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Concept-Financing $8.5 Million: Gaurav Rewari, CEO of Numerify (Part 1)

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

Gaurav has deep domain expertise in the BI space, something he has leveraged to concept-finance a new venture to the tune of $8.5 million. Read how he is building the company, especially how he has positioned the company. Fast growth businesses only happen if you can position them right to begin with.

Sramana Mitra: Where are you from? Where did you grow up? What’s the beginning of the story?

Gaurav Rewari: I was born in Bombay, India, as it was called then. I grew up and did my schooling in Bombay. I then moved to the US after high school. I was fortunate enough to earn a scholarship to MIT. I went there for undergraduate work and stayed on to do graduate work as well. I was there from ’80s to mid-’90s. After that, I joined a startup called MicroStrategy based out of Delaware. It was a company started by an MIT graduate senior to me. It had about 13 to 14 people. I was thinking of doing a Ph.D. so I interrupted that to join a startup just to get a feel for what it was like. I’d initially thought that I would do that for one year. That one year never ended. >>>

Bootstrapping in Minnesota: Praful Saklani, CEO of Pramata (Part 1)

Minnesota seems to be developing well as a hub for tech startups. With a strong culture of bootstrapping, we’re seeing a lot of entrepreneurs building high growth businesses.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your personal journey. Tell me a bit about where you were born and raised and in what kind of circumstances.

Praful Saklani: I was actually born in the United Kingdom. My family is from North India. When I was four years old, we moved from the UK to Minneapolis. Throughout that whole process of growing up in Minnesota, I also traveled back to India, at least, once every two years. We’d spend a lot of time with my family there. I would say that I actually grew up both in the US and India. Even when I visit India, I would actually spend time in villages and up in the mountain. It’s a nice broad perspective of a good mid-western upbringing and a good north Indian upbringing too. That’s a bit of a cultural context.

Sramana Mitra: I spoke to somebody else who’s from rural Minnesota who has built a $5 million company with no outside financing just before you. >>>

Bootstrapping to $55 Million from Rural Minnesota: Tom Fallenstein, CEO of Fun.com (Part 1)

Tom has built a kick-ass e-commerce company out of rural Minnesota that he hopes to build up into a billion dollar business.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised, in what kind of environment?

Tom Fallenstein: I was born in Minnesota in a small town about an hour and a half south of Minneapolis. I’ve lived here all my life. I grew up just outside of the city. I went to school in Mankato for Computer Science and Graphic Design. Our mom was a seamstress. We loved Halloween. We always had the best costumes when we were little. When we got older, all of our friends wanted to borrow those costumes, so my sister decided to rent them out. That’s how the business started. >>>

Making Mass Customization Work: Jodie Fox, CEO of Shoes of Prey (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: On your website, I cannot get the shape of the boots. I don’t have the flexibility to be able to change the shape of the boots. You have a certain structure to the boots that you’re offering. You offered customization on the heels, leather, and colors but in terms of the shape of the boot, I didn’t see that I have any option of changing that shape.

Jodie Fox: Currently, no. That’s something that we would love to get to in the future. It just depends on a number of things that we would need to align.

Sramana Mitra: Team-wise, what’s happening now? How much of the company is in Australia? How much of the company is in Hong Kong and US? What has been your evolution in terms of building the company and the organization?
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Raising Money From 75 Angels: Manmeet Singh, CEO of Dataguise (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Are you selling direct? Are you selling through the channel? How are you going to market?

Manmeet Singh: Since 2013, we have had a direct sale strategy. We have Compuware as a reseller. Our product is available to be downloaded from Hortonworks on Hadoop, which recently went public. People can download and play with the product, but obviously, it will be a direct strategy because Hortonworks doesn’t want to resell our product right now.

Sramana Mitra: So far, you’ve mostly sold direct? >>>

Founding Elance, then Webaroo: Beerud Sheth’s Entrepreneurial Journey (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: What apps are getting you in the door at the enterprises?

Beerud Sheth: I think sales usually is the biggest because these are decentralized teams. Real-time information has a huge impact on sales performance. If they are behind target, they can react to it in real-time.

Sramana Mitra; Who’s buying in the sales organizations?

Beerud Sheth: Usually, the Head of Sales sees the value immediately. Of course, the execution happens with Sales Ops. These are line managers where the problem is the most acute. The senior executives get aggregated data. They don’t care. >>>

Making Mass Customization Work: Jodie Fox, CEO of Shoes of Prey (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: The seed round was mid-2012. Then two years later, you raised what you’re now calling Series A – the $5.5 million.

Jodie Fox: Yes, we did do bridge rounds in between. In November 2013, we raised $1.75 million.

Sramana Mitra: What else is interesting in your story that is worth highlighting in the journey?

Jodie Fox: Probably the manufacturing side of it. In June 2014, we opened up a manufacturing facility. On Christmas Eve in 2014, we opened our second facility that could do 10 to 22 times the output of the first facility. I think what’s interesting about that is making things one at a time is very difficult to scale. >>>

Raising Money From 75 Angels: Manmeet Singh, CEO of Dataguise (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: In 2012, you had around $1.5 million in revenue and you had a bunch of customers. In 2013, Samsung expressed interest in both becoming a customer and an investor. That’s when you started seeing the traction from the VCs?

Manmeet Singh: Yes. Toba Capital moved faster than anybody else. My old angels have always kept the company alive. We still had a note of about $3 million to $4 million. >>>