Sramana Mitra: These are corporate accounts. You have to do an enterprise sale to get this to the purchase system? Janet Kosloff: Our clients, being pharmaceutical companies, have a pretty onerous procurement process. Almost every one of our clients require, what they call, a Master Services Agreement. It’s a whole process and a thorough review
Sramana Mitra: Then what happened? Jon Ellis: Then someone that I had been speaking to for months, a very wealthy family in Australia, really liked the platform. They had been using it and they said, “We’re prepared to be backers. We’d have to make substantial changes to make some money, but we’re prepared to back
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. I have always said that you need to bootstrap your way to validation and traction. Jason did just that, and has built a robust company from New Zealand. Read on, it’s a fabulous story. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where
Sramana Mitra: The customers are pharmaceutical companies? Janet Kosloff: Correct. They are brand managers, market researchers, and M&A specialists. Sramana Mitra: Was your MVP an app? How did you structure the MVP? Janet Kosloff: We did not have an app originally. We have an app now but our primary tool is a web application that
Sramana Mitra: What market were you going after? Was Investorist focused on the Australian market to start with? Jon Ellis: To start with, it was. Initially, Investorist launched as an idea of working just in the Australian market. As soon as I launched, I’ve probably been active for six months and then I realized that to
Sramana Mitra: What year are we talking? Janet Kosloff: This was 2010. I wrote the business plan in 2010 and I started to think about it. Once I was ready to take the leap, I left my job because I am very commerically-oriented, and I wanted to find a co-founder that had more of the
Sramana Mitra: After you quit Mirvac, you started an ad agency? Jon Ellis: I didn’t intend to start an ad agency. I just intended to work as a marketing manager for other property developers. Very quickly, I realized that there weren’t a lot of experienced marketers. There was an opportunity to work for a number
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. You know I don’t buy into the men saying that there’s a bias against women entrepreneurs in the industry. Janet doesn’t either. Here’s an opportunity to learn from her success in building solid revenues, and a profitable business. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning