categories

HOT TOPICS

Entrepreneur Case Studies

Bootstrapping Using Services, then Raising $10M and Scaling to $16M: EZOPS Co-Founders Sarva Srinivasan and Dutt Chintalapati (Part 2)

Posted on Friday, Oct 29th 2021

Sramana Mitra: Can either one of you summarize Bikram’s background?

Sarva Srinivasan: Bikram spent most of his time in banking. He graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and then went on to work at McKinsey for a year or so. He then worked at Lehman, Goldman, and Citi. He comes from a background of building and running services operations at banks. 

Sramana Mitra: Tell me about what was the analysis of the market and where did you position EZOPS.

>>>
Hacker News
() Comments

Bootstrapping Using Services, then Raising $10M and Scaling to $16M: EZOPS Co-Founders Sarva Srinivasan and Dutt Chintalapati (Part 1)

Posted on Thursday, Oct 28th 2021

This is a text book case study of founders with deep domain knowledge in starting with services and then productizing, eventually raising institutional capital.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where were you born? Where does your journey begin? 

>>>
Hacker News
() Comments

From Student Entrepreneur to a $15 Million Revenue Ultralight Business: Stephanie Madesh, CEO of Kalon Clothing (Part 5)

Posted on Monday, Oct 11th 2021

Sramana Mitra: You were finding all these levers at the right moment. Timing is really hard to get, but when you get it right, it works really well. What kind of revenue level were you at in 2015?

Stephanie Madesh: We would have been at $3.5 million.

Sramana Mitra: How many people now?

Stephanie Madesh: 12 employees.

>>>
Hacker News
() Comments

From Student Entrepreneur to a $15 Million Revenue Ultralight Business: Stephanie Madesh, CEO of Kalon Clothing (Part 4)

Posted on Sunday, Oct 10th 2021

Sramana Mitra: Were you selling this under private label, or was it still retail?

Stephanie Madesh: We were selling it as the Kalon brand. It was our own design. We were still a boutique. But if you can imagine Forever21 when they started, they had their own label and all the labels that they carried.

Sramana Mitra: It’s very common in the fashion business. They start with selling other people’s brands and then pick up categories in which they offer their own brands. Your strategy is exactly in line with what retail companies do.

>>>
Hacker News
() Comments

From Student Entrepreneur to a $15 Million Revenue Ultralight Business: Stephanie Madesh, CEO of Kalon Clothing (Part 3)

Posted on Saturday, Oct 9th 2021

Sramana Mitra: What happened in 2010?

Stephanie Madesh: We doubled that year. We were at the $300,000 level. That was two-fold. We had started a print-on-demand. That had its own website. That drove the other $150,000 in sales.

Sramana Mitra: What were you printing on demand? T-shirts?

>>>
Hacker News
() Comments

From Student Entrepreneur to a $15 Million Revenue Ultralight Business: Stephanie Madesh, CEO of Kalon Clothing (Part 2)

Posted on Friday, Oct 8th 2021

Sramana Mitra: Was the age group you were trying to go after your own age group?

Stephanie Madesh: Yes. I was going after the 20- to 30-year-old market back then. As it evolved, my customers base were more in the 20- to 60-year old category.

Sramana Mitra: How did you acquire the customers?

>>>
Hacker News
() Comments

From Student Entrepreneur to a $15 Million Revenue Ultralight Business: Stephanie Madesh, CEO of Kalon Clothing (Part 1)

Posted on Thursday, Oct 7th 2021

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

Stephanie was a Sophomore in college when she started her venture.

Wonderful story of a student entrepreneur growing into a multi-million dollar ultra-light e-commerce business.

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?

>>>
Hacker News
() Comments

From Student Entrepreneur to a $15 Million Revenue Ultralight Business: Stephanie Madesh, CEO of Kalon Clothing (Part 6)

Posted on Wednesday, Oct 6th 2021

Sramana Mitra: What percentage of your business is the plus size?

Stephanie Madesh: From 2x up, we run about 30%. Men’s is higher – about 35%. We go up to 4x for men’s. For women’s, we go up to 2x on a knitted item and 4x for the rest.

Sramana Mitra: What other categories are big winners for you?

>>>
Hacker News
() Comments