Bootstrapping by Piggybacking

We’ve discussed all kinds of creative bootstrapping mechanisms in this series. My #BigIdeas2020 contribution is yet another technique that I believe would be particularly relevant and powerful going forward.

Featured Videos

Cloud Stocks: Top 20 for 2020

The year 2019 has come to an end and here we do a review of the best performing cloud stocks of 2019 and the most promising for 2020. The criteria for making this list are a strong strategy or performance in Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and robust Developer Ecosystems.

Best of Bootstrapping: Queue-It Bootstraps from Denmark to the US

Camilla Ley Valentin, Co-Founder of Queue-It, tells a wonderful story of capital-efficient entrepreneurship, including scaling a company born in Denmark that now has 40% of its business in the US.

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

Camilla Ley Valentin: I come from a creative family. My father was a child TV star back in the 70’s and 80’s, which was when I was born in 1973. At that time, you can imagine that there weren’t many TV stations in Denmark where I’m from. We were part of a mini celebrity family and worked a lot in the entertainment industry.

>>>

Video FAQs

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anand Rajaraman of rocketship.vc (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do one example from your rocketship portfolio that illustrates more of what you’re doing today.

Anand Rajaraman: I’ll give you an example from India. We are an investor in Moglix. It’s a company based in Delhi. They are in the B2B e-commerce space.

Roundtable Recap: January 23 – Focus Relentlessly

During this week’s roundtable, I worked with five entrepreneurs.

Ouja
First up today was Anandth Shoban from Chennai, India, pitching Ouja,
a hyperlocal delivery service. Anandth plans to do other services like taxi,
etc. which I discouraged him to get into. One business is hard enough to build.
Focus is of paramount importance.

Constructiv
Next, Thomas Jones from Falmouth, UK, pitched Constructiv, a
construction industry recruitment portal for the UK. I like the focused
approach.

Tiny
Then Zachary Silverzweig from New York, NY, pitched Tiny,
an innovative approach to teaching kids how to read English. I really like the
concept and the focused approach.

>>>

Will the Competition Get to Netflix?

Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) recently reported its fourth quarter results that sent the stock falling 4% in the after-hours session. While the company outpaced market expectations on all accounts, it was the outlook that has the market worried. It appears that Netflix may really be facing the heat of competition from Disney+ and others.

469th Roundtable For Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting By @1Mby1M

Today’s 469th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, January 23, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 p.m. India IST. Click here to join. Password is: startup All are welcome!

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anand Rajaraman of rocketship.vc (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Did Facebook come to you or did you go to them?

Anand Rajaraman: A bit of both. At that point, they already had Peter Thiel’s money. He was the only investor at that time. They had just launched at Harvard and Stanford.

Within those universities, we could see the growth. At that time, Zuckerberg wanted some advice that Venky and I were in a unique place to give him. He connected with us through a mutual acquaintance at that time. 

469th Roundtable For Entrepreneurs Starting In 30 Minutes: Live Tweeting By @1Mby1M

Today’s 469th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, January 23 at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 p.m. India IST. Click here to join. Password is: startup All are welcome!

Is the Cloud Strategy Delivering for IBM?

IBM (Nasdaq: IBM) delivered a surprising performance for its fourth quarter. Not only did the company manage to surpass market expectations, but also delivered a y-o-y growth in revenue – a first for it in the last six quarters.