Bootstrapping Course: Welcome

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping with Sophisticated Strategic Maneuvering

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

BioConnect Founder CEO Rob Douglas has built a thriving founder-financed business from Toronto using very sophisticated strategic maneuvering. I just loved discussing the strategic nuances of this business. You’ll learn a LOT from reading this story.

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?

Rob Douglas: I’m a Canadian. I was born just outside of Toronto. I have grown up in and around the city of Toronto. I’m married. I have two kids. Both of them are in their 20’s. I have spent most of my entrepreneurial life primarily focused on markets outside of Canada. US and EMEA have been primary markets over my career.

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Featured Videos

Cloud Stocks: Dynatrace Targets $50B Addressable Market

The global market for Application Performance Management (APM) is estimated to grow at over 11% CAGR to reach $11.9 billion by 2027. Dynatrace (NYSE: DT), a market leader in this industry, recently reported its quarterly results that outpaced market expectations.

Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Starmind CEO Marc Vontobel (Part 3)

Marc Vontobel: Without having very good positioning, we already created traction and signed some big deals with some Fortune 500 companies. That helped us find out the real use cases where we can have a real impact on the business. If you buy Starmind without having a clear use case in mind, you always depend on the vision of the buyer. We have found a few of those, but it’s not repeatable.

Sramana Mitra: That’s a very rare buyer who can take a technology and find an application for it. That’s not the way to build a company at all.

Video FAQs

Cloud Stocks: Wix Focuses on Profitability Amid Mounting Losses

According to a recent report, the global market for Website Builders is estimated to grow at nearly 9% CAGR to reach $2.7 billion by 2026. Israel-based Wix.com (Nasdaq:WIX) is a leading player in the sector that is focusing on a partner strategy to drive growth.

Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Imprimed CEO Sungwon Lim (Part 1)

Wonderful story of cutting edge application of AI in cancer treatment.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself, a bit of your background, and then Imprimed.

Sungwon Lim: I’m the CEO and Founder of Imprimed. We turned five on May 4th this year. Our company provides an AI-driven drug response prediction service for cancer patients. What is unique about us is we are helping our dogs and cats with cancer.

We know how to keep the cancer cells alive after it is taken out. Once we receive these cancer cells, we test various anti-cancer drugs and then analyze that using AI to predict the drugs that will be most likely to work. We provide this information to the doctor so they can improve their treatment decisions.

Sramana Mitra: What is your background?

Sungwon Lim: Since 2002, I have been a bio-engineer. My undergraduate degree was in Biochemical Engineering. I did my Master’s and Ph.D. in Bioengineering. I also have a four-year experience in a pharmaceutical company.

Sramana Mitra: How did you come up with this idea?

Sungwon Lim: It’s under the same umbrella as cancer. Before founding this company, I worked in a pharmaceutical company and in the oldest academic projects that are related to developing new cancer drugs. It was super exciting. I really enjoyed it a lot. More and more, I realized that it takes a long time and a lot of money.

The success rate from the design to the actual patient bedside is very small. I realized that there are 26,000 people dying every day because of cancer. These 26,000 people don’t have time and money to wait for new drugs. What I want to do is help these people to get treatment today. The solution that I came up with is personalized medicine which is trying to optimize what we have in our medical toolboxes.

Sramana Mitra: Did I hear you right that you are applying it to cats and dogs first?

Sungwon Lim: Right.

Sramana Mitra: What is the range of medicine available for cats and dogs that you have analyzed and modeled in your AI system?

Sungwon Lim: We are sharing a lot of drugs with animals. Theoretically and technically, all FDA-approved drugs are available for dogs and cats. There are only four FDA-approved drugs specifically for dogs and none for cats. All the other human FDA-approved drugs are being utilized for our dog and cat cancer treatment.

There are all types of anti-cancer drugs. There’s the conventional chemotherapy. There are targeted inhibitors and immunotherapy. These are all available. Mostly, the widely used drugs are chemotherapy drugs. There are companies like Pet Medics that develop dog-specific antibody therapeutics. There is a company called Elias. They are developing immunotherapy. It’s animal cancer treatment.

Sramana Mitra: You’re testing your approach on animal cells and, once this works on animal cells, start doing this on humans.

Sungwon Lim: That’s correct.

Best of Bootstrapping: Mitch Russo Bootstrapped Timeslips to Exit with Sage

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

Co-founder CEO Mitch Russo tells the story of how he built Timeslips and sold it to Sage for $10.5 million in 1994. Very entertaining as well as instructive.

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?

Mitch Russo: I was born in New York. I was raised in a small community called Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. It was there that we basically started a rock band. Using the idea of how to build an entertainment platform as a rock band in high school, I learned a lot about entrepreneurship and I learned a lot about what it takes to make money and how to promote and share content.

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Thursday, May 26 – 576th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 576th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, May 26, 2022, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to “attend” to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat.

You can learn more here and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Register and you will receive the recording by email, even if you are unable to attend. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be interested. All are welcome!

Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Starmind CEO Marc Vontobel (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Coming up with the product idea is one thing, but productizing and building a business is quite a different thing. This is where, I think, you made a choice of going the B2C route. You pivoted to B2B where you found more success. What was your experience of the business side of it? How did you learn what you needed to learn?

Marc Vontobel: First of all, a big mistake a lot of founders do at the beginning is to believe that the first idea is to be proven right. In many cases, the first idea may be the spark. The more you talk to people, you figure out it wasn’t exactly the right thing. You have to listen and open up.