Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Niche E-commerce Venture

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

This conversation with Modded Euros Co-founder Sean Dawes from 2019 is a comprehensive discussion on how to bootstrap a niche e-commerce venture with a lean team and effective use of inventory financing. You can listen to the podcast interview here and watch the interview here:

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?

Sean Dawes: I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I haven’t gone too far away from my hometown as my company is based out of West Chester, Pennsylvania, which is 20 or 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

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615th 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 615th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, August 24, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

615th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 20 Minutes: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 615th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 20 minutes, on Thursday, August 24, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped with Services, Raised Money, Acquired by Salesforce

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

John Stewart and his co-founder have built MapAnything from Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia. When we spoke in 2018, he had raised over $40 million in funding, proving that you can build sizable VC-funded SaaS businesses from anywhere. MapAnything was sold to Salesforce in May 2019.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where did you grow up? Give us some early story.

John Stewart: I’m from upstate New York. I’m from a middle class background. My mother was a stay-at-home mom. My father was in the construction business. He was an architect. I went to school in New England for Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts and graduated in 1997.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped, Raised Money, and Exited from Karnataka, India

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

Robosoft Founder Rohith Bhat started a services company in his hometown – a small town on the west coast of Karnataka, India. When we spoke in 2017, fifteen years later, the company was generating $18 million in revenue and had raised two sizable rounds of VC funding. In 2021, TechnoPro acquired Robosoft for $108 million. I find this story exhilarating!

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

Rohith Bhat: I was born in Udupi, India. It’s a small town on the west coast of the country. Then I went to the local school and university and studied engineering and computer science in 1992. Once I finished engineering, I had an opportunity to go on to work for a company in Japan for Recosoft. I worked for this company for around three and a half years.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Serial Bootstrapped Entrepreneur’s Journey

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

Going against the grain of Venture Capital mania, in 1999, Beyond Security CEO Aviram Jenik started his second bootstrapped venture. When we spoke in 2017, 18 years later, he was still running it. In 2021, Beyond Security was acquired by HelpSystems.

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?

Aviram Jenik: I was born and raised in Israel. I moved to California about 10 years ago. I spent most of my adult life in Israel. I studied at the Technion which is like MIT in Israel. We half-jokingly say that pretty much everyone can say that they went to the top 10 universities in Israel because there are less than 10 universities. I’m an entrepreneur by background. I started my first company, which was bootstrapped when I was about 19.

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Catching Up On Readings: EU Tech Rules

This feature from the Wall Street Journal examines the impact of the new EU tech rules, which aim to push big tech companies to better police online content and to open them up to more competition—with regular oversight from regulators empowered to issue fines. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Max Brickman, Founder at Heartland Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You have to build around capital-efficient principles. What about companies in the Midwest?

Max Brickman: Absolutely. We have one called Claira. Katie Hall is the founder. It does competency-based evaluation of your current workforce. When you look at a map of Fortune 1,000 companies, they’re predominantly in the Midwest. There’s an unfair advantage that a lot of these companies have by being in the Midwest. Your customers are going to be more interested. We are seeing it more and more.