How Rafat Ali Found a Job (Part 8)

SM: Who are your primary advertisers? What is the source of revenue? RA: Over the years it has broadened quite a bit. The focus quickly expanded to cover all digital media.

How Rafat Ali Found a Job (Part 7)

SM: When did you finally close the investment deal with Alan Patricof? RA: It was in the middle of 2006. I believe it closed in June.

How Rafat Ali Found a Job (Part 6)

SM: You turned down some private investors, what about institutional investors? RA: We started to get interest from companies who wanted to buy us in late 2005. I had a friend who had a friend who helped me sort through it, and we went through the normal gyrations.

How Rafat Ali Found a Job (Part 5)

SM: How did getting married affect the business? RA: I had to go away for about 40 days because my wife, who is of Indian origin, was from South Africa. The marriage was in South Africa and the reception was going to be in India. The entire ordeal was going to take 40 days. There

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How Rafat Ali Found a Job (Part 4)

SM: How many email newsletter subscribers and website visitors did you have at that point? RA: This was in 2003 and it was probably a couple of hundred. At that point I was still hoping to find a job in London as a journalist, but some offers to advertise on my site made me think

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How Rafat Ali Found a Job (Part 3)

SM: Did you go to Silicon Alley Reporter for the magazine or the website? RA: When I joined the magazine was shut down, so I wrote for the website. I did daily stories. This was in 2002, which is also when I started paidContent.org.

How Rafat Ali Found a Job (Part 1)

Rafat Ali is a journalist, pioneering blogger, and entrepreneur. Editor & Publisher has called Rafat “journalism’s poster boy for career independence from news companies”. I am very pleased to share his story of persistence and success. SM: Where are you from? Where did you grow up? RA: I was born in the UK, but my

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More Bootstrapping: VirtualTourist.com Co-Founder J.R. Johnson (Part 6)

SM: When you hired people, did they have equity in the company? JJ: Yes, that was one way to entice people to join us.