Best of Bootstrapping: Serial Bootstrapped Entrepreneur’s Journey

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

Going against the grain of Venture Capital mania, in 1999, Beyond Security CEO Aviram Jenik started his second bootstrapped venture. When we spoke in 2017, 18 years later, he was still running it. In 2021, Beyond Security was acquired by HelpSystems.

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?

Aviram Jenik: I was born and raised in Israel. I moved to California about 10 years ago. I spent most of my adult life in Israel. I studied at the Technion which is like MIT in Israel. We half-jokingly say that pretty much everyone can say that they went to the top 10 universities in Israel because there are less than 10 universities. I’m an entrepreneur by background. I started my first company, which was bootstrapped when I was about 19.

>>>

Featured Videos

Catching Up On Readings: EU Tech Rules

This feature from the Wall Street Journal examines the impact of the new EU tech rules, which aim to push big tech companies to better police online content and to open them up to more competition—with regular oversight from regulators empowered to issue fines. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Colors: Les Couleurs Italienne 2

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 – Les Couleurs Italienne 2

Les Couleurs Italienne 2 | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

Video FAQs

Cloud Stocks: Twilio Focused on Integrating AI into UCaaS

According to a recent report, the global Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) market is projected to grow at 15% CAGR to reach $85.77 billion by 2030 from $32.01 billion in 2023. Communications PaaS player Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) recently announced its second quarter results that surpassed market expectations. The company is leveraging AI capabilities into its tools to continue to drive its growth rate.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Max Brickman, Founder at Heartland Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You have to build around capital-efficient principles. What about companies in the Midwest?

Max Brickman: Absolutely. We have one called Claira. Katie Hall is the founder. It does competency-based evaluation of your current workforce. When you look at a map of Fortune 1,000 companies, they’re predominantly in the Midwest. There’s an unfair advantage that a lot of these companies have by being in the Midwest. Your customers are going to be more interested. We are seeing it more and more.

August 24 – 615th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 615th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, August 24, 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!

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Max Brickman, Founder at Heartland Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do some examples of companies that you have invested in especially where you have brought them to your customers very early on.

Max Brickman: One would be Workstream. We are one of the early investors in their seed round. It targets the HR space – hiring hourly employees. We loved Desmond the founder. We wanted to introduce him to our network and see if other people agreed.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Max Brickman, Founder at Heartland Ventures (Part 1)

Max Brickman, Founder at Heartland Ventures, talks about his firm’s investment thesis.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with a little bit of introduction about your background.

Max Brickman: I’m from Wisconsin. I started in the entrepreneurial space early on. I bought my first property in northern Wisconsin when I was 14. It was money from a landscaping company that I had.