
During this week’s roundtable, we worked with two startups.
Withstand Fitness
First up, we had Swagatika Priyambada from Odisha, India, pitch Withstand Fitness. I liked the idea of a labor arbitrage on personal trainers from India. Currently, personal trainers cost a fortune in the US.
8020 Excellerate
Then Ardi Ghorashy from Markham, Canada, pitched 8020 Excellerate, an executive coaching venture that is already in revenue.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
Lane Rankin, Founder at Illuminate Education, was first a teacher, then a school and school district administrator. His background is not of a typical tech entrepreneur. However, his deep domain knowledge and relationships in the education field have propelled him to become a very successful EdTech entrepreneur. Great story!
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your entrepreneurial journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
Lane Rankin: I’m currently in California. I was born in Seattle, Washington. I have a Bachelors degree in Applied Mathematics and went on to get a Masters in Leadership. I started my first company back in 1999.
Sramana Mitra: When you made that decision to bring in an enterprise, you were feeling this tension. Did you add to enterprise customers?
Braydan Young: We added.
Sramana Mitra: I thought that’s what you would be doing. People want more enterprise customers.
Braydan Young: We looked at churn. We could look and see who’s doing the sending in the platform. Mid-market enterprises were consistent senders. They would send all the time. You can close SMB faster, but they can’t influence your roadmap.
>>>Today’s 614th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, August 3, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. MEETING NUMBER: 2553 231 4090 PASSWORD: startup All are welcome!
Today’s 614th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, August 3, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. MEETING NUMBER: 2553 231 4090 PASSWORD: startup All are welcome!
Sramana Mitra: The reality is that you were in revenue when you went out to raise. That makes things a lot simpler. The fact that you spent a year fine-tuning your model to the point where you were a recurring revenue-generating business makes raising money a lot simpler.
Braydan Young: The one thing going against us was that we were both salespeople. A lot of the questions were about our technical co-founder.
>>>
For educators and people who want to build thriving communities of entrepreneurs, we have designed a couple of courses that give a roadmap.
>>>
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
Sylvana Caridi, Founder & CEO of Gravity Pro, has an aura of no nonsense, no bs confidence about her that I find immensely attractive. Read her story to feel the force of sheer energy, smarts, and execution to learn how she did it!
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as Gravity Pro.
Sylvana Caridi: I’m 42. I was born and raised in France. My parents were from Italy. They moved from Italy to France to find work because, at that time, it was hard for them because they were both illiterate. I was the last kid and grew up in a very low-class environment. I studied all the way to my doctorate, but I did not do my thesis because I went to work.