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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
Bootstrapped First, Raise Money Later: Manick Bhan, CEO of Rukkus (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. “My journey was as unexceptional as you can imagine,” says Manick, in describing how he got to $1 million Annual Revenue Rate in transactions before raising financing. Read on for the whole story. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by going back to your very beginnings. I want
A Serial Entrepreneur’s Awesome Journey from Austin, Texas: Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: What were the financing rounds? You raised your first financing within 18 months when you were getting real traction so you did bootstrap the first phase. Jason Cohen: Right. In August of 2011, we raised our first little A round. Then a year later in the same month, we did a B round.
A Serial Entrepreneur’s Awesome Journey from Austin, Texas: Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: Where are we timeline-wise now? Jason Cohen: We’re still in the mid-2000s. Just accelerating through that, I sold Smart Bear in 2007. I left in 2009. I had to stick around for a year. Sramana Mitra: To whom did you sell this company to? Jason Cohen: There was another company called Automated QA.
A Serial Entrepreneur’s Awesome Journey from Austin, Texas: Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: Being the author of a book gives you huge credibility. Jason Cohen: Even now when everyone knows you can publish, it does. We were doing enterprise sales where credibility is even more important. I remember being with a potential customer in San Diego. Our champion inside the company threw one of our books
A Serial Entrepreneur’s Awesome Journey from Austin, Texas: Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: Let’s go down the path of your content marketing. You said you published a book. Tell us more about what was the marketing strategy around your code review product? Jason Cohen: I have to give credit where credit is due. In ITWatchDogs, Gerry had this idea because it had just become possible to
A Serial Entrepreneur’s Awesome Journey from Austin, Texas: Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: Did you go to work for them? Jason Cohen: I did for just a little while, but at that time, I had already started another company with Gerry’s encouragement. In fact, when we started ITWatchDogs, I was hesitant to join a startup because I thought, “Maybe I should just increase my savings a little
A Serial Entrepreneur’s Awesome Journey from Austin, Texas: Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: It is very difficult to get any kind of financing for new companies from these community banks. I’m curious about how you managed to get that. Was Gerry offering a personal guarantee of some sort to get that money out? Jason Cohen: Yes. He also had a history with the bank. Of course, you’ll
A Serial Entrepreneur’s Awesome Journey from Austin, Texas: Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Jason has done three bootstrapped startups, sold two of those, and then bootstrapped a fourth one to heavy duty venture financing. This is a great interview with a pro who knows what he is doing at many levels. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning