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HOT TOPICS
- 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 To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 7)
Sramana: Why did you decide it was so important to physically move to Silicon Valley? I have been here for 16 years and I love it, but why does a $20 million profitable company move here? Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: The transition to a SaaS company was painful, both on the technology and business side. We could
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 6)
Sramana: What techniques have been the most consistent for you? Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: We tend to be very opportunistic. We would market to accountants hoping they would recommend our software to their clients. Sramana: You said you cleanse your leads in India. How does that work? Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: We use a team in India to receive
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 5)
Sramana: Was there external consulting work or was that just part of the sales cycle? Raj Narayanaswamy: It was part of the sales cycle because the product need not meet every single need for extremely large organizations. We found that these larger organizations would give us a lot of money to customize the product to
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 4)
Sramana: What technique did you find was the most effective to sell to your customers? Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: We just tried to keep the buying process as clean and simple as it could be. We took a “what you see is what you get” approach. There were no hidden features and no hidden costs. Customers knew
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 3)
Sramana: Were you able to validate your intuition? Was there an enterprise need for timesheet software? Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: We ran our timesheet product idea by a few of our customers. We confirmed that it was a big pain point with a lot of different companies. One of our clients actually liked our concept, so much
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 2)
Sramana: What specifically was your intention with the company? What was the company going to do or produce? Raj Narayanaswamy: We changed directions many times. We did a lot of trial and error. Our initial goal was to build a work flow application. We envisioned a general purpose platform where end users could build their
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Raj Narayanaswamy is the co-founder and CEO of Replicon. He has over 15 years of software development and senior management experience. Narayanaswamy has a bachelor’s degree in computer science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and is an active member of the high-tech business
Do You Want To Have Dinner With The Guy You Want To Hire? Christos Cotsakos, Founder Of ETrade And CEO Of EndPlay (Part 7)
Sramana: I don’t think the startup CEO job has changed. It is a demanding, high-focus job. Christos Cotsakos: I am one of those guys who does not sleep more than five hours a night anyways. I like to be engaged. I have a high level of intellectual curiosity. If you want to have a hand