Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped with Energy, Smarts, and Execution

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

Sylvana Caridi, Founder & CEO of Gravity Pro, has an aura of no nonsense, no bs confidence about her that I find immensely attractive. Read her story to feel the force of sheer energy, smarts, and execution to learn how she did it!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as Gravity Pro.

Sylvana Caridi: I’m 42. I was born and raised in France. My parents were from Italy. They moved from Italy to France to find work because, at that time, it was hard for them because they were both illiterate. I was the last kid and grew up in a very low-class environment. I studied all the way to my doctorate, but I did not do my thesis because I went to work.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to an Inflection Point

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

Happy Grasshopper CEO Dan Stewart was a 1Mby1M entrepreneur when we spoke in 2017. Read how he navigated his way to an inflection point that brought him to the cusp of 4x growth.

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?

Dan Stewart: My family moved around quite a lot as I was growing up. I rarely stayed in a school for more than a year. That took me from West Virginia and Chicago, down to Florida.

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Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping to over $5M: Vladimir Gendelman, CEO of Company Folders (Part 4)

Vladimir Gendelman: We also included a lifetime warranty. We are the only printing company that offers that. The standard is your order, you get it, and then you have 7 to 10 days to inspect it. If there’s a problem, you can contact the printer, and they’ll take care of it.

Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping to over $5M: Vladimir Gendelman, CEO of Company Folders (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How did you recover from that situation where you lost traffic? How did you come back from that?

Vladimir Gendelman: We also got hit at the beginning of all those penalties. There wasn’t much information out there. We hired a company. It was a digital marketing company that had some knowledge of this. They gave us ideas on what to do.

Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping to over $5M: Vladimir Gendelman, CEO of Company Folders (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What were you offering people to buy?

Vladimir Gendelman: I started selling online right away. The very first version of the website was very basic. I just came up with a whole bunch of folders styles. I put them on a website. There weren’t that many. I started promoting.

Sramana Mitra: How did you promote it?

Solo Entrepreneur Bootstrapping to over $5M: Vladimir Gendelman, CEO of Company Folders (Part 1)

Ukrainian entrepreneur Vladimir Gendelman started as a solo entrepreneur in Detroit and has bootstrapped a $5M+ niche e-commerce company.

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?

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped First to $10M from Finland

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

In our effort to bring you stories from the global startup ecosystem, here we introduce you to Mikko Valimaki, Co-founder of Tuxera, and his wonderful success story from Finland in 2016.

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?

Mikko Valimaki: I’m a 39-year-old guy from Finland. I did my schooling in Finland. I did, however, study in Berkeley in the United States and was exposed to the American culture. I’ve never worked for any big company. I always started my own stuff. I had already developed my own computer games back in the 1990s while at high school. I tried to sell those.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $5M from Scratch

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

The Innovation Management software space is quite crowded. When I spoke to Co-founder Robert Hoehn in 2016, IdeaScale had managed to carve out a niche. Read on!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by going to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Robert Hoehn: I am from Northern New York, almost bordering Canada. I actually did Computer Science in high school. I was a pretty lucky kid to have experience in programming at a pretty young age. I went to the University of Vermont and joined their Computer Engineering program. I studied Computer Science and Business.

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