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.

Bootstrapping Using Services from Russia: Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO of Ecwid (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: I’m going to ask you questions so that we can trace your journey of how you put this business together block by block. Tell me how you acquired your first customers for this business. Ruslan Fazlyev: We didn’t really acquire customers for our business. We got case-by-case freelance requests to build an online

Read Full Article »

Thursday, January 26 – 337th 1M/1M Mentoring Roundtable For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 337th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable mentoring session on Thursday, January 26, 2017, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/9:30 p.m. India IST. If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea to Sramana Mitra. You’ll gain straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and she’ll answer any

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping Using Services: Sylvana Caridi Coche, CEO of Gravity Pro (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of this journey in 2007. You went to SAP and said you wanted to resell. Where did you go to seek your first clients? Sylvana Caridi Coche: My clients call me. I actually have to pick the clients. Usually people who start a company to do implementations

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping Using Services from Russia: Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO of Ecwid (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  We’ve discussed Bootstrapping Using Services extensively over the years. Ruslan used eLance (not Upwork) to source service projects, then built, first a platform+services business that scaled to over $10 million in revenue. Then he spun off a pure play e-commerce platform business that now has over

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping Using Services: Sylvana Caridi Coche, CEO of Gravity Pro (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Sylvana has an aura of no nonsense, no bullshit confidence about her that I find immensely attractive. Read her story to feel the force of sheer energy, smarts, and execution to learn how she did it! Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping With a Paycheck to Techstars: Nevin Shetty, CEO of Blueprint Registry (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: How much investment did you get from Techstars? Nevin Shetty: Techstars always puts in $100,000. Sramana Mitra: How much equity did you give for that? Nevin Shetty: Around 7%. Sramana Mitra: You raised more money coming out of Techstars?

Bootstrapping With a Paycheck to Techstars: Nevin Shetty, CEO of Blueprint Registry (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: The customer acquisition is Facebook primarily? Nevin Shetty: It’s transitioning now to Pinterest. You have to think about where your users live. A lot of couples, who were recently engaged, go to Pinterest for inspiration for their wedding. As they’re looking for inspiration for their wedding, they see Blueprint there. Potentially, they come bock to Facebook

Read Full Article »