Rocketship.fm - Business Explored

Achieve big, ambitious goals with OKRs (Data Ep 4)

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode we take a deep dive into OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and why you should consider setting them up at your company. We learn how to use OKRs to achieve large, ambitious company goals, while keeping everyone on track at the team and individual level. We'll walk through some specifics that you can use to set yourself up for success, and include history about how these acronyms even came to be.

Including interviews with Thomas Knoll of Revelry.co and Kevan Lee of Buffer.

The future of connected technology with SC Moatti (data)

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 18:45:04 +0000

SC Moatti, author of Mobilized, talks with us about what the mobile revolution really means both for companies and for consumers. She shares insights about the rapid changes of an industry that is bridging the gap between technology, physical spaces, and our own identities. She shares the three “rules” behind all successful mobile products; they must be beautiful, give us meaning, and help us learn. More than ever, a deep understanding human behavior and expectations are what will set you apart in this landscape.

How to build a systematic growth engine (Data Ep 3)

Wed, 13 Jul 2016 11:00:00 +0000

In part three of our series on data, we explore how three incredible companies, Hubspot, Codeship, and Shopify, leverage data to inform growth. We'll take you through each of their stories and break down the key elements they use to drive systematic growth. From "question-storming" to prioritization techniques, launching and measuring, you'll learn what it takes to successfully launch, measure, and learn from your experiments.

Including interviews with Brian Balfour of Hubspot, Manuel Weiss of Codeship, and Mike Thorpe of Shopify

How an Open Source Technology Became a World-Changing Business

Sun, 10 Jul 2016 18:20:26 +0000

Amr Awadalla, co-founder of Cloudera, talks with us about how they originally thought their customers would just be tech/web/telecom/financial industries, but the advent of the "internet of things" completely changed the game. Their technology is now being used for everything from early detection of sepsis after operations, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, to massive-scale agricultural implementations. This is an eye-opening look at how one technology can literally change the world. And according go Awadallah, it wouldn't have happened without Yahoo's initial embrace of the open-source.

The History of Hadoop and the incredible evolution of big data (Data Ep 2)

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 07:00:00 +0000

In the second part of our series on data we talk about the origins of Hadoop, the technology that formed the very foundation of what we know as “big data”. The emergence of Hadoop represents perhaps the single most important development in our lifetimes for storing, processing, and retrieving big data. And not only is this technology behind just about everything you touch on the web, it’s now even being used in the medical field to save lives.

The Impact of Data on VCs and Seed Stage Companies

Sun, 03 Jul 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Vas Natarajan, Partner at Accel Ventures, talked with us about how data has impacted not only their industry, but businesses of every size all over the globe. He talks about the speed at which seed stage companies can move given the new access to collect and analyze data. He also discusses the new market of companies looking to help make data easier to collect, analyze and share up and down the entire stack.

What are organizations doing with all this 'big data' anyway?! (Data Ep 1)

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 07:59:28 +0000

We dive into two case studies, one on how the Cleveland Cavs use big data to keep in touch with their fans and how Mirum, a global marketing agency, helped one startup implement some data tracking anyone can do today.

Don't Just Start Up, Scale Up

Sun, 26 Jun 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Danielle Tate, founder of MissNowMrs and author of Elegant Entrepreneur, talks with us about why more women need the skills to confidently start and scale a business of their own. She shares lessons she's learned along the way as well as some great advice for those trying to balance multiple projects, family, and relationships.

Using Strategic Partnerships to Grow Your Business

Wed, 22 Jun 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Brett Hagler, founder of New Story, talks with us about keeping focus on the things they're really good at, and choosing strategic partners to help them achieve a larger vision. He also talks about the challenges of operating a non-profit sustainably over time, and shares the incredible impact they've had building homes and communities in Haiti and El Salvador.

Finding Your Own Personal Sales Style with Jason Lankow (Sales)

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 18:52:48 +0000

Jason Lankow, founder of Visage and Column Five, talks with us about finding your own personal style to sales. With years of experience under his belt he has some great advice for finding your voice, keeping it authentic, and developing a healthy perspective.

Why you're never done selling (Sales Ep 5)

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 04:00:00 +0000

In the final episode of our sales series we talk about the notion that you’re never really done selling. Sales doesn’t end when you close a deal. Nurturing the relationship, encouraging engagement, and following through on your initial promise is still part of the sales cycle, and key to any successful business.

The most important sales tactic you’re probably not doing with Andy Paul of Zero Time Selling (Sales)

Tue, 14 Jun 2016 03:56:15 +0000

Andy Paul, author of Zero-Time Selling and Amp Up Your Sales, talks with us about how it doesn't matter what you're selling, but how you sell it. He shares game changing tactics that will make you rethink your sales efforts, including sharing the one call you're probably not making.

Closing the Deal (Sales Ep 4)

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 04:48:19 +0000

In part four of our sales series we talk about the art of actually closing the deal you've worked so hard to nurture. We cover the questions you need to ask in order to get the key pieces of information necessary to make a close, and how to gracefully get there.

Building a Sales-Driven Company with Mel Gordon of Tap Hunter (Sales)

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 01:49:25 +0000

Mel Gordon, co-founder of TapHunter, talks about what it takes to build a sales-driven company. From building a pipeline, to perfecting your pitch, handling objections, and hiring great salespeople—we cover it all.

The Art of the Pitch (Sales Ep 3)

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 04:00:00 +0000

In part three of our sales series we dive deep into the techniques that separate good sales pitches from great ones. We walk through the traits of great sales people, from how they handle objections to how they stay resilient. We even run through an actual sales pitch for Churn Buster and talk through the key elements each step of the way.

How to Become a Prospecting Machine with Ryan O'Donnell of Sellhack (Sales)

Sun, 29 May 2016 04:01:00 +0000

Ryan O'Donnell, co-founder of SellHack, shares his tactics for setting up a pipeline of qualified sales prospects. He covers everything from building strong segments to developing an automated outreach strategy and moving leads through your funnel. Whether you're an entrepreneur, in sales or just sales curious, this is an essential listen breaking down the top of your sales funnel.

The secrets to building a sales pipeline (Sales Ep 2)

Wed, 25 May 2016 04:01:00 +0000

In part two of our sales series we talk about pipelines. What is a pipeline? How do you build one? What tools and techniques can you leverage to make sure you're on the right track? With expert tips from the people who live this stuff day in and day out, you'll come away from this episode with a strong grasp of what it takes to put together a pipeline that makes sense for your company.

Scaling a SaaS with strategic financial partners with Joel Holland (Sales)

Mon, 23 May 2016 04:51:19 +0000

Joel Holland, founder of Video Blocks, talks with us about building his idea into a $25 million business. He walks us through decisions about moving toward a subscription sales model, and how he's been able to scale up volume. He also shares his perspective on raising money from very strategic partners, rather than partnering with anyone who is willing to write a check.

Sales is not a dirty word (Sales Ep 1)

Wed, 18 May 2016 05:18:37 +0000

In part one of our series on sales we dive into the variety of ways you may approach sales (inside sales, outside sales, inbound leads, etc.), and how to identify what type of pipeline might be right for you. We also scratch the surface on the qualties of a great sales person, as well as touch on some basic sales terminology.

Including interviews with Justin Roff-Marsh author of The Machine: A Radical Approach to the Design of the Sales Function, Steli Efti of Close.io, Mel Gordon of Tap Hunter, and Perry Blake Gorman of Archively.

Sales tactics for small teams with big ambitions with Timo Rein of Pipedrive (Sales)

Mon, 16 May 2016 05:33:50 +0000

Timo Rein, CEO of Pipedrive, talks with us about what small teams can do to to make a big difference in their sales through a couple key tactics. Timo is an entrepreneur and founder with a background in sales and has built pipedrive from zero to cash flow positive. He also shares his lessons learned pointing out the core philosophies that enabled his startup to succeed.

The State of Venture Capital Today (Funding Ep 4)

Wed, 04 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

You've probably heard the growing sentiment coming out of Silicon Valley that there is a bubble about to burst. We just had one of the lowest quarters of startup funding in the last year and a half and unicorn valuations are getting slashed. But what does this mean for earlier stage startups and your opportunities to finance your business? In this episode we explore the ways this market adjustment is playing out, an how companies and investors alike are creatively navigating these changing waters.

Generating Returns – Liquidity Basics for Startups (Funding Ep 3)

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 04:00:00 +0000

In today's market there are lots of ways to liquidate returns for your investors. In this episode we talk through some of the more common ways companies are doing this, and what route you may consider depending on the type of business you want to build. From dividend models to share buyouts, acquisitions and IPOs, we'll walk through what each scenario looks like and when it makes sense to consider. Ultimately, any route you take will be the result of building something great!

The First Silicon Valley Venture Deal (Funding Ep 2)

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 18:38:00 +0000

Ever wonder how Silicon Valley became the venture capital and technology capital of the world? In this episode we'll take you back to the 1950s and share the story that kicked it all off.

