Startup Sense Podcast

Rob LoCascio is one of our more successful entrepreneurs on the podcast because he's already taken his company LivePerson public but more interestingly is that he did it back in 2000 at the peak of the dot-com bubble. Rob was the solo-founder of LivePerson which is the world's largest messaging platform for some of the biggest brands and companies we know and love such as Microsoft, IBM, Intuit, Adobe, Ted Baker, Virgin Atlantic, United Way and hundreds more. LivePerson raised $40 million from their IPO and at the time Rob still owned 20% of the company (he still owns 10% today). LivePerson has 1,100 employees spread across 12 global offices and now gets 50% of their revenue from outside the U.S. LivePerson currently has a market cap of $775 million. In this interview I had a great time chatting with Rob about his journey of taking LivePerson from startup to IPO to now being a public company for 17 years. I asked him what it's like to be a public company CEO, what does LivePerson do, who are their clients, ho

Nearly 70% of American's take at least one prescription drug and millions more take daily vitamins and supplements. One of the problems is that everyday millions of people forget to take those pills which can lead to devastating health issues including death in the most severe cases. Pillsy is a smart pill bottle that automatically tracks your required doses and sends intelligent reminders when you forget. Whether you need to take certain pills in the morning, afternoon or evening...Pillsy has you covered. Pillsy was started in 2014 but didn't start shipping product until 2016. The company has 5 full-time employees and has raised $500,000 from some angel investors including 500 startups.    In this interview I spoke with Jeff LeBrun, co-founder of Pillsy about why he started this company, what was his motivation, how big is this market, how are they selling the product, are they going into retail, how are they acquiring users, what is their marketing strategy, why did product development take 2 years, whe

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing AJ Gerritson and this episode was particularly special because I've known him for almost 10 years. That's given me a back row seat in watching him grow this company into a 90-person, $20 million agency juggernaut. Agency 451 is a fully vertically integrated agency offering services such as branding, digital marketing, media buying, PR, social media, video production and almost anything else that helps a company launch new products, expand their brands and grow their revenues. Agency 451 is based in Boston with satellite offices in NYC and LA. The team is currently at 90 people and growing rapidly considering they were at just 30 people in 2012.  In this interview I spoke with AJ about his 13 year journey in building Agency 451, why did he start the company, what did the company look like in 2004, what types of clients were they working with, what started to fuel their growth, how long did it take to get to $1 million in annual revenues, how big are they today, how much

The world is moving to better, cheaper and more efficient energy equipment but when it comes to upgrades and replacements Sparkfund is introducing a new financing model. SparkFund is a financial technology company that let's businesses pay over time for new energy efficient products and services. The company is based in Washington DC, has raised $20 million from investors and has 42 employees (25% working outside of their main office). In this interview I spoke with Nikko about this new financing model through Sparkfund, where the idea came from, when did the founding team begin working on it, when and why did they raise their first round of capital, when did they launch their service, what types of businesses/industries do they work with, how did they acquire their early customers, what have been the biggest challenges, what have been the biggest mistakes, why are they down to 2 founders, what's the value of a good board of directors, how are the investors adding value, why is the company based in Washington

A couple months ago I took delivery of the Autonomous SmartDesk and it was love at first sight. This desk is amazing. Not only does it come in variety of colors and designs but they start at just $299. The coolest thing about this desk is that it's motorized so with the push of a button I can drop down to 24" or move up to 51" which makes it the perfect sit/stand desk. Research shows that standing throughout the day is beneficial to your body and your productivity. After using the desk for a few days I was so impressed that I reached out to Autonomous and offered to interview the founder, thankfully he accepted my invitation. Autonomous is the creator, manufacturer and distributor for unique, ergonomic office furniture including desks, chairs, stools and robots. Autonomous was started in 2014 but didn't begin shipping product until 2015. The company is based in NYC, raised a small seed round of capital and has 50 employees distributed across 5 global offices.  In this interview I spoke with Duy about why he s

