Bootstrapping to $100 Million Using Services from The Netherlands: Pierre and Fred Guelen, Planon Software (Part 1)

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

Pierre and Fred Guelen have bootstrapped a very significant company from The Netherlands using the bootstrapping using services principle. Read on and learn how.

Sramana Mitra: We’re going to start at the very beginning of your personal journeys. One of you please start by telling us where you’re from, where you were born, and in what kind of background, and then we’ll do the same thing with the other person.

Pierre Guelen: I’m the CEO of Planon group. Fred is my brother. We were born in The Netherlands in a small town near the German border. We were raised in an entrepreneurial family. My father owned a large building company. He was already the fourth generation in that building company.

Sramana Mitra: What did you do for education? >>>

Bootstrapping to $15 Million: David Braun, CEO of TemplateMonster (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How did these people find you?

David Braun: Basically, because of the forums. I was very active.

Sramana Mitra: That’s awesome.

David Braun: But you know what, out of this $70,000, $60,000 were fraud and our account was frozen because it was all from stolen credit card numbers. We had to shut down the processing. This is how I knew that the word fraud existed. I decided that I would become a fraud guy to learn how it works. I learned through this shadow criminal community on how they buy these credit  card numbers. It was a digital product and was very easy to steal, so the fraud level for us was about 60% to 70% and it really damaged the business because none of the online processing companies would accept us. We couldn’t find a processor. I learned how it works. >>>

10 Women Leaders Running Bootstrapped Companies

As I was writing the previous post, 10 Women Leaders Of VC-Funded Companies, I noticed that six out of the 10 companies I included on the list followed aBootstrap First, Raise Money Later strategy.

My point of view is that as long as you follow this strategy, your chances of raising money is always going to be higher, whether you are a man or a woman.
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Bootstrapping to $15 Million: David Braun, CEO of TemplateMonster (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You were still in Ukraine? This is happening while you were still in Ukraine?

David Braun: Yes, I was in Ukraine. I had shares in that, so I was a co-founder. He was finding the prospects while my job was to organise the production. During this seven months of completing the project, we recruited around 10 more clients. We were starting to make quite a lot of money. It was a quite complex system where we had to integrate the warehouse management systems to the front store. I started to gain some expertise in web development and business communication with customers directly.

I learned one lesson. I don’t want to do the custom programming and design. Even with the understanding that it brings you money, you always have to restart from scratch. Every time, you need to go and meet your customer, validate his needs, and initiate the communication process through the technical specifications. It could never be a million dollar monthly revenue business. >>>

Bootstrapping to $15 Million: David Braun, CEO of TemplateMonster (Part 1)

When you run a business over a long period of time, technology changes create massive challenges. David has navigated TemplateMonster in  several of these.

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 circumstances?

David Braun: I’m from Georgia – the former USSR country. I’ve lived there until I turned 11. In 1992, Russia initiated the war in Georgia. We were a very wealthy family. We had to drop everything we had – house, apartments, cars, and so on. We just moved in one day with just the clothes we were wearing. I still have my shorts in which I had to run away. That’s all we had to start.

My father was a teacher. He was teaching math. My mother was a cosmetic specialist. We were moving from one place to another, wherever friends offered free places to live. It all ended up in a small city in Ukraine where I graduated from school and finished university. >>>

Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Venture: Elite Fixtures CEO Steven Annese (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: When you say B2B, what kind of B2B? Did you go after commercial? Did you go after restaurants?

Steven Annese: We did a lot of things. We instituted a pro-trade account. If you were a contractor or designer, you could basically sign up for our account. Once we scan the application and verify that you are a legitimate business, we would approve you. You would automatically be qualified for contractor pricing, which is a lot less than when you go to these big electrical supply houses. In fact, we have supplied to some of the big electrical supply houses. We still do today because they don’t have certain lines that we do. We facilitate that for them.

Sramana Mitra: How did the revenue split as you went into 2010 or 2011? How did the revenue emerge between B2B and B2C? >>>

Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Venture: Elite Fixtures CEO Steven Annese (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: It looks like that at the end of 2006, you were back to being able to have multiple distributors for your business and were able to get back to your top ranking in Google bids. Is that correct?

Steven Annese: Correct, in Google and Yahoo!. That was probably about 2007.

Sramana Mitra: What else happened in 2007?

Steven Annese: Between 2007 and 2009, we started building volume and focusing on key brands. At that point, I was probably open direct with about 70% of the manufacturers that we sold.

Sramana Mitra: Where was the revenue at this point?

Steven Annese: Revenue in 2009 was probably about a million.

Sramana Mitra: What are the next major inflection points between 2009 and 2015? >>>

Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Venture: Elite Fixtures CEO Steven Annese (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: There’s an electronic integration that you were able to put in place with these distributors?

Steve Annese: Yes, there was only one distributor at that time.

Sramana Mitra: They were electronically and sufficiently together to be able to establish that bridge with you.

Steve Annese: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: What year are we talking?

Steve Annese: It was towards the end of 2005.

Sramana Mitra: What happened in 2006? >>>