Catching Up On Readings: IPO’s First Half 2023

This feature from Zacks looks at how IPOs fared in the first half of 2023. Total proceeds raised were $7.6 billion this year, up 91.3% from last year. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Featured Videos

Roundtable Recap: August 3 – Interesting Labor Arbitrage Idea

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:

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Multiple Education Software Companies

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.

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Video FAQs

Non-Technical Founders Building a Venture Scale SaaS Company: Sendoso CEO Braydan Young (Part 5)

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.

614th Roundtable Spotlighting Women Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

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!

614th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 30 Minutes: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

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!

Non-Technical Founders Building a Venture Scale SaaS Company: Sendoso CEO Braydan Young (Part 4)

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.

1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: For Educators

For educators and people who want to build thriving communities of entrepreneurs, we have designed a couple of courses that give a roadmap.