Connor Gillivan has a wealth of entrepreneurial experience especially when it comes to ecommerce and building a successful drop-ship business. He started his first company in college and grew it to more than $20 million in total sales, almost exclusively through Amazon. At one point they were selling hundreds of thousands of different items through Amazon and using thousands of different drop-shippers. But over the past couple years he was scaled back that business to focus more on his new company FreeeUp.com which helps individuals and companies hire the top 1% of online freelancers. FreeeUp recruits and vets their marketplace of freelancers to ensure they all meet a certain level of experience, skills and professionalism. FreeeUp is currently bootstrapped but has thought about raising capital, they're based in Orlando, FL and work with 700+ freelancers in many different categories from graphic design to customer service to digital marketing to virtual assistant. Click here to order Connor's book called "Fre

Raise your hand if you like doing laundry. I'm going to assume not many of you raised you hands. What about this scenario: you live in a big city and don't have a washer/dryer in your residence so twice a week you have to trek down to the laundromat, spend 2-3 hours doing your laundry, then trek back home, possibly in bad weather. Ugh, that sounds miserable!! Well, Cleanly is your solution to this epic time-wasting problem because they pick up your laundry, wash it, press it (if needed) and return it within 24 hours. They are currently operating in NYC and Washington DC with expansion plans for later this year into San Francisco. Cleanly has raised $9 million from investors including Joe Montana (the NFL Hall of Fame QB). The company first launched during Y-combinator in early 2015 and currently has 20 employees but hiring aggressively. Use "StartupSense" at Cleanly.com to receive $20 in free credits.  In this interview I spoke with Tom Harari, co-founder of Cleanly about why he started this company, what was

Hyperbiotics is a company that most of us have not heard about. They have not raised tons of VC money and they're not part of the sexy on-demand economy but what they have done is create a product that's helping millions of people all while selling more than $20 million of their probiotics. Jamie and her husband started the company a few years after having a personal health scare that caused her doctor to recommend probiotics. After doing some research Jamie felt there was nothing on the market that met her level of expectations so she created her own. Fast forward 3 years and Hyperbiotics has sold more than 1 million bottles of probiotics, a big portion of which are happening on Amazon. Jamie and her husband are currently running the company from Spain, they have manufacturing in Nevada and 35 employees distributed around the world.  In this interview I spoke with Jamie about her health scare and why it motivated her to start the company, how are her products different and better than their competitors, what

Every good sales person understands that it's all about building relationships with your customers and prospects. After a previous successful exit the founders of Nudge came together again to build a new sales platform to help sales people find and create stronger relationships with the people that matter. Nudge connects to your email, your calendar and your social media to provide alerts and analytics for your network. Nudge has a free product to help you get started, that also gives you access to the mobile app and chrome extension, then you can upgrade to the $30 per month paid version when needed. As a lifelong sales person I understand the value of services like Nudge so I'd recommend you check it out. Nudge is based in Toronto, has raised $7.5 million and currently has 22 people on their team.  In this interview I spoke with Paul Teshima, founder of Nudge.ai about his motivation behind starting Nudge, what does Nudge do, how is it different from other relationship management software, who is their targe

Today was one of my favorite all-time interviews...not only because Scrub Daddy is an amazing product loved by millions or that Scrub Daddy is the most successful Shark Tank company ever or that Aaron Krause seems like one of the nicest guys in the business world...but because Aaron and his kickass team have grown Scrub Daddy from a 1-person company out of of his home into a 65-person company with 70,000 square feet of manufacturing/warehouse space and more than $100 million in sales. Perhaps the most remarkable part is that Aaron and his team (including Lori Greiner) have accomplished all of this in just 4.5 years. Most of you remember Scrub Daddy from Season 4 of Shark Tank (watch the pitch here) where Aaron closed a deal with Lori at $200,000 for 20% equity. Since then the growth at Scrub Daddy has been like a rocket ship, fueled by distribution at tens of thousands of retail stores across the world and more than 200 appearances on QVC.  In this interview with Aaron Krause, founder of Scrub Daddy we covere

