Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to Scale: Taso Du Val, CEO of Toptal (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Have you bootstrapped your company all the way or have you raised money along the way? Taso Du Val: We raised a really small round for approximately $1.4 million with some really great individuals. It was a seed round, so it was not a priced round. We still consider ourselves a bootstrapped startup. Hence,

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to Scale: Taso Du Val, CEO of Toptal (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: I’ll just benchmark it by saying oDesk, for instance, charges 10% of the contract value. Tell me what the additional value is that you’re adding to the process. Taso Du Val: We screen all of the individuals for you. Not only for our network but also for your specific request. There are many

Read Full Article »

Thursday, August 6 – 271st 1M/1M Mentoring Roundtable For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 271st FREE online 1M/1M roundtable mentoring session on Thursday, August 6, 2015, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/8:30 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 a Virtual Company to Scale: Taso Du Val, CEO of Toptal (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What is the business model? Is it a commission-based business model? How do you charge? Taso Du Val: We take a percent of every single contract. Sramana Mitra: Are you still based in Budapest? Taso Du Val: No, I’m mostly based in New York and Moscow at the moment. That’s where I’m spending

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to Scale: Taso Du Val, CEO of Toptal (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s take that on a more granular basis. What year are we talking when you decided, two years in, to give up? Taso Du Val: That was probably around 2012. In 2012, we said, “Maybe we should figure something else out.” That was two years after we started the company. Sramana Mitra: Who’s

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping to $300 Million: Faisal Husain, CEO of Synechron (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Tell me more about your thinking around that. It sounds like there’s a philosophy around being self-financed. You must be getting lots of calls from private equity all the time. Faisal Husain: Yes, we’ve been getting calls for several years. I have met all of them and am on fairly good terms with them. In

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to Scale: Taso Du Val, CEO of Toptal (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page. There’s a lot of controversy around whether virtual teams scale. Taso Du Val has scaled a sizeable business using a virtual team. Read on to learn more. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal entrepreneurial journey.

Read Full Article »

270th Roundtable Recording On July 30, 2015: With Cleverbridge CEO Christian Blume

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here: