From eBay Seller to Software Entrepreneur: Seller Labs CEO Paul Johnson (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What was the trajectory of the revenue growth? How did you do year after year? Paul Johnson: 2011 was when we first started doing this. In our first year, which was not a full year, we probably sold $50,000 worth of merchandise. Then in 2012, we were around half a million dollars. By

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From eBay Seller to Software Entrepreneur: Seller Labs CEO Paul Johnson (Part 4)

Paul Johnson: We built our own software to manage everything. We built a smaller version of Amazon’s software where we would bring in inventory, sticker it, and then shelve it. We built software that would list that stuff. We had two divisions. One was books and the other was everything else. We sold about a

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From eBay Seller to Software Entrepreneur: Seller Labs CEO Paul Johnson (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You shut down that business? Paul Johnson: We did. We sold all the inventory that we had and cashed out. I met up with a business partner and went for the most peculiar e-commerce business anybody has ever done. While we were still operating the guitar store, I was looking for something else.

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From eBay Seller to Software Entrepreneur: Seller Labs CEO Paul Johnson (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Talk about the specifics of that business in terms of metrics. How many transactions were you doing? Paul Johnson: This is a long time ago. I’ll see if I can remember. We started off with a $1,000 or $2,000 order. Guitars are a high-ticket item. We would sell them for $200 to $1,000

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From eBay Seller to Software Entrepreneur: Seller Labs CEO Paul Johnson (Part 1)

Paul started as an eBay seller and then developed software to help other sellers sell online.  A classic case study of an entrepreneur solving problems he faced himself and building a business based on deep domain knowledge.