Bootstrap the First Venture, Raise Money for the Second: cVidya CEO Alon Aginsky (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You said you started the company while you were still running the other one in 2001.

Alon Aginsky: I finished all my responsibilities in the call accounting company in 2001. After the bubble burst, I started the cVidya journey. That was a different startup. We bootstrapped it in the beginning. We completed our institutional A round in 2004. From that point to today, we have completed four equity rounds of total $42 million. In 2010, we acquired a company in Israel called ECtel for $21 million in cash. The company raised $42 million but half of it went to acquiring another company. We grew the company on our own and with the help of the acquisition we managed to double the size of the company. Today, we are a leader in the analytics space in telecom. We employ close to 300 employees in 15 locations around the world and serve over 150 telecom operators in almost 70 countries.

Sramana Mitra: In that journey, what can you share as things that would help entrepreneurs learn from your experience?

Alon Aginsky: I would say a few things. One is that being small in a land of big players is, in most cases, an advantage. We entered a big space where all the big guys play – IBM, Accenture, Amdocs. You should pay attention to what you have. It could be your technology or the way you deliver the solution. You should not be afraid of the big guys. People might say, “You have no chance of competing against those big guys,” I say there’s always a chance. If you can deliver, you will get the customer.

Second is hire people who are like you in their outlook. People who used to work for large companies but don’t like it that much have more ability to change and impact. Try to hire people that you see eye to eye on a one-on-one discussion. You don’t need to hire someone just because of their resume. You don’t have to hire other CEOs.

Sramana Mitra: I think what you’re talking about is the difference between startup employees versus who like to work for big companies. One time when it happened was during the dot-com bubble. People really liked to work for startups. When the bubble burst, people preferred going back to larger companies. Right now, the startup market is very hot. There is huge amount of interest in working for startups in general.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Bootstrap the First Venture, Raise Money for the Second: cVidya CEO Alon Aginsky
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