Bootstrapping a $175 Million Business with Services: TEOCO CEO Atul Jain (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What timeframe are we talking about when you were $20 million in revenue in this business?

Atul Jain: About 2005 to 2006 timeframe.

Sramana Mitra: A $20 million dollar business and now you have a competitor that is going belly up and you buy that competitor for cash.

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Bootstrapping a $175 Million Business with Services: TEOCO CEO Atul Jain (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What was the intellectual property that you bought? From whom did you buy it?

Atul Jain: It was a one-person entity. I hired a person that had a bit more telecom knowledge than I did. I asked him about what I could build and he talked about doing something in the billing reconciliation system. I said to him, “Is there something that I could buy as a starting point.” He told me that there was this one guy who had an intellectual property. I bought that and found out that it was incomplete and didn’t have a back-end. We bought a little something that didn’t quite work as a standalone.

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Bootstrapping a $175 Million Business with Services: TEOCO CEO Atul Jain (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What were you consulting on?

Atul Jain: I was helping them build a system for oil trading. I had developed a certain amount of expertise in doing that, so they were happy to get my expertise to help them figure out how to go about building an integrated oil trading system. I told them upfront, “I’m not doing this to be a one-man shop. I have a clear goal of building a team of people so if you don’t feel that you want to give me additional opportunities, please tell me upfront. Because if you take me, you’re committing to me that you will give me additional opportunities to begin building a team and a company.”

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Bootstrapping a $175 Million Business with Services: TEOCO CEO Atul Jain (Part 1)

There is, of course, a myth that you cannot build a large company by bootstrapping. What a total pot of crap! Meet Atul Jain, and get your premises checked and readjusted.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where were you born, raised, and educated? Tell us a bit of the backstory of your current entrepreneurial story.

Atul Jain: I was born in Kanpur, India. I was born in a lower-middle class family. My father was an engineer in PWD. I am the youngest of three children. The eldest is my sister Manu Jain and I have an elder brother Naveen Jain. At the age of eleven, I received a merit scholarship from the Government of India to study in a residential school. >>>

Building a Global Software Company From Australia: Bigcommerce Co-Founder Mitch Harper (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: So merchants in India can pay in Indian currency to subscribe to Bigcommerce? There is a problem in India with currency as you know.

Mitch Harper: They have to pay us in US dollars, but they can accept in their local currency.

Sramana Mitra: That’s an issue in India. A lot of people find it difficult to buy services in USD.

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Building a Global Software Company From Australia: Bigcommerce Co-Founder Mitch Harper (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: By now, you are now in your Series B phase. You have already leveraged your install base from your previous company. What has been the primary customer acquisition strategy in the scaling phase? I do see you advertising a lot online.

Mitch Harper: I wouldn’t say there’s one main channel. I’m really good at optimizing – using Google AdWords, using retargeting, using content marketing through the blog and YouTube, and working with design agencies as well. We work with 2,500 >>>

Building a Global Software Company From Australia: Bigcommerce Co-Founder Mitch Harper (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What was your revenue level in 2010? The 9,800 customers translated into what kind of revenue level?

Mitch Harper: Our average per user back then was about $40 per month. It was somewhere around $5 million to $10 million at that time.

Sramana Mitra: What were the milestones that you set for yourself with your Series A financing?

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8 Companies Inducted Into the iSPIRT BootUpINDIA Inner Circle

iSPIRT has announced the eight bootstrapped Indian companies that have been inducted into the BootUpIndia Inner Circle. As one of the jurors, Sramana Mitra would like to offer her encouragement and support to all of the participants and congratulate the winners: Sumeet Kapur/Global Groupware Solutions, Anand Krushnan/Exclusife, Sunil Patro/SignEasy, Indrajit Chowdhury/PowerStores Ecommerce, Ankit Jain/VoiceTree Technologies, Vinit Bhansali/ApnaStock Solutions, Anjan Choudhary/Inquirly Technologies, and Mukesh Agrawal/The Media Ant.