Best of Bootstrapping: Saatva Co-founder Bootstrapped a $25 Million E-commerce Company

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

I have spoken with many VCs who are looking for e-commerce companies that can scale at venture pace, which is hard to achieve. On the other side of the spectrum, however, the bootstrapped e-commerce companies are going gangbusters! Co-founder Ricky Joshi’s Saatva is one such and a terrific company. Here is our conversation from 2014.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with your personal back story. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised?

Ricky Joshi: I was born in Columbus, Ohio. I went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. I was very involved in the entrepreneurial scene there. I actually helped start the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, which is now the flagship entrepreneurial program at Dartmouth. I started my first company at school. I ended up working at a place called IPG, which had 44,000 employees. We were tasked with visual innovation. The first thing I actually did was lead Series C investment round in Facebook. That was a deal I sourced and led. It was a Series C round with $500 million valuation. Obviously, that worked out well. I was able to do a lot of things there.

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Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Workiz CEO Didi Azaria (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How do you acquire your locksmith customers?

Didi Azaria: Word of mouth is big. We believe that once somebody is successful, they’re going to brag about it. This is actually the case. We believe that if we provide great service and show them 20% to 50% growth on the same effort, they become our advocates. We started from San Diego and on to LA and then to San Francisco. This is where most of our locksmiths are from. Then we spread to the entire US.

Best of Bootstrapping: Lean Company Bootstrapped to $7M

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

Constellix Founder Steven Job had built a lean company with 37 people and had scaled it to $7 million when we spoke in 2021. Read on to learn how.

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?

Steven Job: I was born in Buffalo, New York in 1976. I stayed there during my undergraduate studies. I studied computer science. Throughout that time, my parents always had a business. When you become an entrepreneur, you have to figure out the reasons to become one. Most people do it because their parents had a business or there was something in their life that motivated them. 

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Netflix Focuses on Improving Monetization

Earlier last week Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) reported its fourth quarter results that failed to dazzle the market. The company has been experimenting with newer price tiers in attempts to improve monetization across its subscriber base.

Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Workiz CEO Didi Azaria (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Tell me more about Workiz that drew you into this as your next step. You’ve got substantial experience. To apply that experience to another problem, this must be a very interesting problem.

Didi Azaria: When I was 22, I was a locksmith for six months. I’m not such a great locksmith, but I do understand the opportunities and challenges in this area. I was a locksmith when GPS didn’t exist. There were no cellphones back in the day.

Best of Bootstrapping: From Friends and Family Funding to a $30 Million Exit

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

It is important not to lose sight of the capital-efficient, bootstrapped or minimally capitalized companies that have achieved success, provided significant return on investment to their stakeholders, and built value for their customers. VerticalResponse Founder Janine Popick shared her wonderful story with me in 2015.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with some of your background. Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

Janine Popick: I grew up in a small town called Wingdale, New York. It’s about an hour and 40 minutes north of Manhattan. It’s pretty rural. My dad was an engineer for IBM for 35 years. My mom was a nurse. I went to public school and had a great education, but I really felt the need to get closer to Manhattan. I went to Hofstra University, which is about half hour away from Manhattan. I studied Communications and frankly, wanted to be in television behind the scene either writing, producing, or directing. My first job out of college was with WCBS TV and I was in sales and a little bit of marketing. I realized that that was not what I really wanted to do. I quickly left and took a job as a salesperson selling newspaper space in Brooklyn for a local community newspaper. I decided that after I was in sales, I was going into direct marketing. I did lots of direct mail for small direct marketing agencies in New York.

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Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Workiz CEO Didi Azaria (Part 1)

AI and ML is largely being applied to problems within the enterprise. Here is an exception where a solution to an SMB problem is being achieved through AI. Very cool story!

Colors: Skye X

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 – Skye X

Skye X | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9  x 12, On Paper