Bootstrapping to $100 Million Plus: Ultra Mobile Chief Strategy Officer Rizwan Kassim (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: In 2006 you finally graduated. What happened after that? Rizwan Kassim: I worked at a couple of companies. I did some technology consulting. I worked at a restaurant startup that was started by Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. I was the Director of Engineering there. I was there for a few years.

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Bootstrapping to $100 Million Plus: Ultra Mobile Chief Strategy Officer Rizwan Kassim (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  I have long believed that Go BIG or Go HOME is complete bullshit. I have seen entrepreneur after entrepreneur build a small but profitable, slower growth business as a first outing, followed by a much larger, higher growth business as a follow-on venture. Rizwan has done

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Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace to $10M: Sal Akbani, CEO of Gateway Classic Cars (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Where to from here? More of the same? Sal Akbani: More of the same. We’re also incorporating a few other items out there into the product mix. As part of one of our themes, we have partnered with a very famous NASCAR personality Kenny Wallace. We are producing a mini-series on TV and

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Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Bonanza Co-Founder Mark Dorsey (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Now we’re still in 2010. In the last six years, what has happened to the business? Where has the growth come from? Mark Dorsey: In the past six years, we’ve attempted to rebrand ourselves into a fashion site. We kept Bonanza but we also created a second site for handbags exclusively. What we

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Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace to $10M: Sal Akbani, CEO of Gateway Classic Cars (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Why Kentucky? Sal Akbani: Because it was closer and safer, and I only had so much money to spare. Sramana Mitra: How did that pan out? Sal Akbani: Really well. It’s one of our best-performing showrooms for the last four years.

Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Bonanza Co-Founder Mark Dorsey (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How did revenues scale? How long did it take your to hit $1 million in revenue and how did that ramp? Mark Dorsey: I would really have to go back to the archives to check. You would think that that would be a major milestone that would be layered into my mind. I

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Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace to $10M: Sal Akbani, CEO of Gateway Classic Cars (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Would you say, looking back, that was not the right market to go into? Sal Akbani: It was actually a good market. We just didn’t know what the heck we were doing. Sramana Mitra: What do you think, looking back, did you not do or were not doing right? Sal Akbani: Managing. We

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Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Bonanza Co-Founder Mark Dorsey (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Help me understand the timeline now. When did you create this member program so you could keep the servers going? What year did you switch to being able to charge final value fee? What year did the membership program really start generating significant revenues? Mark Dorsey: We launched the beta in June of

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