From Teen Student Entrepreneur in Australia to a Mature Global E-commerce Entrepreneur: Mike Rosenbaum, CEO of Spacer (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What worked?

Mike Rosenbaum: It’s hard to say when we started getting product-market fit. Over time, we just got better and better at targeting the right customers whether that was through Google or Facebook or offline channels. Eventually, it was word of mouth. Now, most of our new supply is people telling other people about the positive experience that they’ve had.

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Catching Up On Readings: Apple, FB Rivalry

This feature form Bloomberg analyzed the brewing rivalry between Apple and FB around wearables, AR/VR headsets and home devices. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

From Teen Student Entrepreneur in Australia to a Mature Global E-commerce Entrepreneur: Mike Rosenbaum, CEO of Spacer (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Did you launch with your own money?

Mike Rosenbaum: We made a lot of mistakes as well. We did okay. I put in some of my money. I had a new co-founder, Roland. He came from private equity background and had a very complementary skillset. He was more of a finance and strategy guy. We had met over the previous 12 months or so. We kept in touch. We put in some money. We raised some money from our network. 

Sramana Mitra: Give me more specifics. What did you raise money with? Did you do an MVP?

Video FAQs

Colors: Cliffs IV

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Cliffs IV

Cliffs IV | Sramana Mitra, 2020 | Watercolor | 9  x 12, On Paper

Colors: Cliffs III

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Cliffs III

Cliffs III | Sramana Mitra, 2020 | Watercolor | 9  x 12, On Paper

Validating B-to-C Business Ideas and Building to $40M Run Rate: Shaunak Amin, CEO of SnackMagic (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What happened in 2020 when the pandemic hit?

Shaunak Amin: At that time, we had two hubs. We had plans to open up five more. Then in March, nobody was in office. That business went to zero overnight. It was unfortunate. I remember it was the second week of March. We said we are going to take a pause. We all went home. We were thinking we’ll come back in a few weeks. By the second week, we realized that this is going to be longer.

From Teen Student Entrepreneur in Australia to a Mature Global E-commerce Entrepreneur: Mike Rosenbaum, CEO of Spacer (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What about customer acquisition? When you’re selling on eBay, eBay provides the foot traffic.

Mike Rosenbaum: It was the early days of e-commerce. There was a much smaller number of people shopping online. We had built this large database off eBay which we used to sell direct. We would send emails to them. Initially it was one email a week. Then it was two. Eventually it became one a day.

November 18 – 554th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 554thd FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, November 18, 2021, 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!