to Victorville. I went to UCLA.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Master Bootstrappers with Over $1B in Exits

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

There’s a GIGANTIC myth in the startup ecosystem. Go BIG or Go HOME! Raise GOBS of venture capital. Otherwise, you can’t build anything big. It’s GIGANTIC BS!

Watch this inspiring 2 minute 09 second video and learn how the Turakhia brothers have created over a billion dollars of personal wealth through significant exits without raising any venture capital:

Capital efficient ventures often end up creating a lot more money for entrepreneurs.

Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of Directi and Flock, and his brother Divyank have bootstrapped Directi, a portfolio of Internet businesses over the last ~20 years. In 2014, they had their first $160 million exit. In 2016, they had a second $900 million exit. It’s a very interesting story of masterful business acumen and disciplined fundamentals-driven execution. Not a penny of external financing involved when we spoke in 2017, by the way.

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