Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Unicorn First Using Services from Utah

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

Our tried-and-true mantra of Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later rings throughout Dave Elkington’s story. As the Founder of InsideSales.com, he used services to bootstrap a Unicorn that had raised close to $140 million in VC funding when we spoke in 2015. Revenue was scaling 100% year over year then. InsideSales.com became known as XANT and was acquired by Aurea Software in 2021.

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

Dave Elkington: I grew up in Utah. I went to school here. My parents are both school teachers and worked for the state and federal government. It was a little bit atypical. My dad was a rancher growing up in Idaho. My mom is from Canada. When people asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would tell them I wanted to be a millionaire. They would ask why. I’d be like, “Not for the money, but purely for the sake of accomplishment of being able to do that.” I went to school locally. My education is a little bit eclectic. I have an undergraduate degree in Philosophy. I also have minors in Hebrew, Japanese History, and Business. I also studied, for about a year, in Israel. I decided I wanted to go get some international experience and I had family in Israel. I dropped out of school at BYU and applied to the Hebrew University. I got accepted and transferred credits. I did that for a little over a year, dropped out of school, and applied to BYU. I got re-accepted and then finished at BYU.

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607th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

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

Roundtable Recap: May 18 – Spotlight on Customer Acquisition

During this week’s roundtable, our focus was on customer acquisition strategy.

Rezeve

First up, we had Adrian Ng from Singapore pitch Rezeve, a software for running small services businesses.

Youzentech Technologies

Next, we had Rajkapoor Singh from Bangalore, India, pitch Youzentech Technologies, a semiconductor chip verification company.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Video FAQs

Cloud Stocks: Twilio Attempts Personalization

According to a recent report, the Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market is expected to grow at 13% CAGR to reach $69.93 billion by 2028. Leading player Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) recently announced its first quarter results that outpaced market expectations. But the continuing macro-economic uncertainty has made it cautious as was evident in its outlook.

Building an AI-Powered Pharmaceutical Services Business: VIDA CEO Susan Wood (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is the average deal size?

Susan Wood: In phase three, it’s in the order of $3 million to $5 million. I want to mention something else. When patients couldn’t go to a centralized site to get evaluated during COVID, they were shut out. The big push in the industry is what’s called decentralization of clinical trials. The trial comes to you.

I could be a nurse practitioner and you could be a subject. I’d say, “Take the drug now and we’ll take your blood pressure.” We can’t do that with imaging. Someday, I think we will. I can’t put a CT scan on your front yard easily. What we do is decentralize it. They would use decentralized imaging centers.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Product Using Services First

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

Here is yet another case study of a services company successfully bootstrapping a product, then raising Venture Capital. Here is my conversation with Bill Moschella, Co-founder of Evariant, from 2015. Healthgrades acquired Evariant in 2020.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s begin at the beginning of your personal story. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What’s the back story of your entrepreneurial story?

Bill Moschella: I was born and raised in Connecticut. I attended college at Berklee and eventually got my degree. What I was passionate about all of my life was music. I went to music school and graduated with a music degree. I left college playing music in a band and opened up a recording studio. I never really had a job. I was always playing music. I was running bands. I found that I had a passion for the engineering side of music so I opened up a recording studio. I took all the money that I saved up from gigs.

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607th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 607th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, May 18, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. MEETING NUMBER: 2559 287 4514 PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

607th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 30 Minutes: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 607th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, May 18, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. MEETING NUMBER: 2559 287 4514 PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!