A Conversation About Sexual Harassment with Janine Yancey, CEO of Emtrain (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: It’s not going in a constructive direction. It really is going to be a net loss in the process if we don’t do something about it. I’d like to know about what’s going to happen.

The other side of the question I have is the other part of the me-too movement that I feel nauseated by is that women who have gone and seduced men and maybe their encounters didn’t turn out the way she envisioned, she then goes out and writes this revenge post under the me-too tag. That goes viral online. That’s just not fair. If you go seduce somebody, you have to deal with the consequences including that this may not turn out the way you want it. >>>

A Conversation About Sexual Harassment with Janine Yancey, CEO of Emtrain (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How are your clients responding to this point? This is a very interesting point.

Janine Yancey: Up until this year, it’s been a difficult conversation to have. That’s why the employers that do partner with us are the ones that are more progressive. They can see the bigger picture. This year, people are starting to see that we can’t clamp down on this.

In the past, everyone was in isolation. No one had power through numbers. All of a sudden, you’ve got a tipping point. You’ve got the web to collectivize and mobilize everyone. What do you know? Every employee, no matter where they sit in the >>>

A Conversation About Sexual Harassment with Janine Yancey, CEO of Emtrain (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I actually don’t think it’s a problem. You’ve built a reasonable, profitable company that you own yourself with a small group of team members. You’re at $5 million in revenue. I don’t see why you apologize for it.

Janine Yancey: I guess the reason why is, I look back and I cringe at what I didn’t know.

Sramana Mitra: That’s normal.

Janine Yancey: You’re right. At this point in my journey, I have so much more clarity as you would expect. I guess there >>>

A Conversation About Sexual Harassment with Janine Yancey, CEO of Emtrain (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What was an average deal size when you were selling these to your first batch of clients?

Janine Yancey: I believe the first actual client was Intuit. I think it was $30,000 for their whole organization. It was significantly discounted. Some of the first clients were organizations that I had relationships with.

Sramana Mitra: That’s perfect. What was the first year of selling the product?

Janine Yancey: The first year was 2004. Even before I was actually working for Emtrain, I was creating something within the >>>

A Conversation About Sexual Harassment with Janine Yancey, CEO of Emtrain (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do the Entrepreneurs Journeys story. When did you step out of your Google affiliation and start this company?

Janine Yancey: In 2004 or 2005. I was still practicing law through the end of 2005. I had formally started Emtrain as a corporation because I’m a lawyer so it’s an easy enough thing for me to do. Emtrain was on the books as early as 2000, but it was in name only. Then in 2006, a few of us jumped into actually doing it as a full-time occupation.

Sramana Mitra: What was the first version of what you put together and what you released? How did you get 

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A Conversation About Sexual Harassment with Janine Yancey, CEO of Emtrain (Part 1)

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

Janine has built a $5M a year bootstrapped business in the realm of legal training for employment and workplace issues. A core part of her expertise is in sexual harassment and related concerns that are currently hot topics in the industry. This is a must-read interview for those following the discussion in the media.

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?

Janine Yancey: I’m from Los Angeles, but then I was educated in Berkeley and then at Hastings College of Law, which is in >>>

Bootstrapping with Sophisticated Strategy: Rob Douglas, CEO of BioConnect (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. When did you crack your first multi-million enterprise deal in this mode?

Rob Douglas: A couple of years ago. Now it’s a regular course for our company.

Sramana Mitra: Excellent. This strategy really worked out.

Rob Douglas: Yes, it has. It needs a lot of patience to get there. You really have to be willing to see the thing through over a multi-year period of time. The interesting thing is, it took us eight years to complete 30 integrations and form 30 partnership ecosystem. >>>

Bootstrapping with Sophisticated Strategy: Rob Douglas, CEO of BioConnect (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Talk about the customer acquisition strategy and the scaling of revenue.

Rob Douglas: Customer acquisition is a three-step process. Step one is, BioConnect needs to be integrated into target software platforms. Step two is, we use that partner’s ecosystem to plant the flags of BioConnect. If we become integrated into that software platform, that platform’s partners and customer base consume our technology. An end user will now start consuming BioConnect as part of their platform.

Many times, what happens is that an end user finds out about BioConnect and realizes that it’s an enterprise platform. Then >>>