Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped an AI Startup First, Raised Money Later

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

Founder CEO Sean Minter has bootstrapped AmplifAI to $1M, and then raised over $15M in two rounds of financing. Read on to learn the nuances of his strategy and execution.

Sramana Mitra: All right, Sean, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of background?

Sean Minter: My background is Indian. My parents are from Indore and Bhopal in India. I’ve been in the US most of my life. I came here when I was three years old and was educated here.

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Bootstrapping Using Services from Pune: Mindbowser CEO Ayush Jain (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: I can resonate with the time that you’re talking about. In the last ten years, I would say things have really progressed. But at that time, it was still a bit early, especially for these kind of ideas. EdTech is notoriously hard to sell. And schools are notoriously hard to sell to.

Bootstrap Your Startup Dreams and Keep Your Day Job + Course Coupons

If you work in tech and are seeing your entrepreneurial friends build their own businesses, you might be wondering if it’s possible for you to do the same without giving up your full-time job. The answer is YES – it’s not only possible, but it’s also a major trend in today’s entrepreneurial landscape.

The truth is, you don’t have to take the plunge into full-time entrepreneurship immediately. In fact, many successful founders, like Girish Navani of eClinicalWorks, built thriving businesses while keeping their day job. The key is to validate your business idea – talk to customers, ensure they’re buying, and confirm that your idea has traction.

Our Bootstrapping a Startup with a Paycheck course is designed for people just like you: tech workers with big ideas but also financial obligations. Entrepreneurs today are navigating the risky, cash-strapped early stages of their startups by leveraging their steady paycheck, or sometimes, their spouse’s income, to stay afloat. Learn directly from entrepreneurs who have successfully walked this path and gain insights on how to validate your idea, manage risk, and decide when to make the leap.

For the month of October, we are offering you up to 85% off this course and all of those listed below.

All of the discount coupons will expire on October 31, 2024, so enroll today!

Bootstrapping:

Bootstrapping a Startup with a Paycheck with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MOCT2024PAY

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MOCT2024BTS

Bootstrapping a Startup with Services with Sramana Mitra: TRY1MBY1MOCT2024SVC

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Video FAQs

AI Unicorns: Weka Accelerates AI Model Training

According to a recent research report, the global AI data management market is estimated to grow 23% annually through to 2030. The market was pegged at $25.53 billion in 2023. Campbell, California-based Weka is a fast growing company in the space.

Bootstrapping Using Services from Pune: Mindbowser CEO Ayush Jain (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What was the startup that you were working on?

Ayush Jain: At that time, I was working on launching a website focused on exchanging old and new books. The idea was for people to list their books online, similar to eBay, but specifically for books. Other people could then buy them. As a book reader, I noticed that many people have lots of books, and I wanted to create a solution for that.

Bootstrapping Using Services from Pune: Mindbowser CEO Ayush Jain (Part 1)

Services companies are easy to bootstrap, but often, they grow slowly in the beginning. How do you accelerate? This discussion is about the levers of acceleration.

656th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Investor Gus Tai (Part 1, 2024)

During this week’s roundtable, we had Gus Tai, Investor, Board Member and Retired General Partner at Trinity Ventures discuss the implications of Human-centric AI, white spaces, comparables and more.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Colors: Purple Rain 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 – Purple Rain I

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