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 – Fall Reverie VI
Fall Reverie VI | Sramana Mitra, 2020 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9 x 12, On Paper
Sramana Mitra: We have tried to move the software industry into this DIY model. The whole SaaS industry is a DIY model. Ho and I were talking about the opportunity to do a DIFM (Do It For Me). Years ago, I coined another phrase to describe those – SaaS-enabled BPO.
There is technology, but the technology is being used by the services agency that is applying that technology to achieve significant results, but people are not using the software. They’re using the functionality of this vendor. It sounds like you are doing DIFM kind of model.
Jonathan Spier: When I signed on, that’s the model. Now, we’re doing both. At the end of the day, you want to solve the problem for a customer. That’s where you unlock a lot of value. Never mind the definitions put on it.
>>>In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
Sramana Mitra: Tell me a bit more about use case. By the way, there’s another company that used to be called InsideSales that’s now called Xant. They’re working on the same problem.
Jonathan Spier: We know a bunch of these. We know enough to know that we’re unique. In companies, there’s a process that companies follow whether it’s explicit or not. They identify a target market. They identify an ideal customer profile. They turn the teams loose.
By the way, one of the things that attracted me to Rev is the customer list – Zendesk, Adobe, Splunk, Salesforce. It’s a heck of a customer list. There’s a place where the process falls down where a company says, “Here’s our target market.”
>>>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 – Fall Reverie V
Fall Reverie V | Sramana Mitra, 2020 | Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 9 x 12, On Paper
Sramana Mitra: The whole industry has become really good at deal-making by just using Zoom. This is very much in favor of international entrepreneurs. You can now do deals globally just by using online tools.
Abinash Saikia: We thought that we would probably need to meet at some point. We were able to build good relationships. I had built a very good bond with the corp dev head. I joined his team at Quantum. We bonded well and that helped us be more credible.
Sramana Mitra: What about price negotiations?
>>>If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
After putting the spotlight on Entrepreneurship in Arizona, I spoke with Pagely CEO Joshua Strebel. He shares another terrific story of bootstrapping success from Arizona.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background?
Joshua Strebel: I was born in a little town in Idaho called Soda Springs. I’m the youngest of nine children. I grew up primarily in Las Vegas, Nevada and was splitting time within Salt Lake City, Utah. My parents were divorced when I was younger, so I went back and forth between households. I finished high school in Salt Lake City and ended up in Arizona where I went to college at Northern Arizona University.
Sramana Mitra: When was it that you came out of college?
Entrepreneurs are invited to the 574th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, May 5, 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!