If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
In 2020, Coalition Technologies was still largely a services company, but also had a few products. Co-founder Jordan Brannon shared the company’s well-managed journey.
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?
Jordan Brannon: I was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I grew up primarily in Washington state in a smaller community. It’s about an hour and a half south of Seattle. I have three brothers and we largely stuck to the northwest throughout my childhood.
Cloud security provider Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) recently reported its quarterly performance that outpaced market expectations. The company is focusing on AI as its growth engine and recently announced an acquisition in the space as well.
>>>If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
In 2020, D2L Founder CEO John Baker shared this terrific story of bootstrapped entrepreneurship in EdTech.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
John Baker: I’m based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I was born in a fishing village on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. When I was 22 years and in my third year of engineering at the University of Waterloo, I started a company with the mission of transforming the way the world learns.
Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) recently reported its quarterly results that were ahead of market expectations. However, it provided a weak outlook that sent the stock tumbling 11% in the after-hours trading session.
>>>This feature from The Guardian examines the impact of AI on the gaming industry and the Gaming Developers Conference held in San Francisco last week. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.
>>>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 Maison dans les Bois III
La Maison dans les Bois III | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Ink | 8 x 8, On Paper
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 Maison dans les Bois II
La Maison dans les Bois II | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Ink | 8 x 8, On Paper
If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
In general, Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later is still the best strategy. You need to be ready to raise money.
If you decide to raise money, I strongly suggest you read the Seed Capital series of interviews on our blog ASAP. We’ve profiled investor after investor to understand their investment thesis. You need to get in their heads and get a sense of what they’re looking for, especially if you’ve never raised money before.
Remember, Investors are looking to multiply the money that they put into startups.
A bit more sophisticated way to think about it is to ask the question: Multiply by how much? 2X? 3X? 5X? 10X? 20X?