Rapid Growth and $58 Million in Financing with a Virtual Company: Storyblok CEO Dominik Angerer (Part 1)

Dominik has built a 230-people virtual company and raised $58 million in Financing. But first, he and his Brazilian co-founder bootstrapped to $1M ARR before raising a penny! Clever SEO strategy was at the heart of the first success. Read on for more!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to you as well as to Storyblok.

Featured Videos

Catching Up On Readings: State of Generative AI Funding

This report from CB Insights breaks down the generative AI landscape across funding trends, top-valued startups, and most active VCs. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

March 2 – 601st 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 601st FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, March 2, 2023, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 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!

Video FAQs

Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Venture to $12 Million: Sawyer Twain CEO Chris Turner (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What was your team building strategy?

Chris Turner: At first, you just want to get people to be as passionate about the business as you are. It takes some time to realize that that’s not going to be the case. First, it was challenging. I have my own internal flaws. I could be a perfectionist. I don’t want to say micromanager, but, for the lack of a better word, I could be very anal on certain things. We rotated a handful of people.

600th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

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

Roundtable Recap: February 23 – 600 Roundtables and More to Come

During this week’s roundtable, we celebrated a milestone: our 600th session. What started as an experiment in online mentoring has blossomed into a global program that hundreds of thousands of people have benefited from. We look forward to expanding our footprint to the millions, as tech entrepreneurship goes from a niche Silicon Valley phenomenon to an internationally adopted way of life.

Rainy Day Income

First up, we had Tom White from Nashville, Tennessee, pitch Rainy Day Income, an income insurance venture.

LD Talent

Next Gobi Dasu from Verona, Wisconsin, pitched LD Talent, a talent platform.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Best of Bootstrapping: Couple Bootstrapped Children’s Apparel Company to $5M

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

RuffleButts is a perfect story on how to bootstrap with a paycheck. Founder Amber Schaub started RuffleButts, a children’s apparel company, in March of 2007, backed by her husband’s full-time job. He later joined in 2010 as the COO, after the company had gained traction. Here is our conversation from 2014.

Sramana: Let’s start at the very beginning of each of your stories. I imagine you co-founded the company?

Amber Schaub: I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. I had the entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age. I used to convince my cousins to help me start lemonade stands, babysitting clubs, and we even tried to start a grocery delivery business in middle school. My dad is an entrepreneur. My parents were divorced so I watched what my mother had to do as a single mother. She worked a 9 to 5 job for a utility company and had to raise a child on that income. We did not live a lavish lifestyle, but I always had what I needed.

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Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Venture to $12 Million: Sawyer Twain CEO Chris Turner (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: The two of you launched this thing around 2012?

Chris Turner: Around 2015.

Sramana Mitra: Did you take inventory or consignments?