Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped an E-commerce Venture to $50M

When we spoke in 2018, SmartBuyGlasses Co-CEO David Menning had bootstrapped a global e-commerce venture from Hong Kong to $50M. Splendid execution! Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background? David Menning: I grew up in Sydney. I’ve

Read Full Article »

The Accelerator Conundrum: Playbook for Ecommerce Entrepreneurs

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus

Read Full Article »

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Lean and Niche E-commerce Venture

This conversation with Modded Euros Co-founder Sean Dawes from 2019 is a comprehensive discussion on how to bootstrap a niche e-commerce venture with a lean team and effective use of inventory financing. You can listen to the podcast interview here and watch the interview here: Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your

Read Full Article »

Building a Portfolio of Bootstrapped Businesses: Ryan Millman, CEO of Undigital (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How did you build that relationship? That is a journey story that would be interesting.

Building a Portfolio of Bootstrapped Businesses: Ryan Millman, CEO of Undigital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Was there a business model? Were you monetizing? Ryan Millman: Yes. Initially, the business model was based on ad revenue – everything in 1999 was ad revenue-based. I figured out how to tie in with some APIs to one of the first digital photograph manufacturers. People could then order the photographs they were

Read Full Article »

Building a Portfolio of Bootstrapped Businesses: Ryan Millman, CEO of Undigital (Part 1)

Ryan has built a portfolio of bootstrapped businesses over the last 25 years that adds up to over $50M in revenue. He discusses the strategies and nuances, pivots and positioning, and more.

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Bolt CEO Justin Grooms (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Right. What else do you want to share with me? Justin Grooms: I just want to share how excited I am for where I think commerce is going around identity. So much has changed in e-commerce over the last decade, but one of the things that hasn’t changed too much, unfortunately, is curated,

Read Full Article »

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Bolt CEO Justin Grooms (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. So, the customer, however, has to do the first sale for Bolt to kick in. Justin Grooms: The customer needs to create a Bolt account somewhere in our network. Sramana Mitra: The customer acquires the consumer. And then connects into the Bolt network and then Bolt provides additional identity data and more

Read Full Article »