Sramana Mitra: What happened in 2010? Stephanie Madesh: We doubled that year. We were at the $300,000 level. That was two-fold. We had started a print-on-demand. That had its own website. That drove the other $150,000 in sales. Sramana Mitra: What were you printing on demand? T-shirts?
Sramana Mitra: Was the age group you were trying to go after your own age group? Stephanie Madesh: Yes. I was going after the 20- to 30-year-old market back then. As it evolved, my customers base were more in the 20- to 60-year old category. Sramana Mitra: How did you acquire the customers?
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Stephanie was a Sophomore in college when she started her venture. Wonderful story of a student entrepreneur growing into a multi-million dollar ultra-light e-commerce business. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and
Sramana Mitra: What percentage of your business is the plus size? Stephanie Madesh: From 2x up, we run about 30%. Men’s is higher – about 35%. We go up to 4x for men’s. For women’s, we go up to 2x on a knitted item and 4x for the rest. Sramana Mitra: What other categories are
Sramana Mitra: What was the pricing? Sameer Maggon: The first offering that we sold was for about $10,000 a year. Sramana Mitra: How did that business ramp? When you start off with a bootstrapping with services model, your services revenues far outpace product revenues. Gradually, it starts to tilt.
Sramana Mitra: What go-to-market strategy are you following? Is it a SaaS product that you go to market with? Sameer Maggon: SearchStax, at a high level, is a search company. We offer Search-as-a-Service. It’s a SaaS/PaaS offering that is provided for mid-market to large enterprises on a subscription basis. Sramana Mitra: So it’s a SaaS
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Excellently navigated journey! Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, and in what kind of background? Sameer Maggon: I grew up in Delhi. I did my engineering in Computer Science from Pune. Then I
Sramana Mitra: Did this come to a complete standstill or was there still a business? Kish Vasnani: In 2020, we did just under a million. Of that, about 70% came from the first three months of the year. The rest of the year was really tough. Sramana Mitra: Are you still in Bali? Kish Vasnani: