Building a Global HR Tech Business from India: Adit Jain, CEO of Leena AI (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Did you raise money through the YC process?

Adit Jain: Yes. We raised a $2 million seed round from Elad Gil. Then a bunch of seed funds joined in. Funder’s Club was one of them.

Sramana Mitra: Where did you locate the company?

Adit Jain: I shifted to New York because we were getting a lot of manufacturing customers who were based on the East Coast than on the West Coast. We have a huge presence in India as well for development and product.

Featured Videos

Solo Entrepreneur Building a Venture Scale EdTech Company from India: Cuemath Founder Manan Khurma (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What is the sweet sauce of your curriculum? In the market, we have Khan Academy. There’s a lot of curriculum out there. What is it that you bring to the table in your methodology that is different?

Manan Khurma: The biggest underlying trait is what we call learning by reasoning, which is understanding the why behind the what. Every fact and algorithm that the student is expected to learn, they also need to understand the why behind it. For example, if they’re in grade four and they’re being taught how to add fractions, they also clearly need to understand why their algorithm works. They also need to learn why it’s true.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped 2600Hz Using Services

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

Here’s yet another great case study of a successful bootstrapping whereby the entrepreneurs developed a solid product business eventually. This conversation with 2600Hz Co-CEO / Co-founder Patrick Sullivan took place in 2017.

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?

Patrick Sullivan: I was born in California. I eventually went to school at Santa Barbara and got a degree in Computer Science. I graduated in 1999. I moved back to Tahoe to be a ski bum for a year to get that out of my system. Then I moved to San Francisco right before the dot-com crash happened. It was a pretty awful thing from a career standpoint.

>>>

Video FAQs

Building a Global HR Tech Business from India: Adit Jain, CEO of Leena AI (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You were doing this in Delhi?

Adit Jain: Yes, we spent some time trying to figure out which of our customer segments are using and paying us the most.

Sramana Mitra: There were a few customers that were paying you.

Thursday, January 27 – 561st 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 561st FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, January 27, 2022, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 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!

Solo Entrepreneur Building a Venture Scale EdTech Company from India: Cuemath Founder Manan Khurma (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Why would another test prep player buy this business if you were not going to come with it?

Manan Khurma: We spent a little bit of time there. We essentially managed to build a good brand. We had a lot of good curriculum and study materials. I didn’t start the next business right away. This exit was in 2011. Cuemath started in December of 2013. There was about two years.

11 Udemy Courses On How To Raise Seed Funding in the US Midwest

While the broader trends are similar throughout the United States, I find Midwestern investors to be very pragmatic. They’re usually more interested in capital-efficient startups and more accepting of early exits at modest multiples.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped SproutLoud to $30M from Florida

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

SproutLoud CEO Jared Shusterman shared his wonderful bootstrapping story with me in 2017.

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?

Jared Shusterman: I was born in Miami, Florida. I’m one of the few South Florida natives. I grew up in a middle class family that had a very heavy focus on education. After I graduated high school, I went to the University of Virginia. I got a Bachelors degree with a Finance and Marketing concentration. Shortly after that, I moved out to San Francisco and worked for an investment bank in the online media practice. That’s the quick summary of my initial upbringing.

>>>