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?
>>>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.
>>>
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.

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!

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?
>>>Sramana Mitra: Britt, get us to the point where you launched Dow Janes. How did you get yourselves off the ground?
Britt Baker: It’s the fall of 2019. I have another job at that time that I decided was not my passion. I’d be going to dinner parties and cocktail parties and everyone would ask when’s the next Dow Janes meeting. I knew that Laurie-Anne had started an online business before. I called Laurie-Anne. She was about eight months pregnant.
>>>In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
Chandrashekar Kupperi is General Partner at Peaceful Progress Fund, an angel fund in India. We have some very interesting discussions on consumer startups in India, especially the ones targeting lower economic strata consumers.
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