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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
Bootstrap First to $10 Million from Australia, Raise $25 Million Later from the US: Ashik Ahmed, CEO of Deputy (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: Where did you choose to raise your $25 million financing from? In Australia? Ashik Ahmed: Funny story was that every morning, we’d wake up and there’d be an email from some VC. I wanted to focus on growing the business as opposed to getting interested in VCs. In mid-2006, we realized that our
Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship from Arizona: Heidi Jannenga, Co-Founder of WebPT (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: What do you fantasize about? Are you now trying to take the company public or do you want to do some sort of an acquisition? Now that you have private equity in there, you have to do exit. Heidi Jannenga: Yes, we have to do exit, but that was one of the other
Bootstrap First to $10 Million from Australia, Raise $25 Million Later from the US: Ashik Ahmed, CEO of Deputy (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: When did you start the Gusto partnership? Ashik Ahmed: That was between late 2013 and early 2014. Sramana Mitra: How much did you do in 2014? How would you attribute that to Xero, Gusto, and your direct selling efforts? Ashik Ahmed: The challenge with partnerships is that, at the start, you get a
Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship from Arizona: Heidi Jannenga, Co-Founder of WebPT (Part 6)
Heidi Jannenga: One big lesson that we learned was that valuation is important, but it’s not the most important thing. The terms of the deal are the most important. People can give you valuation but at the end of the day when it comes to the contract, it’s really about the terms. Even on a
Bootstrap First to $10 Million from Australia, Raise $25 Million Later from the US: Ashik Ahmed, CEO of Deputy (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: From a customer acquisition point of view, how did you go to market? Ashik Ahmed: It was really, really hard. We spoke to a lot of customers. In the second round where we went for anyone can just sign up, you don’t need to get the word out. Back then, I don’t think
Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship from Arizona: Heidi Jannenga, Co-Founder of WebPT (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: Talk to us about the hiring of this CEO. What was the process that you followed and how did you decide who was the right CEO for you? This is a very difficult and challenging exercise to bring in an outsider to replace the founders. Heidi Jannenga: I want to be very clear
Bootstrap First to $10 Million from Australia, Raise $25 Million Later from the US: Ashik Ahmed, CEO of Deputy (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: Did you fire the CEO that you brought on? Ashik Ahmed: Yes. Sramana Mitra: How did that go? Ashik Ahmed: Not pretty. I doubted myself whether I would be capable of being the CEO of this company. I didn’t even know what the job description of a CEO looked like back then. My
Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship from Arizona: Heidi Jannenga, Co-Founder of WebPT (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: You’ve done all this organically. Right from the beginning, you didn’t raise any money. Heidi Jannenga: Yes, we are huge proponents of bootstrapping. We have been building it for four years. We’re profitable. Within two years, we were at a million dollar run rate. They passed the Affordable Care Act around the same
