A Serial Entrepreneur’s Process: Todd Dunlop, CEO of RingPartner (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: How much did you sell it for?

Todd Dunlop: Unfortunately, I can’t disclose that.

Sramana Mitra: You’ve made a substantial amount of money in that exit so that whatever you then chose to do next, you had capital available?

Todd Dunlop: That’s correct.

Sramana Mitra: What was the next venture?

Todd Dunlop: From there, I created a company called BetaStreet. The idea behind BetaStreet is I use it to either invest in or start a unique company. My philosophy that took me a while to get to is, if there’s something that I’m interested in, then that’s a great opportunity for me to invest. If it’s something that I’m passionate about, then that’s an opportunity for me to be a partner or to be involved in.

We created a company called Tap for Tap. It was a mobile ad network. The idea behind that is we knew the marketplace was growing. A lot of the smaller developers weren’t making off the wraps because they didn’t have any users. We came up with a model where you would show ads on your app in exchange for your ads getting shown on someone else’s app. It’s very similar to the link exchanges of the early 2000s. Developers are able to grow their install base to the point where they could monetize.

Sramana Mitra: How long did this venture go on?

Todd Dunlop: I believe it was just over two and a half years. We sold that one last year. That was an interesting story because it was a local company that ended up acquiring us.

Sramana Mitra: You bootstrapped this one?

Todd Dunlop: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: How much of your own money did you put in to build the business?

Todd Dunlop: It was somewhere between $500,000 and $800,000.

Sramana Mitra: It sounds like you still did it very organically.

Todd Dunlop: Yes. I really enjoy the problem solving that comes with that restriction. Unlimited cash flow doesn’t necessarily make the company grow faster or better. It allows you to pivot and change much easier than if you took a large seed round.

Sramana Mitra: How much did you sell this one for?

Todd Dunlop: We can’t disclose that one too.

Sramana Mitra: Is RingPartner the next company you started?

Todd Dunlop: Yes. RingPartner started with two guys. One of the founders was the first intern that I hired in my previous company. We came together to start RingPartner. We started in the beginning of 2013.

Sramana Mitra: What specifically was the business?

Todd Dunlop: We drive inbound phone calls to Fortune 500 companies that are looking for people to call them. A good example of that would be auto insurance companies who are looking for new people to subscribe. We charge them on the performance of the phone call. If the phone call lapses over 60 seconds or 90 seconds, they pay for the call. We work with a lot of distribution partners.

Sramana Mitra: When you say you help them facilitate that, what do you do? What’s your process?

Todd Dunlop: We obviously connect the two. We work with distribution partners looking up tracking numbers.

Sramana Mitra: Again you did a little bit of seed funding and got this off the ground?

Todd Dunlop: Yes, this was self-funded. We scaled that with just under 20 people in that same bootstrap philosophy.

This segment is part 4 in the series : A Serial Entrepreneur’s Process: Todd Dunlop, CEO of RingPartner
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