The Unbearable Heaviness of Being: On the Passing of Naren Gupta (Part 2)

Naren and I met in 2010. My Vision India 2020 book had just come out. We were invited to be on a panel together at Stanford. The Indian startup story was just starting to find some traction in Silicon Valley.

The Indian startup story, by the way, is different from the Indian entrepreneur story. Indian entrepreneurs, by this time, had already found acceptance in Silicon Valley. TiE played a major role in legitimizing us. Naren played an active role in that effort. Naren and Vinita each founded a technology company, took it public, and were flag bearers of a talented, highly entrepreneurial diaspora that would go on to change the technology industry for good. Shantanu Narayen, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Parag Agarwal are each milestones in that continuum of success.

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The Unbearable Heaviness of Being: On the Passing of Naren Gupta (Part 1)

Naren died.

Suddenly.

My pear tree

still has some golden leaves.

Rain drips disbelief.

It can’t be.

It is.

These are the only lines I could come up with on Sunday afternoon.

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IPOs 2021: ZipRecruiter Leverages AI to Deliver Ideal Employee Match

The global online recruitment market is expected to grow at 7% CAGR from $29.3 billion in 2021 to $47.3 billion by 2028. Santa Monica-based ZipRecruiter (NYSE:ZIP) went public earlier this year, and continues to deal with the uncertainties of the pandemic world.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Founder Builds Multiple Bootstrapped Education Software Companies

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

Lane Rankin, Founder at Illuminate Education, was first a teacher, then a school and school district administrator. His background is not of a typical tech entrepreneur. However, his deep domain knowledge and relationships in the education field have propelled him to become a very successful EdTech entrepreneur. Great story!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your entrepreneurial journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Lane Rankin: I’m currently in California. I was born in Seattle, Washington. I have a Bachelors degree in Applied Mathematics and went on to get a Masters in Leadership. I started my first company back in 1999.

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IPOs 2021: Analysis of ThoughtWorks’ Acquisitions

The US-based IT consulting market is estimated to grow 2% to reach $525 billion in 2021. Despite the tumultuous market conditions, ThoughtWorks (Nasdaq: TWKS) recently had a stellar IPO performance. The IT consulting firm has been expanding its market presence through acquisitions and partnerships.

Solo Entrepreneur Focused on Autonomy as Key Success Driver: Hank Luhring, Founder of IssueTrak (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How much were you pricing?

Hank Luhring: It was $100 a month. This was before the cloud. There was a term back then called Application Service Provider.

Sramana Mitra: I remember that. It was the precursor to the cloud.

IPOs 2021: Recently Listed ForgeRock Banks on its SaaS Architecture

The global identity and access management market is projected to grow at 15% CAGR from $12.15 billion in 2019 to $31.9 billion by the year 2026. San Francisco-based ForgeRock (NYSE: FORG), a key player in the industry, recently went public and its stock seems to be having a strong run.

Solo Entrepreneur Focused on Autonomy as Key Success Driver: Hank Luhring, Founder of IssueTrak (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: When you started doing this alone, how long did that solo journey last before you started hiring programmers?

Hank Luhring: Six months. My first client was Volvo Penta. The colleague of a former colleague called and said, “Do you know anybody who can develop some applications?” It happened to be a homebuilder’s association. They needed a new membership database. They had ideas for what they wanted the package to do.