Ep 36: James Berdigans
on record Series A, conquering the US, making connections that enable life-changing opportunities & impressing investors with scrappiness
James Berdigans is the CEO and Co-founder of Printify - a print-on-demand platform that helps you create and sell custom products. An alumnus of 500 startups and one of the leaders of the Latvian startup community, Printify just raised a whopping 45mUSD series A round to build on their growth in the US and expand in other markets.
In this episode, we talk about the origins of Printify and the rise of the on-demand printing industry as well as starting a business in the US from Latvia. James also shares his scrappy stories of partnering with Shopify, meeting his co-founders, and getting into 500 startups. Finally, we discuss the Silicon Valley investor community and the timing of your series A round.
CLICK one of the links below to listen to the episode
The topics covered in this episode (with Timestamps)
🔈 [1:50] THE ORIGINS OF PRINTIFY
Building on previous venture successes and failures
Learning from painful mistakes
What does Printify do
🔈 [05:20] WHY ON-DEMAND PRINTING INDUSTRY IS HOT
Democratization of content creation and product design
🔈 [07:15] - ON STARTING A COMPANY ON THE US MARKET FROM LATVIA
The attractiveness of the US market
Benefits of building a US company from Latvia
Running a lean and efficient digital sales organization
Supporting sales with content marketing
Finding one channel to acquire customers without a budget
🔈 [12:40] - STORY HOW JAMES PITCHED TO SHOPIFY
Hustle in Canada leads to a fruitful partnership
🔈 [16:45] - ON GETTING ACCESS TO THE SILICON VALLEY INVESTOR COMMUNITY
Using 3F’s to kickstart the company
Raising your first investment from your accountant!
Getting into 500 startups
Finding your investor-champion
🔈 [22:10] - ON BEING BE SCRAPPY & EARNING YOUR LUCK
Be scrappy! Doing more with less capital
Story of meeting co-founders
Definition of luck
You will get a lot of ‘No’s. but you only need one ‘Yes’
Bonus: story how Pursuit of Scrappiness got its name
🔈 [30:20] - ON TIMING YOUR SERIES A
Marshmallow test for founders - are companies raising too much too early?
Having Richard Branson and Will Smith among investors
How to select the right investors
🔈 [36:40] - ON ANGEL INVESTING
A busy Founder/CEO must have priorities straight
Angel investors will introduce you to their network
To reach out to James use:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/berdigans/
Website: https://printify.com
Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/
===
See the video content exclusively on Linkedin > https://www.linkedin.com/company/pursuit-of-scrappiness/
Questions/suggestions? Join our Telegram group > https://t.me/pursuitofscrappiness
The full interview with James is available NOW on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts
