Sramana Mitra: Talk about thewe. You said you were three co-founders. Tell me how you guys came together, how you met, how you decided to get together? And secondly, what was the idea around which you came together originally? What happened then? What was the state of the union? What was the state of the market? And what did you see as the opportunity to latch on to at that time? Kristjan Vilosius: Great question. I’ll first start with the co-founding team. Both of my co-founders, Priit, our CTO, and Hannes have been leading our customer facing teams for many years. I’d known both Priit and Ha ..read more

ERP is an entrenched category full of incumbents. Katana is a wonderful story of excellent positioning and strategy work to find market foothold. Sramana Mitra: All right, Kristjan, let’s start with your personal background. Where are you from, where were you born, raised, what kind of circumstances? Kristjan Vilosius: Firstly, thank you for having me here today. I’m the CEO and one of the three co-founders at Katana. And my personal story starts in the early eighties when I was born in Estonia, which was part of the Soviet Union back then. I don’t remember much of it since I was very young ..read more

For entrepreneurs interested to meet and chat with Sramana Mitra in person, please join us for our next informal meetup. If you are living in the San Francisco Bay Area or are just in town for a visit, we hope you will join us. Location: Café Borrone 1010 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025 Time: Wednesday, May 15, 2024 from 5:00pm to 6:00pm PDT REGISTER HERE Registration is required ..read more

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  We continue our coverage of bootstrapping using services with a conversation from 2020 with Codesigned Founder CEO Jake Weaver. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background? Jake Weaver: I’m from a very small town in the middle of Missouri in the Midwest called Lynn Creek, which had a population of just 289 people. It’s nowhere near any of the tech industries today ..read more

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Some of us have worked relentlessly for decades to bring about the change in India from a largely services-driven technology industry to one that today produces credible products sold all over the world. Ameyo is one of the early examples of this shift, and Co-founder CEO Sachin Bhatia is an early visionary in this journey. Ameyo was acquired by Exotel in 2021. Sachin is also a long-term reader of this blog. It is always a great pleasure for me to do the Entrepren ..read more

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  R.J. Talyor, Founder CEO of Backstroke and Pattern89, talks thoughtfully about product idea validation for two AI companies. Backstroke is operating on the cutting edge of Generative AI and delivering clear ROI by solving a very specific problem. Sramana Mitra: All right, R.J., let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of background? R.J. Talyor: Thanks for having me. I’m born and raised here in I ..read more

According to a recent report, the Data Science Platforms market is estimated to grow at 77% CAGR to reach $322.9 billion by 2026. Databricks, a leading data analytics solution provider, recently reported its annual revenues that grew more than 50%. Databricks’s Financials San Francisco-based Databricks was set up with the objective of integrating data engineering, science, and analytics on an open, unified platform to help data teams collaborate and innovate faster. The company remains privately held and does not share details of its financials. Earlier this year, it announced that its revenu ..read more

Sramana Mitra: Now, what did you decide this time around in enterprise versus SME? Where did you position? And did you start with a good, solid positioning and commitment? RJ Talyor: We’re going right after the mid-market. We’re looking at businesses or retailers, specifically with 100-1,000 employees. We’re looking for people who send two to three emails every week, and that means that they care about email. They have a team of two to four people who are interested in getting better, and they likely have a set of vendors that we understand, and are willing to move quickly. That’s pr ..read more

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  In 2014, we covered John Wallace’s entrepreneur journey with DataSong, a bootstrapped venture that achieved a successful exit. LiftLab is his second company, and he is applying the same rigorous, lean, disciplined approach. Sramana Mitra: John, welcome to the show again. It looks like you’re up to a new adventure. So, tell us about it. John Wallace: I’ve been fortunate to be building LiftLab for the past five years. The team had built a company with me called DataSong ..read more

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 638th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, May 2, 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 ..read more