Bootstrapping with Sophisticated Strategy: Rob Douglas, CEO of BioConnect (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Did you bootstrap this company? How did you build the product? How long did it take your to build the product?

Rob Douglas: We bootstrapped it. We incorporated and started in the basement. The first year was all spent in research. From there, we began the process of developing what our product would be and look for people in our ecosystem who could be the first early customers to test our concepts and ideas.

It took us two years to get to a point where we had a 0.5 version. I would also add that in that two years, we pivoted at least >>>

Bootstrapping with Sophisticated Strategy: Rob Douglas, CEO of BioConnect (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What was the premise of this company?

Rob Douglas: We were then, and still are, on the quest for rightful identity. We believe that the trillions of dollars of fraud that lives in our economic system has a direct connection to the fact that we don’t actually communicate with real people but rather with credentials.

Coming from the biometric industry, I could see an impending futurewhere there will be billions of biometric sensors in the market and the world can’t consume them. The biometric sensor is a very efficient way of confirming your >>>

Bootstrapping with Sophisticated Strategy: Rob Douglas, CEO of BioConnect (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: In 2001, you’re done with Siebel Systems. What happens next?

Rob Douglas: My ultimate goal was to become a successful entrepreneur and CEO. It was now time to learn more general management skills. I joined a company called Pivotal, which was a mid-market CRM company based out of Vancouver. I was the EVP of Sales for North America. While I was doing that, I had now taken my first Board position in a company called MKS, based in Waterloo.

I was now learning what it was like to be an executive and ultimately govern the growth of tech companies. This was post the dot-com >>>

Bootstrapping with Sophisticated Strategy: Rob Douglas, CEO of BioConnect (Part 1)

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

Rob has built a thriving founder-financed business from Toronto using very sophisticated strategic maneuvering. I just loved discussing the strategic nuances of this business. You’ll learn a LOT from reading this story.

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?

Rob Douglas: I’m a Canadian. I was born just outside of Toronto. I have grown up in and around the city of Toronto. I’m >>>

$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: You are acquiring these customers through these kinds of channels – through computers at work.

Issa Asad: We acquire 100% of our customers online. >>>

$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How does the business model split? How much of it is affiliate?

Issa Asad: I started converting all my energies to just doing this. All of it is strictly direct to consumer marketing. I’m a Facebook and Google customer where a lot of companies went out and they were trying to buy marketing from Facebook and Google. I have queries for Google and Facebook in my office every two weeks.

Sramana Mitra: Describe your current business in two sentences. >>>

$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: In 2007, you started this affiliate network. How long did it take you to arrive at that inflection point where you figured out that Beauty was the category that you wanted to focus on?

Issa Asad: It took almost two years.

Sramana Mitra: That’s not unusual though. It takes time to experiment.

Issa Asad: What took time was being able to figure out what product to sell. It took time to figure out how to make it work at a good cost. These companies wouldn’t pay too much for cost of acquisition. I figured out the category, then I figured out how to >>>

$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How long did the model go on?

Issa Asad: I did that in 2007. Then I sold my company to a company called Blackstone. They wanted it for the technology. They were able to take it to a new level, which was beyond my reach. At that point, I took a new venture. I started looking at how to do Internet marketing.

Sramana Mitra: What year did you sell?

Issa Asad: 2007. >>>