Bootstrapping to $30 Million from Florida: SproutLoud CEO Jared Shusterman (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What prompted you to go dig into jewelry? What was the trigger for jewelry? Jared Shusterman: We had a family friend who who was a consultant for jewelry retailers. I was lucky enough to spend some time with him and actually attended a show with him. I was able to speak to a

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Building a Two-Sided Marketplace: LawnStarter CRO Ryan Farley (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Did you raise funds at the Techstars demo day or did you raise funds afterwards? Ryan Farley: Most of it was afterwards. We pieced together a round of a lot of individual angel investors. We didn’t have any VC funds in the million-dollar round. One of the 20 angel investors came from demo

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Bootstrapping to $30 Million from Florida: SproutLoud CEO Jared Shusterman (Part 1)

SproutLoud CEO Jared Shusterman shared his wonderful bootstrapping story with me in 2017. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background? Jared Shusterman: I was born in Miami, Florida. I’m one of the few South Florida natives.

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Building a Two-Sided Marketplace: LawnStarter CRO Ryan Farley (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You were doing Tech Stars in Austin? Ryan Farley: Yes. We were with 10 other companies that were all just incredible. It was something that we hadn’t seen before within entrepreneurial circles. We felt like, “How the heck did we get in?” The program was an awesome experience. Sramana Mitra: What did you

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Building a Two-Sided Marketplace: LawnStarter CRO Ryan Farley (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Did you launch it in a particular geography? Ryan Farley: We did it in one county in the Washington DC metro area. Sramana Mitra: Is that where you’re from? Ryan Farley: I’m from close by. Sramana Mitra: That was your local county.

Building a Two-Sided Marketplace: LawnStarter CRO Ryan Farley (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Are we talking about a marketplace model? What is the business model? Ryan Farley: It’s a transactional model. We process all the payments and we pay the service providers. It makes it a lot easier for them. The lawn service providers are going to make more money through our platform and it allows

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Building a Two-Sided Marketplace: LawnStarter CRO Ryan Farley (Part 1)

As you know from our prior coverage, we like niche two-sided marketplaces a lot. Here’s another one to study. Please note, this company went through TechStars, and had a validated business before getting into TechStars, as we have seen in several other case studies. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal

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From Australia to Silicon Valley: Anthony Smith’s Journey with Insightly (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What about financing? Did you raise more money? Anthony Smith: CRM, as you well know, is a very popular field with a lot of competition. Insightly was just one of many CRMs that had popped up over the four years prior to my starting the business. We had a lot of traction with

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