Meet Four Great Bootstrappers Thursday Evening In Palo Alto

As we prepare for the launch on Entrepreneur Journeys (Volume Two): Bootstrapping Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction on June 1, I am moderating a panel this Thursday for the MIT Club of Northern California called The Art and Science of Bootstrapping. Panelists include Sridhar Vembu, Michelle Munson, Beatrice Tarka, and Paul Kocher. Please come, and introduce

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Top 10 Web Entrepreneur Interviews

I have done numerous interviews with entrepreneurs on this forum. Here’s a list of 10 Web entrepreneur interviews that I think have the most interesting strategy discussions on how each of them are building their companies:

Catching Up on Readings: Bootstrap Yourself!

Amidst the ocean of content that is coming at you, readers, I am sure you find yourselves overwhelmed. Here’s a recap of some articles from this site which you may have missed, but may be worth your time:

Travel Ad Network Raises Series A

Travel Ad Network (TAN), the largest vertical ad network in travel, just closed a $15 million Series A round of financing led by Rho Ventures, Village Ventures and individual investors. And what a Series A it is! $50-$75 Million valuation, estimated in my deal radar post and commensurate with the trends in the industry set

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Your Virtual Travel Concierge Has Arrived : Mobissimo CEO Beatrice Tarka (Part 6)

SM: Could you describe how you go about putting together a team? BT: In my two prior ventures I built strong management teams, sometimes through trial and error. This time I knew what I was looking for in terms of not only experience and background, but in character and personality. You can have the best

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Your Virtual Travel Concierge Has Arrived : Mobissimo CEO Beatrice Tarka (Part 5)

SM: Where are you at now in terms of revenue, profitability, and traffic? BT: The Mobissimo.com site has been operating for three years. We’ve been open to the public since November 2004, and we’ve generating revenue and been profitable since June 2005.

Your Virtual Travel Concierge Has Arrived : Mobissimo CEO Beatrice Tarka (Part 4)

SM: What is your TAM and how do you calculate it? BT: According to Henry Harteveldt Forrester Research’s travel expert, the online travel market represents the highest growing proportion of the overall travel market. Online travel is also the most lucrative. PhoCusWright says that online travel spending reached nearly $100 billion in 2007.

Forbes Column 08: Bootstrap Yourself

My new Forbes column Bootstrap Yourself highlights Silicon Valley’s hottest new trend, Bootstrapping. Great bootstrapping case studies I have covered are Sridhar Vembu, Frank Levinson and Jerry Rawls, Cree Lawson, and Beatrice Tarka. Sridhar, Frank and Jerry did it almost without any outside money, while Cree and Beatrice have done it with very small rounds

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