$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: You are acquiring these customers through these kinds of channels – through computers at work. Issa Asad: We acquire 100% of our customers online.

Leveraging Domain Knowledge and Network: Ari Paparo, CEO of Beeswax (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Who are the customers? Who are the ones who want to run this kind of media buying? Ari Paparo: There are two kinds of customers that we’ve been selling to. One is media companies. A lot of media companies are selling ads to brands and to advertisers directly, but they’re not always using

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Leveraging Domain Knowledge and Network: Ari Paparo, CEO of Beeswax (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You moved on from there to work for Google? Ari Paparo: Yes, they kept almost everyone. Now it’s a powerhouse in advertising. A lot of Google’s success outside of search really belongs to DoubleClick. Sramana Mitra: Your career at DoubleClick was in product management? Ari Paparo: Yes, I was the Director of Product

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$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: In 2007, you started this affiliate network. How long did it take you to arrive at that inflection point where you figured out that Beauty was the category that you wanted to focus on? Issa Asad: It took almost two years. Sramana Mitra: That’s not unusual though. It takes time to experiment. Issa

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Leveraging Domain Knowledge and Network: Ari Paparo, CEO of Beeswax (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  If you have great domain knowledge and a domain-specific network, both of those can be leveraged to build excellent companies with reasonable amounts of capital and minimum friction. Beeswax is an excellent case in point. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are

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$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How long did the model go on? Issa Asad: I did that in 2007. Then I sold my company to a company called Blackstone. They wanted it for the technology. They were able to take it to a new level, which was beyond my reach. At that point, I took a new venture.

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$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How did you get around those limitations? Issa Asad: I turned around and I started working with some of them. I said, “If I print my own cards and make my own brand, then I would only have to pay for usage.” I went to the carriers and I made contracts with them.

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$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  This is a fascinating journey of an entrepreneur who has bootstrapped a $200 million business catering to poor people in the United States selling cellular phones and connections, and monetizing the data through advertising. In India, Reliance Jio has a similar strategy, by the way, for

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