Startup Sense Podcast

It feels like very few people nowadays actually love their bank. Over the past 20 years the big Wall Street banks have gobbled up the smaller community banks at a rapid pace so we're no longer doing business with a local company that we know and trust. The banking system has become more about shady financial products, over-leveraged balance sheets, more miscellaneous fees and outright fraud/scandals like we recently saw from Wells Fargo. Joseph Sanberg and his team at Aspiration realized it was an ideal time to start a financial company that customers would love and brag about. At this time Aspiration provides banking and investment solutions to customers but what makes the unique is that they are online-only.  Aspiration is reinventing the banking experience. The company was started a couple years ago, has 40+ employees and has already raised $30 million from investors. Not only does Aspiration donate 10% of their revenue to charity but they also allow customers to set the fee amounts on their bank and inves

The Philz Coffee story is a very unusual one. The original Philz location was owned and operated by Phil Jaber as a grocery store but after years of making the most amazing coffee for customers he decided to transform the store into a coffee shop. Several years later Phil and his son Jacob opened up a second location and then a third and then several more throughout the Bay Area. They were building a brand that was loved and admired by customers. Then in 2013 they decided it was time to grow the Philz brand nationwide so they raised a $15 million round of capital from a group of investors including several celebrities such as Jonah Hill, Snoop Dogg and Jamie Kennedy. They've now raised a total of $75 million and have expanded beyond the Bay Area into Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington DC and now coming to Boston and several other metropolitan areas.  In this interview I spoke with Jacob about this amazing journey of building and growing Philz, what makes Philz so unique, how they are creating a new coffee exp

If you only take away one this from this incredible interview with Justin let it be this...when Justin started to raise money for Honeygrow to launch the first location he was rejected by the first 93 investors that he pitched to, it wasn't until the 94th person that he finally got a "yes". This story truly embodies the ideal entrepreneur...lots of passion and dedication with a little bit of crazy. After a career in finance Justin knew it was time to pursue something new. He always had a passion for food and cooking but had never run a restaurant before so he spent a year working in the industry which proved to be a valuable experience. After pitching 90+ investors Justin was finally able to raise the $2 million needed to launch the first Honeygrow location. Fast forward 4 years and the company has 15 locations with 10 more opening up this year. They've already raised an additional $50 million to support their rapid growth.  In this interview I spoke with Justin about why he started Honeygrow, why it was so h

Have you ever eaten crickets? I'm going to assume you haven't so you probably don't know the health benefits...but surprisingly there are many of them. Several years ago Alex was looking for a cricket based protein powder for his smoothies but couldn't find one so he decided to create his own. Starting in his kitchen with his girlfriends blender he whipped up the first batch and quickly saw this as an opportunity worth pursuing. Crik Nutrition is still bootstrapped but growing nicely with plans to raise money from investors in 2017 once they hit certain milestones. They are currently based in Canada however they do ship worldwide. The majority of Crik's sales are coming from online but the company is beginning to build more retail relationships.  In this interview I spoke with Alex about why he got into the cricket business, the health and environmental benefits of crickets, how much he pays for a pound of crickets, how much money he spent to launch the company, what is marketing strategy has been, whether th

This was one of my favorite interviews because Vinnie Fisher is my first guest that has grown 3 previous companies to $10+ million in revenues and is now working on this 4th. His newest company FullyAccountable wants to be your back office solution meaning they can take over or assist with your accounting, your operations, and your human resources. They also provide a robust dashboard where the business owner or key employees can review and analyze the most important metrics. FullyAccountable's platform is affordable and promises to save you time and money while increasing accuracy and efficiency within your business. FullyAccountable is still bootstrapped (as were all of Vinnie's previous companies), the company is based in Ohio and they are actively hiring for multiple positions. The company has created a very viable solution and is now preparing for rapid growth. For 2017 they are hoping to grow revenues by 3x.  In this interview Vinnie and I covered a lot of ground, but mostly we spoke about why he starte

When you start a new business there are literally hundreds if not thousands of things you need to think about and get done. Often times insurance gets overlooked. If you're a very early-stage company without many assets, clients or revenue then insurance may not be necessary but once you start to grow, hire new employees, buy new equipment, develop new proprietary technologies and raise more money from investors then insurance needs to be a requirement...otherwise your entire company could be at risk. FounderShield specializes in providing insurance packages for venture-backed companies and high-growth startups from 10 employees to hundreds of employees. If you want more info visit their website today at FounderShield.com In this interview I spoke with Benji Markoff, co-founder of FounderShield about why he started this company and built it into the leading provider of insurance for startups without having an insurance background, what makes FounderShield different and better than the competition, how they ar

