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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 From Germany: Cleverbridge CEO Christian Blume (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: How does your work play in to the work of the SaaS providers like Aria? They are managing the online SaaS billing. Christian Blume: They’re managing a broader spectrum in a much stronger niche market. What do I mean by that? They go into any type of service that could be a subscription,
Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: Specifically, what was that all about? What did you need to change in your style of operations? Henry Albrecht: Since our product is about bringing culture to life and helping every employee improve, it has to be adopted at a pretty high level within the company to be successful. We needed the Chief Human
Building an SMB SaaS Business: Stitch Labs CEO Brandon Levey (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: It was a monthly recurring revenue though, right? It was a SaaS product? Brandon Levey: Correct. It was the same model basically. In January of 2013, we hired Josh who used to consult small businesses. In March, we hired our first customer support rep who’s now a product manager at Stitch. That’s when
Bootstrapping From Germany: Cleverbridge CEO Christian Blume (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: Was it a very profitable situation right from the beginning? Christian Blume: This is the interesting part. When we started the business, we always said, “We’re only going to enter actual business opportunities if there’s a win-win situation.” I would never have signed off on any kind of deal in order to buy market
Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: So in 2010, you got a couple of mid-sized customers. What kind of revenue were you able to get to in 2010? How did that correlate with your burn rate? Henry Albrecht: We were still burning fast. We got past the million dollar mark in 2011. I think we went about a million
Building an SMB SaaS Business: Stitch Labs CEO Brandon Levey (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: You said that until 2013, things were really cash-strapped but it sounds like you were picking up customers and that you were getting validation for your thesis at some level. Brandon Levey: Correct. By the fall of 2011, we had about 60 customers. I think our total revenue was $500 a month. That
Bootstrapping From Germany: Cleverbridge CEO Christian Blume (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: The natural question that comes to my mind based on what you just said is, how do you price? Christian Blume: Our business model is, we take a share of the transaction. If somebody wants to work with us, they only pay for actual performance. There are no upfront setup fees. Nobody has to
Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: How did you finance the alpha and beta phases? Henry Albrecht: The first funding came from my life savings of which I put in every dime. Next came friends, family, and mostly Seattle-based angel investors. In 2008 and 2009, we started to accumulate real customers. We started as a 30-person employer. Then, 100 on