Catching Up On Readings: ChatGPT Buzz

Wish you all a very happy new year! This feature interview from Gartner looks at why ChatGPT is making waves in the AI market. The interview explores how ChatGPT is different from other conversational AI innovations and what are its use cases. For the last week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Featured Videos

Colors: Skye IV

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 IV

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

Jan. 19 – 598th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 598th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to “attend” to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat.

You can learn more here and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Register and you will receive the recording by email, even if you are unable to attend. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be interested. All are welcome!

Video FAQs

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Healthcare IT Company to $100M

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

When we spoke in 2015, Edifecs Founder Sunny Singh had built a very interesting healthcare IT company, overcoming serious challenges. Inspiring story of a bootstrapped success.

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?

Sunny Singh: Give or take, I’ve spent half my life in the US and half my life in India. I grew up in India and finished my undergraduate studies there. Then, I came to the US at the age of 23 to do a couple of Master’s programs. I did three jobs and then started Edifecs in 1996.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping to Exit with David Lambert, Right Side Capital

If you have been bootstrapping and think you are ready for investors, you need to learn how investors think. First, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page. Then, start looking for entrepreneur – investor fit. Here is my conversation from 2019 with David Lambert of Right Side Capital Management.

David Lambert is Managing Director at Right Side Capital Management, a firm that invests small chunks of capital in capital efficient ventures. The firm is very much in line with the Bootstrapping to Exit philosophy we’ve been discussing. You can listen to a podcast of our conversation here or watch the roundtable video below:

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about yourself. Tell us about Right Side. Let’s get acquainted.

David Lambert: I have predominantly been a career entrepreneur before starting Right Side Capital. I came out to the San Francisco Bay Area to go to Stanford in the late 80’s. A month after I graduated, I started my first company.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping All the Way

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

President CEO Adam Stern used some equipment financing, and was considering some debt financing, to scale Infinitely Virtual when we spoke in 2015. He had not used any venture capital or private equity, but had built a substantial company. Read on to learn how.

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 circumstances?

Adam Stern: I was born in Los Angeles to parents who came to this country in their early teens. Neither of them had attended university or college. My grandfather was denied entrance into university in Hungary on account of being Jewish. I was, early on, told that I was the hope of the family to go to university and do what my grandfather and father could never do. I grew up in a middle-class household. We didn’t want for anything but we didn’t have anything extravagant either.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Vacasa in Crowded Vacation Rental Space to $100M

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

When we spoke in 2015, Cliff Johnson and his co-founder had bootstrapped Vacasa to scale in the crowded vacation rental space. Vacasa was acquired by Oasis Collections in 2018 and became a publicly traded company in 2021.

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

Cliff Johnson: I actually have a fairly unique background, at least for the US anyway. I was born in New Jersey. I’ve lived there until about I was 12 and then moved to a small farm town in Missouri where we had an 80-acre farm. I learned a lot of different skills out there. That was my initial upbringing. My dad is a welder pipefitter.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Kyle Asman, Managing Director at Backswing Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Talk about the case studies of the two companies that you sold.

Kyle Asman: One of them was in real estate technology. It was a highly-profitable company with high revenue. They were pretty quick to exit. They needed some investment to grow some things and get to the next level. The other one was a secondary sale. That went from little in revenue and grew it well into the eight figures.