What does a funding round mean anyway? (Funding Ep 1)

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 07:00:00 +0000

In part one of our series on funding, we explore the various ways in which startups raise, sources of financing, and the terminology you need to know when it comes to raising a round.

Negotiating an Investment Deal with John Shumate (Funding)

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 16:00:00 +0000

John Shumate, CEO of Venture First, talks with us about how to navigate the negotiation process when you're raising a round. He highlights terms to be on the lookout for, and basic strategies for leveraging a good deal for everyone involved.

The Secrets of How, What, and Who to Pitch with John Livesay (Funding)

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 16:00:00 +0000

John Livesay, funding strategist, talks with us about the things you need to consider when it comes to pitching your product. Beyond covering the elements of a great pitch, he shares advice on how to find and approach the right investors based on your business and culture. Finally, he discusses his three secrets to increasing confidence when you’re pitching investors.

[Funding] Andy White on The State of Venture Capital Inside (and outside of) Silicon Valley

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 16:00:00 +0000

Andy White discusses the state of venture capital and how it's changing inside and outside of Silicon Valley and what he has brewing in San Diego currently.

How Indie.vc is Changing the Game for Seed Stage Investment with Bryce Roberts (Funding Interview)

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 06:30:00 +0000

Bryce Roberts, founder of OATV and Indie.vc, talks with us about their new model for investing in seed stage companies. Rather than shooting straight for an acquisition or an IPO and focusing on securing the next found of funding, his new model encourages founders to build strong, profitable businesses that will be around for the long run.

Building Entrepreneurial Communities

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Jay Chernikoff, founder of co-working space(s), DeskHub, talks with us about building entrepreneurial communities and changing the way even established, large organizations work. **If there's a DeskHub location in your city, mention this episode of the Rocketship Podcast for $100 off your first month.

200 Episodes! Reflections, Lessons, and What's Next

Tue, 26 Jan 2016 08:00:00 +0000

After two years and 200 episodes, we take a step back and reflect on some of our favorite lessons learned, surprising conversations, and what we're working on next. Enjoy!

Going the Distance: How to Stick Around for the Long Run

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Jason Fried, founder of Basecamp, talks with us about what it takes for a company to stay around for the long run. From the importance of early habits to the most impactful ways to iterate, he shares some incredible insights in this episode.

Emotional Alchemy: Taking Sh*t and Turning it Into Gold

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Steli Efti, founder of Close.io and co-host of The Startup Chat podcast, talks with us about the emotional side of entrepreneurship and sales, and how he overcomes failures, rejections, and slumps. He talks a lot about the difference between dedication and attachment.

Stop Procrastinating, Build a Business, and Do Work That Matters

Fri, 15 Jan 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Jon Nastor, host of Hack the Entrepreneur and author of How to Stop Procrastinating, Build a Business, and Do Work That Matters, talks with us about the experience of interviewing over 170 entrepreneurs and writing a book to share the most impactful lessons he's learned throughout those conversations.

The New Era of Affiliate Marketing

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Jeff Epstein, founder of Ambassador, talks with us about three distinct umbrellas of affiliate marketing, and how each can help boost your business. He shares some insights into their sales processes and culture, as well as how they use their own product.

Shopping by the Numbers

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Will Hench, founder of ThreadLab, talks with us about their unique approach to ecommerce selling, designed to reduce the buyer's cognitive load by making choices for them, and using data to guide these choices.

Prioritizing Culture to Fuel Growth

Tue, 05 Jan 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Gregg Parise, CEO of Events.com, talks with us about how they’ve prioritized culture above all else, and how impactful that has been on their ability to grow and win in the marketplace.

Entrepreneurial Selling vs. Professional Selling

Tue, 22 Dec 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Craig Wortmann, founder of Sales Engine and Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago, talks with us about the difference between professional selling and entrepreneurial selling. He breaks down the key differences between high performing and low performing sales people by walking us through a real-world example.

Prioritizing Customer Success/Onboarding as a Growth Strategy

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Rob Walling, founder of Drip, talks with us about his recent focus on customer success. He believes there is a middle-ground between 100% self-serve, and high-touch onboarding, and he's hired help to find it. Rob shares his learnings from focusing on customer success, the impact on his sales process, and the metrics he uses to track it all.

How to Structure Your Story

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Michael Jamin, long-time Hollywood screenwriter for shows such as Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, and most currently, Maron, talks with us about what a story really is. He walks us through key structural elements that you can use to help tell your company or brand story to better engage with your customers.

Back to Basics, Building a Business the Old-School Way

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 08:00:00 +0000

David Hauser, Founder of Grasshopper, talks with us about his angel investing philosophy. They don’t invest in companies without at least $500k-$1 million annual revenue and no intention of raising another round. In short, he wants to help fuel growth and culture, not swing for the fences on a low-percentage home run. Also, there are some great lessons in here on how they scaled Grasshopper through paid channels to a fantastic exit for all involved.

Waiting for the Market to Catch Up

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Paul Bradley, founder of Eventric, shares his story of bootstrapping for 10 years before raising money and shifting their business model. He talks about how changes in the industry has completely changed the way their business and offerings create value in the market.

Get the Most out of Your A/B Tests

Thu, 03 Dec 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Nick Disabato, founder of Draft and author of Cadence & Slang, talks with us about the intricacies of A/B testing that he uses with his clients. Everything from the most impactful changes you can make to a page to how to determine the proper sample size and run-time of your test. This was an incredibly informative episode.

Stepping Up Your Cold-Email Game

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Alex Berman, Chief Marketing Sumo at InspireBeats, talks with us about how they’ve built their business by sending over a million targeted, personalized cold emails. He shares some great tips for improving your emailing efforts and closing more deals.

How to Design for the Motivation of Your Customers

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Adam Saint, co-founder and VP of Design at Bench, talks with us about what design really means to him. It’s far beyond how something looks, and much more about the function of a system, and how that system works best for the intentions of the user. Fascinating discussion around JTBD, experience, and implementation.

Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurship

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Dave Munson, founder of Saddleback Leather, talked with us about the importance of having a purpose behind whatever it is that you do. Finding a way to leverage your business into a means to achieve something more meaningful and impactful is something we should all pause to consider, especially around Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays.

The Value of Marketing to Current Customers

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 08:00:00 +0000

David Cancel, founder of Driftt, shares the fears and excitement of starting his 5th startup, and lessons he's carried with him from one to the next. He also talks with us about the value of marketing to current customers and keeping them engaged and motivated to send referrals.

Using Micro Transactions to Try and Create the Next Big Social Network

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 08:01:00 +0000

Matt Schlict, founder of ZapChain, talks with us about building a new kind of social network of communities, where bitcoin is exchanged, or 'tipped out' as a way of acknowledging great content and commentary. He also talks about their next big move of selling digital content on ZapChain for bitcoin, with their first major label artist, Talib Kweli.

Don’t Worry About Getting Ready, Get Started

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Tim Fargo, founder of Tweet Jukebox, talks with us about starting over in the SaaS space after a $20 million dollar exit in the service space. He's figuring it out as he goes, and jumping right in the deep end. He's build a large tribe of free users and is flipping the switch on paid plans. Lots of great lessons in this one!

Supply before Demand - How to Grow a Marketplace

Thu, 05 Nov 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Jonathan Eppers, CEO of RadPad, talks with us about the unique tactics they’ve used to approach growing a marketplace, where it can be difficult to bring both sides to the table. He also shares his experience setting up the proper relationships with your advisors and investors, and how they’re different.

Entrepreneurship for Couples

Tue, 03 Nov 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Thomas Knoll, serial entrepreneur and personal advisor, talks with us about his new venture, Knoll Consulting. He teamed up with his wife, a licensed psychotherapist to create a 6-week course designed to help entrepreneurs and their partners find a variety of new ways of communicating more effectively with one another (including things like practicing fights before they happen)! There's a special discount for Rocketship listeners - use code: ROCKETSHIP at checkout and get $100 off the course price.

Putting Venture Capital to Work on a Good Cause

Thu, 29 Oct 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Brett Hagler, Co-Founder and CEO of New Story, and his team have built a unique donation model, with 100% of donated funds being put to work building homes in Haiti, and with operational costs being funded by their investors.

Moving the Karaoke Industry into this Century

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Michael Amburgey, Founder and CEO of hiVolume Media Co. and KaraoQ, talks with us about rolling out their karaoke app and replacing old, tedious processes with new technology. He talks about the value props not only to the venues, but to the KJs and patrons as well, and how they are changing the way people interact with karaoke.

How to Build Something People Want to Buy

Thu, 22 Oct 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Ian Crosby, co-founder and CEO of Bench, talks with us about their journey from a totally manual process to something vastly more efficient and scalable. He also talks about how to think differently about the problems you’re solving and creating something people really want.

