Serial Entrepreneur, Self-Financing to $50 Million: GoGrid CEO, John Keagy (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: In terms 0f the complexity of the R&D, how much of that was predicated on being able to get the right technical talent? There’s definitely a truth – not just a myth – that it’s harder for self-financed companies to attract the top talent. Everybody’s looking at which VC is funding the company before they join the company. In your case, you’re saying on the one hand there was a substantial technical challenge, which means that you needed technical heavyweights to address those challenges. What was your experience in building that technical team? Did you run into issues of this bias against self-financed companies? >>>

Serial Entrepreneur, Self-Financing to $50 Million: GoGrid CEO, John Keagy (Part 5)

John Keagy: I have to tell you a story about InReach internet. I ordered three phone lines into my apartment. One was the sales line, one was support, and one was the billing line. I was answering all three phones. I’d use a different voice on each of the phones to make it sound like there were three different people. It was a one-person company. The same is true with the start of GoGrid. There were times when employees played multiple roles. I’m thinking of this one guy Paul Lancaster. Paul did our billing, sales, and he even did a little bit of support.

Sramana Mitra: Who else was involved in the very early stage of the company?

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Serial Entrepreneur, Self-Financing to $50 Million: GoGrid CEO, John Keagy (Part 4)

John Keagy: There’s a famous sociologist at my college called Harry Edwards. Harry Edwards was the first guy to say that professional athletes are not role models. Charles Barkley was the first professional athlete to implore kids, especially inter-city youths, to not see him as their role model. He said, “Don’t try to make your path in life being a professional athlete. There’re just too few opportunities. 400 of you are going to become professional athletes and 400 million of you are going to fail at trying to do that.”

WhatsApp had 55 employees, no revenues, no billing department, no customer service department, no real organization to speak of. You could question whether those people really built a company at all. I understand that that’s a wonderful thing to aspire to and I suspect that many young entrepreneurs think that they don’t have to build a real company either. I just want to point out that strategy is akin to aspiring to be a professional athlete if you’re an inter-city youth. You’re much better off aspiring to build a company that actually has revenues. >>>

Serial Entrepreneur, Self-Financing to $50 Million: GoGrid CEO, John Keagy (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: This is a behavior that we see in people who are playing with their own money as opposed to other people’s money. It can be easier to be very cavalier and generous with spending other people’s money. When it comes to your own money, you’re a lot more careful.

John Keagy: Not just more careful, you’re more critical. You don’t keep charging down a path that isn’t obviously successful. You’re not as sloppy.

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Serial Entrepreneur, Self-Financing to $50 Million: GoGrid CEO, John Keagy (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: GoGrid is 100% financed by you?

John Keagy: That’s right.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us more about how you go about building GoGrid. What can people learn from your journey of building the company assuming that we’re taking the issue of financing off the table in this particular case because you have not raised financing? What are the key strategic things that you did and what can we learn from your journey?

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Trying to Turn Carriers and Retailers Into Google: Azzimov CEO Benoît l’Archevêque (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: What you have today is a product and a business model that is just starting to come into the market? This business model is not generating $5 million in revenue?

Benoît l’Archevêque: If you only consider Azzimov, no. But if you consider the whole entity, yes.

Sramana Mitra: You’re basically trying to turn people with major traffic to a Google-kind of business model. It would be interesting to see if they can execute on their side on these ad sales and generating affiliate networks. You’re leaving the execution in their hands. They’re not set up to execute on these kinds of principles. >>>

Serial Entrepreneur, Self-Financing to $50 Million: GoGrid CEO, John Keagy (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

John spent $200,000 to get to his first million in 18 months with GoGrid. One year from that, the company got to $5 million. Today, they are at over $50 million in revenue run-rate, all organically grown. Read John’s insights on a tightly managed entrepreneurial journey.

Sramana Mitra: John, let’s start with introducing our audience to you personally. Where are you from? What’s your background?

John Keagy: I was born in Evanston, Illinois. I went to University of California, Berkley. I came to the West to chase gold like the miners did, because Silicon Valley is a great place to forge a career.

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Trying to Turn Carriers and Retailers Into Google: Azzimov CEO Benoît l’Archevêque (Part 6)

Benoît l’Archevêque: It’s like the 411 service in North America where people call to get services. In China, they have salesmen receiving the call. People call and say, “I’m looking for this.” The person receiving the call will not only give the information but also go and complete the sale. Azzimov is included in that. They have the affiliate program already in place.

Sramana Mitra: I understand the advertising and lead generation, but how does the affiliate program work?

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