AI Unicorns 2022: CommerceIQ Leverages AI for Retail Industry Digitization

Analysts estimate e-commerce sales in the US to cross $1 trillion in 2022. Earlier pre-pandemic estimates had predicted the industry to cross this milestone in 2024. B2B e-commerce is also expected to grow 12% this year to $1.77 trillion. Companies like CommerceIQ are making it easier for the retail industry to transform their digital operations to keep pace with this high growth.

Featured Videos

Applying AI to Lead Generation: Rev CEO Jonathan Spier (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How far did you take that company?

Jonathan Spier: We grew it for about seven and a half years. We had raised a little over $20 million, and we had an offer to sell into the nine figures from a major enterprise software company. One of the board members didn’t want to sell. They kept it private. The good news is it’s a good company. It’s still considered the leader in the enterprise analytics category.

Sramana Mitra: What is the name of the company?

Thursday, April 28 – 573rd 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 573rd FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, April 28, 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!

Video FAQs

Best of Bootstrapping: Blitzscaling versus Bootstrapping

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

You must have read something or the other about Blitzscaling, the hypergrowth phenomenon that Reid Hoffman has been championing:

What entrepreneur or founder doesn’t aspire to build the next Amazon, Facebook, or Airbnb? Yet those who actually manage to do so are exceedingly rare. So what separates the startups that get disrupted and disappear from the ones who grow to become global giants?

The secret is blitzscaling: a set of techniques for scaling up at a dizzying pace that blows competitors out of the water. The objective of Blitzscaling is not to go from zero to one, but from one to one billion – as quickly as possible.

Well, I have a small fact to point out: it probably isn’t an option for you.

>>>

568th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Abinash Saikia, EnCloudEn (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Total funding of under one million dollars and a little bit of government fund. Talk about the customer development process. Where did you get the customers from? What type of customers zeroed in on your value proposition?

Abinash Saikia: Before these guys put in money, we were able to acquire a reputable customer. You’ve probably heard of Biocon in India which is the largest biopharmaceutical company in India. I was working in strategy at Biocon. My manager connected me to the CIO at Biocon. I built a relationship with him over time. They became our first customers.

Cloud Stocks: Analysis of Snowflake’s Streamlit Acquisition

According to a recent report, the global Data Warehouse as a Service Market is estimated to grow at 25% CAGR to reach $7.69 billion by 2028. The growth is driven by increasing investments in machine learning and artificial intelligence along with BYOD services. San Mateo-based Snowflake is a leading data warehouse solution provider that is addressing this growing market through inorganic growth.

Applying AI to Lead Generation: Rev CEO Jonathan Spier (Part 1)

I did a startup in 1998 by applying AI to the lead generation and qualification problem. It was early. The data was not yet rich enough.

Now, the data is there. Can the problem finally be solved at the right level of sophistication?

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where were you born and raised?

568th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Abinash Saikia, EnCloudEn (Part 1)

Abinash Saikia, Co-founder of EnCloudEn and former 1Mby1M Premium member, has successfully bootstrapped his venture to an exit and discusses the process in great depth.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to the premise of EnCloudEn.

Abinash Saikia: I have had a pretty good education from IIT Chennai and, subsequently, an MBA from IIM Bangalore. I worked for a couple of years but the entrepreneurial bug was always there. I could not continue for much longer. I left my job and started a company called SmartBuildings. I was at that company for about three years. It was mostly an IoT-based energy conservation solution.