Why You Should Tackle the Hardest Problems First

Tue, 20 Oct 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Chris McMurtry, founder of Dart Music, talks with us about the problems they’re tackling in the metadata and distribution of classical music, and how the genre is growing. He shares their experience going through Nashville’s music accelerator, Project Music.

How to Experiment with, Measure, and Optimize Marketing Channels

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Chris Lucas, VP of Marketing at Formstack, talks with us about how they experiment with, measure, and optimize various marketing channels. He also talks about how the’ve built out their marketing team with specialists in various areas (SEO, PR, PPC) and use analytics to measure what’s really working, and why.

Iterating Your Way to Product-Market-Fit

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Jason Amunwa, Director of Product for Filament, talks with us about their process for iterating their way to product market fit. He talks a lot about things they’ve learned from beta users, and how they’re working toward making new users as successful as possible.

How to Embed Giving Back into Your Company

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Ken Davenport, CEO of Mission Edge, talks with us about how they’re helping non-profits run the business side of their organizations. He talks about how millennials enjoy giving back in a much more hands on way, and how organizations can give back to the community in various ways, like skilled corporate volunteer programs. He also covers the new concept of impact investing and other ways to give back and still receive returns.

Identifying the Right Pivot Opportunity, and Seizing It

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Andrei Soroker, CEO of Sameroom, talks with us about the early days of their chat app and what it was like competing with Slack and other early players in the space. He shared how they found a big opportunity and pivoted to a new approach, and shares the SEO efforts that have been killing it for them recently. He also talks about hiring abroad and some of the challenges of trying to help bring employees overseas to come work in the U.S.

How to Find, Test, and Double Down on Scalable Growth Channels

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Gabriel Weinberg, Co-Author of Traction, shares what's changed since the first release of his book. He covers the Bullseye Framework and how it's changed over time. And he also shares what it's been like using a publisher for the second edition.

How to Prospect and Close 50% of Your Deals

Tue, 29 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Brian Trauschold, Co-Founder of Ambition, talks with us about their entire approach to sales. He covers the importance of identifying the right person at the right company to talk to, and shares various techniques for cold reachouts and followups.

How to Use Growth Experiments to Accelerate Your Startup

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Florian Dorfbauer, Co-Founder and CEO of Usersnap, shares their internal process around using growth experiments to methodically scale their customer base. From the effects on revenue to the positive changes in their company culture, Florian covers the entire process and how you can replicate it with your team.

Building a Business that Makes You Happy

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Jason Zook, creator of Buymyfuture.com, talks with us about lessons he’s learned over the past decade of entrepreneurship. His perspectives and goals have changed a lot during that time, and have affected the way he runs and operates his business.

How to Strengthen Culture During Rapid Growth Spurts

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Ben Uretsky, CEO of Digital Ocean, talks with us about maintaining a strong and positive culture through explosive growth (they went from 40 employees to over 120 in less than a year). He shares things that have helped everybody stay in alignment on larger company goals and vision.

The New Landscape of Seed Funding

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Greg Beaufait of Dundee Venture Capital talks with us about the trend of seed rounds becoming more like traditional A rounds in size and early company valuations. This has a whole new impact for the companies raising money in this new landscape and talks through some specific examples of how companies have handled the challenges in different ways.

How To Grow a Massive Tribe on Instagram

Thu, 10 Sep 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Nathan Chan, creator of FoundrMag, talks with us about how they’ve grown their Instagram following to over 300,000 followers, and how the channel is drastically more engaging (and profitable) than any other social outlet.

5x-ing Growth Through Traditional Channels

Tue, 08 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Allie O’Connell, Director of Marketing for Bellhops, talks with us about how they’ve 5x-ed their revenue since last year, with a focus on PR, TV, Print, and word-of-mouth. She's found significant success through traditional channels and shares some replicable techniques.

Getting off the Ground Without a Designer

Thu, 03 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Jane Portman, creator of UI Breakfast and author of The UI Audit, talked with us about common mistakes founders make when they approach design and feature integration with their app. She knows most early-stage and bootstrapped companies can’t afford a dedicated UI designer up front, so she teaches some basic principles for making sure you keep things simple and effective for your core users.

The Incredible Marketing Machine Behind the Cleveland Cavaliers

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Michael Conley, VP of Digital at The Cleveland Cavaliers, talked with us about the kinds of digital campaigns they're running to create an ultra personal experience for fans both inside and outside of the stadium, including ways to keep them engaged in the off-season. The kinds of things they're doing (and the scale at which they're executing them) are truly amazing - this is a great listen.

Building a Truly Authentic Business

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Cynthia Jamin, Founder of TwirlyGirl, talked with us about the very personal reasons for starting the business. She shares how she’s remained true to her purpose at every step along the way, even when it went against the grain of what everyone else said was “right”. She proves time and time again that staying authentic to your vision and your brand will never steer you wrong.

Starting Up in Southeast Asia

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Ai Ching Goh, Co-Founder of Piktochart, talks with us about what it’s been like starting the company in Southeast Asia. From the support of the government to finding talent, there are a ton of opportunities to take advantage of. She also shares some insights on trends she’s seen with infographics and how people are trying to visualize data for all kinds of purposes.

Fake it Until You Make it...Perception is Everything

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 17:32:00 +0000

Aman Mann, Co-Founder/CEO of Procurify, shares stories from their early days and the relentless hustle that got them off the ground. From finding product-market fit to letting momentum and perception drive sales, this interview is fantastic for anyone struggling to achieve rapid growth.

A Different Approach to Scaling a Product Business

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 16:09:00 +0000

JD Graffam, Founder of Simple Focus, an agency which also acquires SaaS products like Ballpark and Pulse App, talked with us about his product acquisition process. From financing, to improving product, to managing risk, JD gives you everything you need to replicate his strategy.

How to Build a Content Growth Engine

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Mitch Wainer, co-founder and CMO of DigitalOcean, talks with us about how they’ve grown to over 150 people and the one of the top hosting providers, second only to AWS, in just a few short years. He shares how they’ve heavily leveraged content to fuel their growth and support existing customers.

How Mailchimp Adds Process Without Sacrificing Culture

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Marti Wolf, the Chief Culture Officer at Mailchimp, talks with us about how they’ve maintained their culture of fun and weirdness as they’ve grown to over 400 people. She shares how everything is values-oriented and geared toward making sure everyone feels empowered to tinker, explore, grow, and have fun.

Crafting a Value-Based Sales Funnel

Thu, 06 Aug 2015 15:50:00 +0000

Jeremy Reeves, direct response copywriter, talks with us about how to methodically put together a sales funnel that provides real value to your potential customers. He starts by delivering value (usually in the form of content), before even trying to make a sale. From there, he continues to build the relationship so when the time to buy does come, it's a very easy sell.

The Hidden Costs of Building a Feature

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 15:30:00 +0000

Ankur Nagpal, founder of Fedora, talks with us about growing his marketplace. He shares ways he helps make customers successful, how he leverages Product Hunt to drive traffic back to the Fedora platform, and lessons he learned building too many features too fast in the beginning.

Building a Foundation Optimized to Scale

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Ryan Negri, co-founder of Laicos, talks with us about his first company, Negri Electronics, and how he learned the importance of working with the right people and being able to delegate. He spent time working in all aspects of the business (including boxing merchandise) to really learn the ins-and-outs of every department. He shares how he hires months in advance of what’s needed, so he can take his time making sure the right people are brought on board, and ready to go when it’s time to hit the gas pedal.

Avoiding False Positives in the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit

Tue, 28 Jul 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Tom Leung, co-founder of Poachable, talked with us about how Poachable got started out of a pivot from a previous company. He opened up about false positives that led them to fail a little too slow with the previous company, and how they were hours away from an acquisition before closing a new round to pursue Poachable.

Using Behavioral Analytics to Drive Product Direction

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 17:25:00 +0000

Richard White, CEO of UserVoice, talks with us about using behavioral data to help drive product decisions and feature iterations. He talks about finding the balance between looking at data and trusting your gut instincts, and how this changes as companies mature.

Scaling a Focused & Productive Engineering Team

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Flo Motlik, co-founder of Codeship, talked with us about focus and productivity within their engineering team. Wherever there’s an opportunity to remove a task pay for another piece of software to handle it, it’s a no-brainer. He also shares how they’ve changed the way they communicate as a team and the impact it’s had on everyone.

Your Strategy is Your Story

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Eliot Peper, author of the Uncommon Stock fiction series, talks with us about the critical importance of nailing your story. From communicating with customers, to investors, to employees, your story has to matter. He shares some fantastic strategies and techniques to make sure you're framing your story in the most impactful way.

Why Transparency is More Urgent than Ever

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Saadia Muzaffar discusses with us her recent article, "I Told a Dude How Much I Made and it Changed My Life.". She shares her take on the larger conversation of transparency and equality in the workplace, specifically in regards to equal pay.

Using a Distribution Partner to Scale Revenue

Mon, 13 Jul 2015 17:19:00 +0000

Jonathan Schor, founder of CodeMonkey, talks with us about scaling their distribution through strategic partnerships. He talks about the ed-tech space and the interesting challenges of starting this company in Israel.

