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From Y Combinator to Customer Traction and $50 Million in Financing: MemSQL CEO Eric Frenkiel (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What is the go-to market strategy?

Eric Frenkiel: We started the company with zero code. Since we had that ability to focus on what we wanted to build into the product, we’ve been able to build enterprise-grade features into MemSQL in a very short period of time. Our hurried go-to market strategy is building our field teams to sell to our most likely customers in the Fortune 500 segment that need high performance solutions for their problems.

Sramana Mitra: You went to YCombinator in 2010?

Eric Frenkiel: We started in the winter of 2011 class, which kicked off at the beginning of 2011. >>>

A Textbook Case Study of Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Bhavin Parikh, CEO of Magoosh (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: At what point did you actually start getting more deliberate and intentional about the customer acquisition?

Bhavin Parikh: To fill in the timeline, that was fall of 2009 when we launched the product. We were still in school. During that time, we actually tried hard to figure out customer acquisition but we really just couldn’t figure it out. There was a bit of a struggle. Then, one of those GMAT forums really liked what we were doing. They reached out to us and said, “We want to partner with you. We are interested in co-branding your product and selling it to our user base.”

They had a fairly sizeable user base. It was a thousand times more than what we had. We thought that was a great opportunity and we all got stars in our eyes. We had this incredible user base. We thought that if we create this co-branded product, we’ll just sell it to their user base and then get 1% per purchase. Because as a naïve entrepreneur, you just assume that and you don’t think about the drop-off in the funnel. >>>

Bootstrapping from Belgium: iText CEO Bruno Lowagie (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Was this something that you created on the side? It was your own intellectual property.

Bruno Lowagie: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: This was in 2000?

Bruno Lowagie: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: What does that first release mean? Did you give it to the open source?

Bruno Lowagie: I released it initially in LGPL library but then a couple of months later, to be useful in business, people wanted it to be available under the MPL too. It was free as in free beer in 2000 because the LGPL and MPL are rather liberal. I always compare iText with an engine. If >>>

From Y Combinator to Customer Traction and $50 Million in Financing: MemSQL CEO Eric Frenkiel (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What is the rationale behind relational database at this point?

Eric Frenkiel: That’s a great question. In fact, it’s one of the first questions our investors asked us, “Why are you building a relational database? The entire world is going to NoSQL.” We had a very contrarian view at that time, which was that the world will remain SQL. We have proven time and time again with every new vendor effectively reinventing the wheel with SQL. You cannot analyze your data if you do not have SQL access.

To get to the real point, everyone knows SQL. It’s a universal language. It’s lasting power is going to be measured in centuries. We have a tremendous belief that it is the easiest way to analyze your data which is why it’s been the most successful implementation for any database over the last 40 years. >>>

A Textbook Case Study of Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Bhavin Parikh, CEO of Magoosh (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: I have two questions. This was not a freelancer. It was a development company ,but you took one guy out of that company as a dedicated resource.

Bhavin Parikh: That is correct.

Sramana Mitra: How did you find it? How did you select this particular company?

Bhavin Parikh: In our case, Pejman found the company. He asked others who had outsourced for recommendations. Generally, I think recommendations are a great way to go because you have evidence from people who’ve worked with the company before. When we look for contractors even today, I just reach out to my network. >>>

Bootstrapping from Belgium: iText CEO Bruno Lowagie (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Then what happens next?

Bruno Lowagie: I had three different jobs in the first two years of my career because I saw myself as a guru. When I went to a job interview, I said, “I want to be the guru in something.” Obviously, they said, “We don’t need a guru. We need somebody to write the right codes.” I worked for system integrators for two years.

Then there was a university professor who knew me because I had worked earlier for the Flemish government. I had worked on a research and development project to develop state-of-the-art GIS systems. This professor had also worked for the government and knew my work. He recruited me for Gent University between 1998 and 2010 to write codes. I rewrote the complete student administration system. >>>

From Y Combinator to Customer Traction and $50 Million in Financing: MemSQL CEO Eric Frenkiel (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How long did you stay at Facebook?

Eric Frenkiel: Not very long, it was for 10 months in total. It was an amazing opportunity. We ultimately left Facebook because we had a bigger opportunity that we wanted to build. That was MemSQL. We joined in 2010 and left in early 2011. That was a big decision because an extra two months would have meant a quarter of the shares, but it happened to coincide with YCombinator, which have fixed start dates. If you don’t start on the fixed date, you’d miss the class. In many ways, it was an easier decision because you just walk away. You look forward to the next venture.

Sramana Mitra: You took your idea and applied to YCombinator?

Eric Frenkiel: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: You had co-founders? >>>

A Textbook Case Study of Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Bhavin Parikh, CEO of Magoosh (Part 1)

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

Bhavin Parikh and his now departed co-founder Hansoo Lee have built Magoosh with textbook diligence and great discipline. Along the way, Hansoo died of lung cancer, a tragedy that hangs over the company both as misfortune and as inspiration. Read this wonderful story of young Berkeley students pulling together a great business and executing with straight up common sense.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where are you raised and in what kind of background?

Bhavin Parikh: I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My parents are from India. They’re both physicians. At some point, I thought about becoming a doctor but during an internship, I fainted. So I knew that path wasn’t for me. I went to Duke University for undergrad and pursued degrees in Economics and Computer Science. Then, I moved to Philadelphia where I worked for Deloitte in technology consulting, right at the intersection of business and technology. It allowed me to utilize both of my degrees and work with people. >>>