Bootstrapping to $130M: Pura Vida CEO Griffin Thall (Part 1)

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

Griffin and his partner have turned an investment of $200 into a $130M company. Amazing execution!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Lawline CEO David Schnurman ( Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: When did you introduce the subscription revenue model?

David Schnurman: We introduced it several times, but the time that we got it right was four years ago in 2016.

Sramana Mitra: At that point, you were in that transaction revenue model? Were you still in that $5 million range?

Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Lawline CEO David Schnurman ( Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You had about five employees. What revenue level did you reach with them on board? How many people did you have when you hit the one million point and five million point? Can you give me a sense of the scale of the operation?

David Schnurman: We got to a million with five employees. That was in 2008. 

Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Lawline CEO David Schnurman ( Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to when you were going to decide that you were going to do Lawline as a business. You got to a quarter-million dollars in revenue. Double click down into that zero to quarter million dollars in revenue phase.

What was the business model? Whom were you selling to? How were you acquiring customers? Talk to me about the specifics of that part of the journey.

Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Lawline CEO David Schnurman ( Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What happens after you come out of law school?

David Schnurman: I graduated from law school in 2006. I did internships each summer at different law firms. It became clear to me that being a lawyer is not that different than being a salesperson, especially if you want to be a lawyer who is trying to get business. This is true because you still have to sell the business.

Bootstrapping to $10 Million: Lawline CEO David Schnurman ( Part 1)

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

Wonderful story of an online education entrepreneur and how he worked through plateaus and scaled his business over the last 15 years.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

Bootstrapping an E-Commerce Startup from Utah: KURU CEO Bret Rasmussen (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: The product mix is still shoes, right? Because you understand that your customer has foot pain, you are still addressing that customer with just shoes and not any other kind of product. 

Bret Rasmussen: Largely yes. We do have some socks that have some compression technology in them to help support the foot. We also have accessories like shoe cleaning kits. Our big belief is that if we could properly support and give the feet a healthy foundation, then your body can take care of itself.

Bootstrapping an E-Commerce Startup from Utah: KURU CEO Bret Rasmussen (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What did you learn by way of customer acquisition channels? Which ones were producing against this strategy?

Bret Rasmussen: Search engine was very effective. We could solve a real problem that customers have, so the search engine is a great place when you know what you want. For example, you want shoes for heel pain. That’s become easier to get in front of a customer compared to searching for a lifestyle shoe.