Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped from New Zealand, Scaled in the US

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

I have always said that you need to bootstrap your way to validation and traction. ProjectManager.com Founder Jason Westland did just that, and built a robust company from New Zealand. Read on, it’s a fabulous story from 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 background?

Jason Westland: That’s further back in time than I expected. I’m from New Zealand in the Southern Alps. My first job was managing a project of 25 people. I was 22, just out of university. I was in project management until around 15 years ago when I became the General Manager of a software company that grew fast. I was inspired to start my own business based on reporting to a Board that I learned a lot from. This is the third business that I’ve started.

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Catching Up On Readings: The Crypties 2022

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Giuseppe Donvito, Partner at P101 Ventures (Part 4)

Giuseppe Donvito: I can mention several exits just in our portfolio. In some, they were successful exits. What I found very interesting is, as a VC, you always need to be clever to find the right time. This is key. Otherwise, it is easy to say you’ll keep the company for 10 years.

In our case, we were able to find the right moments. In some cases, if we don’t sell the company at a particular time, the company wouldn’t exist because of other reasons. The exit is evolving. There will be more and more in the coming years.

Video FAQs

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Giuseppe Donvito, Partner at P101 Ventures (Part 3)

Giuseppe Donvito: When we analyze a company, we always apply our proprietary framework. We are obsessed with the quality of the founding and management team. This is the main point for us. We thought the management team could be the right people for this kind of deal.

At the same time, given our knowledge of the FinTech sector, we thought that the company had significant improvement for growth. They’re one of the largest in Europe in embedded finance. They were always able to navigate the ups and downs. It can’t always be positive. The founding team built a resilient top management team. Even in difficult times, they were able to find the solution. They proved to be resilient.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Using Services from Houston

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

Identity Automation Founder James Litton built an identity management software company from Houston and then went upmarket. Here is our conversation from 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?

James Litton: I am a native Houstonian. I’m a rare breed. I was born and raised in Houston. In terms of circumstances, I think I’m from your quintessential American middle-class family.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Giuseppe Donvito, Partner at P101 Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Firstly, what is the size of your deal flow? How many deals do you see?

Giuseppe Donvito: When we started, we used to do a mix of post-seed and early stage. We used to see a thousand companies per year, out of which, our investment rate was 5% per year. Now that we’ve moved to a more later stage, we see probably 500 deals a year and we do only 1%. In those typical stats, we don’t explore 50% and the other half we do some analysis.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Giuseppe Donvito, Partner at P101 Ventures (Part 1)

Giuseppe Donvito is Partner at P101 Ventures based in Milan. We have a wonderful conversation about Italian startups.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to you and get acquainted ourselves as well.

Giuseppe Donvito: I’m a Partner at P101. I’ve been in the venture capital and private equity industry for more than 20 years. I have a Masters in Telecommunications Engineering, an MBA, and completed an advanced executive course at Northwestern University at Chicago.