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- The Accelerator Conundrum
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- The Future: End of Capitalism
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Aydin Mirzaee
Bootstrapping from Canada: FluidWare Co-CEO Aydin Mirzaee (Part 7)
Sramana: How much money have you raised to get where you are today? Aydin Mirzaee: We have not raised any investment money. From time to time we have applied and won some government grants, but nothing major. We are basically a bootstrapped company. The co-founders did not take money for the first two years, and
Bootstrapping from Canada: FluidWare Co-CEO Aydin Mirzaee (Part 6)
Sramana: The survey market is quite full, and SurveyMonkey is a dominant player in the market. How did you compete against them? Aydin Mirzaee: In the beginning we were focusing on the Canadian market. We met governmental regulations that gave us a niche market. Once we had that funding, we started to focus on expanding
Bootstrapping from Canada: FluidWare Co-CEO Aydin Mirzaee (Part 5)
Sramana: Essentially you had to reposition yourselves in the marketplace. Where did you find your sweet spot? Aydin Mirzaee: We decided to focus entirely on the super niche market and dominate that particular market before moving on. That would let us be a big fish in a small pond, and we would worry about the
Bootstrapping from Canada: FluidWare Co-CEO Aydin Mirzaee (Part 4)
Sramana: What specifically did he want built for $10,000? Aydin Mirzaee: He wanted a system built for students to upload their business plans and presentations to a website for a business plan competition. The judges would be able to see the business plans and provide feedback and evaluation through the website. The website owner would
Bootstrapping from Canada: FluidWare Co-CEO Aydin Mirzaee (Part 3)
Sramana: What was the initial iteration of FluidWare? Aydin Mirzaee: The first iteration was interesting because it was based on my former company. I had been trying to raise venture capital, and everyone told me that I had to get money from the Valley. It is easy to say, but I did not understand it.
Bootstrapping from Canada: FluidWare Co-CEO Aydin Mirzaee (Part 2)
Sramana: Did you start this company right after college? Aydin Mirzaee: No, I actually started working at Nortel. They were a pretty big deal when I graduated in 2006. My first three months at Nortel were amazing. I was learning every day, exploring new things and ideas. After three months I learned everything I needed
Bootstrapping from Canada: FluidWare Co-CEO Aydin Mirzaee (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Aydin Mirzaee is the co-CEO and co-founder of Fluidware (formerly Chide.it), an Internet software company which offers feedback solutions in the form of FluidSurveys and ReviewRoom. Prior to co-founding Fluidware he was the CEO of bOK Systems Corp, and he also has experience working R&D at
