Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later: Art.com CEO Josh Chodniewicz (Part 1)

Josh bootstrapped for 10 years before raising a $30M first round of funding.

Read on to learn more about his journey.

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

Best of Bootstrapping: Co-founders Bootstrapped Using Services, then Raised $10M and 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 tell us all about their journey.

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.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Entrepreneur Couple Bootstraps an E-commerce Business Using a Paycheck and Crowdfunding

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.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Zimit Using Services to $10M

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 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.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Infragistics for 30 Years

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

Dean Guida, CEO of 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.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping JobNimbus First, Raising Money 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.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Vantage Circle from Guwahati, India

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

I am always thrilled to do stories of pioneering entrepreneurs building technology startups in remote locations. Anjan Pathak, Co-founder and CTO of Vantage Circle, brings us into the nascent scene in Guwahati, in the northeast Indian state of Assam.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

Anjan Pathak: I was born in a small town in North East India. It’s about 50 kilometers from Guwahati. I spent my childhood there. I studied in a very small school.

From there, I went to Guwahati. That is where I met my co-founder Partha Neog. I studied there for two weeks and after that, I went to the engineering school in Nagpur. I spent four years in Nagpur. I graduated and worked for a year and a half in a services company.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Ninth Wave Founder Bootstrapped Using Services

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

George Anderson, Founder and CEO of Ninth Wave, offers another case study for our very popular Bootstrapping Using Services track.

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?

George Anderson: I was born in Long Island. I found myself in technology by accident. My first job was through a referral from my family. My father sent me for an interview. I got a job working for an analytical laboratory in New Jersey.

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