Best of Bootstrapping: Couple Bootstrapped Children’s Apparel Company to $5M

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

RuffleButts is a perfect story on how to bootstrap with a paycheck. Founder Amber Schaub started RuffleButts, a children’s apparel company, in March of 2007, backed by her husband’s full-time job. He later joined in 2010 as the COO, after the company had gained traction. Here is our conversation from 2014.

Sramana: Let’s start at the very beginning of each of your stories. I imagine you co-founded the company?

Amber Schaub: I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. I had the entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age. I used to convince my cousins to help me start lemonade stands, babysitting clubs, and we even tried to start a grocery delivery business in middle school. My dad is an entrepreneur. My parents were divorced so I watched what my mother had to do as a single mother. She worked a 9 to 5 job for a utility company and had to raise a child on that income. We did not live a lavish lifestyle, but I always had what I needed.

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Cloud Stocks: Freshworks Partners with Meta to Provide its AI-Powered Conversational Bots

Recently listed Freshworks (Nasdaq: FRSH) announced its fourth-quarter results that continued to surpass market expectations. Freshworks remains focused on expanding its market share by targeting mid to enterprise sized organizations. It is addressing their demands by improving its product and partner portfolio.

Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Venture to $12 Million: Sawyer Twain CEO Chris Turner (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: The two of you launched this thing around 2012?

Chris Turner: Around 2015.

Sramana Mitra: Did you take inventory or consignments?

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping a Thriving Business for Over 20 Years

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

Kristi Herold, Founder of JAM, built a thriving bootstrapped business over twenty years until Covid hit. Read how she was surviving when we spoke in 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

Kristi Herold: I grew up in a small city called Sudbury, Ontario. It is about four hours north of Toronto. I have two older brothers and a very supportive mother and father who encouraged us to get involved in sports. They taught us to do what we wanted in our life. My father is an entrepreneur. My grandfather was an entrepreneur as well. I followed the footsteps of both my brothers to be entrepreneurial going through high school and university.

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600th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 600th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, February 23, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

600th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 20 Minutes: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 600th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, February 23, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Venture to $12 Million: Sawyer Twain CEO Chris Turner (Part 1)

It is very difficult to find gaps in e-commerce these days. Chris found one and executed the hell out of it.

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?

Chris Turner: I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I graduated from Arizona State University back in 2004.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Eloqua and Crowdfunded Influitive

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

Raised in an entrepreneurial home, Founder CEO Mark Organ was encouraged to become a doctor or professor and delighted his parents when he went to Northwestern to earn his PhD in neurosciences. In no time he was incubating Eloqua from within Bain and Company during the Internet boom years. This is a unique and rare story from 2014 of bootstrapping, crowdfunding, struggles and ultimate success.

Sramana: Mark, you have an incredible entrepreneurial journey. Let’s start at the very beginning. Where do you come from?

Mark Organ: I was born near Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. It’s a steal town. My father was an entrepreneur and my mother was an entrepreneur after her homemaker career wound down. My grandfather also came to Canada from Poland very poor and built a nice entrepreneurial career for himself. I was exposed to the idea that it was completely acceptable to be in business for yourself from a very early age.

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