Having Fun At The Cusp Of Technology And Entertainment: Phunware CEO Alan Knitowski (Part 6)

Sramana: What has your run rate looked like? Alan Knitowski: We grew 33% sequentially from the third to fourth quarter of last year. That was 15 times higher than our fourth quarter of the prior year. We are maintaining a profitable and debt-free status with money in the bank. That has been wonderful.

Having Fun At The Cusp Of Technology And Entertainment: Phunware CEO Alan Knitowski (Part 5)

Sramana: You have gained a lot of experience working with media and entertainment brands. What does a typical project look like for a company in those spaces? For example, what do you do for NASCAR? Alan Knitowski: NASCAR is a very interesting use case. NASCAR.com is owned by Turner Sports, but the title sponsorship is

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Having Fun At The Cusp Of Technology And Entertainment: Phunware CEO Alan Knitowski (Part 4)

Sramana: What business model did you finally arrive at after working with Discovery and seeing your reputation soar? Alan Knitowski: We started doing a lot of partner models. During the first 18 months of our business, 90% of the business was done off the partner model. We would co-invest with our customers, we would do

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Having Fun At The Cusp Of Technology And Entertainment: Phunware CEO Alan Knitowski (Part 3)

Sramana: Who were the early adopters of your technology, and how did you gain traction during your first few years? Alan Knitowski: The trigger point for us was when we won the Myth Busters opportunity with Discovery Communications. That was our first large marquee brand. We competed head to head with Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts,

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Having Fun At The Cusp Of Technology And Entertainment: Phunware CEO Alan Knitowski (Part 2)

Sramana: What was going on in your mind that drove you to establish Phunware? Obviously there is a huge transition going on between feature phones and smart phones. What did you want to do in that space? Alan Knitowski: Three years ago when we looked at this space, we found interesting parallels between the circuit

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Having Fun At The Cusp Of Technology And Entertainment: Phunware CEO Alan Knitowski (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Alan Knitowski is the chairman and CEO of Phunware, which develops the mobile experience framework brandME and the mobile application infrastructure PRAISE. He is a serial entrepreneur and a veteran of the United States Army. Prior to Phunware he was the president of alternative investments for

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Bootstrapping A 100M+ E-Commerce Company: OpticsPlanet CEO Mark Levitin (Part 7)

Sramana: Are you basically using YouTube to provide commercials and information to your consumers? Mark Levitin: Yes, that is essentially what we are doing. It is not about selling; it is about engaging. It is not the obnoxious infomercial that we all hate. It is more sophisticated. It helps build the brand and also establishes

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Bootstrapping A 100M+ E-Commerce Company: OpticsPlanet CEO Mark Levitin (Part 6)

Sramana: How many members do you have registered with DVOR.com? Mark Levitin: We do not disclose the exact number, but it is a six digit number. Sramana: Can you give some insight into the growth pattern of your business? It sounds like you started off being an e-commerce company, but over time you have evolved

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