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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
Bootstrapping Using Services: Bay Dynamics Co-Founders, Feris Rifai and Ryan Stolte (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: What year did you start this consulting company? Ryan Stolte: 2001. Feris Rifai: Precisely on October 16, 2001. Sramana Mitra: You did analytics consulting. How long did you continue in this consulting mode? Ferris Rifai: When we first started, we started with consulting in analytics and, in parallel, information security and IT. What we saw
Bootstrapping Using Services: Bay Dynamics Co-Founders Feris Rifai and Ryan Stolte (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: You were Head of Technology there and Feris joined as the Head of Sales? Feris Rifai: Yes, I joined as Head of Sales and Business Development at that time. Sramana Mitra: What is the name of the company? Ryan Stolte: The company is called Caspio. Sramana Mitra: Caspio is still around? Ryan Stolte: It
Bootstrapping Using Services: Bay Dynamics Co-Founders Feris Rifai and Ryan Stolte (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: Just one little piece of information, did the previous company where you were head of sales exit? Feris Rifai: Yes, it was a sale to another company. Sramana Mitra: Was it a good exit? Did you make money off that company? Feris Rifai: Yes, it wasn’t just through the exit. I had done
Bootstrapping Using Services: Bay Dynamics Co-Founders Feris Rifai and Ryan Stolte (Part 1)
Feris and Ryan wanted to work together on a new venture. They first built a services company, then introduced an OEM product, and eventually bootstrapped a product under their own brand. The company has recently raised its first venture money after many years of being in business as a profitable, growing entity. Sramana Mitra: One
Buying Control Back from VCs: Jason Robbins, CEO of ePromos (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: The scenario that you are pointing out is a scenario that a lot of venture-funded entrepreneurs face. Business is not the rocket that the VCs thought it would be, but it’s a healthy profitable long-term business that the entrepreneur may be interested in running. That’s a scenario where VCs and entrepreneurs have to
Buying Control Back from VCs: Jason Robbins, CEO of ePromos (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: You had a $5 million round. You were pretty much profitable. What are some of the major inflection points? Jason Robbins: The $5 million basically almost disappeared. By the time money came in, the investors wanted a CEO that was known in the marketplace so they then can then raise the next round
Buying Control Back from VCs: Jason Robbins, CEO of ePromos (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: On the website, you would provide the designs that your suppliers were able to build against. You would provide that catalog and fulfill through that supplier network. Jason Robbins: Exactly right. You would come to my website and you’d say I like that. You would upload your logo. I would send your logo
Innovating in Fintech: Jason Hogg, CEO of Lending.com (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: What did American Express do with it? Did they keep the card? Since 2009 on to 2015, what happened in the business? Jason Hogg: American Express actually created Serve, which is their reloadable prepaid product. We were also, at that time, early in the mobile and smartphone game with money transfer and other transaction
