Scaling a Robust Enterprise Software Company from Chicago: FourKites CEO Matthew Elenjickal (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You’re still selling completely direct? You’re not working with any of the major system integrators?

Matthew Elenjickal: We do. We’re partners with almost every system integrator that you can think of. We work with almost every system integrator out there including Accenture and Genpact .

We work with a lot of big software companies like JDA, Oracle, and SAP. Our solution is integrated into their systems. These are all the different channels that we are working on.

Scaling a Robust Enterprise Software Company from Chicago: FourKites CEO Matthew Elenjickal (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What is the process of customer acquisition? Where you reaching out to these customers? Were they reaching out to you? What was the inbound and outbound? What was the go-to-market strategy?

Matthew Elenjickal: For those early days, it was still outbound. You go through your Rolodex and some of the companies you work with in the past. You reach out to them and many of them saw the value and signed up. It was mostly outbound, and some inbound of course. But I would say 80% of that was outbound.

Scaling a Robust Enterprise Software Company from Chicago: FourKites CEO Matthew Elenjickal (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You said you did the startup right after your MBA. So did you then bootstrap it to launch this? Whom did you launch it with?

Matthew Elenjickal: I started the MBA program fully aware that I wanted to start a company. I was laying the foundation, if you will, when I was doing my MBA. I got a lot of free help. A lot of courses helped me really build a network of local venture capitalists. I got a lot of free money through competitions and stuff like that.

Scaling a Robust Enterprise Software Company from Chicago: FourKites CEO Matthew Elenjickal (Part 1)

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

This is a terrific case study of smart execution on a complex domain by an entrepreneurial team. Read on !

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

Matthew Elenjickal: I was born in the south of India in a state called Kerala. I did my undergrad in Chennai and then moved here to Chicago for grad school. I went to Northwestern and took Industrial Engineering and Management Science. It’s a two-year program.

Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Company: Modded Euros CEO Sean Dawes (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Where are you now? How far along? What’s the revenue level?

Sean Dawes: We’re doing millions in revenue. It’s about focusing on capturing as much market share as possible. There are still a handful competitors that are larger than us. For us, it’s growing as fast as possible while focusing on profitability.

My motivation is that I want to enjoy what I do, but I also want to ensure that my family’s future is taken care of. That’s what wakes me up every day. My father and grandfather worked all their lives.

Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Company: Modded Euros CEO Sean Dawes (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What about inventory financing? Did you finance it all out of revenue or did you do some sort of bank financing?

Sean Dawes: We did a combination of self-financing and bank financing.

Sramana Mitra: Could you give us a range of what level of bank financing you used to leverage the company?

Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Company: Modded Euros CEO Sean Dawes (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What are the key inflection points? What strategic moves have you made that led to this?

Sean Dawes: For us, it was being able to offer similar content generation that we were used to working with when we worked in-house. We launched our own content video series where we’d purchase vehicles and show the customer what they could do to the vehicle.

Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Company: Modded Euros CEO Sean Dawes (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: The transition from dropship to inventory, how far did you get to dropshipping in terms of gross merchandise volume?

Sean Dawes: We did over a million in annual sales before we had to inventory anything.

Sramana Mitra: That’s terrific. What did you learn about the customer base? Were they auto shops or were they consumers?