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HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Bootstrapping
Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to Exit and THEN Did a VC-Funded Venture
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
A very effective way to dance the entrepreneurial Waltz is to do a bootstrapped company first, sell it, and then do another venture with a more ambitious agenda. From 2021, Jeremy Swift’s journey as Co-founder and CEO of Cordial is a great case study in this method.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
Jeremy Swift: I was born in Beaverton, Oregon. Most people know about Beaverton because of Nike. It’s a small suburb outside of Portland. I grew up in what I would consider a small middle class family. Both my parents were a rare breed and especially different from the path that I’ve taken in my life. The first job they got out of college is the same job that they retired with 40 plus years later.
Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped an AI Startup Using Services
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
Co-founder Nitesh Chawla bootstrapped Aunalytics while keeping his academic job at Notre Dame. Here is our conversation from 2021.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
Nitesh Chawla: I’m from New Delhi although I was born in Calcutta. I did my schooling from Delhi Public School. Then I did my engineering from Pune. Then I came to the United States in 1993 right after finishing my undergrad. I went to grad school in South Florida. I got my PhD in Computer Science with a focus on Machine Learning and Data Science.
Best of Bootstrapping: Founder Bootstrapped with Services to $10M
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
Founder Sameer Maggon discussed bootstrapping SearchStax to $10 million using services in 2021. Excellently navigated journey!
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, and in what kind of background?
Sameer Maggon: I grew up in Delhi. I did my engineering in Computer Science from Pune. Then I came back to my hometown to work for a document management company. Then I decided to learn more. I came to USC in Los Angeles and did my Masters in Computer Science. Since then, I’ve been in LA and worked in a variety of startups and larger companies in the greater Los Angeles area.
Best of Bootstrapping: Co-founders Bootstrapped First, Raised $10M, Scaled to $16M
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
This is a textbook case study of founders with deep domain knowledge in starting with services and then productizing, eventually raising institutional capital. EZOPS Co-Founders Sarva Srinivasan and Dutt Chintalapati told us all about their journey in 2021.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where were you born? Where does your journey begin?
Sarva Srinivasan: I was born in India and grew up there. I did my Computer Science there, then majored in Finance. I then started working with Wipro.
Best of Bootstrapping: Entrepreneurial Couple Bootstrapped an E-commerce Business
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
Nomad Lane Co-Founders Kish Vasnani and Vanessa Jeswani bootstrapped to multi-million dollars in revenue selling a private label product before quitting their jobs. In this story, you also get to see the nuances of running successful (and not so successful) crowdfunding campaigns. Very interesting journey and insights.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the very beginning. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in background?
Kish Vasnani: I was born in Jaipur, India and moved to the US when I was about one year old. I grew up around the Atlanta area and finished school there. I moved to New York to help a friend of a friend start a software company, which was also bootstrapped. We were able to sell that to Thomson Reuters. I had the itch again to go out on my own. Very candidly, I was also fired from a couple of other jobs over the course of two years.
Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Using Services to $10M and an Exit
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
Among the biases of the Venture Capital industry that need to be categorically ignored, Bootstrapping Using Services happens to be on the top of the list. Zimit Founder and co-CEO James Cramer shares yet another fantastic textbook case study. Zimit was acquired by Workday in September 2021.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?
James Cramer: I was born in Southern California. I grew up in a family that moved around a lot. My dad worked in the automotive industry, and so every few years we would change locations. That put me in Seattle, Southern California, the Carolinas, and then ultimately in Florida.
Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped for 30 Years
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
Dean Guida, CEO and Founder at Infragistics, has a real passion for the elegance, simplicity, and beauty of software development. He has built a company celebrating these values.
Sramana Mitra: We will start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised?
Dean Guida: When I was six years old, my mom and dad got divorced. I moved to Miami, Florida. I saw how much my mom struggled to make money for us, When I was eight years old, I just wanted to work. I convinced the maintenance man in the apartment that I was living in to let me do his work. He would pay me off the books.
Best of Bootstrapping: Serial Entrepreneur Bootstraps First, Raises Funds Later
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
Ben Hodson, Co-founder and CEO of JobNimbus, is a serial entrepreneur with a long experience in bootstrapping and fundraising. Read on to see how he has navigated his journey.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?
Ben Hodson: I say that I am from the Seattle area. I was born in Washington State on the east side of the state, but I moved to the west side when I was very young. I went to the University of Washington. I got a degree in business. Then I was interested in computers, so I did a second degree in computer science as well.