The 6-Step Process to Conflict Resolution

Thu, 09 Jul 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Susan Steinbrecher, executive coach and mediator, talks with us about key elements to conflict resolution. She illustrates the types of conversations you need to have around values alignment, mutual expectations, and clearly defined roles. These same conversations can (and should) play a large role in determining if someone is a compatible co-founder as well.

How Saying "No" Kept this Startup on Track

Tue, 07 Jul 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Khaled Naim, CEO of OnFleet, talks with us about their long-term approach to building their business. He shares why they choose to turn away eager customers, even handing them over to the competition, and why it’s the right thing for them in the long run.

Building a Company That’s Set up to Scale

Thu, 02 Jul 2015 07:00:00 +0000

David Ciccarelli, CEO of Voices.com and weekly contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur.com, and others, talks with us about building a company that's systems-oriented, and making sure you're set up to scale without sinking a ton of time and money into unnecessary tech and automation up front.

How to Prepare for an Exit

Tue, 30 Jun 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Jock Purtle, owner of DigitalExits, talks with us about value investing and how companies are valued before a sale. He also talks about some basics you need to be prepared for before going through the sales process.

The Impact of Acquiring Qualified Beta Users

Thu, 25 Jun 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Kat Bobbitt, Co-founder and CEO of Stand In, talks with us about acquiring beta users and qualifying their feedback. She also talks about the importance and impact of adding prototyping to your workflow and the fact that designers really don’t need to know how to code to get their vision across.

The Four Core Areas You Should Focus on When Raising

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Peter Wilkins, Managing Director of Hyde Park Angels, talks with us about how entrepreneurs determine if they really should go for a round of capital. And if they go for it, the key things they should consider across any industry - including value creation, traction, market, and management team.

Use Your Core Values to Differentiate Your App

Thu, 18 Jun 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Onno Faber, founder of Taptalk, shared his story of how Taptalk evolved into it’s current form. He talked a lot about baking their core values and intentions in the app and the UI, and creating limitations to differentiate the app from others in the same space.

Why You Need to Develop Your Non-Technical Skills

Tue, 16 Jun 2015 14:31:00 +0000

John Sonmez, creator of Simple Programmer, talks with us about the importance of having a specialty as a developer and finding ways to stand out from the crowd. He also talks about developing your non-technical skills and how that's becoming increasingly important both in your own career development and as an employer looking to hire quality people.

The Very Near Future of Robotics

Thu, 11 Jun 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Ryan Kuder, Managing Director of the Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator, powered by Techstars, talks with us about making robotics more accessible. He also talks about the difficulties in defining exactly (or philosophically) what a robot is.

The Two Early Pivots of Segment

Tue, 09 Jun 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Peter Reinhardt, co-founder and CEO of Segment, talks about the early days and finding their way to the current iteration of Segment. It’s a great lesson in testing your ideas in the market. He also shares some ways his team automates internal processes that they know they have to do over and over.

Friends Don't Let Friends Start Stupid Startups

Thu, 04 Jun 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Sean Wise, co-author of "Startup Opportunities: Know When to Quit Your Day Job" and host of The Naked Entrepreneur, talks with us about questions entrepreneurs need to ask before diving head first into a startup idea. He shares benchmark metrics as well as high-level philosophies on how you should approach various types of ventures.

Scaling Globally with an Inbound Model

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Dilawar Syed, President of Freshdesk, talked with us about how they've scaled globally form their headquarters in Chennai, India. He shares his personal passion for helping people outside of Silicon Valley achieve the dream of a global entrepreneurship.

Why You Need to Diversify Your Team

Thu, 28 May 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Joelle Emerson, co-founder of Paradigm and former women’s rights attorney, talks with us about their approach to helping companies recruit and nurture more diverse talent, and the studies behind the benefits of putting together more diversified teams. She mentions trends she sees in tech, specifically in the Valley, as well as things companies can do at different stages to help set the foundation for a more inclusive culture.

Why You Need to Leverage Your Local Ecosystem's Relationships

Tue, 26 May 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Carlos Eduardo Espinal, partner at Seedcamp talks with us about the state of tech, what they're looking for in companies, and what he's looking forward to in the future. He stresses the importance of building local relationships, no matter where in the world you are, instead of waiting until you get to a hub, like Silicon Valley.

How to Nail the Perfect Pitch (and more conf. highlights)

Sun, 24 May 2015 21:01:00 +0000

In this special episode we bring you some of our favorite parts of CollisionConf. In particular, we break down a talk by Nicole Glaros, Partner at Techstars Ventures, where she hits on the main points of how to absolutely nail your pitch. More than that, she covers the fatal mistakes people make that can (and often do) kill what would have otherwise been a great pitch. In addition, we've pulled together a variety of startups that were exhibiting on the floor of the conference and try to bring you a taste of the conference experience.

Designing Software for Everyday Life

Thu, 21 May 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Benedikt Lehnert, Chief Design Officer at Wunderlist, talked with us about how they approach design. They consistently go back to consider the thing they're replacing (in the case of Wunderlist, it's pen and paper), and design for the best possible experience, not just the prettiest app.

The Product Strategy Behind Intercom

Tue, 19 May 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, talks with us about how they make difficult product decisions in respect to adding and removing features, changing pricing, and packaging the product. He talks about how he sees others struggle with weighing feedback, data, and instinct to make their own decisions about product.

The Technical Hacks Your Marketing Team Needs to Learn

Thu, 14 May 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Justin Mares, co-author of Traction and creator of SQL for Marketers and Programming for Marketers, talks with us about the whole new world of opportunities that open up when a non-technical marketer learns just enough to be dangerous. There’s so much that can be done with a few technical hacks and you don’t need to understand programming to leverage any of it.

Bringing Automated Investing to the Masses

Tue, 12 May 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Herbert Moore and Vicki Zhou, co-founders of WiseBanyan, talked with us about the barriers to entry of the financial/investment space and the regulatory red tape they’ve had to navigate. They also talk about the benefits of automating the investment process based on a variety of lifestyle choices and risk tolerances.

How to Monetize an Open Source Project

Thu, 07 May 2015 15:29:00 +0000

Maciej Zawadziński, CEO at Piwik, talks with us about how they turned Piwik, an originally open source product, into a full-fledged enterprise business.

Scaling a Marketplace Through Quality Curation

Tue, 05 May 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Liz Wessel, co-founder of Campus Job, talked about how they're growing both sides of their marketplace - appealing to both students and companies looking for part-time employees. She shares what they learned coming out of Y Combinator and how they're scaling things rapidly.

Life After Fratire

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 07:01:00 +0000

Tucker Max, bestselling author of "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell", and founder of Book in a Box, talks with us about how he and his team help entrepreneurs tell their stories in publishable form. He also talks about moving on from the “fratire” type stories as he’s gotten older, and how his focus now is more on lessons learned in business.

So You Want to Build a Hardware Company

Tue, 28 Apr 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Sara Chipps, co-founder of JewelBots, talks with us about the endeavor into building a hardware company, after spending so many years just focused on the software side.

How to be Deliberate and Reach Your 5-Year Goal

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Kate Matsudaira, founder of PopForms, Spark Notebook, and keynote speaker at this year’s Future Insights Conference, talks with us about taking ownership over your future. She talks about working backwards from where you want to be in 5 years (career, family, etc.) and doing the small things every day that will actually get you there.

The Winning Formula for Viral Content

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Matt Schlicht, founder of ZapChain, talked with us about growing a community and keeping the quality of participation high. He also breaks down his uniquely effective, and usually funny, content strategy.

SEO Techniques to Get the Most Out of Your Content

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Geoffrey Radcliffe, co-founder of Post Launch, walks us through their content strategy process that they use with clients, and teaches us easy ways to get the most SEO juice out of each and every piece of writing. He also shares some uniquely easy ways to get the content floodgates open when you feel stuck.

Unconventional Ways to Scale a Marketplace Product

Tue, 14 Apr 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Amit Viswanathan, co-founder of Doctible, talks with us about how their approach to a marketplace product. He shares how they’re able to generate sales on the supply side, and how they’ve come up with ways to generate value in the product beyond bringing the supply side (which often takes some time to grow).

A Complete Guide to Startup Sales Tools

Thu, 09 Apr 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Mike Brown Jr., partner at Bowery Capital, talks through his comprehensive list of SaaS tools for every stage of the sales funnel. He discusses why certain tools are necessary at different stages, and differences between similar software. Incredibly informative episode!

The Marketing Strategy that Made Dots #1 Worldwide

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Paul Murphy, co-founder and CEO of the #1 game Dots, talks with us about the strategies and processes they follow when creating and launching new games.

Customer Interviews Done Right

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Willis Jackson, Founder and CEO of Dev CoPilot, talked with us about validation techniques for early-stage companies. He walks us through a sample sales call and illustrates key points to hit on business development calls.

