categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
entrepreneur journeys
A Serial Bootstrapper’s Journey: Beyond Security CEO Aviram Jenik (Part 1)
Going against the grain of Venture Capital mania, in 1999, Aviram started his second bootstrapped venture. 18 years later, he is still running it. Happily! 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? Aviram Jenik: I was
Bootstrapping to $30 Million from Florida: SproutLoud CEO Jared Shusterman (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: Very interesting. Can you sketch for us a bit of the progression of the business? How many brands did you book as customers in 2006? How many in 2007 and so on? Jared Shusterman: I don’t know the exact number. Today, we’re a little over 60 brands that are powering over 60,000 or
Bootstrapping to $30 Million from Florida: SproutLoud CEO Jared Shusterman (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: When did you get your first manufacturer customer? Jared Shusterman: We got the first one who really helped us understand the beauty of the model in December. Sramana Mitra: December of 2006? Jared Shusterman: No, 2005. That’s how we discovered that this was a much more interesting model than the original model that I
Bootstrapping to $30 Million from Florida: SproutLoud CEO Jared Shusterman (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: What’s the next major milestone? Put this in chronological order for me. Where are we now? Jared Shusterman: We are going into December 2005. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a jewelry manufacturer. I talked about what I was doing in terms of building marketing programs. He said, “Interesting. I like
Building a Two-Sided Marketplace: LawnStarter CRO Ryan Farley (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: What is the next inflection point or strategic move that you made that gave you the next level of growth? Ryan Farley: We didn’t expand markets because we wanted to focus on the core customer experience. The following spring, we went to a total of eight cities. All winter was spent in recruiting
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
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
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.
