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HOT TOPICS
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 4)
Sramana: What technique did you find was the most effective to sell to your customers? Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: We just tried to keep the buying process as clean and simple as it could be. We took a “what you see is what you get” approach. There were no hidden features and no hidden costs. Customers knew
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 3)
Sramana: Were you able to validate your intuition? Was there an enterprise need for timesheet software? Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: We ran our timesheet product idea by a few of our customers. We confirmed that it was a big pain point with a lot of different companies. One of our clients actually liked our concept, so much
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 2)
Sramana: What specifically was your intention with the company? What was the company going to do or produce? Raj Narayanaswamy: We changed directions many times. We did a lot of trial and error. Our initial goal was to build a work flow application. We envisioned a general purpose platform where end users could build their
Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Raj Narayanaswamy is the co-founder and CEO of Replicon. He has over 15 years of software development and senior management experience. Narayanaswamy has a bachelor’s degree in computer science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and is an active member of the high-tech business
Do You Want To Have Dinner With The Guy You Want To Hire? Christos Cotsakos, Founder Of ETrade And CEO Of EndPlay (Part 7)
Sramana: I don’t think the startup CEO job has changed. It is a demanding, high-focus job. Christos Cotsakos: I am one of those guys who does not sleep more than five hours a night anyways. I like to be engaged. I have a high level of intellectual curiosity. If you want to have a hand
Do You Want To Have Dinner With The Guy You Want To Hire? Christos Cotsakos, Founder Of ETrade And CEO Of EndPlay (Part 6)
Sramana: From a point of view you want diversity, but you also need to have some form of basic chemistry. I am very picky about whom I want at my house for dinner! Christos Cotsakos: Exactly. That is the gating factor. If you are going to work closely with an entrepreneurial team, you better make
Do You Want To Have Dinner With The Guy You Want To Hire? Christos Cotsakos, Founder Of ETrade And CEO Of EndPlay (Part 5)
Sramana: What is the price point of the product? Christos Cotsakos: It is a SaaS licensing arrangement along with professional services associated with it. It goes anywhere from $250,000 to $2.5 million a year. Sramana: Is it a user-based model? Christos Cotsakos: It is done on a client basis. Our clients publish their media on
Do You Want To Have Dinner With The Guy You Want To Hire? Christos Cotsakos, Founder Of ETrade And CEO Of EndPlay (Part 4)
Sramana: How did you finance such an expensive advertising campaign? Christos Cotsakos: We raised about $50 million with our initial public offering. We raised $120 million from our second offering and we raised $400 million in our private placement offering. Before our IPO we were advertising selectively. A full-page ad in the WSJ will get noticed