601st 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

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

Featured Videos

Roundtable Recap: March 2 – Velocity Drives Fundability

During this week’s roundtable, we worked with three entrepreneurs. There were several discussions on how velocity drives fundability.

SoyKitty

First up, we had Ashley Hejlik in Oaxaca, Mexico, pitch SoyKitty, a solution for managing the stench of cat litter.

Pigee

Next, we had Leroy from London, England, pitch Pigee, a shipping service for travelers to ship shopping back home.

Salutation Media

Then, Dawn-Michelle Lewis from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, pitched Salutations Media, a service for developing high quality podcasts.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Rapid Growth and $58 Million in Financing with a Virtual Company: Storyblok CEO Dominik Angerer (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Talk to me about running a virtual company. What are some of the benefits that you’re deriving out of a global talent pool and the cost structure of a global talent pool? What are the nuances? I’ve been running a virtual company since 2010.

Dominik Angerer: In 2010, there was not environment that supported you doing that. Now there’s a lot of things you can use. My co-founder Alex moved back to Brazil in 2018. We both knew that if he moves back, we needed to find a way to employ him in Brazil. We actually created a subsidiary. If we wanted to create people in Germany, we had to create a subsidiary there as well. We cannot work with contractors all the time because of all the IP.

Video FAQs

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $12M+ and Exit

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

Aaron Fulkerson Founded MindTouch, a company that offers a cloud-based self-service help center and knowledge-as-a-service platform. He grew the business to eight figures as a bootstrapped company with no venture, no debt. The company was sold to Nice Systems in April 2021. Here is our conversation from 2013.

Sramana: Aaron, tell us where you are from and a bit about your background. What are the roots of your entrepreneurial story?

Aaron Fulkerson: I grew up in a small town south of San Jose, California. Back then it was very rural and was still a farming community. At the same time, Silicon Valley was starting to blossom. In the 1980s, as a kid, I would dial into bulletin board services. I also wrote quite a bit of code. I did all of this from the farm I was growing up on.

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Rapid Growth and $58 Million in Financing with a Virtual Company: Storyblok CEO Dominik Angerer (Part 5)

Dominik Angerer: Then in 2021, we wanted to get repeatability done in the sales motion. You want to have leads coming in from your marketing. Then they should create opportunities from that. This repeatability was what we were focusing on. The first half of the year in 2021, I had a chat with an advisor.

He was like, “If you see repeatability, you might want to accelerate. You’re like drinking from a fire hose with an espresso cup.” This image got stuck in my head. If the process seems to work, why shouldn’t we use the money that we just raised to hire more people. We scaled from 35 people in the middle of 2021 to about a hundred.

Accelerate Your E-commerce Business with Fundamental Courses

Are you new to e-commerce or already scaling your business? Do you want to accelerate? This is a collection of courses that can help you save time and resources by teaching you how to avoid common mistakes through case studies.

The courses are built on real-time examples of successful entrepreneurs, so if you study them carefully, you’ll be several steps ahead of the competition.

You can choose from a variety of different courses depending on your skill level, or experience in entrepreneurship. There are lessons for beginners as well as more advanced users who want to take their business to the next level faster.

Depending on what you’re creating, pick between these courses.

• How to Build E-commerce Startups with Sramana Mitra
• How to Build 2-Sided E-commerce Marketplaces with Sramana Mitra

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping a SaaS Company in India

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

Girish Rowjee is the Co-founder and CEO of Greytip Software, a company that specializes in HR software. Girish is responsible for strategic direction, day-to-day operations, product delivery and international business. His “never say die” attitude and excellent analytical skills have made him indispensable to the organization.

Greytip has pioneered the SaaS model in India. They successfully bootstrapped a SaaS company while keeping their primary focus on Indian corporations. In spite of numerous challenges they have proven that with perseverance and strategic adjustments the SaaS model does indeed have a place in India. While valuable for everyone, this conversation from 2013 is a key case study for Indian entrepreneurs.

Sramana: Girish, what is your background? Where do your entrepreneurial roots come from?

Girish Rowjee: I was born in a small town about 300 kilometers from Bangalore. I did my basic education there before moving to Mysore. My family has generally been an entrepreneurial family. My grandfather ran a bus service between several small towns, which was the first time bus service had been made available [in that area]. He then branched out into several retail shops where he sold electronic goods. Today my father runs operations of the electronics retail business that my grandfather founded in 1937.

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601st Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 601st FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, March 2, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE  to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!