Featured Videos

Bootstrapping From Germany: Cleverbridge CEO Christian Blume (Part 3)

Christian Blume: What it allowed us to do was put different checkout processes. We didn’t care whether this was checkout processes built on our engine or something that we would compare against—somebody that was running on an in-house solution or an outsourced solution. We really compare how the conversion rates really evolve with the implementation of those different checkout processes. The good part about this was that our engine’s flexibility allowed us to generate much higher conversion rates. Most of the time, we came in there and we were able to bump up the bottom line revenue by, sometimes, up to 20%, which is huge.

Sramana Mitra: 20% bump-up in revenue is huge. If you don’t mind, I’m going to dig deeper. Let’s do a use case. Were you going after large e-commerce sites? What kind of sites were you going after?

Christian Blume: Our target market was never the small shareware publishers who were selling a couple of licenses on a monthly basis. We were going after those organizations who would be selling 100,000 licenses on a daily or weekly basis. It was experienced e-commerce companies. >>>

Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What year was that?

Henry Albrecht: I quit my job at the end of 2005 and founded the company at the beginning of 2006.

Sramana Mitra: This is Limeade, yes?

Henry Albrecht: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: You have a product management background. Walk me through the product management process that you came up with in turning this nebulous concept into a startup? >>>

Building an SMB SaaS Business: Stitch Labs CEO Brandon Levey (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You decided to work hard in grad school?

Brandon Levey: Yes. I finished my grad school with an exchange program. The University of Michigan, University of Friedberg in Germany, and University of Tokyo had an exchange. We were the first batch to actually do the physical exchange. I went to Germany for four months to do research there. I did a lot of research both in MEMS and circuits.

Sramana Mitra: What year does that bring us up to?

Brandon Levey: That brings us up to 2006.

Sramana Mitra: What happens next? >>>

Bootstrapping From Germany: Cleverbridge CEO Christian Blume (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Now that we’ve gone through the background analysis, position the product for me. Which customers are you going after? Specifically, what was the value proposition that you were going to deliver?

Christian Blume: We didn’t want to deliver a me-too product because there had been so many go’s at this already over the years. All of the companies that started out in this area, what they offered was a website that was password-secured. When you entered the password, you’d get into an administration site. You have the opportunity to update basic information. You can change the color, upload the logo, and create products. Some of those services offered limited promotion capabilities.

When we went in to the market in 2005, we figured that it was really time to change the approach of how we would like to tackle this market from a variety of different angles. >>>

Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What did you do after that?

Henry Albrecht: So, I was quite jaded by the world of business. I wanted something with more meaning. Luckily, I was admitted to Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School. Frankly, I wasn’t even sure I wanted an MBA or to be in business at all, but I don’t have the temperament or patience to be a novelist or any of the other things I thought I wanted to do when I was young. Mentally, I was well-equipped to be in business, but I wasn’t committed until I went to business school. I fell in love with marketing, technology, and human capital. I liked thinking about teams and people in business the same way I think about teams in sports. How do you get people all aligned and going in the same direction?

This was the dot-com era, so there was so much electric energy pouring into innovation and technology. To me, marketing was revolutionized by the Internet and applying a lot of interesting economic models to how new technologies were being adopted in the marketplace. I totally fell in love with it. I knew I had to work in Silicon Valley and at a great company that, not only has technology, but also has the power of a brand and team. >>>

Building an SMB SaaS Business: Stitch Labs CEO Brandon Levey (Part 1)

I am quite bullish on SaaS solutions for the SMB market. Here’s one that is doing well.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the very beginning. Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Brandon Levey: I was born and raised in Michigan. My family has a long history of entrepreneurship—from my great grandparents to my dad and his siblings. I started driving to work with my dad when I was five years old. He would pay me $5 a day to just sit with him on certain weekdays to visit clients. I started working in his sheet metal shop on Saturdays when I was nine. I wasn’t allowed to use all of the tools because I was only nine. I started working full-time for him over the summers between eighth grade and ninth grade. I worked as a commercial installer. Before I could drive, he would drop me off and pick me up at six at night. He made sure that others didn’t treat me like the boss’ son, which was nice. >>>

Bootstrapping From Germany: Cleverbridge CEO Christian Blume (Part 1)

We’re always impressed by entrepreneurs who manage to build sizeable companies without outside capital. Read how Cleverbridge has maneuvered to $40 million in revenue and doesn’t want to deal with venture capital and private equity.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background?

Christian Blume: I was born in Cologne, Germany. I moved over to the US when I was seven years old. I stayed for two years in Detroit. Then, I moved back to Germany again for a couple of years. When I was 15, I moved to London and did my International Baccalaureate over there. Then I moved back to Germany again and did my apprenticeship as a car mechanic. I then went to study Economics and went to an asset management company based out of Frankfurt, which was addressing high net worth individuals who needed investment opportunities. >>>

Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht (Part 1)

Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint, usually! Persistence pays, as Henry’s story beautifully illustrates!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of circumstances? What is the backstory to the Limeade story?

Henry Albrecht: I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. I’m the youngest of four boys. I think that probably says a lot about my personality, competitiveness, and desire to be heard. I had two wonderful parents who embodied the Midwestern work ethic. My dad was raised on a farm in Iowa. He was the man of the family at age 10 when his father passed away. He was driving a tractor before he could reach the pedals. He brought that into the way that we were raised, which was to work hard and be successful. As the youngest, I was always trying to beat my older brothers even though they beat me a lot more often than I beat them. >>>