Roundtable Recap: October 21 – Bootstrapping Comes In Many Flavors

At today’s roundtable, we had some interesting discussions on creative bootstrapping. I am always fascinated by how innovative entrepreneurs get creative when faced with resource crunches.

First up today was Justin Beck with PerBlue, a mobile and social gaming company that makes the iPhone and Android game Parallel Kingdom that has been in the market for a couple of years. PerBlue develops and markets its own game, and today, is at about a $35,000–$40,000 per month run rate from 200,000 users.
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October 21 Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here.

Bringing Together Content And Commerce In Men’s Fashion: JackThreads Founder Jason Ross (Part 4)

Sramana: In the beginning, did you have different merchandise for sale every day?

Jason Ross: In the beginning we did sales three times a week, and we rotated the merchandise so each sale had something new. A couple of months later we had enough of an audience to move to sales five days a week. >>>

September 16 Roundtable Recording

In case you missed this roundtable for cloud computing entrepreneurs, you can listen to the recording here.

Bringing Together Content And Commerce In Men’s Fashion: JackThreads Founder Jason Ross (Part 3)

Sramana: How did you finance that inventory?

Jason Ross: I financed it from my savings, from the money I made on my first business, and debt. I never raised any money. Everything was bootstrapped. >>>

Bringing Together Content And Commerce In Men’s Fashion: JackThreads Founder Jason Ross (Part 2)

Sramana: How did you go about launching the company?

Jason Ross: It was a long and joyful journey. In January of 2006 I wrote the business plan despite having no fashion industry or e-commerce experience. I made a pact with myself that whatever barriers would come up would not stop me and that I would find a way to make this happen. I found various website developers around the Columbus, Ohio, area who helped me make a website. >>>

Next 1M/1M Strategy Roundtable For Entrepreneurs On Thursday, October 21

This FREE online strategy roundtable for entrepreneurs will begin at: 11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT/8:30 p.m. IST on Thursday, October 21, 2010.  Please join us and let other entrepreneurs know. You can find more details and register here.

Bringing Together Content And Commerce In Men’s Fashion: JackThreads Founder Jason Ross (Part 1)

Jason Ross founded JackThreads in Columbus, Ohio. Ross graduated from Ohio State in 2003 with a BSBA in finance. The idea for the July 2008 launch of JackThreads.com came from Ross’s interest in street wear and men’s contemporary fashion, plus his appreciation of a good deal. Ross saw the company as a more discreet way for men to buy premium brands on sale, without sacrificing the top-tier images they worked to build. JackThreads was acquired by Thrillist.com in May 2010, but Ross continues to lead the company’s daily operations.

Sramana: Jason, let’s start by reviewing your background. Where do you come from?

Jason Ross: I am from Cleveland, Ohio. My father was in the military so we traveled a lot, but we settled in Ohio and I went to Ohio State. >>>