Gaining Early Adoption Within the Enterprise

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:09:00 +0000

Michael Selepec, co-founder of Pick, talks with us about their strategies to infiltrate enterprise companies and gain adoption among employees. He shares sales tactics and lessons learned from his early years at Yammer.

Two Ways BuzzFeed’s Design Team Collaborates. (The Second One Will Blow Your Mind.)

Thu, 26 Mar 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Cap Watkins, VP of Design at BuzzFeed, talks with us about how they're trying to bridge the design and communication gap between the many departments of BuzzFeed, from the editorial side to marketing, branding, social, and more.

Letting Metrics Determine When to Kill and When to Grow Your Startup

Tue, 24 Mar 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Ryan Bettencourt, managing director of Cursive Labs, talks with us about their venture model and evergreen strategy to running their studio. He outlines their three phases (Ideation, Incubation, and Growth) and how they use a formula of metrics to be brutally honest of when to move a product on to the next phase or kill it and start fresh.

Easy SEO Strategies for Startups

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Dave Nevogt, cofounder of Hubstaff, talked with us about their heavy focus on SEO. He shares their techniques and some easy wins to help get the most juice out of all your content.

The Pipeline Tactics of Mattermark’s Sales Team

Tue, 17 Mar 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Andy Sparks, co-founder of Mattermark, talks about Mattermark's sales strategy and culture of their sales team. He shares how they heavily rely on customer discovery and gain a deep understanding of what people need, as well as some tactical points of closing sales.

Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us

Thu, 12 Mar 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Mike Belsito, author of Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us, talks about his experiences raising over $1 million in Ohio. He also shares the story of his first startup, eFuneral and the lessons he learned about raising capital, and spending it wisely.

Navigating the Dynamics of Co-founder Relationships

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 07:00:00 +0000

George Diab, cofounder of WorkingOn, talks with us about the importance of communication in cofounder (and team) relationships. Specifically, he focuses on techniques you can do up front to make sure you’re partnering with the right person for you.

How to Build Your Content Strategy

Thu, 05 Mar 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Neil Patel, co-founder of Crazy Egg, KISSMetrics, and Quick Sprout, talks with us about all things marketing and sales. He shares his approach to content strategy, his recent experiments in Lifestyle Marketing, and how his sales strategies differ from company to company.

How to Know When to Invest in Your Company

Tue, 03 Mar 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit and author of Authority, talked with us about the struggles of getting a SaaS app off the ground. He focused on the hard decision of knowing when to invest both time and money into an idea, even when there aren’t clear cut signs of success.

Why the Internet is Broken

Thu, 26 Feb 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Andrew Keen, author of The Internet is Not the Answer, talks with us about how he believes the [free] business model of the internet is "broken". The rise of big data companies and the increasing attempts to monetize almost every human activity has led to an exchange of goods and services for personal data - and that's increasingly dangerous and invasive.

How to Know You’re Not the Right CEO

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Semyon Dukach, managing director of TechStars Boston, talks with us about what they look for in founders that are applying to the program. He also talks about the qualities of a good CEO, and how difficult it is to find.

The Secret That Changed One Entrepreneur’s Life

Thu, 19 Feb 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Jon Nastor, host of the Hack the Entrepreneur Podcast, talks with us about his journey as an entrepreneur and what he's learned interviewing some incredible people. He shares his struggles, successes, and the most important lessons he’s learned about business, entrepreneurship, and life.

Cracking Into the Old Boys Club

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 08:00:00 +0000

George Eiskamp, CEO of GroundMetrics, talked with us about the struggles of breaking into the Oil and Gas industry. He shares how he was able to build some key relationships early on, and some of the business decisions he made that went against conventional wisdom that turned out to be the right call.

How to Build a Sales Team from the Ground Up

Thu, 12 Feb 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Tony Cappaert, co-founder of Contactually, talks with us about how they methodically grew their sales team and refined their sales process over the past few years. From getting more qualified leads and learning how to close more deals, to focusing on long-term retention, they’ve grown their team to over 50 in just a short period of time, all while building a collaborative and supportive sales culture.

Prioritizing Product Features Based on OKRs

Tue, 10 Feb 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Sahil Lavinia, founder and CEO of Gumroad, talks with us about their philosophy for product development and creating something that serves a variety of verticals well without niching down too much. He shares how they identify features that improve the product for the most people, support the vision and mission for the company, and are achievable by their small team.

Managing a Million Dollar Company on the Side

Fri, 06 Feb 2015 04:19:00 +0000

Jordan Gutierez, founder of Laleo and COO of Wishpond, talks with us about his entrepreneurial adventures, starting when he was just 4 years old. At the age of 17 he started Laleo, which quickly grew to be a Million+ dollar business. He attributes much of his success to his focus on building the best relationships and reputation possible. He brought that same customer focus to Wishpond, and again is seeing great success by focusing on what customer’s really want and delivering on that.

The 3rd Exit: Dan Martell's Thoughts on Selling Clarity

Tue, 03 Feb 2015 17:00:00 +0000

Dan Martell, Founder of Clarity.fm, talks with us about his incredible journey to entrepreneurship. He also shares his latest big news with us...the sale of his third company, Clarity, to the Fundable team.

Follow Up or Die: Why "Maybe" is Killing Your Business

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Steli Efti, founder of Close.io, talks with us about his philosophy for sales. He believes in following up indefinitely until you get a hard yes or no. He talks about what holds us back from following through on potential deals, and tactics for closing the deal. Anyone doing any kind of sales should listen closely to this episode.

The Shark Tank Effect

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Evan Mendelsohn, Founder of TipsyElves, talks with us about his experience appearing on the show Shark Tank. From the effects on his business to the relationships developed with their investor Robert Herjavec, it's a really interesting look into the effects of exposure.

Navigating the Highly Competitive Payment Space

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

In part two of our two-part interview with Lance Walley, CEO of Chargify, we talk about his early days with the company. He talks about what the payment space was like in 2009 and how things have changed over the past few years.

Pioneering the Rails Community with Engine Yard

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

In part one of our two-part interview with Lance Walley, CEO of Chargify and former CEO of Engine Yard, we talk about the early days of Engine Yard, pioneering the RoR movement, and lessons learned about hiring friends.

How to Raise "Smart" Money

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Thomas Schneider, serial entrepreneur and founder of Kxter, talks about his approach to helping entrepreneurs raise money from the right people for the right reasons.

Company Culture is More Than a Ping Pong Table

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Chuck Longanecker, Founder of Digital Telepathy, talks with us about how they’ve built one of the absolute coolest cultures around. He’s completely open about the effort it takes and the tactics that help them build, maintain, and evolve their culture as the team grows.

The Truth about Work/Life Balance

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Allan Branch, Founder of LessAccounting, talks with us about the myth of work/life balance and what he’s done to create the best combination of the business he wants to run and the family life he strives to protect. It was so refreshing to hear his candid and blunt perspectives on things that aren’t often talked about.

The Advantages of an Invitation-Only SaaS Onboarding Flow

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Laura Roeder, founder of Edgar, talks with us about limiting early-access to your product in order to build demand. Laura has combined invitation-only access, and drip marketing emails, to attract initial (paying) customers and refine Edgar along the way. We also learned the impact of the audience she built over the past few years with her training company, LKR Social Media.

The Most Important Part of Your UX isn’t in Your App

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Zack Onisko, Chief Growth Officer at Creative Market, talks with us about his favorite non-scalable growth tactics. He’s a huge believer in putting in the personal time and hustle to really get to know your customers and develop the kinds of relationships that build lasting and raving customers. He also opens up about the downfalls he’s experienced in growing too fast and how he’s learned to trust his gut and take his time.

User Onboarding: The Canary in the Coal Mine

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Samuel Hulick, creator of UserOnboard and author of The Elements of User Onboarding, joins us a second time to discuss the aftermath of his first book release, lessons learned, and plans for the future. He also takes us through the most common misconceptions about onboarding, highlighting some of the folks in the industry who are really getting it right.

Offline Strategies for Building a Customer Base in a Non-Technical Space

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:14:00 +0000

Janine Holsinger, Founder of NextChapter, talks with us about the challenges of getting started in the legal tech space. She shares her strategies for getting out in front of bankruptcy lawyers who aren’t technical and don’t seek out software products online. She also talks about the challenges of starting her first SaaS app and how she taught herself to code, including spending 10 hours a day learning Ruby on Rails.

Staying Motivated While Juggling Multiple Projects

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:34:00 +0000

Sam Soffes, founder of many awesome apps such as Cheddar, Roon, Whiskey, and Shares, talks with us about how he splits his time between freelancing and all his other projects. He's incredibly honest and really opens up about motivation and why he chooses to work on certain projects. Anyone juggling a few different projects will definitely relate to this one.