The world of wealth management is always changing especially for the millennials that now want innovative investment solutions that meet their needs and preferences. The baby boomers like sitting down with their financial advisors on a quarterly basis to review their investment strategy and portfolio bt today's younger investors want access to technology and software that can help them manage their money easier and more effectively with lower fees and all of this from the comfort of their home with just a few clicks on their computer or smartphone. Wealthfront is the largest and fastest growing automated investment service, with over $6 billion in assets under management. The company was started in 2011, is based in the Bay Area, has 140 employees and has raised $129 million from investors.  In this interview I spoke with Andy Rachleff, co-founder of Wealthfront about the changing landscape of wealth management, where did the idea for Wealthfront come from, what were the many things that needed to happen to g

The global tea industry is probably much larger than most people realize (including me). After doing some research it appears to be in the range of $40 billion annually but unlike the coffee industry there are not many well-known brands dominating this massive market. Teforia wants to change that. Teforia is creating a new tea experience for tea drinkers which includes their beautiful brewing system along with dozens of different tea leaf blends. Owners of these systems can source their tea from other companies but Teforia has found that the majority of their consumers are very loyal to their product due to the consistency of their high-quality whole leaves. Teforia is based in Silicon Valley, has raised $17 million from investors and currently has 16 employees.  Save 25% at Teforia.com with the discount code "StartupSense"  In this interview I spoke with Allen Han, founder of Teforia about his love to tea and how it motivated him to start Teforia, why does the tea industry provide such a huge business opport

When you talk to Jeremy Haynes it's obvious that he is extremely passionate about what he does which is one of the key reasons as to why he's building a successful digital agency. Before starting Megalodon Marketing he did marketing for Grant Cardone who is renowned for his sales training programs and workshops. Jeremy and Megalodon have capitalized on the desire of influencers, entrepreneurs and celebrities that want to grow their personal brands, expand their social reach, better engage with their audience and create new income streams. Megalodon is based in Miami and Los Angels, is approaching 20 employees and has been bootstrapped by Jeremy since the beginning which dates back to early 2016.  In this interview I spoke with Jeremy about his motivation behind starting Megalodon, with all the digital agencies out there what makes his different, what valuable lessons and skills did he learn by working with Grant Cardone, what types of clients do they work with, how do they find their clients, what level of re

As you probably know by now the Startup Sense Podcast loves interviewing the founders of innovative companies disrupting massive industries and today's guest is no different. Heal provides on-demand healthcare services which means they bring a great doctor to your home or office, on your schedule, when you need it. Heal is currently operating throughout California and recently launched in the Washington DC which aggressive expansion plans on the horizon. We all know that healthcare is a massive, inefficient, slow moving industry but thankfully companies like Heal are bringing new innovations and new business models while providing services that consumers love. Heal went live in 2015, has raised more than $51 million from a host of top notch investors and is quickly approaching 100 employees.  In this interview I spoke with Nick Desai, co-founder of Heal about his motivation behind starting the company, what was he doing prior to Heal, how did he find his co-founders (spoiler: one of of them is his wife), what

Ori has spent the bulk of his life in the biggest real estate market in the world, New York City. NYC is unlike any other market, from the millions of people to the thousands of buildings, the opportunities in luxury sales and rentals is endless. Several years ago Ori came to realize through personal experience that the process of finding luxury apartment rentals was broken. The majority of sites were using old pictures, misleading content, inaccurate prices and all kinds of sketchy marketing techniques that were unfair to consumers. So he started Loftey which helps you find your next great apartment while saving you time, money and stress. Loftey was originally bootstrapped by Ori then raised a small friends and family round. He has 2 co-founders, 18 employees and of course the company is based in NYC.   In this interview I spoke with Ori about his motivation behind starting Loftey, why he believed there was an opportunity in the NYC real estate market, what was the existing pain point for consumers (especia

