Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a $10M E-commerce Business

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

E-commerce companies are relatively easy to bootstrap. In 2015, Steve Acree shared his journey bootstrapping Seismic Audio to almost $10 million in revenue.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Steve Acree: I was born in Tennessee, about 60 miles north of Memphis. I went to school for computers but I’ve never used my degree. I chose the wrong computer industry. I chose the repair side instead of the software side.

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Featured Videos

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: No Products, Only Services

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

Kolkata doesn’t have many product startups. True.

Most startups are services based. True.

There is nothing wrong with services companies. Technical skill development in India has happened at scale in the services companies. It would be tremendously helpful to have large scale skill development happen in Eastern India. Entrepreneurs won’t build tech #startups without tech skilled people. An ecosystem has many dimensions. Also Bootstrapping tech product startups using services is a tried and true technique.

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: Lack of Role Models

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

Another refrain that we hear a lot is the lack of role models.

Role models help. No question.

You know who is one of my role models? 

Video FAQs

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: Lack of Good Mentoring

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

These days, everyone is a startup mentor. There doesn’t seem to be a shortage of self-proclaimed mentors anywhere in the world.

The question, however, is what is good mentoring?

If you are an entrepreneur, what kind of a mentor should you be looking for?

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: Lack of Funding

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

There is no risk capital available in Kolkata.

This is a refrain that I have heard before many times: there is no risk capital. There is no venture capital. There is no Angel capital. There is no seed capital.

The truth is, in the Valley, most funding goes to validated businesses that are bootstrapped by founders. Or to repeat entrepreneurs with a significant track record of success.

Business Model Innovation in Digital Health: Bob Allison, Co-Founder of PEAR Health Labs (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What happens next?

Bob Allison: If I’d sold it for $200 million then, I’d have a different storyline. One of the things I didn’t know very well at that time was how to value my business. We did an exchange. There was some cash. It was primarily stock. In 1990, there was a big collapse in the marketplace. That affected Mimic. After that, I went to work for Aero Electronics.

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: Bootstrapping vs Blitzscaling

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

The startup ecosystem around the world is driven by the notion that Venture Capital funding is essential to building companies.

This isn’t true.

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: A Strategy Discussion

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

This weekend, I had hundreds of interactions on LinkedIn around the subject:

Why did Kolkata miss the startup momentum that has gained ground in the other 6 major metros? What can be done to catch up and leapfrog?