How NOT To Build a Startup: Ned Hill, CEO of Position Imaging (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What did you do after college?

Ned Hill: I had a painting company while in college. That was successful and there was a person who heard about me and recruited me to help them figure out how to clean shoes. This is a crazy story. They had these huge crates of shoes that had mildew all over them. They recruited me to see if I can figure it out.

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May Udemy Coupons for Tech Startup Courses

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

Here are the up to 85% off coupon codes for some of our courses on Udemy. These coupons expire on May 31, 2023, so enroll today!

Bootstrapping:

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MMAY2023BTS

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How NOT To Build a Startup: Ned Hill, CEO of Position Imaging (Part 1)

I seldom get to interview an entrepreneur who is candid about his mistakes. Yet, people tend to learn more from failures than from successes.

In this story, you will see how Ned built technology looking for a problem to solve, an absolute no no.
You will also see the negative impact of not validating your product idea upfront.

Read on. This is a unique interview.

Video FAQs

Colors: Mendocino 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 – Mendocino III

Mendocino III | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9  x 12, On Paper

Catching Up On Readings: State of Retail Tech

This report from CB Insights illustrates the state of retail tech. Funding and deals in retail tech continued to fall but there was strength in early stage deals. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Colors: Mendocino 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 – Mendocino II

Mendocino II | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9  x 12, On Paper

Roundtable Recap: April 27 – Lots of Issues with TAM Modeling

During this week’s roundtable, we worked with four entrepreneurs. Several have issues with TAM modeling.

Pistis

First up, we had Kirill Demishev from Tbilisi, Georgia, pitch Pistis, a loyalty program for car rental companies.

Counsl

Next, we had James Loft from London, UK, pitch Counsl, a 2-sided marketplace for professional services.

Glimpz

Then Dhruv Tiwari from Atlanta, Georgia, pitched Glimpz, a 2-sided marketplace for music discovery.

Organic Aqua Solutions (OaS)

Next Saket Kumar from South Delhi, India, pitched Organic Aqua Solutions (OaS), a water purification technology.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $10M from Canada

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

Jory Lamb, CEO / Founder of VistaVu Solutions, started as an entrepreneur as a 23-year old in rural Canada. He shared his 18 year journey with me in 2014.

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?

Jory Lamb: I grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada. I was also born there. My dad was a schoolteacher and my mom ran local food stores called Red Roosters. We used to own three Red Roosters, which would be the equivalent of 7-11 stores in the late 70s to the mid 80s. I went on to the University of Saskatchewan and graduated with a business degree.

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