The logistics industry is mindblowingly large with several national companies dominating however the team at Sudu wants to change that. Their service gives smaller shipping companies an opportunity to compete for larger contracts they would normally not have. Sudu matches the shippers and carriers based on many factors such as availability, load type/size and route optimization. Sudu also works with many minority owned carriers and helped start the National Minority Transportation Consortium. Sudu is an 11 person team, has raised $1.1 million, went through the ATDC Accelerator and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. In this interview I spoke with Amari Ruff, co-founder of Sudu about his previous business experience and how it led him to start Sudu, what does Sudu actually do, how does their service work, how did they land clients like Walmart and Shaw Floors, how are they acquiring their users, how long did it take to build out their platform, how does Sudu make money, what is the Atlanta startup scene like, how di

I really wish something like Kudzoo had existed when I was in school because it would have added some extra motivation to studying harder, attending classes more frequently and getting better grades. Kudzoo is a free mobile app that rewards high school and college students with deals, giveaways, scholarship opportunities, concert tickets and other rewards. Kudzoo has more than 1 million users (80% high school) and has started partnering with brands that want exposure to Gen Z (people born after 1995) which is in the tens of millions of students. Kudzoo is free for students but they also offer an enterprise version for schools that want to customize the content. Kudzoo is based in NYC and has raised $1.6 million already with another $1.5 million round in the works. In this interview I spoke with Logan Cohen, co-founder of Kudzoo about her motivation behind starting the company, where the idea came from, what exactly does Kudzoo do, who is using it, how are they growing their active user base, what marketing ta

If you're a developer or a marketer than you've probably heard of SendGrid because they're one of the biggest customer engagement platforms. They were one of the first companies to provide transactional email services enabling them to land customers like Uber, Airbnb, Spotify and Yelp. They have since added other email services which puts them in direct competition with Mailchimp, Aweber and others. SendGrid has been around since 2009 when they were one of the first companies to go through the TechStars accelerator in Boulder, Colorado. The company has raised $80 million from investors, has 380 employees, have made 2 acquisitions and currently operate offices in Denver, Los Angeles, London and the Bay Area. In this interview I spoke with CEO Sameer Dholakia about joining the company 3 years ago to be the new CEO, what was his prior business experience and why did he think SendGrid would be a good fit, what has fueled SendGrid's growth over the past 5+ years, why did they start out by targeting developers, how

There's a saying in the capital finance industry that goes something like "the only companies that qualify for financing are the ones that don't need it" and it's not much different in the franchise financing world because certain requirements and qualifications must still be met however the team at Apple Pie Capital is becoming a leader in this market. They current work with more than 60 brands and their franchisees to provide alternative financing options from $200,000 to $2 million. To this into perspective the annual capital demands for franchise financing is greater than $30 billion so clearly this a massive opportunity. Apple Pie Capital spends the time and resources needed to build strong relationships with the brands to help them better grasp the risks, the upside, the unit economics, the challenges, the marketing strategy, the best locations and everything else that goes into business planning for franchisees. Apple Pie continues to service all loans they make however they do sell some of them off to

Andrew Weinreich is a prolific serial entrepreneur with a 20 year track record of starting, building and selling companies. In the mid 90's Andrew gave up his career as a lawyer and launched the very first social network called SixDegrees. 5 years later he sold that company to YouthStream and stayed on to help with the transition. He then jumped into his next startup called Voltage which was determined to create wifi hotspots for public spaces. Unfortunately that company didn't lead to a successful exit like his first venture. Determined to innovate new industries he then started I Stand For to help politicians with online donations, then Xtify (sold to IBM) which offered location based services, then MeetMoi (sold to Match.com) which was the first location based dating app and finally his most recent company Indicative which does predictive analytics. Andrew also runs a startup bootcamp in NYC and a podcast called Predicting Our Future.  In this interview I spoke with Andrew about his 20 year startup career,