Bootstrapping with a Paycheck and Scaling in Coimbatore: Kovai CEO Saravana Kumar (Part 1)

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

I love doing stories of entrepreneurs who are long-time readers of the 1Mby1M blog. Saravana is one. A wonderful story of how this entrepreneur is scaling a SaaS company from Coimbatore!

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

How Do You Know It’s Time to Quit Your Job and Start Your Own Business?

If you want to raise funding, you would need to quit your job and go full-time, because investors generally don’t fund companies that are led by part-time founders.

But it often takes several years of bootstrapping before you’re ready to go to investors.

At 1Mby1M, we support Bootstrapping with a Paycheck. You can find some case studies within my Bootstrapping Course: Bootstrap Using a Paycheck. This video lecture will provide you with important perspective.

It is invaluable to have a job that pays the bills while you’re validating your ideas, getting your strategy together, etc.

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Best of Bootstrapping: EdTech Unicorn Bootstrapped First from Canada

D2L CEO John Baker shares a terrific story of bootstrapped entrepreneurship in EdTech. The company also has a great PaaS strategy.

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

John Baker: I’m based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I was born in a fishing village on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. When I was 22 years and in my third year of engineering at the University of Waterloo, I started a company with the mission of transforming the way the world learns. 

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Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Coalition Technologies Co-Founder Jordan Brannon (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Your primary business has been the e-commerce services business. You sunsetted the call tracking business. Then the rest of the product portfolio supported your services business. There was no other product that really took off, but you have more products that you have introduced to the market.

Jordan Brannon: Yes. We have a couple of smaller paid recurring apps. We have automated backup solutions for both Shopify and BigCommerce stores. Then we also have the LMS platform. We also have that recruiting software, which is now being used by about 800 companies. 

Best of Bootstrapping: What Should Startups Do To Raise Seed Capital in 2021?

In general, Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later is the best strategy. You need to be ready to raise money.

If you decide to raise money, I strongly suggest you read the 1Mby1M Seed Capital series of interviews on our blog ASAP. We’ve profiled investor after investor to understand their investment thesis. You need to get in their heads and get a sense of what they’re looking for, especially if you’ve never raised money before.

Remember, Investors are looking to multiply the money that they put into startups.

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Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Coalition Technologies Co-Founder Jordan Brannon (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What revenue level did you close 2012 at?

Jordan Brannon: We finished 2012 at $1.5 million at about $125,000 per month. 

Sramana Mitra: What happens in 2013?

Jordan Brannon: 2013 was another growth year for us. We finished the calendar year just under $2 million. We had about 30% growth that calendar year. The product solution was incrementing close to 20% of our revenue.

Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Coalition Technologies Co-Founder Jordan Brannon (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Was there dominance in the platform? 

Jordan Brannon: Magento was the dominant platform at that time simply because of market demand. Shopify and BigCommerce were small players in e-commerce in the small to mid-sized space. They weren’t as well-developed.

Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Coalition Technologies Co-Founder Jordan Brannon (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What kind of customers were you able to attract, and how did you attract those customers?

Jordan Brannon: We primarily attracted businesses that were manufacturing products and selling through traditional retail channels. A company making garments and selling through a larger retail chain like Nordstrom was our early-stage target customer.