Validating B-to-C Business Ideas and Building to $40M Run Rate: Shaunak Amin, CEO of SnackMagic (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Customer acquisition was all Facebook ads? Shaunak Amin: Initially it was. We built the waitlist using Facebook ads. Then when we launched, the whole idea of group ordering means that there’s some virality in the product itself. We had this concept where one person could share a link. Those other people could become

Read Full Article »

From Teen Student Entrepreneur in Australia to a Mature Global E-commerce Entrepreneur: Mike Rosenbaum, CEO of Spacer (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What was your business model? They gave you inventory on consignment and you sold it on eBay. What percentage did you take? Mike Rosenbaum: I think it was about 15%. We’re talking about high-value goods. Our average item was a couple of thousand dollars.  Sramana Mitra: It was a substantial transaction size. You

Read Full Article »

Validating B-to-C Business Ideas and Building to $40M Run Rate: Shaunak Amin, CEO of SnackMagic (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How did you pick amongst those ideas? Shaunak Amin: It’s not so much about the idea. The idea is going to give me the starting point. I wasn’t married to one idea or the other. We created three or four landing pages with different messaging. One was around healthy food coming to your

Read Full Article »

From Teen Student Entrepreneur in Australia to a Mature Global E-commerce Entrepreneur: Mike Rosenbaum, CEO of Spacer (Part 1)

Mike started his journey as a 14-year old student entrepreneur, then built a $20M eBay PowerSeller business. Thereafter, he built a $100M e-commerce business. Today, he’s building a two-sided marketplace business. All from Australia. Wonderful story! Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born,

Read Full Article »

Validating B-to-C Business Ideas and Building to $40M Run Rate: Shaunak Amin, CEO of SnackMagic (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Now we’re approaching the financial crisis right? Shaunak Amin: Yes. I could have stayed with ING, but there was another opportunity. There was a family office out of Hong Kong looking to open up in New York. I thought it’ll be a good opportunity. I ended up going there right around January 2008.

Read Full Article »

Validating B-to-C Business Ideas and Building to $40M Run Rate: Shaunak Amin, CEO of SnackMagic (Part 1)

Shaunak does a wonderful job of explaining how he validated various B-to-C business ideas and built successful businesses. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace: Mort Fertel, CEO of SudShare (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: So, from 2017 to about 2020, that’s the phase when you crossed the million dollar milestone. Then COVID accelerated your situation. What happened? Mort Fertel: On the customer side, I mentioned what happened there. It’s a hypothesis. I can’t prove it. I think that with life being so precious and that idea being

Read Full Article »

Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace: Mort Fertel, CEO of SudShare (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I’ve got two nuggets out of your initial story. One is using Indeed to get some of the sell side going. Then really building in virality into the app. On the buy side, laundry services Google keyword search. I take it you were self-funding this company.  Mort Fertel: Yes. Sramana Mitra: The business

Read Full Article »