Episodes
-
Galaxy Semiconductor isn't a new company, but it is a startup. Founded in 1998, Galaxy was bootstrapped for many years before it was acquired by Siemens in 2016. Four years later, Siemens divested the company in a management buyout. Wes Smith (employee #7) was running the small business within Siemens before it became independent again â he naturally took on the role of CEO and led Galaxy into its next phase. In this episode of Bootstrapped, Wes talks about moving upstream into chip manufacturing, funding a new technology stack and getting it to market, the value of a consistent sales process, Rolodexes, and more.
-
Dave Hersh mostly bootstrapped a small open-source communications project into an IPO-ready SaaS business that you might have heard of called Jive Software. More than a decade later, he's using his expertise to help turn struggling startups around. Dave shares his wisdom that's captured in his new book, "Reignitition: Transforming Stuck Startups into Breakout Winners," a playbook for the growing startups in the middle that don't want to blindly follow VC money. Dave offers tough but effective advice for getting a startup unstuck, including managing layoffs, confronting past decisions, and more.
-
Missing episodes?
-
Rupert Mayer founded his first product company, IPfolio, in 2012. Before making a successful exit and launching a new chapter of his career as an angel investor nearly a decade later, Rupert experienced many ups and downs. As the "Chief of Everything" at IPfolio, he was always hustling. Rupert meticulously managed cash flow, got creative with non-dilutive funding, and learned voraciously from his customers and other SaaS founders. When he pivoted up-market at precisely the right time, the startup's growth took off. Rupert went on to raise his Series A, but the capital didn't quite produce the results he expected. Listen and learn from Rupert Mayer's entrepreneurial journey.
-
Tracy Davis and Melissa have an engaging conversation on why solving a business problem is crucial for a startup's success. Tracy shares how she uncovered the business problem for Trax Analytics and why their solution is so important for clients. She delves into the importance of asking prospective clients a simple question - âWhatâs the cost of not doing something?â and how this one question provides a springboard for a sales proposition and solution. She also talks about funding, why she decided venture capital wasnât suitable for her company, and the importance of being a true leader.
-
We all have knowledge gaps and blindspots; getting different perspectives often unlocks needed insights. Chris Fellows and Melissa dive into why having a good co-founder and CEO group can uncover insights and help founders succeed. Chris also shares his journey from running a services company to launching Bold Street, a product company. He shares insights on how they found product market fit and the process they used to fund their startup.
-
Melissa and Dan Gallancy, CEO/Co-founder of Atakama, have an in-depth conversation on what it takes to start a company. His journey started in finance, exposing him to how others finance and create businesses. He then jumped into Bitcoin in the early days, which turned to filling the need for a multifactor encryption platform. He details how they financed the company, including personal capital, funding from venture capital, equity crowdfunding, and non-dilutive funding from Lighter Capital.
-
Melissa and the CEO/Co-founder of StoreAutomator, Gokhan Erkavun, have a lively discussion on Gokhanâs experience of getting StoreAutomator off the ground. Gokhan shares where the inspiration came from, his challenges, and the time required to find a market fit. He emphasizes the importance of persistence, curiosity, and a passion for solving customersâ needs. Plus, he touches on essential topics like managing outsourced teams, building trust, raising funds, and building market fit.
-
We are fortunate to call â Marc Verissimoâ our Chairman. With over 40 years of banking and finance experience, including serving as Silicon Valley Bankâs Chief Risk Officer, Marc has a unique view of whatâs happening in finance and banking. When we last spoke with Marc, he shared insights on the contributing factors to SVB's downfall. Today he reveals what the continued changes in banking will mean to venture capital, venture debt, and the overall impact it may have on startups.
-
Melissa and Align's CEO, Doug Walner, dive into a compelling conversation on the significance of fostering a company culture that champions the importance of processes and how to track and streamline them. During their discussion, Doug sheds light on the value of business coaching, distinguishing it from CEO coaching and why CEOs and their executive teams should wholeheartedly embrace this approach. Moreover, Doug provides insights into the construction of Align Technology's growth capital structure, sharing why they blended equity and non-dilutive funding.
