Sramana Mitra: You can’t have everything. You have to choose. What year does that bring us up to? Gaurav Rewari: In early 2000, I decided to do another startup in the consumer space. It was a company called FirstRain, named after the Indian monsoon season. I have memories of staring out at torrential rain and
Sramana Mitra: Where were you when you were doing this company? Praful Saklani: I was back in Minnesota. We were based in the Twin Cities. Our customer base was all over the country and the world. The company that bought us was actually based out of Ireland. Sramana Mitra: Before we go into the details
Sramana Mitra: You joined the costume business in 2004? Tom Fallenstein: Yes, I was the only one doing it full-time. It was only a seasonal business up until 2002 and then I built a website to see if I could make it a full-time job. I was doing extra orders basically through college out of
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Gaurav has deep domain expertise in the BI space, something he has leveraged to concept-finance a new venture to the tune of $8.5 million. Read how he is building the company, especially how he has positioned the company. Fast growth businesses only happen if you can
Minnesota seems to be developing well as a hub for tech startups. With a strong culture of bootstrapping, we’re seeing a lot of entrepreneurs building high growth businesses. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your personal journey. Tell me a bit about where you were born and raised and in what kind of
Tom has built a kick-ass e-commerce company out of rural Minnesota that he hopes to build up into a billion dollar business. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised, in what kind of environment? Tom Fallenstein: I was born in Minnesota in a small
Sramana Mitra: On your website, I cannot get the shape of the boots. I don’t have the flexibility to be able to change the shape of the boots. You have a certain structure to the boots that you’re offering. You offered customization on the heels, leather, and colors but in terms of the shape of
Sramana Mitra: Are you selling direct? Are you selling through the channel? How are you going to market? Manmeet Singh: Since 2013, we have had a direct sale strategy. We have Compuware as a reseller. Our product is available to be downloaded from Hortonworks on Hadoop, which recently went public. People can download and play