Stop Pitching and Close More Deals

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Josh Braun, VP of Biz Dev at Jellyvision, talks with us about getting into the mindset of being a good salesman, which is really being a good servant. His process is all about treating people like people, and he shares his techniques for research, developing champions within companies, helpful tools and a whole lot more. If you have any plans to ramp up sales in 2015 you'll want to catch this episode.

Post-Honeymoon Marketing

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Abhi Lokesh, Co-Founder and CEO of Fracture, talks with us about the struggles of starting up a company that makes a physical product. The early days of prototyping and finding a market were incredibly interesting to hear about. He also shares some of the things they’re doing on the marketing side that have been paying huge dividends for them.

Fantastic Techniques to Motivate Your Team

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 08:00:00 +0000

In this special compilation episode, we talk with the founders of three very different companies about the unique (and effective) ways they motivate their teams. No matter your stage, there's something valuable for everyone to take away from this episode. A very special thank you to Al Bsharah, Bryan Hall, Angela Cois and Mel Gordon.

Disrupting the Publishing Industry

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Eliot Peper, author of Uncommon Stock and the newly released sequel Power Play, talks with us about his unconventional approaches to marketing and selling his second book. From giving the first book away for free on Medium, one chapter at a time, to opening up conversations with fans about early drafts of Power Play, Eliot broke a lot of rules in the publishing game.

Making Sense of Any Mess

Tue, 02 Dec 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Abby Covert, Information Architect and Author of "How to Make Sense of Any Mess", talks with us about the integral role IA plays in every aspect of our lives. In regards to business, she discusses how the concepts of ontology, taxonomy, and choreography make up the very core of our experiences with products and brands, whether we’re aware of what we’re doing or not. It’s a fantastic lesson in planning and being deliberate in all aspects of communication.

Storytelling for Startups

Thu, 27 Nov 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Josh Anon, Founder of Visioneer Studios, talks with us about the importance and the impact of storytelling. He takes something that often seems abstract and breaks it down into tangible elements that anyone can replicate to help better tell the story of their company. Truly enlightening talk with Josh.

Leveraging Business Development for Early Growth

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Andrew Dumont, EIR at Betaworks, talks with us about his experiences building and selling Stride CRM, all while running business development at Moz. He shares his views on the difference between biz dev and sales, touching on how powerful it can be for scaling businesses without full-fledged sales teams. It didn’t take us long to figure out why Andrew made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list!

Growing a Startup One City at a Time

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Stefan Martinovic, Co-Founder of Create.io, talks with us about automating the very time intensive, archaic process of pricing projects and estimating the economic outcome of real estate development projects. They took a manual process that previously took many weeks and could cost over $10k can now be done in minutes. He shares about how he’s been traveling the country to meet people face to face in order to get buy-in from a variety of stakeholders, city by city, to methodically grow the business. The human element is crucial in this industry, and they’re using that to their advantage.

Find and Leverage Your Unfair Advantage

Tue, 18 Nov 2014 08:34:00 +0000

Rob Meadows, CEO of Originate, talks about how the barrier to entry to starting a new venture has never been lower, and why finding the one thing that’s unique to you is more important than ever. He gives some great examples and great perspective on creating an unfair advantage for yourself.

Why You Should Charge from Day One

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Robert Mueller, Co-Founder of FastMail, talks with us about growing the company since 1999 and surviving the first dot com bust. During this 15-year journey they were acquired, but subsequently bought the company back a few years later and are now wholly owned by the staff. He also shares his initial fears and realities of taking the leap into founding a startup, especially during those early days.

Tools and Techniques for Optimizing Your Acquisition Channels

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Mattan Griffel, growth expert and founder and CEO of OneMonth, talks about customer acquisition and activation. He discusses what metrics you should be tracking and tweaking, and common mistakes he sees people make time and time again.

Treehouse's Approach to Changing the World Starts from Within

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Ryan Carson, Co-Founder and CEO of Treehouse, talks with us about following his passion and the drive to do something big. He also shares with us how he was able to restructure his company into a flat organization with no managers or executives.

Digging Your Way Out of the Trough of Sorrow

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Adda Birni, Founder and CEO of Skillcrush, talks with us about the “trough of sorrow” and how she fought and clawed her way to significant month over month growth in revenue. We also chat about the blind spots of tech in silicon valley and the opportunities that exist with the rest of the population that isn’t saturated with tech 24/7.

The Risks and Rewards of Bitcoin Startups

Thu, 30 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Chris Shepherd, Founder of HashRabbit, talks all about a building a startup around Bitcoin. He’s facing some really interesting challenges and shares unique insights into the whole Bitcoin movement and what it’ll take to reach mass adoption.

Why Your Company Should Ban Email

Tue, 28 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Thomas Knoll, Founder of PrimeLoop, talks about why he’s baked the “no internal email” rule into his company. He talks about the insane benefits to workflow, culture, and sanity, as well as how any company can start to implement the same processes, regardless of size. He shares what tools they use to replace the need for email and why each is so much more efficient both in the short, and the long run.

Hustling for Traction and Doing Things That Don't Scale

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Ian Heidt, Co-Founder and CEO of Housecall, talks about the extreme lengths they’ve gone to build early traction in their local market. From dressing up like elves and delivering Christmas trees, personally fulfilling services through the app, and giving back to the community, they represent the epitome of hustle. And through these processes, they’ve discovered the tactics that will help them massively scale.

Looking Beyond the Blog Entry

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Eliot Peper, author of tech startup fiction thriller Uncommon Stock, talks with us about the carry-over lessons between tech startups and publishing a novel. We learned a ton about the new publishing options available, how he stays on track to get the writing done, and how he came up with the idea to do a tech thriller in the first place.

Test Early, Test Often: The Power of Qualitative Data

Thu, 16 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Leslie Bradshaw, Managing Partner at Made by Many NY, talks about how they capture and use both qualitative and quantitative data to make key product decisions, like what features to build. She talks about finding insights in behavioral patterns, and using something as simple as a pencil and paper to prototype an idea. She also talks about developing yourself as a thought leader through content marketing to win bigger clients and higher-caliber work.

How to Methodically Build a Growth Machine

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Brian Balfour, VP of Growth at HubSpot and author of the Coelevate blog, talks with us in-depth about his process for building a growth machine. He walks us through each step of their experiments and how they determine what to focus on. He talks about the key differences between being iterative vs. incremental. This was an incredibly enlightening interview.

Developing Stronger, Smarter Startup Communities

Thu, 09 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

We attended Tech Cocktail's Celebrate Conference in Downtown Las Vegas and put together an absolutely killer episode with the very best highlights of the event. The overarching theme is all about building strong startup communities. We talk to a couple key players in the success of building up the Las Vegas tech scene, and have clips of Tony Hsieh's keynote talk about "Cities as Startups".

Three Principles of Success From a Killer Self-Funded Company

Tue, 07 Oct 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Jeff Berg, Founder and Developer at Planning Center, talks about how he's grown his self-funded company to over 30 employees and over 3 million users across their suite of apps. He shares his 3 principles for success with us, and how he's able to maintain such an awesome culture and team as they continue to grow.

Attracting Top Quality Talent in the Early Stages

Thu, 02 Oct 2014 14:50:00 +0000

Rob Mallery, VP of Talent at Originate, talks with us about attracting top-notch technical and creative talent. He describes how his company is attempting to disrupt the investment space by investing talent rather than money, and how they’ve created a process for matching passions and talent with the right companies.

How to Pull Off 12 (Well Executed) Startups in 12 Months

Tue, 30 Sep 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Pieter Levels, Founder of Levels.io, talks about how he’s building 12 startups in 12 months. Not only do we cover how he’s able to pull that off (and to with awesome quality), but he has really interesting reasons why he’s approaching startups this way. This chat was incredibly inspiring and motivating - a must-listen.

How to Increase Activation Through Awesome Onboarding

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Gordon Wintrob, Co-Founder of StackLead, talks about their unique approach to onboarding and activation. He walks us through their flow and shares the effectiveness of different techniques. He also shares some of the learnings that came out of YCombinator.

How to Screw Up a Google Acquisition

Tue, 23 Sep 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Jason Roberts, serial entrepreneur, one of the first developers at Uber and host of the TechZing podcast shares some great stories about his experiences on both sides of the funding table. He also talks about how he screwed up a potential Google acquisition for his product, Prezo, and why he turned down the CTO position at Uber.

Retargeting Tactics That Unlocked $40,000 in Revenue

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Scott Nixon, Co-Founder and CTO of Happy Herbivore, talks about the incredible growth he and his wife have seen over the past few years. He dives deep into the strategies and benefits of retargeting, and shares some staggering numbers. If you haven’t experimented with retargeting before, you certainly will after this episode.

Physical Goods vs. Software: The Key Differences That Will Change Your Strategy

Tue, 16 Sep 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Kosta Gara , Founder & CEO of Vionic, talks about the differences between a traditional consumer-product environment (like cosmetics or energy drinks) versus a B2B software company. We cover everything from product development to sales, marketing and growth.

