Best of Bootstrapping: Peruvian Entrepreneur Bootstrapped to $200 Million

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

We hear a lot from Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs. We hear some from Europeans. But thus far, not as much from Latin American entrepreneurs. WEI President Belisario Rosas is Peruvian, and is also interested in fostering further entrepreneurship in Latin America. This is our conversation from 2015.

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

Belisario Rosas: I was born in Lima, Peru.

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Featured Videos

Colors: Lighthouse II

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Lighthouse II

Lighthouse II | Sramana Mitra, 2022 | Watercolor, Ink | 8  x 8, On Paper

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Yash Hemaraj, General Partner at BGV (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: I have one last question, Yash, before we adjourn. The SaaS industry has been around for 15-20 years. Around 2008 is when it started really hitting its stride. It’s 2024, so it’s been a while. Then AI came in around 2015-16. Generative AI came in last year. There are cloud companies, SaaS companies, and vertical SaaS companies that are much further along, that have some heft. But now there are AI companies coming into the same markets with AI-enabled solutions, competing with those somewhat hefty vertical SaaS companies. And the answer from the incumbents is, we do co-pilots to introduce AI into the process.

What are you seeing in the market? It’s not a sufficient solution to produce an AI-enabled SaaS application. What is your perspective? What are you seeing in your portfolio?

Video FAQs

Colors: Lighthouse I

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Lighthouse I

Lighthouse I | Sramana Mitra, 2022 | Watercolor, Ink | 8  x 8, On Paper

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Yash Hemaraj, General Partner at BGV (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: So I think the subtlety here is that if the decision makers are not adjacent decision makers, then the whole sales cycle has to be repeated. You may get a referral that, “Oh, we’re using this product and this product is doing well for us.” Right now, from a technology point of view, the same technology can be applied to a lot of different things. Your agent technology, for instance, can be applied to various use cases—like marketing, human resources, or engineering—but these aren’t adjacent use cases. They’re far apart within an organization, and in a larger enterprise, that adds complexity.

October 17 – 659th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 659th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, October 17, 2024, 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!

AI Unicorns: Icertis Gearing up for an IPO

According to a report, the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution market was estimated to grow at 13% CAGR from $1.33 billion in 2022 to reach $3.5 billion industry by 2030. Bellevue, Washington-based Icertis is a leading player in the market that has been using AI to drive efficiencies in the industry way before AI became the talk of the town.

658th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Benjamin Narasin, Tenacity Venture Capital

Benjamin Narasin, Founder and General Partner at Tenacity Venture Capital, discusses his AI investment point of view.

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