Meta’s AI Strategy Delivers Strong Ad Revenue Growth While Google Languishes on Ad Front

Meta (Nasdaq: META), formerly Facebook, recently announced its fourth quarter results that blew past market expectations. The company’s restructuring efforts continue to bear fruit as it surged past both revenue and profit expectations and announced its first ever dividend payout.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Founder CEO Bootstrapped to $35+ Million

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

During these unusual times, many who once dreamed of funding are forced to bootstrap. Well, bootstrapping is good during good times, and necessary during bad times. Here, BannerBuzz Founder and CEO Nishant Shah shares how he bootstrapped to over $35 million in 2019 revenue.

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?

Nishant Shah: I was born and raised in Ahmedabad, India. I studied civil engineering at the university, and then went on to do my masters in construction management from Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

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Catching Up On Readings: AI PC and Smartphone Market

This report from Gartner forecasts that worldwide shipments of AI PCs and GenAI smartphones will grow 11% to 295 million units by the end of 2024. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Video FAQs

Colors: La Nuit III

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 Nuit III

La Nuit III | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Ink | 8  x 8, On Paper

Colors: La Nuit 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 Nuit II

La Nuit II | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Ink | 9  x 12, On Paper

Cloud Stocks: Analysis of Amazon’s GenAI Strategy

Earlier last week, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced its fourth-quarter results that surpassed market expectations. It has recently launched several GenAI applications, the latest one being Rufus, a genAI shopping assistant. Its stock hit a 52-week high following its result announcement.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $20M+ and an Exit

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

We’re big fans of bootstrapping to exit case studies. Imagine Easy Solutions’ Co-founder and Co-CEO Neal Taparia shares his wonderful journey. They scaled the business to over $20 million in revenue without investment and sold to Chegg in 2016.

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?

Neal Taparia: I was born in the suburbs of Chicago. My parents were immigrants from India. I’m first-generation in the United States. I did my undergraduate education in Chicago. After that, I settled down in New York where I’ve been ever since. 

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Best of Bootstrapping: From Laid-Off Engineer to Startup Co-founder and Exit

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

Aspera Co-founder Michelle Munson started the company she began after being laid off. Aspera was her realization that she could not only control her own career path, but also create jobs for other people in a culture she established. I hope this conversation from 2009 inspires everyone who has been let go by their employers. Aspera was acquired by IBM in 2014.

SM: Michelle, where does your story begin?

MM: I grew up in Kansas, on a farm. My family is a five-generation farm family that raises Angus cattle as well as wheat, corn and soybeans. There is a long-standing family tradition in both the line of business and the location. My mom is a retired university professor. I grew up in Kansas, went to school there and went to college at Kansas State University. That is an interesting point with me; I was accepted to MIT and went to Kansas State.

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