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Strategy Roundtable For Entrepreneurs: Exciting Companies Lined Up For Microsoft Startup Grant Finals

ReadWriteStart

For the uninitiated, Zoho introduced a CRM system that was one-tenth the price of Salesforce.com and penetrated the lower end of the market using an Indian cost structure. They charge $9, $29 and $59 per agent per month and I am eager to see bootstrapped, scrappy Freshdesk morph their pricing structure to aggressively compete with them.

India 123
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Strategy Roundtable For Entrepreneurs: VCs Are Not Always Right

ReadWriteStart

Having turned down all overtures for investment, Zoho continues merrily on in its bootstrapping path. Prashant is focusing his market validation process on mid-market companies - 2-3 years old, and somewhat stable. Zoho is already over $100 million in revenue and is seeing tremendous traction. Discuss.

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Strategy Roundtable: Do Not Spray and Pray

ReadWriteStart

To do a solid holiday season he will need to balance the inventory and marketing budgets, and getting stuck in a complex situation with inventory being stuffed in the retail channels with bad terms will be a kiss of death. Now, the Web self-service software market is very crowded with major players like RightNow already deeply entrenched.

India 114
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Strategy Roundtable: Try To Get At Least $2M Pre-Money In Seed Round Valuation

ReadWriteStart

Sub-$2 million pre-money, it is better to bootstrap. First up was Siobhan O'Brien with OnTrack Imaging , a medical diagnostic imaging venture catering to the horse owners and trainers market. The equine diagnostic equipment market adds up to over a billion dollars, and Siobhan wants a piece of it.

Valuation 119
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Strategy Roundtable: 5 Cloud Computing Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

ReadWriteStart

I pointed Zubair to a couple of case studies of bootstrapping using services to get more of his core product built; in parallel, I will help him pursue institutional funding. She has a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cloud 117
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Startup Strategy Roundtable: Where Should You Raise Money?

ReadWriteStart

ShopTranslated is a mass-market online retailer of plus-sized women's clothing, with merchandise in the $59-$99 range. And we already know that this is a very large market from working with La Grande Dame. First, if you are building a business catering to the local market (e.g. Or, bootstrap longer.

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Strategy Roundtable: Open Opportunities in Cloud Computing and Rural BPO

ReadWriteStart

Whether it is in the emerging markets or in the U.S., Shirish had a pricing model question, as well as a set of go-to-market and sales strategy questions. I advised him to avoid spending money to sell to the US and UK markets for the next year. Very encouraging!

Cloud 115