-
Melissa engages with the founders of Ticket Socket, Mark Miller and Kai Blache, to discuss their journey of founding and managing a white-label event ticketing and registration startup. Mark and Kai share why they started TicketSocket, how they built a company culture that creates happy and dedicated employees, the advantages of tribal thinking and decision-making, and why non-dilutive funding was the right fit for their company, including how revenue-based financing provided the flexibility they needed during the pandemic.
-
Melissa speaks with Alex Yi, CEO/Co-founder of Nyble, who shares the secrets of how to bootstrap into a revenue-generating startup. Many lessons were learned along the way, including how a New York incubator set them on their path, what it took to build the initial product, and when to accelerate. He shares tips for staying motivated, when to raise capital, the importance of a co-founder, and why the first step in your journey to success is validating product fit.
-
This week, Melissa engages in a riveting conversation with Sunil Patro, CEO and Founder of Signeasy, an esignature and contract workflow platform, to learn about the rewards of forging one's path in a world full of possibilities. From his remarkable transition as a sought-after employee at prestigious companies like Microsoft to becoming a bootstrapping CEO, Sunil shares why he seized the opportunity in the esignature/contract workflow marketplace, his relentless pursuit to differentiate his value prop, and why he advocates for bootstrapping vs. selling equity to raise capital.
-
In this weekâs podcast, Melissa talks with Sharon Nouh, CEO and founder of ProSpend, a platform for proactive business spend management, to discuss Sharonâs journey from starting her company as an individual entrepreneur to bootstrapping to where it is today. Sharon shares her insights on life as a women CEO, what she learned, which professional organizations she found most helpful, why a startup mentality is so important when hiring employees, and the three things every startup CEO needs to focus on (almost daily), and why they are crucial to success.
-
In this weekâs podcast, Mike Preuss, CEO of Visible.vc, joins Melissa to talk about the challenges founders face when keeping their investors updated and why he started Visible.vc to make it easier. Over the last nine years, Visible.vc has taken many turns, and Mike shares what heâs learned along the way, including why to trust your gut and trust it faster.
-
This week, Melissa catches a wave with Kevin Tighe II, CEO of Beach.ly, by learning about his journey of building a lifestyle subscription e-commerce company. With his start at a Hawaiian-based accelerator program to raising the right type of capital, Kevin shares whatâs worked, why product market fit matters, and the importance of focusing on building a great business vs. fundraising.
-
This week we're pleased to have Ben Camp, the CEO of Recovery.com, join Melissa to share his story on why he started a service to make it easier to find addiction and mental health treatment services. He shares what it has taken to grow Recovery.com, the challenges of building a sales team, and why company culture is essential to Recovery.com's success.
-
We are fortunate to have Marc Verissimo as our chairman. With over 40 years of banking experience and 24 years at Silicon Valley Bank, Marc has held several senior roles, including SVB's Chief Risk Officer. In this special podcast, Marc shares a unique viewpoint on what's happening in banking and what contributed to SVBs downfall. He provides insights into SVB's history and how it's intertwined with the economy, venture capital, and the overall technology startup economy.
-
Host Melissa Widner, CEO of Lighter Capital, is joined by Omer Usanmaz, the CEO and co-founder of Qooper.io, software that empowers organizations to run impactful mentoring, learning, and inclusion programs, to share his story of why he started Qooper.io, and what he has learned along the way. Omer's path to entrepreneurial freedom has taken many turns, but each turn gave him an important lesson that helped push Qooper.io to success.
-
Host Melissa Widner, CEO of Lighter Capital, is joined by Jodie Baker, the founder of Xakia Technologies, a technology that is simplifying legal matter management, to discuss Jodie's journey from lawyer to technology entrepreneur and why she started Xakia Technologies. Jodie shares her insights on what she learned along the way and why being an entrepreneur has been such a rewarding experience.
-
Host Melissa Widner, CEO of Lighter Capital, is joined by Tiger Safarov from ZenSupplies, a technology platform that improves day-to-day dental practice operations, to tell his inspiring story of why he started ZenSupplies, what he learned from starting a business from scratch, raising capital and choosing non-dilutive funding.
- Show more
