Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped in Europe, Raised Money and Went Global to Exit

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

We’ve seen some excellent European companies make successful transitions into becoming global software companies. In 2018, MP Objects CEO Martin Verwijmeren shared an excellent and inspiring story for European startups to emulate. MP Objects was acquired by Kinaxis for $45 million in 2022.

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?

Martin Verwijmeren: I’m from the Netherlands but living in Boston these days. Before moving to Boston, I lived in Amsterdam. I was working for our European headquarters in Rotterdam. Nowadays, I’m working from our US headquarters in Boston.

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Featured Videos

AI Unicorns: CoreWeave Benefits from NVIDIA’s Partnership

The global graphic processing unit (GPU) market is expected to grow 34% over the next 10 years to reach $773.07 billion by 2032 from $42.2 billion in 2022. The growth is driven by the emergence of machine learning and artificial intelligence that require a larger dataset. Such large datasets are best handled by GPUs that can run parallel processing. New York-based CoreWeave is becoming a big player in the industry by providing companies with access to flexible cloud infrastructure processing solutions.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $5M First, Raised $10M Later

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

In 2019, French entrepreneur and Toucan Co-founder CEO Charles Miglietti told me the story of how he bootstrapped first to $5 million ARR and then closed a $10 million round.

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?

Charles Miglietti: I’m from France. I grew up in Normandy. I did engineering. I’m married with three kids. 

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Video FAQs

Colors: Le Foret II

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 – La Foret II

La Foret II | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Ink | 8  x 8, On Paper

Colors: La Foret 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 – La Foret I

La Foret I | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Ink | 8  x 8, On Paper

Catching Up On Readings: Generative AI in Drug R&D

This report from CB Insights looks at how pharmaceutical companies are leveraging generative AI in drug research and clinical trials. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

January 18 – 630th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 630th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, January 18, 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!

629th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

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