Bootstrapped Entrepreneurship from Estonia: Lauri Kinkar, CEO of Messente (Part 1)

Lauri takes us into a country that has done amazingly well in developing a technology and startup culture. Fascinating!

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

Best of Bootstrapping: Inspyrus Bootstraps Using Services to an Awesome Business Model

We’ve shared many Bootstrapping Using Services case studies with you here, as well as in the book on that topic. Inspyrus CEO Nilay Banker’s story is particularly interesting because of the absolutely awesome business model that Nilay and his team have implemented. Read on!

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

Nilay Banker: I’m from India, born and brought up in Ahmedabad, which used to be a sleepy town when I was born and growing up. It has now blossomed into a sprawling metro. It’s one of the five largest cities in India. I had a very interesting childhood. I grew up in a family of professionals. My father is an architect. My mother is a doctor. Pretty much, every person in my family is a professional with very few people who are not doctors. I consider myself a black sheep in the family.

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A Serial “Data” Entrepreneur’s Journey: Bassel Ojjeh, CEO of LigaData (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Who were buying at this point when you were doing this company in the early 2000s?

Bassel Ojjeh: I left Yahoo in 2009 and started what I just mentioned to you. That was from 2009 to 2010 onwards. Financial industry, banking, and mobile operators were buying at this point.

Climbing Out of Despair Through Entrepreneurship: Ferren Rajput, CEO of Book A Jet (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: This $68,000 that this guy paid you, what value did he receive for that? It’s not like there were lots of other jets that he could fly on. 

Ferren Rajput: The membership locks you into x number of hours that you can utilize. Every time you book a flight with us, you would pay the discounted direct operating cost of that flight.

Climbing Out of Despair Through Entrepreneurship: Ferren Rajput, CEO of Book A Jet (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I’m going to need you to start at the point where you’re launching this company. How did you set up the pieces of this business? How did you get jets? How did you get seats on jets? How did you get customers?

Ferren Rajput: I got engaged with a source through which I could see who’s flying and who owns planes. I was providing a service. The service was a brokered service. All I had to do was get a client who wants to fly on a private jet.

Best of Bootstrapping: Alteryx Bootstrapped with Services to a Public Unicorn

Bootstrapping with Services is a tried and true strategy, including for building Unicorns. In our 2012 story, Alteryx CEO Dean Stoecker talks about raising a Series A with $10 million in the bank. Today, Alteryx is a $10+ billion market cap public company. Dean bootstrapped with services early on, and then raised VC money.

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Climbing Out of Despair Through Entrepreneurship: Ferren Rajput, CEO of Book A Jet (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to 2010 when you launched the company. What did you launch with?

Ferren Rajput: When I came out, a friend of mine was looking at a car dealership. It was a Jeep dealership. He said, “You just do this until you get yourself back up on your feet.” I did that for a little while. I was able to talk to people at this private jet airport in Denver.

Bootstrapping by Services from Wisconsin: SignalWire CEO Anthony Minessale (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Where is the money coming from? Which is the primary segment that is monetizing for you?

Anthony Minessale: People that are doing millions of minutes a day just by connecting their customers to their employees, and being able to maintain that. There has been a lot of growth on that.