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- 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+ Business: Blaine Vess, CEO of StudyMode (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: What was the motivation? If I am a student, why would I want to load up my course notes? Blaine Vess: The main motivation is to get access to other people’s course notes or research. Say you’re writing a research paper on global warming and you have a writer’s block or you’re three
Bootstrapping a Robust SaaS company from India: Rategain CEO Bhanu Chopra (Part 6)
Sramana: What are the techniques that worked really well for you? Bhanu Chopra: The fact that we focused on expanding in an area that we did well in was very important. We expanded our online travel agent business and got a lot of new customers. The other major key was moving into strategic new areas
Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ Business: Blaine Vess, CEO of StudyMode (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. We’re seeing a wonderful trend of student entrepreneurs building substantial businesses without dropping out. Blaine Vess is yet another great role model. This story outlines Blaine’s entrepreneurial journey. Sramana Mitra: Blaine, let’s start with introducing our audience to you. Where did you grow up? Where were
Bootstrapping a Robust SaaS company from India: Rategain CEO Bhanu Chopra (Part 5)
Sramana: What year was it when your OEM partnership went south? Bhanu Chopra: In 2010 and 2011, there were a couple of major products that were contributing significant revenue to us. Our partner bought all of our competitors during that same time-frame, so we had to make some transitions in order to survive, and it
Bootstrapping a Robust SaaS company from India: Rategain CEO Bhanu Chopra (Part 4)
Sramana: What is the market size you have available? Bhanu Chopra: We started by providing competitive information and then we branched out to selling the information to all of the players in the travel industry. Every element in the travel industry is highly commoditized and consumers’ buying behavior is driven by price. We sell to
Bootstrapping a Robust SaaS company from India: Rategain CEO Bhanu Chopra (Part 3)
Sramana: Who did the development on the technology while you started the business? Bhanu Chopra: Initially, I did everything. I was the project manager, the coder, and tHE visionary. While I was building the technology, I was also focused on selling it. I made several trips to the US and Europe to do road shows.
Bootstrapping a Robust SaaS company from India: Rategain CEO Bhanu Chopra (Part 2)
Sramana: What was the premise of the company you founded in Chicago? Bhanu Chopra: It was essentially the same thing I was doing before. We were working with some very large firms in the Chicago area. We had four Fortune 500 clients and we helped them implement large CRM systems. We built a very good
Bootstrapping a Robust SaaS company from India: Rategain CEO Bhanu Chopra (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Rategain is one of the top global SaaS companies built out of India. This interview captures CEO Bhanu Chopra’s entrepreneurial journey. Sramana: Bhanu, let’s start with the beginning of your story. What kind of circumstances where you raised in? What is the genesis of your entrepreneurial