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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
Multiple Pivots, Taking on Giants, to Over $100 Million in Revenue: Matthew Calkins, CEO of Appian (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: You’re talking 2001? Matthew Calkins: The Army project started in 2001. It got going in earnest in late 2001. We were still a portal company in the 2002 to 2003 timeframe. We had to get out of it. The portal market was, in the end, just as disastrous as the personalization market for
Successful Pivot to a High Growth Business: Ray Grainger, CEO of Mavenlink (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: What did you do in terms of going and trying to recruit the next set of projects? Did you then go out to find projects that are in line with those people’s expertise? Ray Grainger: We decided to take a different path. The thousand people told us, “We really like your concept. It’s
Multiple Pivots, Taking on Giants, to Over $100 Million in Revenue: Matthew Calkins, CEO of Appian (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: Let’s pause for a moment. I want to ask a few questions about your survival. Were you bootstrapping this company or were you funded? How did you manage to survive this pivot financially? Matthew Calkins: Our cash flow was quite strong. We were running a services business. We were doing a little bit
Successful Pivot to a High Growth Business: Ray Grainger, CEO of Mavenlink (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: Who were these thousand participants and how did you get them on the platform? Ray Grainger: We started with our own network of people we knew. We come from a service provider industry so we have a lot of people in our network who are service providers in one capacity or another. Between the
Multiple Pivots, Taking on Giants, to Over $100 Million in Revenue: Matthew Calkins, CEO of Appian (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Matt’s first couple of bets didn’t pan out. The story is interesting on many levels, the pivots being two critical ones. Also interesting is how the company managed to compete with much better funded competitors and win. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of
Successful Pivot to a High Growth Business: Ray Grainger, CEO of Mavenlink (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with the step-by-step journey of how you put all the pieces together to make this happen. When you quit InQuira, what was the first thing that you did? Who left with you? Who were the co-founders? Ray Grainger: The co-founders were colleagues who I had met at InQuira. One is named
Bootstrapping, Fund Raising and Exit: Mads Jensen’s Journey with Sefaira (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: What else is interesting and strategic from decision making or navigating this venture? Mads Jensen: Our partnerships were very important. We work in an ecosystem where there are some big design firms and technologies that people already use. You may know Autodesk, which is a big software company. That’s one of our partners and
Successful Pivot to a High Growth Business: Ray Grainger, CEO of Mavenlink (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: You joined InQuira as CEO? Ray Grainger: No, as Executive Vice President. They had already been around for five years. I was an investor and joined them as Executive Vice President. I was in charge of all professional services channels and helped them grow from $6 million to about $40 million. Sramana Mitra: By
