Bootstrapping Using Facebook Ads to $5M: Dow Janes Co-founders Laurie-Anne King and Britt Baker (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Did you follow the same strategy in the second year?

Britt Baker: Exactly.

Sramana Mitra: Very interesting. It doesn’t sound like you need to make any change. You just keep executing and put more money into Facebook. Is that correct?

Britt Baker: That works well until your Facebook ad account gets shut down. Sometimes they’ll just do this to businesses. They did this in January of 2021.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Entrepreneur Couple Bootstrapped to $10M from Colorado

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

Love and startups go hand in hand for AdCellerant Co-founders Brock Berry and Shelby Carlson, who are helping media companies generate seven-figure revenue streams. Here is our conversation from 2017.

Sramana Mitra: Whoever wants to start, 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?

Brock Berry: Thanks for having us. I’m the Founder and CEO of AdCellerant. I’m from Indiana where I grew up and spent the first 23 years of my life before I was compelled to move to Colorado where the weather is a little friendlier and there were a few more work opportunities.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Bill Baumel, Managing Director of Ohio Innovation Fund (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You said earlier that your preferred funding round is Series A where you put in a million or so in that round. In some cases, you do some seed investment. Could you talk about how Ohio entrepreneurs are getting to Series A? Is there a seed ecosystem that is supporting or is there more of a bootstrapping tendency or bootstrapping culture that is going straight to Series A?

Video FAQs

Decacorns: Blockchain.com’s Stellar Growth Story Continues Through Acquisitions

According to a recent report, the global Blockchain technology market was valued at $5.92 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at an impressive 86% annual rate through to 2030. The growth in the market is expected to be driven by the continued adoption of cryptocurrencies by governments and through the increasing venture capital funding within the blockchain technology companies. The governments of the US, Canada, Australia, El Salvador, and Ukraine have already legalized several transactions in cryptocurrency. Even the EU makes it legal to trade and use Bitcoin. Blockchain.com is the poster child of the industry that continues to grow through acquisitions and product expansion.

Bootstrapping Using Facebook Ads to $5M: Dow Janes Co-founders Laurie-Anne King and Britt Baker (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Is this a rolling program?

Britt Baker: People can join anytime. We took on a handful of people in March from another Facebook post. Then we really decided to take more people in April which is when we started advertising.

Sramana Mitra: What kind of advertising did you do?

Britt Baker: We advertised on Facebook and Instagram.

Best of Bootstrapping: Co-founders Bootstrap a SaaS Company from Finland

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

Vainu.io Co-founder Mikko Honkanen has steadily built an excellent SaaS company from Finland and when we spoke in 2017, was expanding into the US as well. Read on for more.

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?

Mikko Honkanen: I was born in a small town in Finland, 20 miles up north from Helsinki. I studied at Helsinki School of Economics. I also studied at Oxford. Then I spent the last 10 years in the SaaS business. I spent almost seven years at a Norwegian company called Meltwater.

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June 9 – 578th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 578th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, June 9, 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!

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Bill Baumel, Managing Director of Ohio Innovation Fund (Part 1)

Bill Baumel, Managing Director at Ohio Innovation Fund, is one of the pioneers of the Ohio startup ecosystem.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with some introduction to where you are with your work with Ohio Innovation Fund. What’s happening in Ohio as an ecosystem?