Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace: Mort Fertel, CEO of SudShare (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I’ve got two nuggets out of your initial story. One is using Indeed to get some of the sell side going. Then really building in virality into the app. On the buy side, laundry services Google keyword search. I take it you were self-funding this company. 

Mort Fertel: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: The business model is a commission on the transaction size?

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Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Salil and Kiran Pande, Co-Founders of VMock (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What is happening in the algorithm? You are processing tons of resumes and training your model to determine what are good ways of representing information. You have a database of skillsets. Your model understands what’s a good way of representing that skillset. When you process resumes, you can figure that out. Is that roughly the algorithm?

Kiran Pande: It’s a lot about writing. It’s helping them communicate better.

Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace: Mort Fertel, CEO of SudShare (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What about on the sell side?

Mort Fertel: It might be interesting to note that the first sudsters – what we call the washers – were my wife and I. That didn’t last long. That’s how we started. The key to the growth of the platform has been the same thing. Create a phenomenal experience for the workers and they will tell their friends and family. It’s been primarily word of mouth.

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November 11 – 553rd 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 553rd FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, November 11, 2021, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/4 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!

552nd Roundtable Recording on November 4, 2021

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Salil and Kiran Pande, Co-Founders of VMock (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Between 2009 and the time you raised your seed financing, you figured that piece out. You figured out that you were going to go after the US career development offices and you were going to build this product in India.

Kiran Pande: Yes, he was leaning towards having the engineering team from people in IIT. The Bay Area is also very expensive and competitive to hire from. Just the cost of building an engineering team in the Bay Area would have been a lot more than we were able to do at that time. 

Bootstrapping a Two-sided Marketplace: Mort Fertel, CEO of SudShare (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Who built the company? You or your son?

Mort Fertel: Both. We’re co-founders.

Sramana Mitra: The idea sounds great. It came out of your personal observation of your wife’s woes with laundry. It sounds like your son has the technical expertise. What was he doing at that time when he decided to put together this app?

Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Salil and Kiran Pande, Co-Founders of VMock (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: When you went out to raise money, you didn’t pitch it as an AI company?

Salil Pande: I didn’t pitch to anyone. All my seed investment came from my ex-boss. He connected to his ex-boss.

Sramana Mitra: Friends and family.