Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $13M in Niche E-commerce

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

We continue to be bullish about niche e-commerce as a category to build sustainable businesses in. The journey of Pavel Sokolovsky, Co-founder of eComfort.com, is a further illustration of the trend. One year after we spoke in 2014, eComfort.com was acquired by Power Equipment Direct/Ferguson Enterprises.

Sramana: Pavel, let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from? What is the genesis of your entrepreneurial aspirations?

Pavel Sokolovsky: I was born in Minsk, Belarus. I moved here with my family at a very young age in 1989. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. My father had an entrepreneurial background. In the mid-1990s, he started his own contracting business doing heating and cooling work. That was his second or third business by that time. I grew up watching him go through the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship. I was inspired by it and when the time came, I wanted to have a shot at it.

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Featured Videos

Macroeconomic Conditions Hurt Apple, But …

Earlier last week, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced its first quarter results that failed to meet the market’s expectations. Apple attributed the miss in performance to three key factors – a strong dollar, production issues in China, and the overall macroeconomic environment. However, the silver lining is its growth in the Services Segment and its thriving ecosystem.

Building a PropTech Venture with a Virtual Team: Discount Lots President Paul Hersko (Part 2)

Paul Hersko: Then my entire life changed in 2019. My brother-in-law took me to this party. He said, “I have a good friend who owns this business. He’s our age. You might like him.” I started talking to him. I was learning about his business and he was like, “I have this company where I sell land online and people buy land with a credit card.”

We started to become good friends and learned more and more about what he was doing. I was absolutely fascinated. I was in e-commerce, which I loved. And it was real estate that I wanted to be involved with, but didn’t have experience in it.

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15 Udemy Courses on How to Transition from a Developer to an Entrepreneur

Millions of developers sit at their computers daydreaming about running their own company and making a difference in the world. They may even have fantastic ideas, but because they know nothing about business creation, they do not know how to turn ideas into a real company. 

The developer-to-entrepreneur way is not an easy one, but it can be done. It has been done repeatedly. At 1Mby1M, we specialize in helping developers make this transition effectively and successfully. 

If you are such a developer, this set of courses will help you. Let us start with case studies of successful transitions. To apply current discount coupons, click on the courses found HERE.

From Developer to Entrepreneur Case Studies with Sramana Mitra

After getting some inspiration, the first concept that you need to understand is Bootstrapping. 

Bootstrapping Startup Case Study with Sramana Mitra

What is Bootstrapping?

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Building a PropTech Venture with a Virtual Team: Discount Lots President Paul Hersko (Part 1)

Paul and his co-founder have built a capital-efficient PropTech venture using primarily a virtual team. It’s an interesting niche that is largely underserved.

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?

Catching Up On Readings: E-Commerce Tech Market Map

This report from CB Insights provides the market landscape of e-commerce tech companies helping brands and retailers run the back-end, front-end, and merchandising side of an online business more profitably. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Colors: Orient Express III

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 – Orient Express III

Orient Express III | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9  x 12, On Paper

Colors: Orient Express II

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 – Orient Express II

Orient Express II | Sramana Mitra, 2021 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9  x 12, On Paper