Roundtable Recap: November 10 – Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship with Janet Kosloff

During this week’s roundtable, our guest was Janet Kosloff, Co-Founder and CEO, InCrowd. Janet has bootstrapped her company, then raised about $2.5 million in funding and will hit $10 million in revenue in 2016. She shared insights from her journey.

Nobeah
As for the pitches, first up was Andy Williams from Nairobi, Kenya, pitching Nobeah, a marketplace for African entrepreneurs to connect with VCs, angels, impact investors, etc. It feels like a social good type of agenda, which is not always consistent with investor returns, so the core focus of the marketplace needs to be defined more precisely.

Saadh
Then, Manisha Kad from Pune, India, pitched Saadh. Manisha’s core competency is embedded system software development, especially in the domain of sensors. She needs to focus her service business in that domain very precisely, and learn the methodology of how to build a business.
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328th Roundtable Recording On November 3, 2016: With OneSpace CEO Stephanie Leffler

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

Roundtable Recap: November 3 – A Successful Woman Tech Entrepreneur from St. Louis says There is No Bias

During this week’s roundtable, our guest was Stephanie Leffler, CEO of OneSpace. Stephanie has done a prior successful, bootstrapped venture from St. Louis and exited it. This time round, she has bootstrapped to about $350k in revenue and then raised venture capital from Highland Capital and others. Stephanie is a damn compelling entrepreneur. She doesn’t believe there is bias against women entrepreneurs in the tech industry.

RunAwayDinosaur
Then, Sumedha Mupparapu from Pune, India, pitched her concept of a marketplace for renting books. We brainstormed about segmentation, logistics, and financials, and I advised her to model each carefully to gauge whether the cncept is viable given her assumptions.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Bootstrap First to Exit, Bootstrap Again, Then Raise VC Money ALL from St. Louis: Stephanie Leffler, CEO of OneSpace (Part 1)

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

Stephanie bootstrapped her first company to $20 million in revenue from St. Louis. Her second, also from St. Louis, is venture-funded and crossed $10 million in revenue last year. Awesome entrepreneur, inspiring woman!

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

Stephanie Leffler: I am from Northern Virginia in Fairfax. I was actually born and raised there. Ultimately, I went to school at Washington and Lee University. I found my way to St. Louis as part of my entrepreneurial journey. I’ve lived here ever since. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Blackbaud CTO Mary Beth Westmoreland (Part 1)

Blackbaud is a SaaS company that caters to the philanthropic segment—helping non-profits manage their donor management workflows. This interview explores the trends and evolutions of the sector.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to Blackbaud and yourself.

Mary Beth Westmoreland: I’m Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Product Development at Blackbaud. Blackbaud has actually been around for quite some time. We’re the leading provider of software and services for the global philanthropic community. A big chunk of that is the non-profit space. We’ve grown our customer base by about 15% and our stock price by about 70% over the past two years. We’re a growing company. We serve more than 35,000 customers today in the philanthropic space and also the consumers. >>>

Long Journey Over 20 Years: Paula Tompkins, CEO of ChannelNet (Part 1)

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

Paula Tompkins started her bootstrapped digital marketing venture in 1985. She has navigated massive industry level shifts, three significant downturns, and has managed to remain relevant. The company today does $20M+ in annual revenue.

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?

Paula Tompkins: I was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. I was the first of my family to be college-educated. I went to Marshall University. It was a local university in my hometown. I graduated with a Business degree in 1974. My mother was a hairdresser. My father owned a shoe store. My father was a first generation Lebanese. My mother has a multi-generational Irish-English-Welsh background. >>>

A Startup Idea to Help Empty Nesters

Over the years, I have observed a lot of people struggle with their newfound freedom as empty nesters. With children off in college after 18 years of dedicated nurturing, many parents find themselves lost. Especially for those parents with no professional identity, this phase of life becomes particularly challenging.

Demographic trends suggest that this problem is acute in stay-at-home moms who have spent a couple of decades chauffeuring kids around, attending school events, perhaps even volunteering at the kids’ schools.

I’d like to see some entrepreneurs take this problem on, and create meaningful platforms for engagement for these women who have a lot to offer to society.
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Startup Idea to Help Women Return to the Workforce

As I am thinking through the solutions needed to help older engineers reconfigure their careers [Ref. A Startup Idea To Help Older, Laid-off Engineers], I am also thinking about a related issue: older women trying to get back into the workforce.

I know too many talented women who are now in their forties and fifties, and some even in their sixties, looking to start working again. Their travails are gut wrenching. The ten-, twenty-year gaps in their resumes stare back at them like menacing, identity-destroying demons.
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