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HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Master Bootstrapper with a Billion Plus in Exits: Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of Directi and Flock (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: In parallel, you started other businesses. At what point did you start the next line of business besides web presence? What was the thinking behind that? What were the circumstances? Bhavin Turakhia: In 2007, we started dabbling in the online advertising business using a brand called Scenzo. My brother started operating that business.
Scaling a Fast Growth, Venture-Funded Company: Rafael Sweary, Co-Founder and President of WalkMe (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: When you were selling to a customer, what kind of average deal size were you seeing? Rafael Sweary: In the hundreds of dollars per year at that time. Once we got into the pricing, we started selling over the Internet. We got our first customers through dialing. After we got some four or five
Master Bootstrapper with a Billion Plus in Exits: Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of Directi and Flock (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: How long did you go in this mode of in-person selling? What kind of revenue level did that get you to? Bhavin Turakhia: In that first set of businesses, which we call the web presence business, I actually did in-person selling for the better part of six years. Sramana Mitra: There’s no choice.
Scaling a Fast Growth, Venture-Funded Company: Rafael Sweary, Co-Founder and President of WalkMe (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: What were you going to do with WalkMe? Rafael Sweary: The initial plan was to sell it as a platform for guidance on top of any website. This is how we started. We saw that we had a nice revenue. We were growing, but we weren’t growing fast enough. We launched the product
Master Bootstrapper with a Billion Plus in Exits: Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of Directi and Flock (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: What was the first business that you and your brother launched? Bhavin Turakhia: The first one that we launched together was in late 1998. Sramana Mitra: You said you and your brother did all your businesses together? Bhavin Turakhia: Yes. In many ways, that was the genesis. Before that, we were independently doing
Scaling a Fast Growth, Venture-Funded Company: Rafael Sweary, Co-Founder and President of WalkMe (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: How did you get connected with family offices in the US? Rafael Sweary: I met them while I was studying here in the US. Sramana Mitra: The reason I’m asking you is that it’s an unusual way of financing companies. Family offices tend to not participate in early-stage companies. So, it was basically
Master Bootstrapper with a Billion Plus in Exits: Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of Directi and Flock (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Bhavin and his brother Divyank have bootstrapped Directi, a portfolio of Internet businesses over the last ~20 years. In 2014, they had their first $160 million exit. In 2016, they had a second $900 million exit. It’s a very interesting story of masterful business acumen and
Scaling a Fast Growth, Venture-Funded Company: Rafael Sweary, Co-Founder and President of WalkMe (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. WalkMe’s vision is to make software understand humans, rather than the other way around. Rafael discusses the growth story of a company that is driving significant innovation in mobile and web user engagement. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where
