Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping LittleThings First, Raising Money Later

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

Joe Speiser, Founder & CEO of LittleThings bootstrapped his first digital media/ad network business to $50 million in revenue and then sold it to private equity. Later he started a second business, an e-commerce company, that he bootstrapped for a year and then raised venture capital. His third business, LittleThings, is a spin-off within the second business that took him back to his digital media roots. Since our conversation in 2015, LittleThings was acquired by RockYou Media, an entertainment and media company aimed at millennials, in 2018.

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?

Joe Speiser: I’m from New York and I went to school in the city. I studied at the Columbia University. I’ve been doing all sorts of businesses from a very young age. I always had a passion for trying to start something from scratch and make a living. My dad is an entrepreneur. I used to work in his warehouse for most of my summers. It definitely taught me a lot watching my dad run a business. I don’t know if it’s something that’s taught or something that you’re just genetically predisposed to. I enjoy it so much.

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Featured Videos

Roundtable Recap: September 16 – Startups from Tanzania, New Delhi and New York

During this week’s roundtable, we did a global romp through startup land.

Beem

First up we had Taha Jiwaji from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, pitch Beem, a terrific cPaaS company that is already doing over $1M in revenue.

OneNDF

Then we had Nitin Khandelwal from New Delhi, India, pitch OneNDF, a terrific FinTech company that is also doing over $1M in revenue, although not all of it through their FinTech platform yet.

Green Transport

Next Mohammed Tai and Jian Ming Lin pitching Green Transport, a concept stage idea. Mohammed is an intern in the 1Mby1M program.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: John Davagian, CEO of L2L (Part 1)

John discusses trends and opportunities within the manufacturing shop floor. 

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as L2L.

John Davagian: I’m the CEO at L2L. I’ve been the CEO for just about six months. I’ve spent 20 plus years in the SaaS industry, primarily on the go-to-market side, and most recently, in significantly scaling a business called Salsify. L2L is a leading SaaS platform built for global manufacturers. At its core, we deliver a pragmatic, innovative, and transformative solution.

Video FAQs

9 Udemy Courses on How to Raise Pre-seed Startup Funding

The toughest round of funding an entrepreneur seeks to raise is pre-seed investment. It sports the lowest probability of success, the highest amount of ambiguity, is poorly defined, and is causing the greatest amount of confusion and road wreck out there.

Cloud Stocks: Zscaler Focuses on Federal Agencies

Enterprise cloud security company Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) recently announced its quarterly results that were labelled as “jaw dropper” results. The company has had a strong run this year with the stock more than doubling within the last twelve months.

10 Udemy Courses on How To Build an Artificial Intelligence Startup

Udemy has over six million students who are learning Machine Learning on the platform. Many of these students are aspiring entrepreneurs.

Here is a list of Udemy entrepreneurship courses based on the 1Mby1M methodology that would help them put one foot before the other to get a startup strategy figured out.

Cloud Stocks: Palo Alto Networks Expands Security Capabilities

According to a recent market report, the global cyber security market size is expected to grow to $400 billion by 2027. The growth is expected to be driven by the SMB segment, which will witness a growth of 15% CAGR. Security player Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) continues to tap into the market through product upgrades and partnerships.

IPOs 2021: Analysis of UiPath’s Cloud Elements Acquisition

According to a Forrester report, the Worldwide Intelligent Process Automation revenue is estimated to grow from $17 billion in 2020 to $30 billion by 2024. Earlier this summer, UiPath (NYSE: PATH), a key player in this market, went public.