Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Srishti Software Applications with Services from India

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

Bootstrapping with service, then building two products, then splitting up the company into two, and finally, scaling a sizable product company – not the kind of stories we hear often. This story is a rare window into the journey of a group of entrepreneurs who have achieved amazing feats. This conversation with Ajay Sharma, Co-founder and Managing Director of  Srishti Software Applications, took place in 2014.

Sramana: Let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from and what kind of family do you come from?

Ajay Sharma: I was brought up in a village in Bihar. My father was a college professor in a rural college. It was actually rather common at that time for professors to pass through rural areas at some point of their career to help bolster those smaller, rural colleges. I attended rural schools until the tenth class. I then moved to another small, sleepy agricultural town for the eleventh and twelfth classes.

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Best of Bootstrapping: What Traditional VCs are Looking for with Scott Sandell, NEA

If you have been bootstrapping and think you are ready for investors, you need to learn how investors think. First, please study our free Bootstrapping course and Investor Introductions page. Then start looking for entrepreneur – investor fit. Today I introduce you to Scott Sandell.

Scott Sandell, General Partner at NEA, is one of NEA’s star investors. He has been named to the Forbes Midas list every year since 2007, and has been involved with eight Unicorn companies including Salesforce.com, Workday, Webex, Tableau, and others. During our conversation in 2015, Scott discusses, specifically, Webex and Tableau in quite a bit of depth. In both companies, the scrappy, capital-efficient management of those businesses were striking!

Among Silicon Valley’s venture firms, NEA holds a special place in my own entrepreneurial journey, being the first VC firm that I successfully raised funding from. Oddly, at that time in the late nineties, the fact that my company was doing product development in India was considered unacceptable. Of course, all that changed in due course, and today India is firmly established on the startup map, as are China, Europe, and many other nations. NEA was an early adopter of the global entrepreneurship trend, and has offices in India and China. They also invest elsewhere in the world, where they don’t have offices. You can listen to the podcast interview here and the entire roundtable program here:

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533rd Roundtable Recording on June 3, 2021: With Gene Caballero, GreenPal

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

Best of Bootstrapping: Mobiliya Technologies was Bootstrapped Using Services

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

Krish Kupathil is the Founder of Mobiliya Technologies. When we spoke in 2013, the company was known as AgreeYa Mobility, an enterprise mobility and mobile system integration company providing solutions for collaboration and communication products for mobile platforms.

Sramana: Krish, let’s start with your personal story. Where are you from? What is the story to your personal journey?

Krish Kupathil: I was born and brought up in Delhi, India. I did my schooling and college in India. I started dabbling in software in 1987 and did some initial work in India. I got into software related businesses surrounding finance. I did some work out of Europe and Singapore before landing in the U.S. ten years ago. I was involved in a few startups in earlier years as well.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped MindTouch to $12M+ and Exit

Aaron Fulkerson Founded MindTouch, a company that offers a cloud-based self-service help center and knowledge-as-a-service platform. He grew the business to eight figures as a bootstrapped company with no venture, no debt. The company was sold to Nice Systems in April 2021. Here is our conversation from 2013.

Sramana: Aaron, tell us where you are from and a bit about your background. What are the roots of your entrepreneurial story?

Aaron Fulkerson: I grew up in a small town south of San Jose, California. Back then it was very rural and was still a farming community. At the same time, Silicon Valley was starting to blossom. In the 1980s, as a kid, I would dial into bulletin board services. I also wrote quite a bit of code. I did all of this from the farm I was growing up on.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Co-founder Bootstrapped a SaaS Company in India

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

Girish Rowjee is the Co-founder and CEO of Greytip Software, a company that specializes in HR software. Girish is responsible for strategic direction, day-to-day operations, product delivery and international business. His “never say die” attitude and excellent analytical skills have made him indispensable to the organization.

Greytip has pioneered the SaaS model in India. They successfully bootstrapped a SaaS company while keeping their primary focus on Indian corporations. In spite of numerous challenges they have proven that with perseverance and strategic adjustments the SaaS model does indeed have a place in India. While valuable for everyone, this conversation from 2013 is a key case study for Indian entrepreneurs.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Solo Founder Bootstrapped Wingify to $7 Million in India

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

Paras Chopra is Founder and Chairman of Wingify, a company that builds web analytics and optimization technology to include its flagship product Visual Website Optimizer. Here is our conversation from 2013.

Sramana: Paras, let’s start with the very beginning of your story. Where were you born and what are your family circumstances? What leads up to the Wingify story?

Paras Chopra: I was born in Punjab. I have been very lucky to have very forward-looking parents. I was introduced to computers very early on. I got access to a computer in my eighth standard year of school. My father had been playing with computers for a long time. He has an agriculture and biochemistry background, but he needed to use computers to conduct his work. He had a computer back when a 200Mhz computer was best in class!

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Best of Bootstrapping: Discussing Alternatives to Traditional Venture Capital with Bryce Roberts, Indie.vc

If you have been bootstrapping and think you are ready for investors, you need to learn how investors think. First, please study our free Bootstrapping course and Investor Introductions page. Then start looking for entrepreneur – investor fit. Today I introduce you to Bryce Roberts.

Bryce Roberts, Co-founder and Managing Director, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV), and Founder, Indie.vc, discusses the issues with the venture capital financing model, and explored alternatives. You can listen to the podcast interview here and the entire roundtable program here:

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