Bootstrapping with Sophisticated Strategy: Rob Douglas, CEO of BioConnect (Part 1)

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

Rob has built a thriving founder-financed business from Toronto using very sophisticated strategic maneuvering. I just loved discussing the strategic nuances of this business. You’ll learn a LOT from reading this story.

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?

Rob Douglas: I’m a Canadian. I was born just outside of Toronto. I have grown up in and around the city of Toronto. I’m >>>

Leveraging Domain Knowledge and Network: Ari Paparo, CEO of Beeswax (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What does an average deal like Foursquare amount to? Are we talking enterprise deals in the millions?

Ari Paparo: I don’t want to speak about Foursquare in particular. Our minimum deal size is $100,000 year and it goes up from there. We have customers in the high six figures.

Sramana Mitra: As you have penetrated the market, where have you seen the maximum traction in the last two years? >>>

$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: You are acquiring these customers through these kinds of channels – through computers at work.

Issa Asad: We acquire 100% of our customers online. >>>

Leveraging Domain Knowledge and Network: Ari Paparo, CEO of Beeswax (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Who are the customers? Who are the ones who want to run this kind of media buying?

Ari Paparo: There are two kinds of customers that we’ve been selling to. One is media companies. A lot of media companies are selling ads to brands and to advertisers directly, but they’re not always using the ad inventory on their own site. They’re buying that ad inventory on the exchange. One of our customers is Foursquare. They use their location data to find consumers who meet the requirements of their advertisers.

Sramana Mitra: They work directly with advertisers. They somehow juxtapose their location data on top of 

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$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How does the business model split? How much of it is affiliate?

Issa Asad: I started converting all my energies to just doing this. All of it is strictly direct to consumer marketing. I’m a Facebook and Google customer where a lot of companies went out and they were trying to buy marketing from Facebook and Google. I have queries for Google and Facebook in my office every two weeks.

Sramana Mitra: Describe your current business in two sentences. >>>

Leveraging Domain Knowledge and Network: Ari Paparo, CEO of Beeswax (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You moved on from there to work for Google?

Ari Paparo: Yes, they kept almost everyone. Now it’s a powerhouse in advertising. A lot of Google’s success outside of search really belongs to DoubleClick.

Sramana Mitra: Your career at DoubleClick was in product management?

Ari Paparo: Yes, I was the Director of Product Management. I was in charge of all the products that were sold to agencies and advertisers. >>>

$200 Million in Revenue Catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid: Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: In 2007, you started this affiliate network. How long did it take you to arrive at that inflection point where you figured out that Beauty was the category that you wanted to focus on?

Issa Asad: It took almost two years.

Sramana Mitra: That’s not unusual though. It takes time to experiment.

Issa Asad: What took time was being able to figure out what product to sell. It took time to figure out how to make it work at a good cost. These companies wouldn’t pay too much for cost of acquisition. I figured out the category, then I figured out how to >>>

Leveraging Domain Knowledge and Network: Ari Paparo, CEO of Beeswax (Part 1)

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

If you have great domain knowledge and a domain-specific network, both of those can be leveraged to build excellent companies with reasonable amounts of capital and minimum friction. Beeswax is an excellent case in point.

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?

Ari Paparo: I’m a lifelong New Yorker. I’ve lived here most of my life. I went to college in Washington DC and pretty quickly >>>