Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later: Criteria CEO Josh Millet (Part 1)

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

Josh has bootstrapped Criteria to almost $5M in revenue before raising funding.

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

A Case Study in Equity Crowdfunding: Cary Breese, CEO of NowRx (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: We did a case study on Modernizing Medicine. You may be familiar with this company. This person is an experienced entrepreneur who has done it before. Their product is also a health IT product.

They didn’t use an equity crowdfunding platform. They just did a very successful funding round with physicians and had their customer base invest in their company. 

A Case Study in Equity Crowdfunding: Cary Breese, CEO of NowRx (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about your financing strategy. How have you financed this venture? 

Cary Breese: We’ve been a little unique. To start, we raised a seed round of funding from family, friends, and advisors. We ended up raising $3 million that way over two years. From just a family and friends network, my co-founder and I raised $3 million in $25,000 increments. It took us to where we had substantial revenue and customer base.

A Case Study in Equity Crowdfunding: Cary Breese, CEO of NowRx (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Where were these customers coming from? What was the customer acquisition strategy?

Cary Breese: We knew that the point of sale or service for pharmacies is inside the doctor’s office. When I was in the doctor’s office, he was the one who decided that I was going to get a prescription. It wasn’t me or the consumer that decides if they are going to get the prescription.

A Case Study in Equity Crowdfunding: Cary Breese, CEO of NowRx (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: When you started digging into this problem, what did you learn about the competitive landscape because, today, online pharmacies are present. 

Cary Breese: What struck me immediately was that the products themselves that pharmacies maintain in their inventory are fairly non-perishable commodity items.

A Case Study in Equity Crowdfunding: Cary Breese, CEO of NowRx (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: In 2010, you gained some significant domain knowledge in the insurance domain. What happens next?

Cary Breese: I got interested in the broader startup industry. Although I had some deep experience in insurance, I was always an engineer by background. I was interested in technologies of various industries.

A Case Study in Equity Crowdfunding: Cary Breese, CEO of NowRx ( Part 1)

Equity Crowdfunding has matured significantly. In this case study, we get to learn some interesting nuances.

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

Bootstrapping Using Services: George Anderson, CEO of Ninth Wave (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Who did you raise money from?

George Anderson: It was from a company called Soros private equity. 

Sramana Mitra: How much revenue was the software business generating when you brought this firm in?

George Anderson: I don’t want to get it wrong, so I’d rather not say that one.