Sramana Mitra: You said you have a team in India. How are you finding building a team in India at this point? Bangalore is a talent war economy. Gurman Hundal: It’s a massively fun and exciting journey we’ve had in India. It’s one of the proudest journeys we’ve had. The best part of Media IQ
Sramana Mitra: Who was your first client and how did you get that client? Gurman Hundal: We went down the route of working with media agencies who represented the clients. Our first clients came from big agency groups like Publicist Media. Our first big advertisers were the likes of the Weight Watchers, Honda, British Airways,
Sramana Mitra: Besides this bank deal, was there any other strategic moves that you made that helped you accelerate? Chris Folayan: There are many ways you can look at competitors. Who are our competitors? Competitors came to us in different forms and fashion. There were the brick-and-mortar stores and online stores that have a limited
Sramana Mitra: What year was this when you decided to start Media IQ? Gurman Hundal: We launched in October 2010. Sramana Mitra: What was the idea? What did you think you were going to do with Media IQ at that time? Gurman Hundal: When you run online ads, you are actually sitting on a lot
Sramana Mitra: How much money did you raise? Chris Folayan: We don’t disclose the details, but it was a seed round. Sramana Mitra: When was this? Chris Folayan: This was four years ago. Sramana Mitra: So 2012. Chris Folayan: Yes.
Adam Schwartz: We don’t really know what to expect. Even if you’re a $4 million company, you’re still not that big. You don’t know how far this is going to grow. Are we going to grow 100% again or is it not going to scale that way? We’re just going three months at a time and just reinvesting
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Gurman has bootstrapped a fast growth company using services. Read about his impressive journey. 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? Gurman Hundal: I was born in
Sramana Mitra: Besides selling some of your incubated projects and shutting down some others, you said the web development company’s journey was about 10 years. I take it around 2010, you moved on from it. Was the company sold or did it continue and you moved on? Chris Folayan: It continued till about a few