Buying Back a Business: ShareBuilder 401k CEO Stuart Robertson (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What is the technology angle to this?

Stuart Robertson: All our plans are sold online. We enable anyone to come to the site, get a quote, and buy the plan.

Sramana Mitra: How do people become aware of the fact that you exist?

Serial Entrepreneurship in CAD: SolidWorks and Onshape Founder Jon Hirschtick (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What were you doing at this point that got you to Kleiner Perkins?

Jon Hirschtick: I started when I was 24. I was probably 26 years old at this point. I didn’t know what I was doing. Part of being an entrepreneur is, you just keep doing things. You think a bit and do a lot.

Buying Back a Business: ShareBuilder 401k CEO Stuart Robertson (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What happens next?

Stuart Robertson: I jumped into telecom for seven years. At that time, telecom was going to be deregulated. They were hiring all these marketers. My first job out of grad school was running what is now part of AT&T. I was launching caller IDs and consumer voice mail.

Serial Entrepreneurship in CAD: SolidWorks and Onshape Founder Jon Hirschtick (Part 1)

Jon has founded two important CAD companies and sold both for significant exit prices. Read on for his awesome entrepreneurial journey.

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?

Buying Back a Business: ShareBuilder 401k CEO Stuart Robertson (Part 1)

Stuart built Sharebuilder 401k. The company got acquired. Recently, he has bought the business back.

Read on to understand the nuances.

Building a High Impact Social Enterprise over 20+ Years: Roberto Milk, CEO of NOVICA (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: How did your numbers track of the money that you sent to artisans as you went along?

Roberto Milk: It took us 10 years to get to $25 million. It took us another four years to get to $50 million. We got to $50 million in June of 2014.

Sramana Mitra: What is that number at now?

Roberto Milk: We just passed $100 million.

Building a High Impact Social Enterprise over 20+ Years: Roberto Milk, CEO of NOVICA (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: When 9/11 hit, you were still operating with just that $6 million in funding?

Roberto Milk: We had funding from National Geographic as well.

Sramana Mitra: What was the cash portion of that?

Roberto Milk: We don’t disclose that. It was cash and assets.

Building a High Impact Social Enterprise over 20+ Years: Roberto Milk, CEO of NOVICA (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: This is before any venture capital. You’re still working with your $1.5 million angel round.

Roberto Milk: No. In April of 2000, we did our first venture capital round.

Sramana Mitra: How much did you raise?