July 13 – 611th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 611th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, July 13, 2023, 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!

Featured Videos

Smart City Use Cases and Opportunities: Jay Chandan, CEO of Gorilla Technology (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: In general, the issue of internet of things and all kinds of monitoring is that there is a lot of data being generated. That data does need to be protected in a holistic and wholesome way. Your point is well taken that that problem needs to be thought about more accurately and more precisely.

Jay Chandan: It’s a long-term issue. We are working very closely with a lot of the government agencies to address them.

Smart City Use Cases and Opportunities: Jay Chandan, CEO of Gorilla Technology (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: In those situations, they are the tier one system integrator and you come in as a tier two or tier three.

Jay Chandan: I’m happy being tier two. I wouldn’t call myself tier three today.

Sramana Mitra: Your genesis is Taiwan. Where are you getting the traction? Is it more in Southeast Asia?

Video FAQs

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping with Services First

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

Bay Dynamics Co-founders Feris Rifai and Ryan Stolte wanted to work together on a new venture. They first built a services company, then introduced an OEM product, and eventually bootstrapped a product under their own brand. When we spoke in 2016, the company had just raised its first venture money after many years of being in business as a profitable, growing entity. Broadcom acquired Bay Dynamics in 2019.

Sramana Mitra: One of you should probably get started. I want to go back to the very beginning of your journey, and learn about your pre-Bay Dynamics story. Where were you born, raised and, in what kind of background?

Feris Rifai: I was born in Beirut, Lebanon. That’s where I was raised till I was 18 years old. I then came to the United States to go to college. I went to school at Indiana University. It was a great experience for me. Throughout my journey when I was much younger in Lebanon, it was a bit of a difficult upbringing because we couldn’t find a way to get safety to be a part of our lives. I think it’s taught me a lot. It has helped me be, believe it or not, very optimistic.

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Smart City Use Cases and Opportunities: Jay Chandan, CEO of Gorilla Technology (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: The point that I’m probing here is, you have a cybersecurity business. Then you have a transportation management business. Is that the best way to manage a business to have such diversity? In each of those, you’re going to encounter pure play providers. Cybersecurity is an extraordinarily competitive market. You’re going to be facing all the competition from the cybersecurity world.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped with a Rigorous Data-Driven Approach

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

Wrike Founder Andrew Filev has built a company with a rigorous data-driven approach. Learn how they bootstrapped first, raised money later from our conversation in 2015.

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?

Andrew Filev: I was born in St. Petersburg in Russia. I got interested in computers pretty early. I spent a lot of my childhood playing with computers, building and programming, and designing. I also had a big interest in other sciences as well. I competed in different math, physics, and chemistry competitions.

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Smart City Use Cases and Opportunities: Jay Chandan, CEO of Gorilla Technology (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How do you do that? How do you intervene in reducing infractions?

Jay Chandan: That is by better traffic management at the intersections. We have a traffic management solution which we have built and deployed at a fraction of the cost.

Best of Bootstrapping: Scaled with Angel Money in Canada

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

When we spoke in 2015, Joel Lessem was scaling a profitable company in Toronto called Firmex, and had only spent $4 million in angel money to get to almost $10 million in revenue. Datasite acquired Firmex in 2021.

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

Joel Lessem: I was born in Israel but raised in Toronto from the age of three. I grew up in Toronto.

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