
I always love doing stories of my readers. Anand has been following the blog since 2010. He has built a terrific, fundamentals-focused AI company. And I am thrilled.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where were you born, and raised, and in what kind of background?
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The drone industry is a massive beneficiary of the Corvid pandemic. Read how Tom has shepherded DroneUp to hyper-growth from its bootstrapped beginnings and a slow start.
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?
>>>This feature from The Wall Street Journal looks at the crash in the cryptocurrency industry, which was built on swagger, enthusiasm, and optimism. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.
>>>In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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:

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!

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.
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.
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