During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Evan Zimmerman, Chairman of Jovono, discuss his fund’s investment philosophy, especially around pre-seed and seed.
AdCreative.ai
As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Gaurav Henry from Bursa, Turkey, pitching AdCreative.ai, an excellent revenue generating business that automates the production of ad creatives for digital marketing.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Printemps VI
Printemps VI | Sramana Mitra, 2020 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9 x 12, On Paper
Entrepreneurs are invited to the 580th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, June 23, 2022, 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!
According to a report published last year, the global same day delivery market was expected to grow 21% annually to reach $20.36 billion by 2027. Several companies are trying to address the instant delivery requirements by setting up of micro fulfillment centers. But sustaining a profitable, and an attractive business model is appearing to be a challenge.
>>>If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
CEO Carl Ryden and his co-founders had bootstrapped Precision Lender to over $10 million from North Carolina when we spoke in 2017. This is a superb story, including how the company has formulated an AI agent, Andi.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
Carl Ryden: I was born in North Carolina. I grew up in eastern North Carolina in a little town called Goldsboro. Folks don’t know where that is. It’s about halfway between Raleigh and the coast. For folks who do know, I would later confess that I’m not really from Goldsboro. I’m from an area of a county that’s closest to Goldsboro, deep in the rural part of North Carolina.
Online purchase of make-up has never been easy. But with the pandemic, that sector has also accelerated its transition to the internet. Virtual try-ons have become easier with brands like Dior and Charlotte Tilbury allowing users to see the impact of their products over Zoom. Chanel too launched an app, Lipscanner, that allows people to try on different shades of lipstick on their own face using augmented reality. There are several other niche players who have entered the market, and are doing phenomenally well in the recent past.
>>>Sramana Mitra: It sounds to me like you have very large deals in your pipeline. At some level, $5 million may be the only money you need to build this business.
Timothy Menard: Absolutely. The mindset was to build a company and be revenue-generating. Having these large contracts that pay 90% of the contract value in the first year is significant.
Sramana Mitra: Oh my goodness. That is fantastic! You won’t be able to recognize the revenue, though but cash-wise, it’s incredible for business-building.
>>>According to a recent report, the global e-commerce fulfillment services market size is expected to grow at 9.5% CAGR from $86.5 billion in 2021 through 2030. The continued adoption of e-commerce is resulting in the increase in the number of online buyers, especially in emerging economies. While Amazon remains the giant in the space, smaller companies are focusing on improving their tech stack to offer advanced fulfillment capabilities to other organizations.
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