Best of Bootstrapping: An AI Startup Bootstrapped Using Services

Co-founder Nitesh Chawla bootstrapped Aunalytics while keeping his academic job at Notre Dame. This is our conversation from 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Nitesh Chawla: I’m from New Delhi although I was born in Calcutta. I did my schooling from Delhi Public School. Then I did my engineering from Pune. Then I came to the United States in 1993 right after finishing my undergrad. I went to grad school in South Florida. I got my PhD in Computer Science with a focus on Machine Learning and Data Science.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Founder Bootstrapped to $10M Using Services

Founder Sameer Maggon discussed bootstrapping SearchStax to $10 million using services with me in 2021. Excellently navigated journey!

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

Sameer Maggon: I grew up in Delhi. I did my engineering in Computer Science from Pune. Then I came back to my hometown to work for a document management company. Then I decided to learn more. I came to USC in Los Angeles and did my Masters in Computer Science. Since then, I’ve been in LA and worked in a variety of startups and larger companies in the greater Los Angeles area. 

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Best of Bootstrapping: Co-founders Bootstrapped First, Scaled to $16M

This is a textbook case study of founders with deep domain knowledge in starting with services and then productizing, eventually raising institutional capital. EZOPS Co-Founders Sarva Srinivasan and Dutt Chintalapati told us all about their journey in 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where were you born? Where does your journey begin? 

Sarva Srinivasan: I was born in India and grew up there. I did my Computer Science there, then majored in Finance. I then started working with Wipro.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $26M and a Fabulous Exit

When we spoke in 2021, Founder CEO Vamsi Kora had bootstrapped Gathi Analytics to over $26 million in revenue in four years and exited at a fabulous multiple. Much to learn from his journey.

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

Vamsi Kora: I’m from south India, from a village in Rajamundry, which is very close to the Bay of Bengal. I did Mechanical Engineering. Right after it, I went to have one of the very few well-paid careers at that time. I couldn’t afford to come to the US. So I went into merchant shipping and roamed around the world for about three years. I made two and half rounds around the equator.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped with Services to $10M and an Exit

Among the biases of the Venture Capital industry that need to be categorically ignored, Bootstrapping Using Services happens to be on the top of the list. Zimit Founder and co-CEO James Cramer shared yet another fantastic textbook case study when we spoke in 2021. Zimit was acquired by Workday in September 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

James Cramer: I was born in Southern California. I grew up in a family that moved around a lot. My dad worked in the automotive industry, and so every few years we would change locations. That put me in Seattle, Southern California, the Carolinas, and then ultimately in Florida.

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Best of Bootstrapping: FinTech Founder Bootstrapped with Services

George Anderson, Founder and CEO of Ninth Wave, offers another case study for our very popular Bootstrapping Using Services series. Here is our conversation from 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

George Anderson: I was born in Long Island. I found myself in technology by accident. My first job was through a referral from my family. My father sent me for an interview. I got a job working for an analytical laboratory in New Jersey.

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Building a New Age AI Services Company: Cognida CEO Feroze Mohammed (Part 1)

IT Services is going through a profound shift. Huge opportunity for more companies like Palantir to be built. This discussion parses the nuances of building such ventures. Needless to say, VC money is now going to flood into this model.

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.