Best of Bootstrapping: Niche Player Bootstrapped to $13M

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

I’m very bullish about market opportunities that are large enough to build sizable businesses but not large enough such that VCs end up funding numerous competing companies. This case study – my interview from 2018 with David Lloyd, Co-founder and CEO of The Intern Group – shows you how a niche player with a $150 million TAM is growing nicely without outside financing.

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?

David Lloyd: I’m from the UK. I was born in London. I spent the first 22 years of my life in London before spending approximately the last 10 years of my life between London and Latin America.

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Meta’s Cost Optimization Initiatives are Paying Off

Meta (Nasdaq: META), formerly Facebook, recently announced its third quarter results that outpaced market expectations. Digital ad spend has picked up in the recent past, helping Meta’s performance. According to eMarketer, Digital ad spend worldwide will increase nearly 10% to $601.84 billion this year from $549.51 billion in 2022.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Using Services Case Studies

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

As I started analyzing various paths to success via bootstrapping, a second formula also became absolutely obvious: doing services projects and then formulating a product through that process. We gave this a name: Bootstrapping with Services, and published a book on the subject, Bootstrapping Using Services.

Over 99% of entrepreneurs who seek financing get rejected. The seed capital gap leaves many entrepreneurs struggling to get their businesses off the ground. Bootstrapping, a tried-and-true method to self-fund a business, is a must to bridge this gap in seed funding. And offering a service is one of the best ways to bootstrap. When I turn the spotlight on entrepreneurs who have successfully bootstrapped their ventures using services, please note that, in many cases, these same entrepreneurs later raised venture capital. Through my interviews, I aim to give you a seat at the table with successful entrepreneurs and synthesizes what is learned to provide information and inspiration for everyone looking to take their business concepts to the next level.

Below are five case studies on the topic:

• Bootstrapping Using Services to $40 Million: ActiveCampaign CEO Jason VandeBoom
• Bootstrapping Using Services to an Awesome Business Model: Inspyrus CEO Nilay Banker
• Bootstrapping Using Services from Russia: Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO of Ecwid
• Bootstrapping Using Services: James Kane, CEO of RWS
• Bootstrapping Using Services: Taylor Tyng, CEO of Wiredrive

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624th 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 624th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, November 2, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!   

624th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 30 Minutes: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 624th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, November 2, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

November Udemy Coupons for Tech Startup Courses

As a part of our aim to democratize entrepreneurship education at scale globally, our proven 1Mby1M methodology for building technology startups has been packaged into short courses on Udemy.

We are offering you up to 85% off of the following Udemy courses this month, spotlighting our most informative and inspirational case studies of noteworthy technology startups.

These coupons will expire on November 30, 2023, so be sure to enroll today!

Bootstrapping:

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MNOV2023BTS

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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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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.