Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Using a Paycheck to Techstars and Acquisition

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

In previous stories, we showed you how entrepreneurs bootstrapped with a paycheck and then got into Y Combinator with a validated business. With Blueprint Registry, we show you the same strategy in this conversation from 2017 as executed by Co-founder Nevin Shetty to get into Techstars. Blueprint Registry was acquired by David’s Bridal Inc. 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?

Nevin Shetty: I was born in Alabama but the first memory I have is of Saudi Arabia. I spent five years in Saudi Arabia. My dad is an aeronautical engineer. I grew up in an American compound in Riyadh and had an amazing childhood. Growing up, I remember my mom teaching English to some of the Saudi princes. I’d go over there and play with them. Then my dad moved and got a job at Boeing, so I moved to Seattle. Then I went to college at University of Washington at Seattle.

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Colors: Skye VI

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 VI

Skye VI | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

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Colors: Skye V

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 V

Skye V | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 8  x 8, On Paper

Bootstrapping Using Services to $35M from Ireland, Then Raising $70M: Teamwork CEO Peter Coppinger (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: How do you compare with companies like Replicon?

Peter Coppinger: I don’t know Replicon. I have to check them out.

Sramana Mitra: I haven’t talked to them in a long time, but their pitch is similar to yours. I haven’t tracked them.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $180M in Online Real Estate

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

When we spoke in 2015, Co-founder Jeff Frieden had bootstrapped Auction.com to about $180 million in revenue and profitability. Thereafter, he raised private equity financing and growth capital and ran a private company that was more than qualified to be a public Unicorn. The company had a legitimate revenue and profitability model that was scaling phenomenally well. Unlike many ‘funny money Unicorns’, this one was for real!

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

Jeff Frieden: I was born in Orange County, California and raised in Anaheim, California. It was right across the street from Disneyland. My mom and dad both worked at the Internal Revenue Service at Los Angeles after World War II.

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Bootstrapping Using Services to $35M from Ireland, Then Raising $70M: Teamwork CEO Peter Coppinger (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What marketing channels were producing for you?

Peter Coppinger: The referral was a nice slow burner that cost us nothing. We did affiliates. We did Google ads. It works,but there’s a point of saturation. It probably worked better years ago.

Sramana Mitra: It’s expensive now.

Peter Coppinger: The only one making money is Google. Deep integrations also worked.