He Raised $25 Million. The Startup Went Bust. He Started A New One. This Is His Story. – with Vahid Razavi
I pride myself on the fact that Mixergy doesn’t just study successful businesses. We also look at the ones that failed. I think it’s the only way to get the complete picture of what it takes to build a thriving business.
I invited Vahid Razavi to Mixergy because he raised $25 million for his first company, WarrentyNow, and the company went bust. I wanted us to learn from his experience. I also wanted to see how he’s building his new computer, BizCloud, differently based on what he learned from his previous run.
Before you listen to (or read) this interview, I have to be open with you and admit that after sleeping on this interview, I realized that I tried to force a lesson on it. I tried to make it about how bootstrap. I’m not sure this is the right interview to talk about that. Having said that, I think this is a story that needs to be told so I’m posting it.
Vahid Razavi is the founder of BizCloud, an online business social utility focused on business lead generation. His previous company WarrentyNow, raised over $25 million in financing from corporate and private investors. CNET later acquired the company’s assets. He’s also the author of The Age Of Nepotism.
Andrew: This interview is sponsored by Grasshopper, the virtual phone system that entrepreneurs love because you can us your own phones and manage it on the web. Check out Grasshopper.Com. It’s also sponsored by Wufoo, where you can go right now to get embeddable forms and surveys that you can add to your website for free. Go to Wufoo.Com. And it’s sponsored by Shopify. When you go to Shopify.Com you can create a store in minutes and have all the support and features you need to make that store grow. Check out Shopify.Com. Here’s the program.
Andrew: Hey everyone, it’s Andrew Warner, founder of Mixergy.Com, home of the Ambitious Upstart. How important is boot-strapping to you? Well, today I’ve got with me an entrepreneur who raised 25 million dollars for his first company and then had to, well, Vahid, how did it work out?
Interviewee: It was the challenging times. I started off that company called Warranty Now, back in 1999 and it was...
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