Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Evenica by Piggybacking

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

Evenica CEO Sadek Ali has built an e-commerce platform company for the mid-market within the Microsoft ecosystem. Read on to learn more.

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?

Sadek Ali: I was born in Canada. I grew up there. Most of my adult life has been spent here.

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Featured Videos

Roundtable Recap: March 31 – Plug Your Methodology Gaps

During this week’s roundtable, we worked with two startups, both of whom need to plug some methodology gaps.

KwiKBio

First up, Justin Lancaster from Barnard, Vermont, pitched KwiKBio, a solution for citizan scientists to participate in biomedical research.

Bixpand

Next up, VJ and Sudipta Das from San Ramon, California, pitched Bixpand, a competitor to Zoho and Hubspot.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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From Developer to 2-Time Successful AI Entrepreneur with Exits: Behamics CEO Valon Xhafa (Part 1)

Valon is a software developer who made a successful transition to an entrepreneur and had a quick exit with his first venture.

His second venture is already at $5M+ in revenues with just a pre-seed round of financing. This venture, Behemics, has already received two acquisition offers. Fabulous story!

Video FAQs

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Naganand Doraswamy, Managing Partner and Founder at Ideaspring Capital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What is the check size that you like to write?

Naganand Doraswamy: When we started the first fund, we said anywhere around $500K to $750K. Then we would participate with another $500K in the following round. The target was about $1.25 million per company. The second is double the size.

We’re looking at $2.5 million total per company. The first check can be anywhere from $750,000 to $1.75 million. We realized that our companies needed a little bit more runway to show the traction necessary to raise the next round. $1.25 million is too small an amount to make some decisions in companies.

569th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M?

Today’s 569th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, March 31, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/4 p.m. CET/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

569th Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 20 Minutes: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 569th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 20 minutes, on Thursday, March 31, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/4 p.m. CET/8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: HugePOD CEO Joe Zhou (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What about fabric?

Joe Zhou: We purchase from big fabric factories and we handle its stocking.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s say a designer wants to design something, they have to work within a catalog of fabric?

Joe Zhou: We have 40 kinds of fabric. They don’t need to select from the fabric. The fabric is connected to certain styles. We already have these prepared.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Naganand Doraswamy, Managing Partner and Founder at Ideaspring Capital (Part 1)

Naganand Doraswamy, Managing Partner and Founder at Ideaspring Capital, adds to our thesis on great investment opportunities within the sub $100 million exit space.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by having you introduce yourself as well as Ideaspring.

Naganand Doraswamy: I grew up in Bangalore. I did my undergrad there and then came to the US in 1999 to do my Masters in Virginia Tech. After my Master’s, I moved up to Boston. I joined FTP Software where I wrote the first implementation of IP security of Windows 95.