I have not spent much time around the transportation, shipping, logistics and freight carrier industries but even with that I still wasn't surprised to learn that many of the small to mid sized companies (less than 100 trucks) are still using technologies from 15+ years ago. Using outdated software and tedious spreadsheets rarely leads to an efficient operating business which is the case in these industries that already suffer from very low margins. Rose Rocket is here to give these companies a better operating platform to manage their trucks, drivers, deliveries and clients.  Thanks to his 10+ years of industry experience, Justin Bailie, co-founder of Rose Rocket was able to identify the problems first-hand and now his team is building the solution. The company went through Y-Combinator in the Summer of 2016 and has since raised just under $1 million from investors. They are not quite at "product market fit" but getting closer everyday. They understand that building a minimal viable product doesn't work in t

The homeowner and renters insurance industry has been around for decades but very little has changed. The top 6 companies control more than 50% of the market which gives them very little incentive to do things differently but like we've all seen in different industries over the past decade, eventually a company emerges with a different strategy, different business model and different value proposition which ends up disrupting the industry and earning them some significant market share. Lemonade is doing that now for the insurance markets. The company is using artificial intelligence, software, big data and superior customer service to offer consumers a new alternative they can get excited about. Typically buying insurance is a miserable, tedious, frustrating process but Lemonade is doing it all differently. They want to make buying insurance fun, quick and affordable. Lemonade is currently headquartered in NYC and has raised $60 million from investors.  In this interview with Daniel Schreiber, co-founder of L

If I could go back 10 years in time I'd probably try to create exactly what Startups.co is doing. Over the past decade they have assembled and incredibly valuable and comprehensive platform of resources and services for entrepreneurs. The Startups.co family of products now includes BizPlan.com (creating business plans), Clarity.fm (finding mentors and advisors), Launchrock.com (creating launch pages), Zirtual.com (virtual assistants) and Fundable.com (raising capital). More than 1 million entrepreneurs have turned to Startups.co and their platform of products to help them create, launch and grow their companies. The founder of Startups.co is Wil Schroter, a lifelong entrepreneur who has assembed this platform over the past decade by building some of the products from scratch and then buying others where it made sense. In this advice filled interview with Wil we chatted about why he is so passionate about Startups.co, his strategy behind each of the products, what pieces might still be missing, how Startups.co

A company is only as good as it's people. People drive your business higher. People interact with your prospects and clients. People develop, launch and grow new products opportunities. People are truly your most valuable asset. Now that we agree your employees are critical to your success, how do managers and business owners make sure those employees are performing at the highest level possible? They use Ambition.com Ambition is your employee productivity platform. Hundreds of companies from 100 employees up to 4,000+ employees are using Ambition.com to share, track, engage, manage and motivate their employees to become the best they can be. The company has raised $2 million from incredible investors like Justin Kan, Patrick & John Collinson, Redpoint Ventures, Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian. Ambition.com is based in Chattanooga, TN, is already profitable and is hiring. In this interview I spoke with Travis, co-founder of Ambition, about why he started the company, what problem they are trying to solve, wh

For anyone that has started a small business, especially one that requires equipment, furniture, inventory, perishable goods, etc then you understand how frustrating it can be to find the best suppliers. Thankfully the founder of Kinnek also recognized this problem and decided to create a solution. Kinnek.com is a marketplace that connects small/mid sized businesses with the suppliers they need. The company was started in 2012, is based in NYC, has grown to 50+ employees and has raised $33 million from some incredible investors. In my interview with Karthik, founder of Kinnek, we discussed why he started the company, what massive problem they are trying to solve, what their fundraising strategy was, which industries they started with, the challenges with building a marketplace solution, what lessons he has learned over the past few years, how they build the supply side and demand side, why liquidity is so critical to their success, what advice he would give to another entrepreneur creating a marketplace, what

I heard about Exo Protein a few months ago from a friend so I decided to look into the company. I'm very much into fitness so getting adequate amounts of daily protein is important to me and millions of others. Exo Protein stands out from the other hundreds of protein bar companies for one main reason...there bars are made from crickets or cricket flour to be more precise. Hundreds of millions of people around the world consume crickets as part of their diet but the idea sounds crazy to most of us however many years ago the idea of eating raw fish seemed crazy and now sushi is one of the most popular foods in the U.S. Exo Protein was started in 2014 and has raised a little over $5 million from some very impressive investors including Tim Ferriss and Nasir "Nas" Jones. Like any other startup the company has faced many challenges not the least of which is educating consumers about the health and protein benefits of eating crickets.  In this interview I spoke with Gabi Lewis, co-founder of Exo Protein about why

There's no debate that we're living in an age of unprecedented innovation. The technologies around us that improve our lives and our productivity continue to evolve beyond our wildest imaginations. One of the biggest and most exciting trends are smart products and connected devices which are commonly referred to as IoT aka Internet of Things.  Thousands of companies and developers are now building internet-connected hardware products from thermostats to refrigerators to coffee makers to shippin containers. In an effort to speed up the process for these developers, Particle offers a suite of hardware and software tools to help everyone prototype, scale, and manage your Internet of Things products. Particle is based in San Francisco, has 35 employees and has raised $14.5 million from investors. In this interview I spoke with Zach Supalla, co-founder of Particle about his motivation for starting this company, how and why they pivoted from a different concept, how they closed a successful crowdfunding campaign, t

