Best of Bootstrapping: Discussing Startups in Africa with Osayi Igharo, Ripple VC

If you have been bootstrapping and think you are ready for investors, you need to learn how investors think. First, please study our free Bootstrapping course and Investor Introductions page. Then start looking for entrepreneur – investor fit. Today I introduce you to Osayi Igharo.

Osayi Igharo, Managing Partner at Ripple VC discusses startups and venture capital in Africa. You can listen to a podcast of our conversation here or watch the roundtable video below:

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping a Highly Profitable Company in Social Media Marketing

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

Founder CEO Jamie Tedford bootstrapped Brand Networks to a highly profitable, large business, leveraging the disruption in brand marketing caused by social media. He then sold minority stake in the company to a private equity firm. Excellent execution!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Jamie Tedford: I was born in a town north of Boston, Massachusetts. It’s a very typical middle-class story and family. I’m third-generation Jamie Tedford. My grandfather started a family business. He was actually an MIT alumnus. He came out of MIT during the Great Depression. He went to work for a paper company and decided to start a lumber mill. He is the first of the family that I can track back who’s an entrepreneur. The business eventually turned into a commercial lumber yard. The family stayed pretty close to home. My dad went to work for him.

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Catching Up On Readings: Micro VC Funds in India

This feature from VCCircle highlights the rise in Micro VC funds in India from 29 in 2014 to 88 in 2020. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped with a Paycheck to Techstars and Acquisition

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

In a previous story, we showed you how Jas Grewal bootstrapped his company CareSkore with a paycheck and then got into Y Combinator with a validated business. With Blueprint Registry, we show you the same strategy as executed by CEO Nevin Shetty to get into TechStars. Blueprint Registry was acquired by David’s Bridal Inc. in August of 2018.

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?

Nevin Shetty: I was born in Alabama but the first memory I have is of Saudi Arabia. I spent five years in Saudi Arabia. My dad is an aeronautical engineer. I grew up in an American compound in Riyadh and had an amazing childhood. Growing up, I remember my mom teaching English to some of the Saudi princes. I’d go over there and play with them. Then my dad moved and got a job at Boeing, so I moved to Seattle. Then I went to college at University of Washington at Seattle.

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Catching Up On Readings: Legal Tech

This report from Gartner focuses on Legal Tech spending, which is expected to increase threefold by 2025 to 12% of in-house budgets. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Catching Up On Readings: IPO Momentum in 2021

This feature from Nasdaq looks at the momentum in the IPO market with January 2021 already having 48 IPOs. The year 2020 had 316 IPOs that raised $80.9 billion in capital. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Catching Up On Readings: IT Spending 2021

This report from Garner expects IT spending to grow 6.2% in 2021. Enterprise software is expected to have the strongest rebound of 8.8% as remote work environments are expanded and improved. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Best of Bootstrapping: Meltwater Founder Bootstrapped to $200M

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

Jorn Lyseggen, Founder and Executive Chairman of Meltwater, started the company in Norway and scaled organically to $200 million. Fascinating journey!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of circumstances?

Jorn Lyseggen: I was actually born in Korea. I came to Norway as a very small child. I was three years old. I actually grew up in a little farm in the middle of a deep, dark forest in Norway. You drive for hours into the deep, dark forest and then suddenly, there’s a small opening. Then, you come to a little village with 168 families. One of those families is mine.

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