Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped from Belgium to Exit

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

iText CEO Bruno Lowagie bootstrapped a highly profitable company from Belgium. Since our conversation in 2015, iText was acquired by ThinkFree in 2018.

Sramana Mitra: Where are you from?

Bruno Lowagie: I’m from Belgium.

Sramana Mitra: I’m married to a Belgian. Were you born and raised in Belgium?

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped First, Raised Money Later to Exit

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

Continuing with our theme of Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, here is Founder William King’s story of bootstrapping Zephyr Health, a robust company in the healthcare industry. This strategy led to funding by Kleiner Perkins by the time we spoke in 2015. Zephyr Health was acquired in 2018 by Anju Software.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of circumstances?

William King: I was born in Princeton, New Jersey. I lived in Princeton until I was 18. I’m the oldest of six children. That’s a little bit unique in that we had a lot of action in the house. The age span was actually a difference of 10 years, which was pretty interesting and pretty heroic, now that I’m a parent myself. As a child, part of my experience in growing up was leading my siblings and helping them to participate. Kids look up to their older brothers and sisters. A lot of what was instilled in me at a very young age is this notion of making good choices, collaboration, and the idea that people are paying attention to the things that you’re doing.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped First Using Services to Exit

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

Conversocial Co-founder Joshua March first built a digital marketing agency around social media before identifying the product opportunity for Conversocial. Here is our conversation from 2015. Verint acquired Conversocial in 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal story. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised, and in what kind of background?

Joshua March: I grew up in a relatively small town in England, a few hours outside of London. It’s called Malvern, Worcestershire. It’s famous for classical music composer Elgar. It has beautiful hills and countryside. It’s a lovely place to grow up but not completely exciting from a business perspective or the perspective of a 16-year-old.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a High Growth Startup

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

Minnesota seems to be developing well as a hub for tech startups. With a strong culture of bootstrapping, we’re seeing a lot of entrepreneurs building high growth businesses. Here is my conversation from 2015 with Praful Saklani, Founder and CEO of Pramata.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your personal journey. Tell me a bit about where you were born and raised and in what kind of circumstances.

Praful Saklani: I was actually born in the United Kingdom. My family is from North India. When I was four years old, we moved from the UK to Minneapolis. Throughout that whole process of growing up in Minnesota, I also traveled back to India, at least, once every two years. We’d spend a lot of time with my family there. I would say that I actually grew up both in the US and India. Even when I visit India, I would actually spend time in villages and up in the mountain. It’s a nice broad perspective of a good mid-western upbringing and a good north Indian upbringing too. That’s a bit of a cultural context.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped from Pennsylvania to Exit

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

The theme of entrepreneurs building robust companies without outside capital continues with OnSIP Co-founder Mike Oeth’s story from 2015. OnSIP was acquired by an Apollo portfolio company in 2020.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your personal story. Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of circumstances?

Mike Oeth: I was born in the MidWest, specifically in Speedway, Indiana. It’s the home of Indianapolis 500. I was very lucky in my early life to have three mentors who helped shape different parts of who I am. First, obviously, is my dad. He is a mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. He’s retired now but he had worked for General Motors. He was designing aircraft engines. He was very supportive when, in the seventh or eighth grade, I wanted to spend the money that I made that summer cutting grass to go and buy a computer. I bought a Ti-99/4A. It was one of the first personal computers out there.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $10M from Canada

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

Jory Lamb, CEO / Founder of VistaVu Solutions, started as an entrepreneur as a 23-year old in rural Canada. He shared his 18 year journey with me in 2014.

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

Jory Lamb: I grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada. I was also born there. My dad was a schoolteacher and my mom ran local food stores called Red Roosters. We used to own three Red Roosters, which would be the equivalent of 7-11 stores in the late 70s to the mid 80s. I went on to the University of Saskatchewan and graduated with a business degree.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped with a Paycheck from Atlanta to Exit

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

Here is Ingenious Med Founder Steve Liu’s early story from 2014. Yet another instance of a very successful company being built in the bootstrapping using a paycheck mode. Harris Novum acquired Ingenious Med in 2021.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised, and in what kind of circumstances?

Steve Liu: I was born in the United States. I was born in DC and lived in Virginia my whole life. My parents were immigrants but not your typical immigrants. My father came to UVA for his undergraduate studies. I grew up pretty typical with Asian parents. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Using Services from London to Exit

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

Continuing with our Bootstrapping Using Services coverage, we bring you HighQ Founder CEO Ajay Patel’s story from London in 2014. Thomson Reuters acquired HighQ in 2019.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with some back story. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background?

Ajay Patel: I was born in London about 42 years ago. I’ve lived here all my life. My origins are actually Indian. My father is from India and my mother was born in Fiji, but she’s of Indian descent.

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