SM: I often tell entrepreneurs to bootstrap the early stage, and if they do raise money it should result in a better valuation. They have a validated business. Did you find that to be the case during your valuation negotiations? CC: We are a great example of bootstrapping paying off. In Q3 2004 we raised
SM: How did you find your initial customers? CC: We used things like cold calls, Silicon Valley networking, and friends of friends. When you’re starting from nothing, you do whatever it takes. I was talking to anyone who would listen. I networked heavily, got friends to send me ideas, and went to alumni databases.
From Marylene Delbourg-Delphis’ review of Vision India 2020 by Sramana Mitra for Grade A Entrepreneurs: “Sramana’s Vision India 2020 is an entrepreneurial utopia . . . not a fairyland, but the description of a new present based on an extrapolation of capabilities that are at our disposal today. It’s not a stretch. It’s a matter
SM: What does the financial structure of a business spun out of Stanford look like? Do they take an equity position? CC: I get that question a lot, and I can’t comment directly because each case is unique. The thing to remember about Stanford is that they license more than startups. They license a lot
SM: Your previous work experience gave you an actual user’s point of view. You are solving a problem you faced earlier in your life. CC: Exactly. Even within the world of information visualization, there many different schools of thought, and I learned about many of those in my first job.
Here is Skannd‘s review of Vision India 2020 by Sramana Mitra for Goodreads.com: “Even though they are fictional, most ideas projected by this book are really doable and it is clear that a lot of research has been put into the possibilities. Really liked the bit about the future of solar power in India and
SM: Essentially, you are doing drag-and-drop query-building using graphics. Internally, that query is being translated into some sort of SQL which is processed and transferred back into graphics for the user. Is that a correct assessment? CC: Yes that’s right. The language from which we are retrieving data could be anything. You can expose any
SM: How long did it take you to build and flip BeeLine, and what did you do after that? CC: It took about 18 months. Even to this day I’ll look over at a stoplight and see one of our maps, which is very satisfying. A month after we sold BeeLine we had a party