Best of Bootstrapping: PhishMe was Bootstrapped Using Services First, Raised Money Later

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

Following up on our ‘Bootstrapping Using Services‘ and ‘Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later’ case studies, here is the story of PhishMe, a cyber security company that has scaled nicely. Following my conversation with Co-founder Rohyt Belani in 2015, PhishMe was acquired by BlackRock in 2018.

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?

Rohyt Belani: I am originally from India. I was born and raised in India. I was there till the age of 22. I did my engineering in India.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Seismic Audio CEO Bootstrapped a $10 Million E-Commerce Business

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

E-commerce companies are relatively easy to bootstrap. In 2015, Steve Acree shared his journey bootstrapping Seismic Audio to almost $10 million in revenue.

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

Steve Acree: I was born in Tennessee, about 60 miles north of Memphis. I went to school for computers but I’ve never used my degree. I chose the wrong computer industry. I chose the repair side instead of the software side.

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6 Udemy Courses on How to do a Startup as a Solo Founder

Have you started or are you stuck in your startup journey?

Many entrepreneurs think that they need a cofounder or a team to start, but it is really simple.

• Find a niche.
• Start solo and run lean.

Best of Bootstrapping: Abacus Group Founder Bootstrapped a Virtualization Services Company

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

Abacus Group Founder CEO Chris Grandi has significant domain knowledge in the hedge fund industry. When we spoke in 2015, he had self-financed a successful company offering to secure virtualization services to the segment with high service levels.

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?

Chris Grandi: I was born and raised on the East Coast outside of Washington DC, and I grew up in suburban Maryland. For university, I went to the West Coast and attended UCLA. I then continued on to graduate work. I got my MBA from Harvard Business School. I moved out to San Francisco, California where I’ve been for approximately 20 years.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Lessons Learned by FairWarning Founder Kurt Long

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

FairWarning Founder Kurt Long has tried different permutations and combinations of bootstrapping, several of them successfully. Listen to his perspective on each of those from when we spoke in 2015. FairWarning was acquired by Imprivata in 2018

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

Kurt Long: I was raised in Clearwater, Florida. I grew up in Florida at a very special time where we enjoyed being outside and in the waters. As I grew up, I watched the Apollo missions and other NASA-based missions take off from the Kennedy Space Center, which is on the other coast but you could still see the launches. From a very early age, those made an impression on me that I wanted to participate in innovation and exploration. That’s something that has stayed with me through my whole career. As I went through high school and college, I held on to the dream and even wrote letters to Kennedy Space Center to ask about the Space Center and how it worked.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Casewise from London and Scaling in the US

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

Alexandre Wentzo is the former CEO of Casewise, an enterprise software company that started in London and scaled in the US. The company was self-financed and did $24 Million in revenue when we spoke in 2015. Our discussion focuses on some of the nuances of starting an enterprise software company in Europe and scaling it in the US. Casewise was sold to Erwin in 2016. You can also listen to our podcast interview here and watch the roundtable interview here:

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping Meltwater to $200 Million

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

Founder Jorn Lyseggen started Meltwater in Norway and, when we spoke in 2015, had scaled the company organically to $200 million. Fascinating journey!

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?

Jorn Lyseggen: I was actually born in Korea. I came to Norway as a very small child. I was three years old. I actually grew up in a little farm in the middle of a deep, dark forest in Norway. You drive for hours into the deep, dark forest and then suddenly, there’s a small opening. Then, you come to a little village with 168 families. One of those families is mine.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping a Significant Software Company from Australia

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

When we spoke in 2015, Emagine CEO Dave Peters had managed to bootstrap a significant software company from Australia. The focus was on TELCO churn management, and the customer base was primarily Australian, Asian, and African. Read this interview to learn more of the nuances. In September 2017 Emagine was acquired by Comviva.

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?

Dave Peters: I’m Australian. I grew up in a little town of 8,000 people, about five hours west of Sydney. It was a farming community and my father was an Anglican minister. That’s a pretty unlikely starting point for an entrepreneur.

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