Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Where are you now revenue-wise? Felix Van de Maele: We’re getting close to $20 million. Sramana Mitra: You said you’re already profitable? Felix Van de Maele: We were profitable over the last two years but then made the decision to grow the company.

Bootstrapping, Pivoting, Gaining Liquidity, Scaling to Over $100 Million: MediaAlpha CEO Steve Yi (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: In terms of your operating expenses, how many people were involved and what kind of a P&L did you have to support within that operating margin? Steve Yi: There was three of us. One person was working with us as a contractor who eventually became our VP of Sales. Sramana Mitra: How many customers were

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Bootstrapping, Pivoting, Gaining Liquidity, Scaling to Over $100 Million: MediaAlpha CEO Steve Yi (Part 5)

Steve Yi: We were fortunate to become profitable within the second month. For that first month, we thought we could never make that math work. We were losing a lot of money in that first month. It’s specific to this business. You just have to go through that period where you’re willing to lose money. Sramana Mitra: You

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Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Your positioning is to help with data consistency. Felix Van de Maele: Yes, data consistency, data understanding, and data compliance. Sramana Mitra: Who is your direct competitor? Felix Van de Maele: The biggest competitor is really doing nothing. It’s not a replacement sale. What we replace is Excel, SharePoint, and Word. It’s a

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Bootstrapping, Pivoting, Gaining Liquidity, Scaling to Over $100 Million: MediaAlpha CEO Steve Yi (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Each of you had worked on this travel startup before, and you had sold this startup. You got a little bit of money and were willing to put some of that money into starting something else as a collective group. Steve Yi: That’s exactly right. You said it much better and succinctly than

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Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What could you do that IBM couldn’t do? Felix Van de Maele: That goes back to the original story. The authenticity there is in focusing on business people. We always focus on business people. The product is very easy to use, collaborative, and social. We adopted some concepts from Wiki. The user interface

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Bootstrapping, Pivoting, Gaining Liquidity, Scaling to Over $100 Million: MediaAlpha CEO Steve Yi (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What did you start next? Steve Yi: I next started a travel advertising company. After I left, it took about a year to iterate. I knew I wanted to have my own company again. I iterated on different ideas and different consulting projects. I, finally, got connected with a couple of people who I

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Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Why did your current VP of Sales join your company? What was it in your company or in what you told him that convinced him to join your company? Felix Van de Maele: I think that’s a really good question. We were very early. We had no revenues. We had no customers. He thought strategically

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