What Investors Really Look For in Founders

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Navid Alipour, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Analytics Ventures, talks with us about the changing landscape of investment, and how the emergence of syndicates opens up a whole new world of investment opportunities for the average joe. He also talks about what characteristics are most important in a founder seeking investment.

Lessons Learned From a $25 Million Dollar Acquisition

Tue, 09 Sep 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Brad Flora, Founder and CEO of Perfect Audience, talks about the recent acquisition of his company. He shares the ups and downs of the entire process, the unexpected points along the way, and how things have changed post-sale.

How to Go Beyond Simple Execution and Go After a Huge Opportunity

Thu, 04 Sep 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Josh Long, designer, writer, and creator of many awesome products, talks with us about his balance between multiple projects and income streams, and his passion for learning through all his different projects. He also shares both his excitement and concerns about moving forward with a single focus on one product, and aiming much bigger than he ever has in the past.

Things You Never Considered About Enterprise Sales

Tue, 02 Sep 2014 19:41:00 +0000

David Warren, Founder and CEO of LIA, talks with us about his endeavors in the enterprise sales space. He shares some amazingly intuitive advice and some great stories.

How GitHub Scaled Past Dunbar's Number Without Losing Their Culture

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Zach Holman, one of the first engineers at GitHub talks about how their culture and process have changed as they’ve grown from about 10 employees to over 250, (about 2/3 or which are remote). He details which bits of process were necessary and helped them scale as well as which aspects of their culture they’ve fought (successfully) to defend over the years.

Getting Past Your Biases to Unlock Unimaginable Growth Channels

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, talks about his guide to building sustainable and lasting traction throughout the lifetime of a business, and how you can be testing traction channels even before you launch. He also shared his story behind the billboard he bought for DuckDuckGo right in Google’s backyard that landed them a story in USA Today.

When to Stop Focusing on Building an Audience and Start Pounding the Pavement

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:16:00 +0000

Rob Walling, Founder of Drip, Co-Host of Startups for the Rest of Us, and Co-Creator of MicroConf, talks all about how they’ve used their podcast and conference to build an incredibly loyal audience, and how that has affected his product at various stages of development and growth. He weighs in on whether it’s necessary or not to have an audience in order to grow and scale your product. You may be surprised at his answer!

How to Make, Test, and Iterate on Marketing Assumptions

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Manuel Weiss, Co-Founder and CMO of Codeship, shares how they apply the scientific method to everything they do, particularly in their marketing pipeline. He shares examples of experiments and how they iterate over time until they’ve optimized an assumption, and also talks through their new framework and building blocks for deploying and maximizing their marketing materials.

When to Stop “Powering Through” and Pivot

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Lee Jacobson, CEO of Apmetrix, talked with us about getting past the “power through it” mentality and opening yourself up to pivoting. By trusting in and listing to the data you collect you can follow various paths to revenue. He also talked about their method of lead-scoring so they can make the most of their sales cycle.

Why You Should Forget Pre-Defined Product Categories

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Ryan Singer, Product Manager at Basecamp, talked with us about stripping away pre-defined product categories and focusing on the niche you’re filling and the problem you’re solving. He shares lessons learned with Basecamp, as well as how they use Jobs-To-Be-Done to help them when they get lost.

How to Raise Money Outside of San Francisco

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Cat Noone, Co-Founder of Liberio, talks with us about their journey raising a seed round in Berlin. She shares strategies they’ve discovered in building their pitch deck, meetings with VCs, and the thought behind raising money in the first place.

How to Find Unique Growth Channels Beyond Content

Tue, 05 Aug 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Sean Ellis, Founder and CEO of Qualaroo and GrowthHackers talks about how he massively increased growth at Qualaroo just by changing up their pricing model. He also talks about his motivations behind creating and growing the community at GrowthHackers.com and the external benefits it brings to marketers.

Time Management Tips to Make Your Team Insanely Productive

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 09:09:00 +0000

Owais Peer, Co-Founder of Global App Testing, talks about his unique productivity hacks he uses with his entire team. We also discuss his bottom up approach to management and how they use the Pomodoro technique to measure just about everything on their to-do list.

Attracting Enterprise Customers Through Inbound Leads

Tue, 29 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Brian Zeurcher, Founder and CEO of Seen, talks about the challenges of building a SaaS app for large-scale brands to help promote their social marketing channels through powerful influencers and brand advocates.

Bulletproof Sales Techniques That Scale

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Melanie Gordon, Co-Founder and CEO of TapHunter, shares the cold-calling and sales techniques they’ve used to scale to profitability within a year of taking a seed round of funding. She also talks about the challenges of selling a SaaS product to non-technical, brick-and-mortar businesses and how they’ve overcome them.

Buffer's Secret to Killer Customer Service and Strategic Hiring

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Carolyn Kopprasch, Chief Happiness Officer at Buffer, talks with us about how they’ve kept up quality as they’ve grown their support team, and the unconventional ways they’ve scaled. She also shared super actionable tips on how they use HelpScout to process hundreds of job applications every single month and how they find good culture fits for the team.

How to Identify a Pain Worth Solving and Turn It Into a Profitable Business

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Robert Williams, Founder of LetsWorkshop.com, talks about how he focused on solving a huge pain point that he personally experienced, and grew it into a super successful startup. He shares his learnings from the 30x500 course and how he’s been able to grow so quickly by staying focused on helping his customers succeed.

The Ultra-Creative Viral Hooks Boomerang Used to Scale

Tue, 15 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Alex Moore, Founder and CEO of Boomerang, talks with us about viral tactics he used to grow a product that most people didn’t want others to know they were using. He also shares a hilarious story of how he got his first investor, Dave McClure.

What Investors Consider When Deciding To Invest In You

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Elliot Schneier, COO of Fundable, talks with us about the key factors that investors look for when deciding to invest in you. He shared incredibly thorough insights on topics ranging from idea to traction to funding. He also talked with us about their strategies behind acquiring companies like LaunchRock and what makes them opt to build something in-house.

Christine Lu Speaks Out About Startup Founder Depression

Tue, 08 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Christine Lu, Co-Founder and CEO of Affinity China speaks out about mental health and founder depression. She not only shares her own personal story, but her perspective on why depression is so prominent among startup founders.

How To Get Featured in VentureBeat, TechCrunch, and More

Thu, 03 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Conrad Egusa, former Venture Beat writer and founder of Publicize, shares his incredibly effective process for getting press in big publications. None of it requires hiring a pr firm, having existing relationships with journalists, or any other myths you thought to be true. Super actionable advice in this episode.

Getting Over the Fear of Starting a Business

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:42:00 +0000

Garrett Dimon, founder of Sifter, talks about some of the silliest excuses people make to not start their own company (including his own). He also shares the unexpected benefits that came down the line from running his own business.

Marketing Your Products through Event Planning

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Nick O’Neill, Founder of Startup Stats, talks with us about event planning. He shares his process for deciding what kind of event to plan, lining up speakers and ticket sales. There’s an amazing amount of similarities to launching a product.

Vertical Marketing Strategies and Designing a Company Culture

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Jesse Mecham and Taylor Brown of You Need a Budget share their strategies for taking a product with broad appeal and segmenting it down to market to different verticals. They also talk about being deliberate in their hiring process and company culture, especially with a distributed team.

“Fundstrapping” Your Way to Profitability

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Colin Nederkoorn, Founder and CEO of Customer.io, talks about the tactics he used to build early traction and how they converted that traction to an unconventional round of funding that rocketed them to profitability.

Raising outside of San Fran and Leveraging The Right Mix of Advisors

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Scot Chisholm, Co-Founder and CEO of StayClassy, talks with us about his unusual route to raising 1.5 million seed funding over the course of 2 years and how mentors and advisors helped them grow into one of the biggest non-profit donation platforms in the world.

Creative Funding Strategies For Early Growth

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Paul Farnell, Co-Founder and CEO of Litmus, talks about their early growth and how they were able to reach profitability without ever raising “traditional” rounds of funding. He shares the creative ways they funded themselves, including selling pre-orders of their product before it was ready, exclusive “patron accounts”, and more.

Sales Tactics That Actually Work

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Ben Sardella, sales guru and co-founder of Datanyze, talks about specific sales tactics like personalized emails, social media outreach and more. He shares his “6-touch-point process” and digs into the mistakes he sees companies make over and over again.

How to Fundraise without Venture Capital

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Nick Francis, co-founder and CEO of Help Scout, brings a unique, middle-ground, perspective on funding and growth. He also talks about how going through TechStars Boston had a huge impact on their trajectory.

Sales Tactics Aimed at Tripling Revenue

Tue, 03 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Aaron Ross, best-selling author of Predictable Revenue, talks with us about how he build an outbound sales program at Salesforce that increased recurring revenues by over 100 million dollars. We talked all about his tips and tricks for cold-calling and how to reach people by getting out from behind your computer screen.

