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
Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ in Revenue Without Dropping Out: Course Hero CEO Andrew Grauer (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: You focused on getting to a business model. Part of the problem at the Valley right now is that people just go and build things without figuring out a business model. As a result, they have huge burn rates and no monetization model. That doesn’t create a sustainable company. That whole model is
Bootstrapping a Big Data Company Using Services: DataSong CEO John Wallace (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: How much did you do in terms of revenues in the first couple of years? John Wallace: It probably took us four years to get to a million dollars. Sramana Mitra: How many people were involved? John Wallace: There were about four people. My original hypothesis was that there would be a lot
Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ in Revenue Without Dropping Out: Course Hero CEO Andrew Grauer (Part 6)
Andrew Grauer: Then, moving on to the other question on the engagement level, engagement is quite high. I think the difference between other online education sites like Coursera and edX is that their users are looking just to learn for learning sake. Our supplemental resources are really focused on helping students who are already enrolled
Ultra-light Startup with $6 Million Revenue: Car Part Kings CEO Michael Dash (Part 6)
Sramana: Your policy of being selective with distributors makes perfect sense. How many relationships do you have with distributors in order to allow you to serve the entire car parts market? Michael Dash: I have one distributor who covers 99% of my aftermarket parts requests. For my body parts, I have one distributor that I
Bootstrapping a Big Data Company Using Services: DataSong CEO John Wallace (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: You were kind of an applications engineer? John Wallace: It was a great opportunity. Sramana Mitra: That brings us to 2003? John Wallace: Yes. In 2003, I started a firm doing analytic consulting. I thought that I would be more impartial to what software we use to solve a problem and be more focused on
Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ in Revenue Without Dropping Out: Course Hero CEO Andrew Grauer (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: From the end user’s perspective, is the end user using your platform largely in a web self-service mode? What percentage of that user uses self-service versus a tutor assisted usage? Andrew Grauer: It’s probably going to be something like 70% to 80% self-service. Sramana Mitra: I’m trying to gauge how big the tutoring
Ultra-light Startup with $6 Million Revenue: Car Part Kings CEO Michael Dash (Part 5)
Sramana: Are your distributors well equipped to handle the fulfillment directly to consumers? Michael Dash: Yes, they have large warehouses that stock these auto part inventories. Those warehouses are set up as shipment and fulfillment warehouses. When somebody orders a part from me, I electronically transmit that to them. They pick that part and put
Bootstrapping a Big Data Company Using Services: DataSong CEO John Wallace (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. We maintain that one of the best ways to identify complex problems worth solving inside enterprises is by offering services to them, thereby gaining exposure to the domain. Datasong is yet another case in point. Related reading: Bootstrapping Using Services. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the