Sramana Mitra: What check size do you write?
Zain Jaffer: Overall, $750,000. We started with a $300,000 and followed on with $450,000. Sometimes we can do million dollars plus between seed and follow-on.
Sramana Mitra: This is a wonderful case study. What else are you excited about?
Zain Jaffer: I’ll give you another case study. This is an anti-case study. Sometimes VCs don’t know what they’re doing. They come up with all of these criteria. When the rubber meets the road, everything goes out the window. This is an investment I made before I set up my VC fund.
>>>Bill Baumel, Managing Director at Ohio Innovation Fund, is one of the pioneers of the Ohio startup ecosystem.
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If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
As I started analyzing various paths to success via bootstrapping, a second formula also became absolutely obvious: doing services projects and then formulating a product through that process. We gave this a name: Bootstrapping with Services, and published a book on the subject, Bootstrapping Using Services.
Over 99% of entrepreneurs who seek financing get rejected. The seed capital gap leaves many entrepreneurs struggling to get their businesses off the ground. Bootstrapping, a tried-and-true method to self-fund a business, is a must to bridge this gap in seed funding. And offering a service is one of the best ways to bootstrap. When I turn the spotlight on entrepreneurs who have successfully bootstrapped their ventures using services, please note that, in many cases, these same entrepreneurs later raised venture capital. Through my interviews, I aim to give you a seat at the table with successful entrepreneurs and synthesizes what is learned to provide information and inspiration for everyone looking to take their business concepts to the next level.

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 575th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, May 12, 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.
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Mary and her husband, Eric, have been scrappy bootstrappers through a decade-long journey building Boom Cards. Awesome story!
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 TechCrunch analyzes in which sectors valuations of startups are declining the fastest and slowest. SaaS is one sector that is bucking the trend of declining valuations. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.
>>>Sramana Mitra: As you are looking at this space, what is the scope and scale of the number of startups operating in North America?
Zain Jaffer: I saw 500 startups last year. That’s just what I tracked in my CRM. The number is mind-boggling. With any industry, only a few will make it. I don’t know what the actual number is, but PropTech is becoming a big segment. It’s a niche segment that’s an intersection of FinTech and marketplaces.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Let’s focus on the PropTech part of your work. You said you’re doing pre-seed and seed in that sector?
Zain Jaffer: Yes.
Sramana Mitra: What’s the geographical boundary of this?
Zain Jaffer: We try to stay focused on the US market. We are also open and have done many companies that plan to expand to the US. They may also be based anywhere in the world but they just happen to have US customers. Ideally, the US is the top focus though.
>>>