The document discusses the EJ Methodology for starting and growing a business. Some key points covered include bootstrapping the early stages of a venture, validating the business idea before seeking funding, and using case studies of companies like RightNow and PayCycle that demonstrated idea validation and bootstrapping to reach later funding rounds and acquisitions. The methodology focuses on problem solving over inventing solutions looking for problems and provides examples of open source strategies and go-to-market approaches.

1. The EJ Methodology

2. Most businesses are too small for VCs Worth Building, though Especially if you own 100% To own 100% of a business, you cannot raise money

3. Sramana Mitra

4. Primary Goal: Inspiration & Demystification “ Crafting a Business” vs “ Being Lucky”

5. 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

6. Validating the business idea is essential EJ2 deals extensively with the methodology of validation Investors never fund ideas that are not validated Pitch at the roundtables AFTER doing some validation of your idea using the methodology in EJ2

7. Validation Methodology RightNow: The Montana Mogul [EJ2] - $500m market cap in 2009 Great lesson on idea validation & bootstrapping the early stages to get to a big Series A valuation Also Murli Thirumale (Ocarina) and Manoj Saxena (Webify)

8. Do not spray and pray

9. B:B PayCycle: SaaSing Back At Athe Economy [EJ3] – acquired by Intuit for $170m Great Segmentation and TAM analysis B:C The Find: Web 3.0 – Under Construction [EJ3] Segmentation EJ3 Case Studies

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

11. Efficient Innovators solve problems, not invent solutions looking for problems. Venture Capital is not the only option.

12. Other Useful Case Studies & Principles

13. Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS) 4C = Content, Community, Commerce in Context P = Personalization VS = Vertical Search Taking on Giants section of EJ1 Applies to all web businesses that have a specific context EJ1: Web 3.0 Framework

14. Bootstrapping to Billions - Finisar Case Study - EJ1 -Using services to fund product development Free To Innovate - Creyptography Research Case Study - EJ4 - using services to fund IP development Bootstrapping Using Services

15. Open Source Go-to-Market Strategies DimDim - EJ3 SugarCRM - EJ4 SpringSource - EJ4 CollabNet – EJ4

16. All Books on Amazon, Kindle, Smashwords Entrepreneur 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) Vision India 2020

17. 45 Billion dollar business ideas Business Fiction set in 2020 A futuristic retrospective http://www.sramanamitra.com/2010/03/19/vision-india-2020-internships/