1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Domain Knowledge

At 1Mby1M, we believe in learning from case studies of successful entrepreneurs. These case studies involve discussions on opportunities and challenges specific to the domain such as Generative AI, E-Commerce, Digital Health, Cyber Security, and FinTech. 

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Lou Guercia, CEO of Scribe Software (Part 1)

There is much going on in the small niches of the cloud. Here’s a discussion that highlights some examples.

Sramana Mitra: Lou, let’s introduce our audience to yourself as well as to Scribe Software.

Lou Guercia: Scribe is a software company. We’re a global provider of solutions focused on allowing enterprises to easily bring customer data anywhere it’s needed regardless of the infrastructure – it can be in the cloud or on-premise. >>>

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Trying to Turn Carriers and Retailers Into Google: Azzimov CEO Benoît l’Archevêque (Part 1)

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

We normally only feature companies that have proven concepts in the Entrepreneur Journeys series. This concept, however, is not entirely proven. It is interesting and bold.

Sramana Mitra: Benoit, where are you from? Where were you born and raised? Give us some back story of the Azzimov journey.

Benoît l’Archevêque: It’s a rather peculiar story because I’m a French Canadian. I come from a very low class family from Montreal, Canada. I was actually raised by a plumber and my mother was a Customs Officer – very creative people but not really much into businesses. I was surrounded by people that never really did anything to create a company. They’re not entrepreneurs. I come from a weird place where I didn’t know, at a young age, what an entrepreneur was. The only thing I wanted to do in life was cartoons. I studied Art. >>>

Baidu and Alibaba Delivering on China’s Mobile Explosion

According to a Pew Research Center report, nearly 79% of China’s 590.6 million Internet users accessed the Internet through a mobile device. A year ago, China had 564 million Internet users of which 74% were using a mobile to access the Web. During the same period, the research firm estimates that desktop usage slipped from 70.5% to 69.5%. Chinese online players are ensuring they tap early into this growing mobile trend.

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Building an American E-commerce Company that Now Sells into China: Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi (Part 1)

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

Peter Mann started Oransi as a B-to-C e-commerce company. Today, 40% of his $10M revenue comes from China. This is the kind of company America hopes to see more of – selling American products to international consumers.

Sramana Mitra: Peter, let’s start with your background. Where were you born and raised? What kind of background leads up to your entrepreneur story?

Peter Mann: I was born in Syracuse, New York. I lived in the same house till I was 18 and went off to college. My father was a mechanical engineer. He was a manager at General Electric. He comes from a time when people worked 40 years in a company and then get their retirement package. He was also a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Syracuse University. We were heavily involved with the university. I grew up around a university atmosphere during my childhood.

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Groupon’s Never-Ending Woes

Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) just cannot catch a break. They expected to turn around a failing business model by bringing in a new CEO, but it hasn’t helped much. The company continues to deliver disappointing projections, causing the stock price to fall. They are struggling to find the right mix of offerings and are continuing their experiments with product sales to arrive at a profitable business model.

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RetailMeNot’s Growing Competition

eMarketer estimates the online coupon industry to be worth $4 billion annually. The research firm also estimates that the number of people redeeming digital coupons will grow to 100.1 million this year, compared with 92.5 million in 2012. The use of mobile devices to access coupons is also rising and is projected to grow to 53.2 million this year, compared with 12.3 million in 2010.

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Online Fashion: A Venture Scale Opportunity That Silicon Valley Does Not Understand

Fashion is a HUGE industry. The global women’s clothing industry, just a piece of it, is expected to exceed $621 billion in 2014. How many industries do you know of that scale?

Yet, online, fashion has still relatively a small presence.

In this article, I will explain why, and how to unlock the potential of this enormous industry using the strategies and tactics of Silicon Valley.

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Introducing a Company that is Doing Justice to Web 3.0

On February 14, 2007, I wrote a widely read post titled: Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS). On the Internet, it remains, after seven years, a widely read piece, defining a vision for the evolution of the web.

However, the web has not evolved according to this vision quite as rapidly as I had imagined. We have hardly seen the fragmented web mature into a more deeply personalized user experience.

Given that backdrop, I was excited to encounter a company recently that does realize the true potential of a context-specific, deeply personalized user experience that brings together content, community, commerce and vertical search.

Have a look at our recent Entrepreneur Journeys story: From Berlin, Bringing Art Auctions Online: Auctionata CEO Alexander Zacke.

Auctionata competes with Christie’s and Sotheby’s, engages a community of art collectors – both buyers and sellers, and art experts who know how to appraise and value art. It takes 20% from the buyers, and 20% from the sellers, and pays a commission to the experts who help them in each transaction. Given their items are high ticket, the business model is fabulously lucrative. I would even go so far as to say that this is one of the best business models I have seen on the web in a long time.

The entrepreneur, Alex Zacke, is from an Austrian family that has been in the art business for generations, and has deep domain knowledge of the art business. This background has enabled Alex to raise funding from VCs in Berlin on a powerpoint. The company is doing phenomenally well.

1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2014: Yathes, Chennai, India

Yathes is a gift registry portal targeting the South Indian market. It aims to provide a one-stop solution for management of events like weddings by streamlining the various tasks involved such as gifting and sending invitations.

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Online Travel Sites Growing as Usual

According to the U.S. Commerce Department, international travel to the country is projected to grow nearly 4% annually from 2013 through 2017. The fastest growth is expected from visitors from China, Saudi Arabia, and the Russian Federation. The World Travel Monitor expects global travel to grow 2-3% this year, with Asia-Pacific seeing the strongest growth. Online travel companies are expanding their service offerings to ensure that they capture a bigger share of this recovering market.

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