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Student Entrepreneurs Bootstrapping a Zero-Logistics E-Commerce Company to $19 Million: Wrist-Band.com CEO Azim Makanojiya (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: For the keyword search traffic that you were getting from Google, to convert that into an order, were you taking orders and then ordering the products from the Chinese factory?

Azim Makanojiya: At that point, order volume wasn’t high. We didn’t have a platform for them to order online at that point in 2010. We were taking orders over the phone, jotting it down on an order sheet that we created, and submit that every night. That’s how the process initially worked.

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Bootstrapping to Inc. 500: Tallie CEO Chris Farrell (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Talk to me about your team. I know you started very lean. That’s how successful bootstrapped companies tend to operate. What do you operate with today?

Chris Farrell: Our first key hire was outside of tech. After that, we started with a user interface expert who’s now our VP of Product Marketing. He was instrumental in laying down the long-term vision and very helpful in successfully finding the next market opportunity in terms of growth and making the pivot. After that, we started to build mostly around developers and what we call product experts. We started out with a traditional model, which was to hire sales and support people. We realized that when we are selling to a professional audience, >>>

Building a Successful Social Media Business from Germany: Moviepilot CEO Tobias Bauckhage (Part 6)

Sramana: Recommendation engines are very difficult to do. How did you build your algorithm?

Tobias Bauckhage: First, we filtered by domain. Users may share similar interest in comedies but have completely different interest in horror films. It is also important to understand the content. You see people doing collaborative filtering or a deeper “DNA” analysis, which is how Pandora analyzes music. If we had a million users, then we can group them in the thousands who have similar tastes. Then we can look at the categories, such as car chase films, and see what feedback has been within that group and make recommendations to others in that group who have not seen those films. >>>

Student Entrepreneurs Bootstrapping a Zero-Logistics E-Commerce Company to $19 Million: Wrist-Band.com CEO Azim Makanojiya (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Why that? What prompted your interest in that area specifically?

Azim Makanojiya: We were at this e-commerce conference where it all started. There was a presenter there who was about 19 years old and had started a wristband company. He talked about his company and how he did his business. All his products were made in the US. He had a huge overhead. He talked about how it’s hard for competition to come in because of the way he manufactured. All his credentials were online. He presented his financials like how much he started with and how much he built up to, and how much the demand was. >>>

Bootstrapping to Inc. 500: Tallie CEO Chris Farrell (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: We just did the story about Expensify. Of course, they really benefitted from the heavy mobile adoption. Their go-to-market strategy is completely from mobile users. People in an organization start using their applications and then, they go and tell their accounting department, “We want to continue to use this. We should go buy it.” Then their customers come and buy it. They are growing steadily very well. It’s an organic growth strategy. Was that mobile adoption a major technological shift that threw you into this kind of pivot three years back?

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Building a Successful Social Media Business from Germany: Moviepilot CEO Tobias Bauckhage (Part 5)

Sramana: In 2007 you decided to move forward with your plan to disrupt the industry. What were your thoughts?

Tobias Bauckhage: In 2007 the tech industry was back on its feet. Social media was becoming mainstream. We saw a few opportunities. We felt we had a good understanding of how the film industry worked. We knew enough to try to disrupt a bit. One thought was to create an independent distribution label to provide digital distribution for films that were from independent producers. We would accumulate the Internet rights to those movies as well so that we could offer them online. We could also license our catalogue to others. >>>

Student Entrepreneurs Bootstrapping a Zero-Logistics E-Commerce Company to $19 Million: Wrist-Band.com CEO Azim Makanojiya (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What happened the first time you showed up and saw that you’re a young kid. Do they mind?

Azim Makanojiya: I was a little afraid that they would mind. I had a professional attitude from the start. I wouldn’t go in wearing jeans and a shirt but would be properly dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt. I was trying to grow a business that I just started. I think I always had that business mentality because of my dad. He started his business here and I was involved with him as well.

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Bootstrapping to Inc. 500: Tallie CEO Chris Farrell (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Is the content that you’re preparing and publishing still directed towards the accountants and CPA community who are coming to your site to engage with that content?

Chris Farrell: Absolutely. We view it as a two-for-one because they get familiar with us. It’s wonderful from a brand association perspective.

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