Building a $10M Company Proctoring Exams Online: Don Kassner, CEO of ProctorU (Part 6)

Don Kassner: If you think about proctoring itself, integrity is critical. It’s a service. We’re providing service to both the student and to the institution. It’s important that it’s simple because they’re remote. They’re on their own device. People need to be able to understand the process. There’s the people side of it and that’s

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Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 7)

Sramana: I would imagine you are using the private label strategy to drive margins up, correct? That is one of the levers that you can push. Tony Ellison: Yes, that is correct. Sramana: What categories offer you the best levers for your private label strategy?

Building a $10M Company Proctoring Exams Online: Don Kassner, CEO of ProctorU (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: The large state universities are adopting this? Don Kassner: Yes, it’s typically large state universities. There’re some private universities in there as well. Generally speaking, you’re going to see most of it in the lower level, general administration courses where examinations and assessments are more critical. As you get in deep to any

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Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 6)

Sramana: You have crossed a lot of categories that are not traditional for your market area. What was the strategy behind that decision? Tony Ellison: We are the first in our industry to cross the traditional lines of office supplies and offer many unconventional products that businesses need. This is important because we cater to

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Building a $10M Company Proctoring Exams Online: Don Kassner, CEO of ProctorU (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: So the shareholders of Andrew Jackson came in as separate investors into the new entity, ProctorU? Don Kassner: That is correct. Sramana Mitra: So that’s how ProctorU was funded? Don Kassner: Yes.

Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 5)

Sramana: Tell me a bit more about merchandising. Outside of the core office supplies, what else belonged in your product portfolio? Tony Ellison: Today, we have close to 600,000 items with a mantra of social responsibility. There is no reason why businesses should not purchase eco-friendly products, especially since the prices have dropped and the

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Building a $10M Company Proctoring Exams Online: Don Kassner, CEO of ProctorU (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: When you look at those early adopters of your technology, what strikes you as the common characteristics of these kinds of players? What were they doing that made them early adopters? Don Kassner: They had those typical early adopter feature sets. They understood that they needed to take their online education service to

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Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 4)

Sramana: In 1996, you added more people and secured an office. Was there any difference in your distribution or customer acquisition strategies? Tony Ellison: There was a lot of change in 1996. The biggest expansion was in terms of people and our margins started to erode because of that added expense. We also started adding

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