Bootstrapping to Exit from Saudi Arabia: Emad Daghreri, Co-Founder CEO of Autobia (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: So in the early stages, you’re doing $50K to $300K projects across two or three different types of work – the technology, the consulting, the project management, etc. How does the revenue progress in 2013-14? What kind of revenue levels did you reach?

Emad Daghreri: I’m not sure about the specific numbers, but we were always cash flow positive.

Bootstrapping to Exit from Saudi Arabia: Emad Daghreri, Co-Founder CEO of Autobia (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the 2012-13 time frame. You’ve done this $50,000 project, are seeing other kinds of competitive situations where you can play a role, are automating, and you’re turning everything into a digital competition. At that point in the 2012-2013 time frame, what was the price point?

Emad Daghreri: It was based on the size of the project.

Bootstrapping to Exit from Saudi Arabia: Emad Daghreri, Co-Founder CEO of Autobia (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. This particular project that really gave you this breakthrough situation, was it paid or was it just a complimentary thing that you were doing for Mr. Ahmed?

Emad Daghreri: It was a complimentary thing.

Sramana Mitra: So, once this worked, you took it to other people to replicate this kind of situation.

Bootstrapping to Exit from Saudi Arabia: Emad Daghreri, Co-Founder CEO of Autobia (Part 1)

Emad 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?

Canadian Brothers Bootstrapping to $40M Exit: Chris Sinkinson, Co-Founder AppArmor (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: So this brings us to what? Fall of 2021?

Chris Sinkinson: Yes. Right after all that back to school stuff, Dave and I were completely exhausted and one of our biggest competitors out of the Boston area reached out to us. They had been noticing that we’d been winning some deals and we were starting to step on their toes a little bit.

The Startup Velocity Question: Positioning Drives Exit

There is a commonly held misconception among operators who do not understand positioning: We don’t want to invest in Positioning. We will be selling the company.

Canadian Brothers Bootstrapping to $40M Exit: Chris Sinkinson, Co-Founder AppArmor (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Now, between when you started with your first client and as you went along, how long did it take you to get to $1 million ARR?

Chris Sinkinson: As I’d mentioned, we charged a one time setup fee at the beginning. That hurt us a little bit. I would say it was around late 2015-2016 when we hit that $1 million ARR. The first million is the toughest.

The Startup Velocity Question: Repeatability Drives Exit

Perhaps you have come to the conclusion that you will not seek further funding.

Instead, you will look for an Exit.