A Mini-MBA in Entrepreneurship for Working Professionals

Most adult professionals have jobs, families, and other responsibilities. People working in the tech industry have big salaries to forego if they want to start a company.

For ambitious folks who want to start a technology startup while working full-time, having a job means your income doesn’t depend on the immediate success of your startup business. We call this method Bootstrapping with a Paycheck and take entrepreneurs through the whole bootstrapping using a paycheck process with excellent case studies.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Couple Bootstrapped Children’s Apparel Company to $5M

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

RuffleButts is a perfect story on how to bootstrap with a paycheck. Founder Amber Schaub started RuffleButts, a children’s apparel company, in March of 2007, backed by her husband’s full-time job. He later joined in 2010 as the COO, after the company had gained traction. Here is our conversation from 2014.

Sramana: Let’s start at the very beginning of each of your stories. I imagine you co-founded the company?

Amber Schaub: I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. I had the entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age. I used to convince my cousins to help me start lemonade stands, babysitting clubs, and we even tried to start a grocery delivery business in middle school. My dad is an entrepreneur. My parents were divorced so I watched what my mother had to do as a single mother. She worked a 9 to 5 job for a utility company and had to raise a child on that income. We did not live a lavish lifestyle, but I always had what I needed.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Using a Paycheck to Exit

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

Bootstrapping using a paycheck is still a real trend. Here’s the case study of Axosoft shared by Founder Hamid Shojaee in 2014. The company was purchased in 2020 by Resurgens Technology Partners.

Sramana Mitra: Hamid, tell us a bit about yourself. Where were you born and raised and in what kind of background?

Hamid Shojaee: I was born and raised in Iran. I was 10 years old when we moved to the United States.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Digital Startup with a Paycheck

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

We’ve seen a clear trend towards bootstrapping digital startups while holding onto a full-time job for years. When we spoke in 2014, DefinitiveDeals Founder Mattias Larson had a simple but powerful story to tell. Soon after we spoke, DefinitiveDeals.com was acquired by Quotient.

Sramana Mitra: Mattias, tell us about you. Where did your journey begin and in what kind of background?

Mattias Larson: I was born in the northern part of Sweden – actually, not that far away from the Arctic Circle – in a small town with a population of maybe 40,000. I grew up there and I went to college in a nearby town. I graduated with a master’s degree in Computer Science and International Marketing.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Duda Co-founders Bootstrapped with Paychecks

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

Itai Sadan is the Co-founder and CEO of Duda, a company that turns desktop websites into mobile sites. When we spoke in 2013, Itai had over 10 years of experience in business development, partner management, program management, and development. Prior to founding Duda (formerly DudaMobile), Itai was a director at SAP, where he managed the SAP Discovery System program and was in charge of relationships with IBM, HP, and Fujitsu.

Sramana: Itai, let’s start with the beginning of your personal journey. What is the story that paved the way for your entrepreneurial journey?

Itai Sadan: I was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. I did have a six-year stint in South Africa, where our family lived for a while. I went to high school in Tel Aviv and met the person who is the co-founder and CTO of DudaMobile during my high school years. After high school I went to the army and served in the anti-terrorist school. After I completed my three-year army service, I traveled the world a little bit.

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Best of Bootstrapping: ADDA Co-founder Bootstrapped with a Paycheck in India

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

Sangeeta (San) Banerjee is the Co-founder and CEO of ADDA, formerly ApartmentADDA.com, an Indian web application company. She talks about her entrepreneurial journey as a bootstrapped entrepreneur tackling heavily funded competitors. She holds a degree in electrical engineering from Guindy and earned her master’s from Louisiana State University. Prior to founding ApartmentADDA, she worked for Tata Consultancy Services from 1999 to 2003 and then went on to postgraduate education. After graduating from Louisiana State University she worked for Capgemini in Chicago for a year before returning to India to work for SAP India.

Sramana Mitra: Sangeeta, let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from, and what were the circumstances of your childhood?

San Banerjee: I am from Kolkata. I grew up in a very conservative environment. Where I was from, girls were not supposed to ride a bicycle. I went to school on the other end of the city, and I commuted to school by myself. I would ride a bicycle to a ferry, then once on the other side of the river I would take a bus to school. Many people felt that my parents were careless with their daughter’s safety, but my parents really wanted me to be self-sufficient. They wanted me to know how to take care of myself. My belief that I can do anything I want to stems from my parents. I used to face a lot of ridicule for riding a bicycle. They would tell me to stay off the road and tell me to keep my cycle on the playground.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Using a Paycheck to Techstars and Acquisition

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

In previous stories, we showed you how entrepreneurs bootstrapped with a paycheck and then got into Y Combinator with a validated business. With Blueprint Registry, we show you the same strategy in this conversation from 2017 as executed by Co-founder Nevin Shetty to get into Techstars. Blueprint Registry was acquired by David’s Bridal Inc. in 2018.

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?

Nevin Shetty: I was born in Alabama but the first memory I have is of Saudi Arabia. I spent five years in Saudi Arabia. My dad is an aeronautical engineer. I grew up in an American compound in Riyadh and had an amazing childhood. Growing up, I remember my mom teaching English to some of the Saudi princes. I’d go over there and play with them. Then my dad moved and got a job at Boeing, so I moved to Seattle. Then I went to college at University of Washington at Seattle.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Unique Vintage with a Paycheck

If you haven’t already, please study our freeBootstrapping courseand the Investor Introductions page.

Katie Echeverry, CEO and Founder of Unique Vintage, had a pharmaceutical sales job that she used to bootstrap with a paycheck for 5 years, before quitting to go full-time with her business. Here is our conversation from 2015.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Tell us where you’re from. Where did you grow up? Where were you born and raised?

Katie Echeverry: I was born in Burbank, California. I still reside in Burbank, California. I went to school and got my Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, but I ended up in sales. When I was about 26 years old, I ended up being a pharmaceutical sales rep, which I enjoyed. What I liked about sales is the harder I worked, the more money I made. I was a natural entrepreneur, but I just didn’t know the word for it. I worked really hard but that wasn’t enough for me.

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