Bootstrapping a FinTech Startup by Piggybacking with Services: Quavo Co-Founder David Chmielewski (Part 1)

Dave transitioned from a developer to an entrepreneur by leveraging his solid domain knowledge in a particular area of FinTech: dispute resolution for credit card transactions. He and his co-founders effectively used bootstrapping using services and piggybacked on the Pega Systems platform. Read on to learn more about his journey.

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?

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Catching Up On Readings: Web3

This feature from CB Insights looks at all aspects of Web3 including DeFi and NFTs. It also gives an in-depth insight into its impact on the digital economy. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

September 22 – 591st 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 591st FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, September 22, 2022, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 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!

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590th Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

Roundtable Recap: September 15 – B-to-C App Financing

During this week’s roundtable, we had a  pitch from a B-to-C app company that wants to raise financing off the bat. We had Raj Yadav from Prayagraj, India, pitching CureAI, a digital health app. The entire discussion was around ideal strategies to address the chicken and egg of B-to-C app startups.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Colors: Blue Vastness  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 – Blue Vastness  V

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

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Tea Hea Nahm, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Storm Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What trends are you seeing in SaaS companies finding growth strategies? What are the primary customer acquisition channels that are producing really well?

Tea Hea Nahm: Whether you’re using product-led, outbound, or inbound, we just want to have one that we feel is really going to work for them.

Sramana Mitra: Are you seeing any of them coming up repeatedly? At one point, Google search was a big one. Now Google search has become very expensive. I’m hearing less of the Google search growth. I do hear a lot of inbound content marketing and capturing organic traffic.

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: SurgePays CEO Brian Cox (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: How big is this segment you’re catering to?

Brian Cox: I always say a third of the country. Miami Herald did an article this year talking about the impact of the infrastructure bill. There are a couple of programs that are based on income level qualifiers. One of those is the affordable connectivity program which is how we provide the majority of our broadband. They did some math and found that 6.4 million households in Florida qualified for this program.