Venture Capital vs Bootstrapping: Jimmy Page of Inseev Interactive On How To Determine If Fundraising Or Bootstrapping Is The Right Choice For Your Startup
How much money do you need to do what you need to do? Everything should start with a business model. Worry about funding after you understand what you’re trying to do.
Founders are often faced with the nagging question of whether Fundraising or Bootstrapping is the best choice for them. What is better, having access to capital or maintaining full control over your vision and profits? What is preferred, to have the seasoned oversight of an experienced investor, or to plow forward with a disruptive and pioneering ‘can do’ attitude? Of course, every situation is different, but what standards can be used to help a founder decide? As a part of this series called “Venture Capital vs. Bootstrapping: How To Determine If Fundraising Or Bootstrapping Is The Right Choice For Your Startup”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jimmy Page.
Jimmy Page is the CEO and Founder of Inseev Interactive, a San Diego-based digital marketing agency, specializing in SEO and paid media. Originally from Philly, Jimmy is a San Diego transplant. Jimmy has a B.S. in Marketing from Penn State and an MBA from San Diego State. Jimmy founded Inseev Interactive 6 years ago after seeing market needs that other agencies were unable to fulfill. Inseev Interactive has since grown to over 50+ employees and executes on SEO strategies for globally recognized, enterprise-level and Fortune 500 companies.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I never worked for a marketing agency professionally, I was always a buyer of agency services on the client side prior to starting Inseev.The last job that I had was as an SEO Manager at Provide Commerce, an eCommerce company no longer in existence. I was spending a lot of money with SEO vendors at Provide Commerce to support our initiatives, and using the same vendors on the side for my consulting work. I wasn’t satisfied with the vendors I was using led me to the realization that there was a considerable market need for highly consultative enterprise SEO services with strong multi-department execution behind it.. I hired my first employee as a link builder and I ran SEO strategy myself, and that was the beginning of the agency.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Determination early on is probably the most important thing. I needed to have a mentality and the right life situation to pursue it relentlessly (or you need cash to burn so you can move a bit more slowly). I spent an enormous amount of time working in the early years of my career and I think that was a big part of my situation today.
I am probably more willing than some other owners I know to lean on the people around me and to delegate responsibility for pretty much everything in the company as soon as I possibly can. I find great people and then I trust them to do a great job for the company.
I was well trained through corporate roles to be analytical and to be data driven in every single decision I make for the business. It sounds cliche, but I think new owners who haven’t had experience with business intelligence frameworks are at a disadvantage. I feel a great comfort in being able to understand the framework of our business not only through people, but also through numbers.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
We are in an incredibly fortunate situation where for the most part we’ve enjoyed a long and steady incline in pretty much every metric that matters to our business. We were profitable in month one and have never looked back. Honestly I have always been astounded by it. The lesson I would take away is look for amazing pillar people for your team early on and then set them free on solving problems for your customers. When we got our leaders in place for the long term the business began to take ownership for itself.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person or mentor to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I always sought out and wanted to find a mentor but never really had a specific person I could go to. With that said, there have been a lot of influential people who have supported me and provided their resources and advice. I do have one person, Bob Dudley who was one of my previous managers. He taught me a lot about being a good manager and has been a great resource along the way.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but are afraid of the prospect of failure?
Get tons of perspective on whatever you’re doing from people who have done similar things. I see new businesses all the time that just fundamentally can’t work. You may not want to go with an “idea”, you may just want to become a strong player in an existing market. Even if your idea is great and you have the skills, you may fail. If that will crush you, don’t do it. Starting businesses is not an easy fit for people who are uncomfortable with risk.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our discussion. Can you share a story with us about your most successful Angel or VC investment? Or an investment that you are most proud of? What was its lesson?
We’ve never taken any funding at Inseev. We started with $5,000 in the bank and since our inception haven’t acquired any debt.
Can you share a story of an Angel or VC funding failure of yours? What was its lesson?
We’ve had tons of opportunity to accept funding but we’ve never taken it. Accepting funding was never part of the vision for the business. At this point we would probably be a pretty strong candidate for different types of funding but continue to fund our growth through operations.
Super. Here is the main question of this interview. Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks your advice about whether Venture Capital or Bootstrapping is best for them? What would you advise them? Can you kindly share “5 things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice”? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
- How much money do you need to do what you need to do? Everything should start with a business model. Worry about funding after you understand what you’re trying to do. If it’s possible to bootstrap and you’re comfortable with the speed you think you can achieve through bootstrapping, then do it. If you feel like wherever you are you could do a lot more confidently with more capital, then start looking at those options and modeling the future.
- What are you comfortable with personally? You may be the kind of person, like myself, who doesn’t love to take on the risk of debt. Or maybe you don’t want any type of shared ownership. If you have personal requirements like that then start with those parameters and be realistic about the types of companies you could start.
- Do you need the expertise of financial partners? VCs and other types of investors can provide resources in many ways. If you feel like the benefits they can provide are necessary for your business, it may be the best route for you.
- Are equity partners the right fit for your exit? When it comes time to exit your business you may have less control, but also valuable experience and connections through a venture capital partner. Consider your exit early on and how your capital structure may play into it.
- Is the timing right for funding? Of course taking outside equity funding doesn’t have to happen day one. Really evaluate the right time for your business to take on this type of relationship. You may get better valuations if you can get the business to a certain level before entertaining investor conversations.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Meditation has been a huge influence in my life. It’s a considerable factor that has allowed me to achieve my current success. Meditation has been so important because it has allowed me to navigate the notable stress and responsibility that comes with managing and owning a business. It brings me clarity and peace when making difficult decisions and has improved my overall health. I’ve also had the pleasure of sharing this practice with the team at Inseev. Since the start of COVID-19 we’ve done a Zoom morning meditation every Wednesday before work. We have a core group that regularly attends and seems to take away a lot of value from the practice. I think a lot of people in the world would benefit from adopting meditation into their everyday life, just as I have.
We are very blessed that a lot of amazing founders and social impact organizations read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you’d like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this. :-)
Mickey Singer
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jipage/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/inseev-interactive/
https://twitter.com/InseevTweets
https://www.instagram.com/inseevgrams/
https://www.facebook.com/inseevinteractive
Thank you so much for this. This was very inspirational, and we wish you only continued success and good health!