The Power of Authenticity

Thu, 29 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000

David Sherry, Founder of Death to the Stock Photo, talks about the importance of authenticity. He shared his techniques for keeping high-touch engagement at the forefront of all their community-building efforts and how they’re able to grow their list by 10,000 subscribers a month.

Streamlined Planning for Small Teams

Tue, 27 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Nathan Gilmore, Co-Founder of TeamGantt, shares how they bootstrapped their way to thousands of monthly customers. He also talked to Michael about how this team at Brandisty could benefit from something like Gantt vs. other methodologies.

Marketing to Developers and Releasing Free Tools for Lead Generation

Thu, 22 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000

John Sheehan, Co-Founder and CEO of Runscope talks about how to market to developers. He shares how they've both aqcuired and built an arsenal of free tools, and how those tools have become the primary source of qualified lead generation for Runscope.

How to Setup a Painless Content Production Processes

Tue, 20 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Mark Roberge, Chief Revenue Officer of HubSpot, talks about really easy ways to turn your company into a content machine and drive more inbound leads. He also dives deep into HubSpot’s sales process and the metrics-driven approach that worked so well for them, even in the early days.

Growth, Pricing, and the Realities of Funding

Thu, 15 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Jason Cohen, Founder and CTO of WP Engine, talks about why you shouldn’t be afraid to make ambitious changes to your strategy or pricing, and what those enhancements may look like. He also talks about the differences between raising money to grow your company vs. self-funding all the way.

The Importance of Getting Sh*t Done vs. Striving For Perfection

Tue, 13 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Drew Strojny, former NFL player and Founder of The Theme Foundry and Memberful, talks about how Memberful was built internally out of necessity and later opened to the public. He also talks about how to stay positive and hungry, despite moving slower than your competition when you have a tiny team.

Product Philosophy: JTBD & Minimum Marketable Features

Thu, 08 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Thomas Schranz, Co-Founder & CEO of Blossom.io talks about how he thinks differently about product management. He doesn’t blindly follow standard agile practices - he picks the right tool for the job and avoids unnecessary process. He also talked with us about Jobs-To-Be-Done and the concept of Minimum Marketable Features.

Fundraising, Metrics, and Phenomenal Twitter Rants

Tue, 06 May 2014 15:25:00 +0000

Danielle Morrill, Co-Founder and CEO of Mattermark, talks all about funding - when companies should consider seeking it, and the metrics you should be monitoring to know if/when the time is right. She also shares some incredible lessons learned along the way as a startup founder (she’s covered A LOT of ground in the past few years).

Early-Stage Growth Tactics and Finding Your Focus

Thu, 01 May 2014 07:30:00 +0000

Hiten Shah, Founder of CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics, talked about the pros and cons of funding vs. self-funding, and the impact each can have on your focus and early-stage strategy. Hiten also talked about mistakes he sees early-stage companies making time and time again.

Leaving the Valley to Start Up in Berlin

Tue, 29 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Cat Noone, Co-Founder and lead designer for Liberio, talks with us about leaving San Francisco to start a startup in Berlin. She shares some really interesting stories about the experience, both from the social perspective as well as the fundraising side.

Relationship Building, The Art of Sales, and Balinese Gurus

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Perri Blake Gorman, Founder of Archive.ly and one of the Co-Founders of Unroll.me, talks about how she went from being a head-hunter on Wall Street to a solo, non-technical startup founder. She also shares her process for creating meaningful relationships that pay off in the long-term.

The Rollercoaster Journey of Wistia

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Brendan Schwartz, Co-Founder and CTO of Wistia, shares some hilarious stories about his journey going from bootstrapped to raising a round of funding, to not making sale for months after raising that money. He touches on early product pivots, sales, pricing, and more.

How to Write Content That Resonates with Your Target Audience

Thu, 17 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Andrew Torba, co-founder and CEO of Kuhcoon, tells us about how he’s been able to grow a large audience just by writing on Medium, and what it is about his content that really resonates with people. He also talks about how he uses his own product to sell...his own product.

Building (and Balancing) Multiple Revenue Streams

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Steve Young, host of Mobile App Chat, talks with us about leaving his cush job in the Bay Area to build his own revenue streams through iOS applications, podcast sponsors, and a membership site. He shares how he booked his first sponsor before hitting viability, and how he’s able to release 3 episodes a week in his ‘spare’ time.

Market Disruption and Getting Your First Customer

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode we talked with Brant Cooper, author of The Lean Entrepreneur. He talks about the common misconceptions around the Lean Startup and how to use early customer interviews to discover the emotional connection that people can have with your product.

Taking a B2B Approach to a Marketplace App

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Today we talked with Yashar Ahmadpour, founder of CrowdClock. He talks about his B2B style approach to what’s really a marketplace app, and how he's leveraging partnerships like never before. He also opens up with us about what drives him as an entrepreneur and a problem solver.

From 0 to 100,000 Users

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Oli Gardner, co-founder of Unbounce, talks about the marketing and integrations they did in the early stages to grow their product, and about the transition that he’s making from being Creative Director of the company to more of a public speaking role.

Quitting a 6-Figure Job to Bootstrap a Startup

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 07:00:00 +0000

TK, founder of ToutApp, talks about leaving his six figure job to pursue his startup dream, and how he kept trying to build the wrong product— even when the right one was staring him in the face. He also talks about the long, slow road of SaaS, and his transition from bootstrapped to funded.

Creating "Wow" Moments and the Impact on Engagement

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 07:00:00 +0000

We talked with Moritz Plassnig, co-founder and CEO of Codeship. He talked about how their passion for education, teaching through video and blog posts, is baked into who they are as a company. He also touched on how creating a “wow” factor for people in the first couple minutes of using their product has been huge in moving the needle for them.

Leveraging Content Marketing Materials (Even at Scale)

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Today we talked with Gregory Ciotti, the man behind Help Scout’s inbound marketing. He breaks down his process for producing his unique, research-backed content, and he also talks about the recent decision to pull down the email wall to all their guides, letting them live out in the open.

How to Get Content Published in the Majors

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:05:00 +0000

In this episode we talked with Mark Fidelman, Forbes columnist and founder of Raynforest. He shared some incredible tips for how to get content published and your company promoted in big publications like Forbes. They’re techniques that anyone can use. Great, actionable stuff in this interview.

An Eye-Opening New Take on Email Lists

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Brennan Dunn, founder of PlanScope, author of Double Your Freelancing Rate and a number of other books and courses, talks with us about how he uses one "list" to market all of his products. Among other benefits, this leaves the door open to sell any number of future products or services. We learned A LOT.

Taking on New Ventures and Establishing a New Life Balance

Thu, 13 Mar 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Adii, founder of WooThemes and Public Beta talked with us about launching a completely new venture from scratch and some of the controversial techniques he used when validating his idea. He also opened up with us about creating a more sustainable work/life balance and his plans for the future.

How to Use Lean Branding to Find Product Market Fit

Tue, 11 Mar 2014 14:20:00 +0000

In this episode, Jeremiah Gardner, author of The Lean Brand, shares his techniques for helping companies get to the root of what they're really about (not just what they're selling). He talks about how having the right conversations in the beginning is hugely powerful when it comes to finding your product/market fit.

The Unexpected Power of "Tool Marketing"

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Mikael Cho, founder of Ooomf, talks with us about how they've used "tool marketing" (aka built a few simple, free tools) to help solve problems for their target audience and build a bridge to their main service. His unique approach has paid off big time.

The Failures that Led to the Success of WP Curve

Tue, 04 Mar 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Dan Norris, founder of Informly and WP Curve talks about mistakes he's made in the past, and how he and his partner have learned to "fail fast" and pay closer attention to behavior than verbal feedback.

The Power of Integrating Your SaaS With Other Apps

Thu, 27 Feb 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Ruben Gamez, founder of Bidsketch, shares how he was able to leverage integrations with other apps into promotional opportunities that skyrocketed Bidsketch’s early growth.

3 Simple Rules For Early-Stage Email Lists

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode Chris Hexton, founder of Vero, talks about how he was able to grow Vero over the past 18 months. He also shares his 3 simple tips for anyone who's just starting out building their list and not sure how to begin with email marketing.

The David & Goliath Story of BuySellAds

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 03:09:00 +0000

Todd Garland, founder of BuySellAds talked with us about how you don't need to be the first to market, and about how old fashioned hustle and personal touch still pay off in a big way.

Growing an Audience from 0 to 3,000 in Less than 2 Months

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 03:08:00 +0000

Samuel Hulick, curator of UserOnboard.com shared how he was able to grow his audience from 0 to over 3000 in less than 2 months, just by creating his own brand of unique content.

How Product Hunt was Launched in Less than 1 Week

Sat, 25 Jan 2014 16:00:00 +0000

Ryan shares how he and his partner, Nathan Bashaw, realased the smallest possible version of their product, Product Hunt, in less than a week. You'll also learn his secrets for getting content published on sites like Pando Daily and Fast Company.