Entrepreneurship in Heavy-Duty Technology: Digital Asset CEO Yuval Rooz (Part 2)

Yuval Rooz: I landed at DRW, a trading company based out of Chicago. I quickly fell in love with the company because it was an entrepreneurial company. The owner, Don Wilson, allowed the employees to explore new ideas as long as those ideas were aligned with what the company does. I enjoyed that environment.

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later from Houston: Onit CEO Eric Elfman (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Did you bring in an outside CEO or did you promote somebody from the inside?

Eric Elfman: I had hired a COO who became the CEO. 

Sramana Mitra: Was that the person who sold to the company that had already been a strategic investor? The exit path was already laid out? You just build longer and sell it at a higher price. 

Entrepreneurship in Heavy-Duty Technology: Digital Asset CEO Yuval Rooz (Part 1)

I always love to cover entrepreneurs who push the envelope on high horsepower technology. Digital Asset has. Fascinating story!

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?

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later from Houston: Onit CEO Eric Elfman (Part 3)

Eric Elfman: There was a pretty rich population of angels that if you had the patience and time, you could touch. 

Sramana Mitra: Were these Houston angels?

Eric Elfman: The majority were, but we eventually stretched out to Louisiana, a little bit in California, and even in the UK. It started with people in Houston. They had friends that wanted to get in on it, so it got wider.

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later from Houston: Onit CEO Eric Elfman (Part 2)

Eric Elfman: The data search idea was to remove the paper invoice system and switch to electronic invoices directly from the law firms and run them against the rules and validate them. The result of that was a 5% to 10% savings on the money they were spending with the law firms just by enforcing guidelines that were already set.

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later from Houston: Onit CEO Eric Elfman (Part 1)

Eric has built two sizable companies in legal tech from Houston. Great journey!

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 with Services: Codesigned CEO Jake Weaver (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What happened in 2019? How much did you do?

Jake Weaver: That was the $5 million year. That was the breakout from where we had been before. For anybody that talks about valuations, a professional services firm is not valued as a product company. Even though revenue was staying the same, the value was increasing.

Bootstrapping with Services: Codesigned CEO Jake Weaver (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Just so you know, we have a whole methodology in our program around Bootstrapping Using Services. It’s something that we do a lot of in the program.

It’s something we have numerous case studies on. We have encountered what you’re talking about several times before. It works. I think you will go on to tell us that it will work.