Leveling Up with Eric Siu - podcast cover

Leveling Up with Eric Siu

Leveling Up is a weekly interview series with entrepreneurs and marketers on the latest in business and marketing. Learn actionable strategies & tactics on how you can make your business grow and mistakes to avoid during your journey. Learn from individuals who have founded billion dollar companies to best-selling authors. Entrepreneur and host Eric Siu also shares insights and learnings along the way.
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Episodes

GE Ep 69 [2015]: How Virality Took Dogecoin from a Twitter Joke to a $30M Currency

You probably wouldn't have guessed that a co-founder of Dogecoin works as a full-time marketing product manager at Adobe, but today we're talking to him. Jackson Palmer gives us all the details behind how digital currency works in an easy-to-understand way, and tells us how Dogecoin started as a Twitter joke but ballooned into a currency worth $30 million with an incredible community behind it. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Please let me know on T...

May 08, 201841 min

GE Ep 68 [2015]: Marketo’s Jon Miller Tells How Their Content Funnel Cuts Lead-to-Sale Time by 48%

Even though he started his educational journey as a physicist, Jon Miller has become one of the biggest heroes of internet marketing automation and helping businesses create and employ sophisticated marketing campaigns that match today's customer expectations. He co-founded Marketo, one of the industry leaders in marketing automation software, and there's a lot to learn from what he has to say about small businesses moving to marketing automation software and creating effective marketing funnels...

May 03, 201833 min

GE Ep 67 [2015]: Why Neil Patel Pays $30,000 for Content & Gives it Away For Free (& MUCH More)

Today I'm talking to Neil Patel, one of my mentors who's ran many successful companies and is a rock star of the internet marketing world. We tried to avoid the typical questions he gets asked during interviews, and instead delve deeper into topics like mentoring, business partnerships, and what it was like to be in the trenches of a startup no one wanted to fund, but turned into a huge success. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Please let me know on ...

May 02, 201837 min

GE Ep 66 [2015]: Why Joe Fairless Left His Cushy VP Position to Start a $7M Real Estate Investment Business

Hey guys, today's interview is with Joe Fairless, who runs a really popular real estate investing podcast. In this episode, we're going to talk about real estate investing, investing in general, and how you can get started with real estate investing. There's a lot to learn here: both about investing and creating a successful business. Joe also shares an exclusive discount for Growth Everywhere listeners on his Create a No Fail Biz Model Course, so stay tuned. Click here for show notes. Leave som...

May 01, 201837 min

GE Ep 63 [2015]: How Lua’s CEO Built an Enterprise Messaging App That Boosts Open Rates from 20% to 98%

Hey everyone, today we’re talking to CEO of Lua, Michael DeFranco - a 26-year-old entrepreneur who grew up with two entrepreneurial parents. He has a really interesting story to share. He’s worked with the Brooklyn Nets and the Super Bowl by providing an enterprise mobile messaging app, and he’ll explain its differences from WeChat and WhatsApp. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy thi...

Apr 26, 201833 min

GE Ep 60 [2014]: Ian White, CTO & Co-Founder of Sailthru on Hiring Technical Talent

In today’s interview we’re talking to Ian White who is the CTO and Co-Founder of Sailthru, an online personalization technology he and his team had to bootstrap for two years while no one believed in it. Now they’re doing low seven-figure business deals and seeing much more success. Today, Ian will talk about the importance of hiring technical talent, adjusting to changes, and what you should do when a member of your team is no longer a good fit. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave s...

Apr 19, 201847 min

GE Ep 59 [2014]: Michael Michalowitz, Author of Profit First, Gives One Simple Formula To Increase Your Profits

Today I have the pleasure of working with Michael Michalowicz, author of Profit First. Michael grew several companies while an EO member, sold one private equity and sold yet another to a Fortune 500. But he credits the most interesting part of the entrepreneurial journey with losing money and struggling with failure. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If...

Apr 18, 201840 min

GE Ep 58 [2014]: How StumbleUpon CEO Mark Bartels Makes Calculated Bets That Has Catapulted It To Over 35 Million Users

Today we're speaking with StumbleUpon CEO, Mark Bartels. Mark was born in South Africa and worked as an accountant before moving to the Bay Area. After working in mergers and acquisitions with companies like Deloitte & Touche, he joined StumbleUpon in 2008. While working as their CFO, StumbleUpon spun themselves off from eBay before taking the reigns as CEO. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the c...

Apr 17, 201850 min

GE Ep 57 [2014]: How Ex-eBay Executive John Levisay Created Craftsy, a $24 Million Dollar Business Focused on Harnessing the Power of Communities

Welcome to Growth Everywhere. Today I’m talking with Craftsy Founder & CEO John Levisay. Craftsy teaches you creative skills on an online platform that recreates the benefits of a live classroom with the convenience of learning on your device at your own pace. John comes from a background in finance and accounting, but his time at eBay helped shape his perception of the power of niche communities. Today Craftsy earns over $24 million in revenue and continues to grow. Click here for show note...

