Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped First to $10M from Finland

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

In our effort to bring you stories from the global startup ecosystem, here we introduce you to Mikko Valimaki, Co-founder of Tuxera, and his wonderful success story from Finland in 2016.

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 circumstances?

Mikko Valimaki: I’m a 39-year-old guy from Finland. I did my schooling in Finland. I did, however, study in Berkeley in the United States and was exposed to the American culture. I’ve never worked for any big company. I always started my own stuff. I had already developed my own computer games back in the 1990s while at high school. I tried to sell those.

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Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship from the Czech Republic: Runecast CEO Stan Markov (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What about events? Is that something that you’ve done in those marketplaces?

Stan Markov: Yes, we haven’t been to a Microsoft of Google event. We’ve been to the AWS ReInvent and exhibited there. We’ve also been to the KubeCon event. It’s a great audience and a great source of leads.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $5M from Scratch

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

The Innovation Management software space is quite crowded. When I spoke to Co-founder Robert Hoehn in 2016, IdeaScale had managed to carve out a niche. Read on!

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

Robert Hoehn: I am from Northern New York, almost bordering Canada. I actually did Computer Science in high school. I was a pretty lucky kid to have experience in programming at a pretty young age. I went to the University of Vermont and joined their Computer Engineering program. I studied Computer Science and Business.

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Video FAQs

Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship from the Czech Republic: Runecast CEO Stan Markov (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Tell me more about how things evolved now that you have some money and have a team together. How are things going in 2018 and 2019?

Catching Up On Readings: Microsoft Inspire 2023

This feature from Tech Republic covers the highlights of the Microsoft Inspire event held virtually last week including innovations, investments, programs, and partner opportunities in new forms of AI such as ChatGPT and Copilot. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

July 27 – 613th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable Spotlighting Women Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 613th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, July 27, 2023, at 8:30 p.m. India IST/ 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST.

During this special roundtable, women entrepreneurs will have first priority to Pitch. 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!

612th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development

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

Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship from the Czech Republic: Runecast CEO Stan Markov (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Talk to me about the VMWare Marketplace. How many VMWare admins are on the marketplace?

Stan Markov: It’s not the biggest source of leads. If I compare it to the AWS Marketplace or the Azure marketplace, VMWare Marketplace is not as popular. It’s one of the ways to get to either VMWare or third-party products.