Scaling to $10 Million: Humanity.com Founder Ryan Fyfe (Part 1)

Humanity.com has operations in San Francisco, Pakistan, and Serbia. The founder lives in Panama. Yet another distributed software company that is scaling nicely.

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?

Ryan Fyfe: I grew up in Canada. I moved around a lot as a child. Both my parents were educators. My mom is a primary school teacher. My dad is a mechanical engineering professor. Through that time, we lived in Belgium, across different parts of Canada, and >>>

Building Fat Startups: Delphix CEO Jedidiah Yueh (Part 1)

Jed has built two fat startups. This discussion delves into the nuances.

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?

Jedidiah Yueh: The funny thing is, I never wanted to an entrepreneur. I started out as an English major in college. When I was in grade school, high school, and college, I was never interested in technology. I was the guy who always asked my friend to help me set up my computer. >>>

Bootstrapping a Niche e-Commerce Company to $10 Million: iHeartRaves CEO Brian Lim (Part 1)

Niche e-commerce still produces compelling success stories. Read on to see how Brian built iHeartRaves.

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?

Brian Lim: I was born in LA County. My parents immigrated here to escape communism in China and Cambodia. I grew up very poor. We bootstrapped our company back in 2010 with $100 and turned it into a $20 million a year company. >>>

Scaling to $10M ARR with a Virtual Company: Fred Plais, CEO of Platform.sh (Part 1)

Fred has built a wonderful company with a virtual architecture. Read on to see how.

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?

Fred Plais: I was born in the western part of France. I’ve worked at three different companies. I’ve got three kids and a wife, and I now live in San Francisco.

Sramana Mitra: What is your education? What did you study? >>>

Turning Philanthropy into a Double Bottomline Business: Ram Palaniappan, CEO of Earnin (Part 1)

When people have to live paycheck to paycheck, life can easily get unbearable. Earnin offers loans against paychecks as collateral to alleviate this incessant pressure to low income families at affordable rates.

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 an early journey have you had?

Ram Palaniappan: I was born in Cleveland, Ohio and moved back to India when I was five. I did most of my schooling there. I did my undergraduate studies there. Then I came to the US to do my MBA at Purdue. That was in 1998. I was there for two years. I ended up >>>

Scaling to Over $10 Million From Delaware: Ye Zhang, CEO of Katabat (Part 1)

The state of Delaware has been working with 1Mby1M to stimulate entrepreneurship. Here is a wonderful success story from the region.

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?

Ye Zhang: I was born in China. I came to the United States in 1998 to pursue my Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence.

Sramana Mitra: Where was that? >>>

Bootstrap First in Europe, Raise Money Later and Go Global in the US: Martin Verwijmeren, CEO of MP Objects (Part 1)

We’re seeing some excellent European companies make successful transitions into becoming global software companies. This is an excellent and inspiring story for European startups to emulate.

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?

Martin Verwijmeren: I’m from the Netherlands but living in Boston these days. Before moving to Boston, I lived in Amsterdam. I was working for our European headquarters in Rotterdam. Nowadays, I’m working from our US headquarters in Boston. >>>

Bootstrapping to $13 Million from the UK: David Lloyd, CEO of The Intern Group (Part 1)

I am very bullish about market opportunities that are large enough to build sizable businesses but not large enough such that VCs end up funding numerous competing companies. This case study shows you how a niche player with a $150 million TAM is growing nicely without outside financing.

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?

David Lloyd: I’m from the UK. I was born in London. I spent the first 22 years of my life in London before spending >>>