Bootstrapping to Exit, Then Raise Money and Exit Again: Wendy CEO Lance Neuhauser (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: So, if you’re comfortable disclosing, how much money did you raise during that ten-year period from 2010-2020, and what kind of exit did you get, numerically?

Lance Newhauser: We ended up raising about $35 million for 4C specifically from 2010 to 2020. There was some debt layered on top of that as well. The final price tag on 4C was $170 million.

Bootstrapping to Exit, Then Raise Money and Exit Again: Wendy CEO Lance Neuhauser (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: How did you address this complex sales cycle issue? Because that could really block velocity.

Bootstrapping to Exit, Then Raise Money and Exit Again: Wendy CEO Lance Neuhauser (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: So then in this story, at what point did you raise the venture capital? Is this 2010?

Lance Newhauser: Yes, 2010.

Sramana Mitra: What did you do before going out to raise money? Did you do some amount of customer development, validation work? Whom were you selling to? What was the positioning?

Bootstrapping to Exit, Then Raise Money and Exit Again: Wendy CEO Lance Neuhauser (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: The track that we have is bootstrapping using services, which your story also speaks to. Services companies bring in revenues very early and that helps a lot. So bootstrapping using services to exit is a wonderful track actually.

Bootstrapping to Exit, Then Raise Money and Exit Again: Wendy CEO Lance Neuhauser (Part 1)

Lance bootstrapped his first company to an exit. He venture funded his second company and exited after 10 years. He is about to launch his third. Read on, great story.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to Exit from Oklahoma

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

How often do you hear of a successful entrepreneurship story out of Oklahoma? Well, meet Robin Roberson, Co-founder of WeGoLook. This is our conversation from 2015. WeGoLook was acquired by Crawford & Company in 2017.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of circumstances?

Robin Roberson: I was born in Oklahoma. I was raised, primarily, on a farm. There were about 12 kids in my class. I didn’t know much about the outside world other than what was there in town. I started my entrepreneurial journey in the second grade making yarn belts on the playground. I was able to talk a few of my friends into making them with me. We had quite the distributorship going with yarn belts until the Principal shut us down. When he asked us to stop making yarn belts, I started making Christmas tree ornaments to sell. He shut that down too.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Canadian Co-founder Brothers Bootstrapped to a $40M Exit

I always love Bootstrapping to Exit stories. AppArmor Co-founder Chris Sinkinson and his brother bootstrapped a wonderful startup and sold it for $40M. Read on for the nuances.

Sramana Mitra: All right, Chris, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of backgrounds?

Chris Sinkinson: I’m from a small town called Kingston in Canada located about halfway between Toronto and Montreal. Our parents had three boys. I was the oldest. I have a brother who’s three years younger than me, who’s a very successful researcher. He’s currently working for the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago. My youngest brother, David, is the one that I ended up starting my company with.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to Exit from Saudi Arabia

Autobia Co-Founder CEO Emad Daghreri bootstrapped his first company and took it public in the junior stock exchange in Saudi Arabia. He is now doing a second company. This interview focuses on his bootstrapping to exit story with the first one.

Sramana Mitra: Emad, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born? Raised? What kind of background?

Emad Daghreri: My name is Emad Daghreri. I am a founder from Saudi Arabia. I was born in a small village called Daghrer. It matches my last name; it is a privilege to have a village that is named under my last name. I spent the first half of my life there until high school. Then I had the privilege to be accepted in King Fahd University in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which is one of the best engineering universities in the kingdom. I graduated with a Computer Science degree. I was lucky to start my first startup at the end of the fifth year of the university. That was an amazing start of my journey as an entrepreneur in general.

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