Sramana Mitra

Primary Goal: Inspiration & Demystification

It can be done, you can do it, but it will take a lot of work and careful, diligent crafting; you can’t wing it

Luck is not a repeatable event; I can’t teach you how to be lucky

I can teach you how to craft your business if you are willing to put in the work

The EJ methodology is based on the assumption that it is better to bootstrap the early stage of a venture, and raise money only when you have a validated business, if at all

Most first time entrepreneurs do not have the seasoning to raise external financing

If they do raise money, they give away a lot of equity early on

Most ideas are too small for the VC model

Worth Building, thoughEspecially if you own 100%

To own 100% of a business, you cannot raise money

5% owner of $25m company sold for $100m

$22.5m

$5m

Validating the business idea is essentialEJ2 deals extensively with the methodology of

validationInvestors never fund ideas that are not

validatedPitch at the roundtables AFTER doing some

validation of your idea using the methodology in EJ2

Do not spray and pray

Positioning & Go to market strategy are key to business success

Use the EJ3 appendix to do your home work and ask the right questions to litmus test your idea

When an idea gains a strategy, your chances of business success go up significantly

Try to do some of the strategy work before coming to the roundtables so you know what questions to ask

Web 3.0 – the entire Taking On Giants section [EJ1]

Web 3.0 = (4C + P +VS)Big section on the blog

Finisar: Bootstrapping To Billions [EJ1] - $5b market cap in 2001

Bootstrapping using services

RightNow: The Montana Mogul [EJ2] - $500m market cap in 2009

Great lesson on idea validationGreat lesson in bootstrapping the early stages

to get to a big Series A valuation

PayCycle: SaaSing Back At Athe Economy [EJ3] – acquired by Intuit for $170m

Great segmentation and TAM analysis

Sramana Mitra : Positioning

Payroll for small businesses22–25 m small businesses in the US

@ $500/yr, TAM = $11–12.5 b

5.9 million businesses that employ people Majority mom & pops, no employeesTAM = $2.95 b

5.2 m employers with < 20 employeesTAM = $2.6 b (Bottom Up)

Without segmentation, TAM appears larger

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The Find: Web 3.0 – Under Construction [EJ3] – segmentation

Sramana Mitra : Positioning

Uuma – busy professional womenTime constrained, not ladies who lunchOver $100,000 household income, not my

housekeeperStyle conscious, not the geek engineer

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04/08/23Sramana Mitra : Positioning 18

Psychographic is as important as demographic

Appendix of EJ3 – Clarify your story - http://www.sramanamitra.com/clarify-your-story-excerpt/

All Books on Amazon, Kindle, SmashwordsEntrepreneur Journeys (EJ1)Bootstrapping, Weapon of Mass

Reconstruction (EJ2)Positioning, How To Test, Validate, And Bring

Your Idea To Market (EJ3)Innovation, Need Of The Hour (EJ4, coming

in June)

Vision India 2020

Blog and Strategy Roundtables