A little over a year ago I watched Craig Fitzpatrick present his company PageCloud on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt. [watch that video here]. I was blown away by the technology and knew immediately that PageCloud was going to change web publishing in a very meaningful way. Their platform gives non-technical people the ability to build and launch amazing websites with unprecedented functionality. For the millions of individuals and entrepreneurs looking to launch a blog, a personal page or even a business website...now they don't have to pay a developer thousands of dollars to get something that looks great, performs well, meets their needs, can be easily edited and most importantly is affordable. Suppose you only have $15,000 to start a home based business...now you can get a great looking website for just $25 per month and spend the other 99% of your startup capital on sales and marketing.  In this interview I spoke with Craig about his vision and motivation behind starting PageCloud. The company is based in O

There's no doubt that live streaming has become a fundamental part of our lives, whether we're producing it or consuming it. More and more individuals, celebrities and brands have integrated live streaming into their marketing and messaging strategies. Many of us are familiar with other live streaming services like Facebook live or Periscope or even Instagram live but none of them can offer what Stream does. Stream provides two distinct advantages over those other platforms... (1) complete control of your content and (2) the ability to broadcast via your own website thus enabling you better opportunities for monetization.  Stream was launched several years ago out of Charleston, SC. The company has been completely bootstrapped to date and build their own proprietary technology rather than licensing it. Right now they are dual focused on providing a valuable live streaming service to consumers as well as companies/brands. In this interview I spoke with Will Jamieson, Chief Marketing Officer of Stream and forme

As an entrepreneur knowing if and when to pivot is extremely hard but if it's done right it can put the company on a better path to success. That's exactly what happened with Apptopia. Jonathan and his co-founder Eli started the company in 2011 as a marketplace for buying and selling mobile apps. Things were going well, they had raised money from investors and were growing but they felt there was a bigger opportunity to pivot into a mobile app intelligence company providing data and analytics at affordable prices.  Over the past couple years since doing the pivot and rebuilding their technology platform things have gone very well. The company raised another $2.7 million this year from investors like Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher (via Sound Ventures) and growth is headed in the right direction. Apptopia's service is being used by thousands of individuals, developers, marketing teams, investors and corporate executives. Currently the company offers a free trial of the service but they're in the process of switc

The story behind Squatty Potty is truly remarkable. Many of us remember Squatty Potty from Season 6 on Shark Tank when Bobby and his mother Judy appeared in front of the Sharks and pitched their pooping stool product which was met with some laughter. However the Sharks weren't laughing for long when they learned that Squatty Potty had already done $6 million in sales to go along with some very ambitious forecasts. Bobby and his mother ended up doing a deal with Lori Greiner at $350,000 for 10% equity and since Shark Tank the company has done over $40 million in sales with $27 million coming in 2016 alone.  Watch this SharkTank pitch video (click here) In this episode I spoke with Bobby about the original product idea and his motivation behind starting Squatty Potty, how they were able to do $1 million in their first year of business and $6 million before getting onto SharkTank, why they got rejected from Shark Tank on their first attempt, why they setup manufacturing in China but moved those operations to Uta

Ryan Harwood just realized the dream that many of us entrepreneurs strive for...he sold his company. Last week PureWow was acquired by a group run by Gary Vaynerchuk of Vayner Media and billionaire Stephen Ross of RSE Ventures. When I booked this interview with Ryan back in November I obviously had no insight that this deal was happening so it was a pleasant surprise we were able to add this exciting topic to the conversation.  PureWow is an online publisher of content for women focused around categories such as lifestyle, fashion, beauty, food, health and travel. Ryan started the company in 2010 after a career at Goldman Sachs. He knew very little about the publishing industry and he was certainly no expert in women's lifestyle topics but he believed their was a unique opportunity to create high-quality content and pair that up with native branded advertising. Fast forward 6 years and his assumptions have paid off big time with PureWow now attracting more than 15 million monthly visitors to their website and

If you're looking for some honest and actionable entrepreneurial advice, want to learn how to build your personal brand, curious about influencer marketing and simply get into the day-to-day mindset of a social media guru and successful entrepreneur/investor than this interview is for you. Yesterday I had the pleasure of interviewing Branden Hampton, one of the most influential people on social media with more than 33 million followers. He's also a serial entrepreneur, co-author of "How to Setup Your Business for Under $1,000" and an investor/advisor to several super hot startups like Dollar Beard Club, WhereFor and Trendy Butler.  In one of our best interviews to date, Branden opens up about a ton of things including his journey as an entrepreneur, why he's sought out by big brands regarding his expertise in influencer marketing, why he decided to write a book with his close friend and business partner Dan Fleyshman, his favorite parts of the book, why he's involved with "Elevator Nights", what he looks for