Building a Capital Efficient Startup from Nashville: David Stange, CEO of Beachy (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Where has Tennessee been an advantage? It sounds like you’re not scaling on the basis of these telephone calls. But you had to pound the pavements from a sales point of view through an online channel.

David Stange: Yes. Nashville has been an advantage for us because we have direct  flights to every market that we service out of Nashville. The travel within Florida is garbage. You cannot get from Panama City Beach to Tampa, Panama City Beach to Fort Lauderdale, or Panama City Beach to Fort Myers. It’s very disconnected.

Building a Capital Efficient Startup from Nashville: David Stange, CEO of Beachy (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: It’s B2C?

David Stange: B2B. Our product is strictly B2B. We have a B2B2C element. We currently have hundreds of hotels that use the Beachy system. It’s a three-part solution. We have an integrated online booking engine. When I make my hotel reservation, I can see a map and I’m prompted to reserve my beach chairs in advance of my stay.

Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to $25 Million: Percona CEO Peter Zaitsev (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You had a virtual company with developers mainly from Eastern Europe.

Peter Zaitsev: Initially, yes. We gradually expanded to other countries. Now we have about 35 different countries.

Sramana Mitra: It’s still a virtual company though.

Building a Capital Efficient Startup from Nashville: David Stange, CEO of Beachy (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How did you finance this company?

David Stange: I started the company with $7,500. I lived in one of my warehouses. I traveled around to my offices with an air mattress in my trunk. I showered at truck stops for two years. Every morning, I’d wake up and go to a truck stop to shower. I’d come back, fold my air mattress, and be ready for all of my employees to show up.

Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to $25 Million: Percona CEO Peter Zaitsev (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What did you start in London?

Peter Zaitsev: I started Percona as it is now. It was a different company with different ideas.

Sramana Mitra: When you founded Percona, what was the idea?

Building a Capital Efficient Startup from Nashville: David Stange, CEO of Beachy (Part 1)

As you know, I love doing stories on entrepreneurs from different parts of the world, especially from geographies that have insignificant presence on the entrepreneurship map of the world.

Here’s a wonderful story from Nashville, Tennessee.

Bootstrapping a Virtual Company to $25 Million: Percona CEO Peter Zaitsev (Part 1)

I am a huge fan of virtual companies, and here is one that has been built with excellent execution from London by a Russian entrepreneur.

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?

Peter Zaitsev: I was born in what was the Soviet Union. I studied Math and Computer Science in Moscow State University. I started my first startup company while studying.

Bootstrapping a Tech Company by an English Major: Kevin Groome, Founder of Pica9 (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: I’d like to cover this CEO transition, which is always a tricky thing to do. For founders to let go and bring on a new CEO is a tricky transition. How did you do it? What wisdom do you have to offer for people who are trying to do that?

Kevin Groome: Let go of the suspicion that you’re irrelevant. For so many years, I felt like Pica9 was my fourth child and the most troubling of them all. Letting go of that and letting the organization stand on its own two feet can’t happen if I’m constantly doubting itself. Trust is huge – the trust in the whole organization.