Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Virtualization Services Company

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

Abacus Group Founder CEO Chris Grandi has significant domain knowledge in the hedge fund industry. When we spoke in 2015, he had self-financed a successful company offering to secure virtualization services to the segment with high service levels.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Chris Grandi: I was born and raised on the East Coast outside of Washington DC, and I grew up in suburban Maryland. For university, I went to the West Coast and attended UCLA. I then continued on to graduate work. I got my MBA from Harvard Business School. I moved out to San Francisco, California where I’ve been for approximately 20 years.

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Featured Videos

Colors: Le Chemin Rouge 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 – Le Chemin Rouge II

Le Chemin Rouge II | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9  x 12, On Paper

Business Model Innovation in Digital Health: Bob Allison, Co-Founder of PEAR Health Labs (Part 1)

Bob has a background in semiconductors where the key business model for selling chips is getting them into design wins. In PEAR, Bob has parlayed this model into a platform business catering to many top brands who bring Digital Health products to market on their platform.

There is a lot to learn for entrepreneurs from this case study about a unique and relevant go-to-market strategy, as software eats the world, and ALL companies have to now become tech companies.

Video FAQs

Catching Up On Readings: AI 100 2023

This report from CB Insights lists the 100 most promising private AI companies in its seventh edition of its annual list. This year’s winners are working on generative AI infrastructure, emotion analytics, and general-purpose humanoids. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

June 29 – 610th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 610th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, June 29, 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!

609th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

Colors: Le Chemin Rouge I

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 – Le Chemin Rouge I

Le Chemin Rouge I | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9  x 12, On Paper

Serial Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Three PropTech Ventures: LuxuryProperty Founder Jason Hayes (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What you’ve built is a vertical search engine that is specific to luxury real estate. That has its own meta tags and meta data. What is the AI part of it?

Jason Hayes: We do have some AI agents launching soon. We believe that we are going to be the first to do that. Certainly in the Middle East anyway. The AI we’re using is in the backend of the system. For our brokers who work for us, we have what we call the opportunity platform. That is an app that forms part of the CRM.