Bootstrapping to Inc. 500: Tallie CEO Chris Farrell (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Talk to me about your team. I know you started very lean. That’s how successful bootstrapped companies tend to operate. What do you operate with today?

Chris Farrell: Our first key hire was outside of tech. After that, we started with a user interface expert who’s now our VP of Product Marketing. He was instrumental in laying down the long-term vision and very helpful in successfully finding the next market opportunity in terms of growth and making the pivot. After that, we started to build mostly around developers and what we call product experts. We started out with a traditional model, which was to hire sales and support people. We realized that when we are selling to a professional audience, >>>

Student Entrepreneurs Bootstrapping a Zero-Logistics E-Commerce Company to $19 Million: Wrist-Band.com CEO Azim Makanojiya (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Why that? What prompted your interest in that area specifically?

Azim Makanojiya: We were at this e-commerce conference where it all started. There was a presenter there who was about 19 years old and had started a wristband company. He talked about his company and how he did his business. All his products were made in the US. He had a huge overhead. He talked about how it’s hard for competition to come in because of the way he manufactured. All his credentials were online. He presented his financials like how much he started with and how much he built up to, and how much the demand was. >>>

Bootstrapping to Inc. 500: Tallie CEO Chris Farrell (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: We just did the story about Expensify. Of course, they really benefitted from the heavy mobile adoption. Their go-to-market strategy is completely from mobile users. People in an organization start using their applications and then, they go and tell their accounting department, “We want to continue to use this. We should go buy it.” Then their customers come and buy it. They are growing steadily very well. It’s an organic growth strategy. Was that mobile adoption a major technological shift that threw you into this kind of pivot three years back?

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Student Entrepreneurs Bootstrapping a Zero-Logistics E-Commerce Company to $19 Million: Wrist-Band.com CEO Azim Makanojiya (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What happened the first time you showed up and saw that you’re a young kid. Do they mind?

Azim Makanojiya: I was a little afraid that they would mind. I had a professional attitude from the start. I wouldn’t go in wearing jeans and a shirt but would be properly dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt. I was trying to grow a business that I just started. I think I always had that business mentality because of my dad. He started his business here and I was involved with him as well.

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Bootstrapping to Inc. 500: Tallie CEO Chris Farrell (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Is the content that you’re preparing and publishing still directed towards the accountants and CPA community who are coming to your site to engage with that content?

Chris Farrell: Absolutely. We view it as a two-for-one because they get familiar with us. It’s wonderful from a brand association perspective.

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Student Entrepreneurs Bootstrapping a Zero-Logistics E-Commerce Company to $19 Million: Wrist-Band.com CEO Azim Makanojiya (Part 1)

We’re seeing a real trend of zero-logistics e-commerce businesses scaling phenomenally well. Read Azim’s experience!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of educational path did you follow?

Azim Makanojiya:I am from India. My parents shifted from a village to Mumbai city for better opportunities. That’s where I was born. My father came to the US around 1984. My mom was still back there in India. Within two years, we came to Houston and settled down here. I was about a year old then. >>>

Bootstrapping to Inc. 500: Tallie CEO Chris Farrell (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: How do you price?

Chris Farrell: We price based on activity. For an active user or somebody who uses our expense report system actively in a given month, we charge $9 per month.

Sramana Mitra: How big are your deal sizes given the segment that you’re going after is the top end of the QuickBooks customer base? What is an average monthly deal size? >>>

Bootstrapping to Inc. 500: Tallie CEO Chris Farrell (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: In 2008, Concur was already public and quite a successful company. What did you think of the opportunity? Let’s get a bit granular because we do cover Concur very extensively. Recently, we did a story on Expensify as well. The expense reporting space has shown up on our blog from many different angles. So we have an audience that’s familiar with what you’re doing. Could you help us understand, specifically, what you would identify as the opportunity to build a new company in that space? Positioning, by the way, is a discipline that we teach and explore very extensively and very diligently. It would be interesting for us to learn how you position your products.

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