#36 James Berdigans 🇱🇻 (Printify) on record Series A, conquering the US, making connections that enable life-changing opportunities & impressing investors with scrappiness The Pursuit of 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.
The topics covered in this episode with Timestamps
[01:50] - THE ORIGINS OF PRINTIFY
Building on previous venture successes and failuresLearning from painful mistakesWhat 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 marketBenefits of building a US company from LatviaRunning a lean and efficient digital sales organizationSupporting sales with content marketingFinding 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 companyRaising your first investment from your accountant!Getting into 500 startupsFinding your investor-champion[22:10] ON BEING BE SCRAPPY & EARNING YOUR LUCK
Be scrappy! Doing more with less capitalStory of meeting co-foundersDefinition of luckYou 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 investorsHow to select the right investors[36:40] - ON ANGEL INVESTING
A busy Founder/CEO must have priorities straightAngel investors will introduce you to their networkTo reach out to James use:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/berdigans/
Website: https://printify.com
 
Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ 
Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/
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Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ 


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