Bootstrapping Using Services to an Awesome Business Model: Inspyrus CEO Nilay Banker (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How long did you stay at Oracle? Nilay Banker: I was at Oracle for 10 years. On the first day of my 11th year, I decided it was enough. I had a lot of fun. I actually had a great opportunity to work with Larry Ellison for an extended period of time. At

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Bootstrapping Using Services to an Awesome Business Model: Inspyrus CEO Nilay Banker (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  We’ve shared many Bootstrapping Using Services case studies with you here, as well as in the book on that topic. This one is particularly interesting because of the absolutely awesome business model that Nilay and his team have implemented. Read on! Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to

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Bootstrapping Using Services from Russia: Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO of Ecwid (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What did you price the Ecwid product at? Ruslan Fazlyev: The model back then was one free plan and one paid plan at $70. The pricing model is a bit different now. Sramana Mitra: $70 a month? Ruslan Fazlyev: Yes, it’s different now. Now we have premium offerings. There are paid plans at $15,

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Bootstrapping Using Services from Russia: Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO of Ecwid (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: You wanted to set the company for exit. Ruslan Fazlyev: Yes. Sramana Mitra: Where did you go to look for financing? Ruslan Fazlyev: I never really looked proactively for financing. The way it worked is, Ecwid was named as the hottest technology company in Russia after winning this competition by Google and Forbes in

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Bootstrapping Using Services from Russia: Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO of Ecwid (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Not only did you have the platform but you were also offering the integrated consulting services to implement it. Ruslan Fazlyev: Yes, that was the X-Cart approach but it was not good enough for some customers. Some customers asked, “Is there any way to integrate my store into my site without ever having

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Bootstrapping Using Services: Sylvana Caridi Coche, CEO of Gravity Pro (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What is the business now? Do you sell mostly licenses? Sylvana Caridi Coche: I switched from 80% services and 20% license to 80% license and 20% services. The goal next year is to do more and more services. Sramana Mitra: How many people do you have now? Sylvana Caridi Coche: I have three

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Bootstrapping Using Services from Russia: Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO of Ecwid (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Do you remember the denomination of the customer? How much did the customer pay? Ruslan Fazlyev: I think it was $100 a license. I did my math quickly. Five cents investment for $100. Sramana Mitra: Amazing. Ruslan Fazlyev: My second 5-cent spend was disappointing because there was no customer, but my third spend

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Bootstrapping Using Services: Sylvana Caridi Coche, CEO of Gravity Pro (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: In the first year of business, how much did you do revenue-wise? Sylvana Caridi Coche: I did $7.5 million in revenue. Sramana Mitra: That’s incredible. Sylvana Caridi Coche: Yes, that was very unique. Sramana Mitra: That was with 20 people.