Bootstrapping Using Services: George Anderson, CEO of Ninth Wave (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: When did that episode happen? Was it when you did this repackaging?

George Anderson: Yes, when I did the repackaging. It was in 2001. 

Sramana Mitra: From 2001 to 2008, you ran as a bootstrapped company. How far did you get between your services, training, and software?

Bootstrapping Using Services: George Anderson, CEO of Ninth Wave (Part 4)

George Anderson: Here is a lesson I learned. It’s very relevant to bootstrapping using services. I said, “How do we take this business to the next level?” The answer was to go out and raise some capital. I hired Jeffries and we put together an information memorandum and a package, and we went out and started to pitch to companies.

I heard two things from people that were frustrating. The majority of the people that I pitched to said, “We love the software, but we hate the services. Services are unscalable.”

Bootstrapping Using Services: George Anderson, CEO of Ninth Wave (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How long did you do the high-end data teaching business?

George Anderson: Up until 9/11. My learning center was in Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. They called it the Silicon Valley. I was in the information technology center during 9/11. 9/11 put it out of business. 

Sramana Mitra: Did your technology consulting business remain?

Bootstrapping Using Services: George Anderson, CEO of Ninth Wave (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Enterprise Engineering was an enterprise technology consulting firm?

George Anderson: It was and still is. 

Sramana Mitra: That is the company that we are talking about today?

Bootstrapping Using Services: George Anderson, CEO of Ninth Wave (Part 1)

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

George offers another case study for our very popular Bootstrapping Using Services track.

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, Managing a Successful Pivot: Oomnitza CEO Arthur Lozinski (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How much did you raise this year?

Arthur Lozinski: We raised $12.5 million. 

Sramana Mitra: What metrics did you raise on?

Arthur Lozinski: We believe that we have a massive market. We have tons of customers who agree. We are growing at a nice rate. We think that the market opportunity is growing. There will be only more computers in the world and not less.

Bootstrapping Using Services, Managing a Successful Pivot: Oomnitza CEO Arthur Lozinski (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You said that this was a fast transactional sale that was solving a big problem. Can you succinctly summarize what the problem was that you were speaking to and successfully closing deals on?

Arthur Lozinski: The way that the companies were thinking about this problem was like checking a box. You work in IT, so you need to know where your connected devices are. It was rudimentary and transactional. We didn’t know how to articulate it then, but what we know now is that knowing where your devices are is a security measure and a compliance measure.

Bootstrapping Using Services, Managing a Successful Pivot: Oomnitza CEO Arthur Lozinski (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You have ten customers that you got rapidly. Where are we in the chronology? What year are we in now?

Arthur Lozinski: 2014. 

Sramana Mitra: What kind of contract sizes was this from a financial point of view?