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Building a Technology Product Company From India: Varun Singh, Founder and CTO of ScaleArc (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: This was what year?

Varun Singh: This was 2009.

Sramana Mitra: What is ScaleArc?

Varun Singh: ScaleArc is a database traffic management company. We provide a software that runs on top of MySQL and provide users the ability to run on a distributed data source without having to understand the application.

Sramana Mitra: You started this in India? >>>

Building a Cyber Security Company from Israel: Aki Eldar, CEO of Secure Islands (Part 1)

Security is the venture industry’s most active segment. It is also the most crowded segment, and unless you have deep domain knowledge, you cannot play in the business. Aki and his brother do have deep domain knowledge and have leveraged that to build an exciting company.

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

Aki Eldar: I was born in Israel more than 50 years ago. I’m just past 50. Like any typical Israeli, I graduated high school, moved to military and finished my military duties. I also worked for the Israeli government for a few years. Then, I graduated with a Bachelor in Management and Economics and started my journey in the high tech industry.

Sramana Mitra: What year did you finish your education and enter the industry? >>>

Building a Technology Product Company From India: Varun Singh, Founder and CTO of ScaleArc (Part 3)

Varun Singh: They had a lot of problems with the website. They weren’t search engine optimized. They really didn’t have any traffic other than the traffic that CNBC would push to them by doing TV advertising. I’m like, “It’ll take you guys a long time to figure out how to go ahead and do this. I am really out of media.” The point is I was done with all of this stuff. Here’s somebody who’s reaching out to you and I was being completely immature.

Sramana Mitra: And arrogant.

Varun Singh: Yes, and arrogant. Somehow, it worked out. He forwarded that email to his CEO. He’s like, “We’ll meet later but first, you’re going to meet my CEO.” I go meet the CEO and repeat the same things I said on the mail but of course in a more respectful manner. He said, “Why don’t you sit down with Money Control team and give them your feedback.” I gave them first-level feedback and they called back within a few days. They wanted more. I gave them more feedback and thought, “These guys seem to be understanding some of it. It might become another consulting gig I can do on the side.” >>>

When Will the Design Innovation Bubble Burst?

By Guest Author Soren Petersen

Return on investment is diminishing for all businesses and investors are rushing to Silicon Valley startups to improve their portfolios’ performance in the hunt for profit. High profile successful startups, such as AirBnB, Uber, and Tesla may mistakenly lead investors into believing that by applying design, innovative startups can dramatically change the odds of creating breakthrough innovations and successful businesses. What will happen when the music stops and there are just too few chairs to go around? >>>

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later: Ensighten CEO Josh Manion (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: This is something that we are very much in alignment with. Our principle in the 1M/1M methodology is ‘Bootstrap first and raise money later’. The more you can do without raising money and the more carefully and more thoughtfully you can setup the foundations of your business outside of a venture clock, the better off you are in every dimension. You are essentially a great case study of exactly that philosophy.

Josh Manion: It sounds like we have a similar view on this. If I were meeting for coffee with an entrepreneur asking for advice, I would be saying, “What’s the fastest way for you to get a product to market and start learning from your customer? How can you do that yourself? What corners can you cut so that you can be the one who does that without going out and raising real money?” Angel money is maybe a little bit in the gray area depending on who it comes from. You’re never more efficient than when you’re spending your own money.

Sramana Mitra: No question about that. You raised money in 2012 and you raised a substantial amount. >>>

Do It For Me Analytics: Anil Kaul, CEO of Absolutdata (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What was the concept of Absolutdata?

Anil Kaul: While I was at Personify, I had realized that analytics is a very powerful concept. This is going to be an area which will have a big impact on how businesses are done. That’s the first part. I also realized that as analytics becomes a bigger part of businesses, there’s going to be an issue with skills. We decided to open up an office in India while focusing and targeting clients in the US.

Sramana Mitra: Did you have funding for that? What was the structure of Absolutdata at the beginning?

Anil Kaul: It was completely self-financed. We financed it ourselves and continued like that for a while actually.

Sramana Mitra: This India-US model that you were doing, was there an anchor customer that you were able to get at the very beginning with that concept? >>>

Building a Technology Product Company From India: Varun Singh, Founder and CTO of ScaleArc (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: I didn’t find studying engineering boring at all.

Varun Singh: The guys at PC Quest were so exciting. It probably wasn’t boring, but I started working with people who were a little too exciting at that point in time.

Sramana Mitra: At 18, you were in Mumbai working for Chip Magazine. How long did that go on?

Varun Singh: I was there for about three and a half years.

Sramana Mitra: That brings us up to what year?

Varun Singh: I joined them in January 2002. >>>

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later: Ensighten CEO Josh Manion (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. I see what you’re doing. Did you start this company in 2012?

Josh Manion: 2009.

Sramana Mitra: At that point, you self-financed this company based on money from your consulting firm, right?

Josh Manion: That’s right. My wife and I decided that we would bootstrap it while we were building the technology. That started at the end of 2009. That mode persisted until September of 2012 when we closed our Series A.

Sramana Mitra: Were you doing all this in Chicago? >>>