Bootstrapping Using Services from The Netherlands to a $300M+ Exit: Quintiq and ActiVote Founder Victor Allis (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What you’re describing is a track that we have called bootstrapping using services. It’s a tried-and-true path in which a lot of entrepreneurs have built companies. We have great regard for this method.

The services work, I understand. The product that you were developing, what was going to be in that product? How well did you understand the product, the requirements, and the positioning? What problem were you going to solve? How well did you understand all that?

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Marketplace from Brazil

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

Diego Gomes, CEO Co-founder of Rock Content, had built a terrific content marketing company from Brazil when we spoke in 2020. He bootstrapped first, raised money later, and had then acquired a sizable US company to scale. Excellent story!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Tell me about your background. Where are you from? Where were you raised?

Diego Gomes: I am from Brazil. I lived most of my life in Belo Horizonte. I started our company Rock Content around seven years ago with two co-founders, Edmar Ferreira and Vitor Pecanha.

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Bootstrapping Using Services from The Netherlands to a $300M+ Exit: Quintiq and ActiVote Founder Victor Allis (Part 1)

Victor bootstrapped Quintiq to $30M, raised funding, and then sold the company for over $300M. ActiVote is his second startup, currently self-funded.

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

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Fast Growth Company Using Services

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

Gurman Hundal, Co-founder of MiQ, had bootstrapped a fast growth company using services when we spoke in 2016. Read about his impressive journey.

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?

Gurman Hundal: I was born in England in a town about 30 miles from London. My family is from the northern state of Punjab in India. Even though I was born in England, I couldn’t speak English till I was about six years old. I have a British-Indian upbringing. My parents owned their own shoe shop in a shopping mall near where we live. I got an early exposure to family-run organizations. I went through the educational system within England. I went to University of Kingston where I studied Business. It was there where I started my career.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a 100% Virtual Company from Ireland

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

Shane Evans is Co-founder of Scrapinghub, now known as Zyte, a virtual team-based business from Ireland. When we spoke in 2016, the company had 5M Euro in revenue, 130 employees in 43 countries and operated 100% virtually. Very interesting view into a different part of the world. You can listen to the podcast of our interview here.

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?

Shane Evans: I was actually born in the UK. Both of my parents worked at Heathrow. My father is British but my mother was Irish. I think their involvement and love for travel had an impact on me. I came to Ireland when I was two years old and that’s where I grew up.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped an Ad Tech Company from Paris

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

Europe is also facing difficult times. Entrepreneurs are its best hope. When we spoke in 2016, BidMotion Founder Daniel Nathan had built a really cool company based in Paris. Daniel is now Founder and CEO of Homa Games.

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?

Daniel Nathan: I was born very close to Paris. I was born in 1988. My parents were not entrepreneurs, but I always wanted to create my own business. I started my first company when I was pretty young. Our city was not such a great city to live in. To go to Paris, you had to take a train. It was pretty dangerous to take that train.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping with Services to $12M

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

You know that we believe in the Bootstrapping Using Services methodology quite firmly. Here is Square Root Founder Chris Taylor’s story from 2016 – a great example of how and why bootstrapping using services works.

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?

Chris Taylor: I grew up in rural West Virginia. You won’t meet a lot of entrepreneurs out of West Virginia. When I was four, my father passed away, so my brother and I were raised by our mother. She did a fantastic job. My brother is also another entrepreneur. In college, I went to Carnegie-Mellon and studied Computer Science, Psychology, and Mathematics.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to Exit, Bootstrapped Again, then Raised VC Money

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

Stephanie Leffler, CEO of OneSpace, had bootstrapped her first company to $20 million in revenue from St. Louis when we spoke in 2016. Her second company, also from St. Louis, was venture-funded and had crossed $10 million in revenue. Awesome entrepreneur, inspiring woman! You can also listen to our conversation as a podcast here.

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

Stephanie Leffler: I am from Northern Virginia in Fairfax. I was actually born and raised there. Ultimately, I went to school at Washington and Lee University. I found my way to St. Louis as part of my entrepreneurial journey. I’ve lived here ever since.

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