Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Janet Kosloff, CEO of InCrowd (Part 1)

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

You know I don’t buy into the men saying that there’s a bias against women entrepreneurs in the industry. Janet doesn’t either. Here’s an opportunity to learn from her success in building solid revenues, and a profitable business.

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?

Janet Kosloff: I was born and raised on Long Island in New York. My father owned a diner in Queens. He was from Brooklyn. My mother was from a small town in Central Pennsylvania. I had a fairly typical upbringing. I went to college at the State University of New York and I studied Nursing. I started my career as a nurse not necessarily because I had a passion for nursing. It was more so because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with my life. My family guided me into that career for the reason that I had an affinity for science. >>>

Women Entrepreneurs – The Myth, The Minefield, The Movement

On March 31st, I gave a talk at Hacker Dojo in Mountain View for the Women Who Code group.  In it, I addressed many of the myths about being a female entrepreneur that are currently circulating in the industry. For example:

• There’s a bias against women in Silicon Valley
• You CAN and SHOULD try to DO IT ALL
• VC rejection equals sexism
• VCs hit on women

And many others.

Here’s a recording of the session. I do believe those of you who are navigating these issues would find this useful.

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299th Roundtable Recording On March 24, 2016: With DFJ Venture’s Heidi Roizen

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

Roundtable Recap: March 24 – How to Build a Unicorn From Scratch – and Walk Away with Nothing

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Heidi Roizen, Operating Partner at DFJ Venture, who discussed her important article, “How to Build a Unicorn From Scratch – and Walk Away with Nothing,” and imparted crucial lessons to entrepreneurs on how to look at terms in a venture financing situation.

Free-U
As for the pitches, first up, K. Raviteja from Hyderabad, India, pitched Free-U, a marketplace for financing. The concept is raw and needs a lot of work yet.
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10 Women Leaders Running Bootstrapped Companies

As I was writing the previous post, 10 Women Leaders Of VC-Funded Companies, I noticed that six out of the 10 companies I included on the list followed aBootstrap First, Raise Money Later strategy.

My point of view is that as long as you follow this strategy, your chances of raising money is always going to be higher, whether you are a man or a woman.
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10 Women Leaders of VC-Funded Companies

As I wrote in my recent article, 10 Must Read Posts on Women and Entrepreneurship, I am concerned that the public discourse on feminism is veering in a victim-oriented direction, something I don’t care for.

As a follow-up to that post, I would like to introduce you to ten women who have raised venture capital as a founder CEO, a co-founder, or a non-founder CEO. In each case, I have linked to a detailed interview discussion I have had with the person, so that you can really dive into the points of view of these successful women.
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290th Roundtable Recording On Jan. 21, 2016: With Steals.com Founder Jana Francis

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

Roundtable Recap: January 21 – Navigating Through Massive Challenges

During this week’s roundtable, we had Jana Francis, Founder and President of Steals.com, as our guest. Jana has experienced significant challenges in building her bootstrapped company from Utah. She candidly discussed these challenges, and her experiences were eye-opening and inspiring for our audience.

Quimojo
As for the pitches, first up, Dean Owen from Shanghai, China, pitched Quimojo, a candidate database of recent graduates for hiring managers to tap into. Dean is trying to pilot a somewhat different business and usage model for hiring, and we discussed his validation strategy at the session.

VTechis.com
Next, Arindam Chakraborty from Mumbai, India, pitched VTechis.com, a tiny company with five different seemingly related businesses. My core advice to Arindam is to focus on one business, instead of biting a piece each from five different apples.
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