categories
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
Building a Robust Business in Australia: Investorist CEO Jon Ellis (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: In 2015, your entire strategy was focused on Australia, China, and UK? Jon Ellis: It was. It was until we had our A round funding. Sramana Mitra: I was actually coming to that. You raised money in 2015? Jon Ellis: Yes, in the middle of 2015. Sramana Mitra: Tell me about that. Jon
Bootstrapping from New Zealand, Scaling in America: Jason Westland, CEO of ProjectManager.com (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: You said you started the company at about 2008 around the financial crisis. It took you nine months to get the first product out. The first product didn’t work. Can you put this in a timeline on when the traction actually started? Jason Westland: It actually started in January 2010. We had, what
Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Janet Kosloff, CEO of InCrowd (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: When 2012 ended, what kind of revenue level did you get to? Janet Kosloff: At the end of 2012, we ended up with about a million dollars in sales. That was our first full year in business. At that time, we ended up raising our small venture round. Sramana Mitra: With which firm?
Building a Robust Business in Australia: Investorist CEO Jon Ellis (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: Great milestone. By the end of that year, you got the full $1.7 million in seed investment from your backers? Jon Ellis: Correct. Next, what fundamentally changed the game was that we realized that there was a network effect. The agents on our platform looking for stock in Australia were also interested in
Bootstrapping from New Zealand, Scaling in America: Jason Westland, CEO of ProjectManager.com (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: What about money? Hiring high-level people costs money. Jason Westland: It does. I sold my first business. My second business was sold shortly after that. I invested all of the money from those two businesses. I then went and mortgaged the house. My mom mortgaged her house. I took out some credit card
Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Janet Kosloff, CEO of InCrowd (Part 4)
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
Building a Robust Business in Australia: Investorist CEO Jon Ellis (Part 4)
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
Bootstrapping from New Zealand, Scaling in America: Jason Westland, CEO of ProjectManager.com (Part 1)
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
