Best of Bootstrapping: Discussing European Startup Funding with Alastair Mitchell, EQT Ventures

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 Alastair Mitchell.

Alastair Mitchell, Partner at EQT Ventures, discussed European Startup Funding trends when we spoke in 2018. You can listen to the podcast interview here.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about your investing focus. How big is the fund? What size investment do you make? Help our audience get to know your investment activity.

Alastair Mitchell: EQT Ventures is a relatively new firm that is about 18 months old. We started out of Sweden, the Silicon Valley of Europe. It’s an amazing place with a phenomenal track record of building some global companies. When we started off, we were a $630 million fund.

We are pretty big. We invest in Series A through C, but at fairly early stages. Most of our investment is centered in Europe. About 30% of it is in the US. Our two main offices are in Stockholm and London.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping to $13M in Niche E-commerce

We continue to be bullish about niche e-commerce as a category to build sustainable businesses in. The journey of Pavel Sokolovsky, Co-founder of eComfort.com, is a further illustration of the trend. In 2015, eComfort.com was acquired by Power Equipment Direct/Ferguson Enterprises.

Sramana: Pavel, let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from? What is the genesis of your entrepreneurial aspirations?

Pavel Sokolovsky: I was born in Minsk, Belarus. I moved here with my family at a very young age in 1989. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. My father had an entrepreneurial background. In the mid-1990s, he started his own contracting business doing heating and cooling work. That was his second or third business by that time. I grew up watching him go through the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship. I was inspired by it and when the time came, I wanted to have a shot at it.

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Best of Bootstrapping: A View into Pre-Seed Funding with Gaurav Jain, Afore Capital

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 Gaurav Jain.

Gaurav Jain is Managing Partner at Afore Capital, a firm focused on pre-seed investments. This is an excellent conversation for entrepreneurs looking for insights into pre-seed. You can listen to the podcast interview here and the entire roundtable program here:

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping a $7M Company in Houston

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

My conversation from 2014 with Gaurav Khandelwal, CEO of ChaiOne, became an interesting strategy discussion about a company doing substantial revenue based on services, had productized a piece of its services business that was also generating over a million in revenue.

Sramana: Gaurav, let’s go to the beginning of your story. Where were you born? What kind of background were you raised in?

Gaurav Khandelwal: I was born in Kolkata, India. I came to the US for my undergrad. I grew up in a large city and I really wanted to experience something different, so I applied and went to school in a very small town in northern Indiana that was in an Amish community called Goshen College. Different universities come through India and interview students and applicants. That gives students a chance to meet with deans and hear about the schools. I met with several of them and this particular school was very interesting. They had a program that required every single student to spend a semester abroad to graduate. I had never heard of that before. I thought it was fantastic to know that every single student at that school had spent a semester in Indonesia, China, or some other country.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Discussing Unicorn Investments with Ravi Mohan of Shasta Ventures

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 Ravi Mohan.

Ravi Mohan is Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, a firm that has invested in three SaaS Unicorns. Ravi discusses these investments: Apptio, Anaplan, and Zuora. You can listen to the podcast interview here and the entire roundtable program here:

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Best of Bootstrapping: Raised a Series A with $10 Million in the Bank

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

Dean A. Stoecker is Executive Chairman and founding partner of Alteryx, a leading software developer and a pioneer of agile business intelligence technology with analytics. We had this conversation in 2012 when Dean was CEO. Prior to Alteryx, Dean led business development efforts for Integration Technologies, a systems integrator, where he helped develop technology that automated the selection of cellular tower locations for telecommunications clients like AT&T. He also helped develop the first geo-coding engine tied to Experian’s real estate mainframe system, and he built a sophisticated flood certificate engine for a leading insurer. Dean also served as Vice President of sales at Strategic Mapping, and in various sales and strategic roles at Donnelly Marketing Information Services.

Sramana: Dean, let’s start at the beginning of your personal story. What is the context for your entrepreneurial journey? Where are you from?

Dean Stoecker: I grew up in a family business in Colorado. I would sit around the table every day and hear about the trials and excitements of owning a business. I went to school at the University of Colorado. I had the opportunity to travel the world through a program called Semester at Sea. That was where I got the idea that I wanted to have my own business. After I graduated, I moved to California and got involved in the information business.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Founder Bootstrapped Axosoft with a Paycheck

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.

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: Discussing Future Unicorns with Warren Weiss, Foundation Capital

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 Warren Weiss.

Warren Weiss, General Partner at Foundation Capital, has a long track record in the Silicon Valley venture capital industry. When we spoke in 2015, he shared areas that he and Foundation are excited about as opportunities for building future Unicorns. You can listen to the podcast interview here and the entire roundtable program here:

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