Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Niche E-commerce Company to $20M

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

Niche e-commerce still produces compelling success stories. Here is how CEO Brian Lim built iHeartRaves from our conversation in 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?

Brian Lim: I was raised in LA County. My parents immigrated here to escape communism in China and Cambodia. I grew up very poor. We bootstrapped our company back in 2010 with $100 and turned it into a $20 million a year company.

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Featured Videos

Cloud Stocks: ServiceNow’s Stellar Performance Continues

Last week, ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) reported its third quarter results that continued to surpass market expectations. ServiceNow does not appear to be fazed by macro-economic conditions and provided an outlook that also beat the expectations.

Best of Bootstrapping: Some Seed Investors Who Like Bootstrapped Startups

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

I’d like to encourage bootstrapping entrepreneurs to start thinking about certain investors as bootstrapping partners. These investors, typically, LIKE capital efficient businesses.

They do not want to force feed capital into companies, unlike certain larger funds.

Their fund sizes are small, and they are set up to make money off smaller exits. [Re: Bootstrapping to Exit]

Please listen to a few conversations to get a feel for the point of view. There are many more on the Seed Capital series on our blog. You can also listen to the 1Mby1M Podcasts for more.

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Video FAQs

Colors: L’hermitage X

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 – L’hermitage X

L’hermitage X | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

Catching Up On Readings: State of Digital Health Q3’23

This report from CB Insights covers the trends in digital health funding during the third quarter of 2023. Funding fell by 14% q-o-q to hit its lowest level since 2016. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Colors: L’hermitage IX

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 – L’hermitage IX

L’hermitage IX | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

November 2 – 624th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 624th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, November 2, 2023, 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 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!

Roundtable Recap: October 26 – Bridging Chicken and Egg Gaps

During this week’s roundtable, we worked with Finvestors, a FinTech company facing a chicken and egg problem. We had Gian-Luca Cioletti in Helsinki, Finland, pitch Finvestors. It was a very interesting discussion, a case study with much to learn for AI entrepreneurs in particular.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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