Apr 12, 201848 min

GE Ep 56 [2014]: How Yesware Grew Their Revenue 1,300% Over a Single Year

Welcome to Growth Everywhere, today I’m talking with Yesware CEO Matthew Bellows. Matthew is a self-described professional startup person who has worked on them in some capacity his entire career. He’s worked in sales, marketing, and on the product side. Today he runs Yesware, which helps sales people and their companies reach their full potential and become more successful, grow faster, make more money, and close more deals. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who sho...

Apr 11, 201830 min

GE Ep 55 [2014]: How The Inventor of the Magnetic Credit Card Strip Created A Solution That Affects Billions Of People Today

Today I have the great pleasure of speaking with Ron Klein who is also known as the grandfather of possibilities. You probably already know Ron’s work and use it every day. He invented magnetic credit card strip and other things effecting millions if not billions of people in the world. Today Ron continues to work on new innovations for the blind and consults budding entrepreneurs. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on T...

Apr 10, 201853 min

GE Ep 53 [2014]: What All Business Owners Should Be Doing 25-33% Of The Time

Today I'm talking with TruEffect CEO Finnegan Faldi. With over 20 years of senior management experience in startups and public technology, Finnegan headed up the global broadband division at Yahoo and served as the Chief Operating Officer at Datalogix. He currently works with performance platform TruEffect focusing on first party cookie technology. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. D...

Apr 04, 201832 min

GE Ep 52 [2014]: How Techstars provides real value through a strong network of entrepreneurs, mentors and investors

Join me as I talk with David Brown from Techstars. David is a serial entrepreneur and helped found Techstars along with David Cohen, Brad Feld and Jared Polis in 2006. The Co-founders wanted to leverage what they had learned in their previous startups to help entrepreneurs avoid those same mistakes. Techstars' startup accelerator offers a three-month bootcamp and surrounds entrepreneurs with mentors to help you navigate everything from choosing the right product and testing it. Today the acceler...

Apr 03, 201831 min

GE Ep 51 [2014]: InsideSales.com CMO Mick Hollison Talks About How To Increase Your Lead Response Rate By 400%

Join me as I talk with InsideSales’ Chief Marketing Officer Mick Hollison. Mick previously served as the Director of Sales at IBM, the Director of Enterprise Marketing at Microsoft and the VP of Marketing at Citrx—now worth over $2.6 billion. Today he uses his knowledge in sales to dominate the inside sales market. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, ...

Mar 29, 201832 min

GE Ep 50 [2014]: Interview with Jesse Farmer, Founder of Codeunion and former Dev Bootcamp Co-Founder

Today we're talking with Jesse Farmer from CodeUnion. Jesse's story starts like many startup founders who made their way to San Francisco to take on the world. While his first venture didn't really go anywhere, Jesse went onto build Everlane to 25,000 subscribers during its pre-launch. He was also a Co-founder of Dev Bootcamp before launching a remote learning model for aspiring coders called CodeUnion. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? P...

Mar 28, 201842 min

GE Ep 49 [2014]: How To Know When To Pivot Into An Emerging Marketplace

Join me as I talk with Yoni Assia from social investment network eToro. With a background in investing and developing, Yoni started his first successful company with his Army buddies and sold it to Kodak at the age of 26. Today eToro has over $30 million in revenue and is inventing a new marketplace combining financial tech, gaming and social media. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. ...

Mar 27, 201830 min

GE Ep 47 [2014]: How A Finance Guy Turned Into A Technology Startup Founder

Join me while I talk with LiveDial founder Yali Elkin. With a background in corporate finance, Yali had an idea after watching the 2012 Presidential debates and ran with it to create LiveDial, an app empowering users to convey their thoughts and opinions with a survey creation platform used by media, friends, leaders, and businesses. To date, LiveDial has over 7,000 downloads and growing. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me kn...

Mar 21, 201841 min

GE Ep 46 [2014]: How Flippa Became The #1 Market Leader For Buying & Selling Websites

Today we're talking with the General Manager of Flippa, Nick Kenn. Nick is a marketer by trade working with agencies and businesses like Learnable, Betfair and Flippa's parent company, SitePoint. Before serving as the General Manager for Flippa, Nick was in the gaming space for 7 years before looking for a smaller company he could take a bigger ownership role in. To date, Flippa's has over 500,000 registered users and their biggest website sale was $1.5 million dollars. Click here for show notes...

Mar 20, 201842 min

GE Ep 45 [2014]: How BCDVideo Grew Its Business By 40% During A Recession

Today we’re talking with BCD Video Founder Jeff Burgess. Working in the IT business since 1979, Jeff opened his own company in 1999. A chance meeting steered the course of his business into IP video in 2008. After a few tough years, the business thrived and today earns $30 million in revenue with a projected $50 million by 2015. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this ep...

Mar 15, 201832 min

GE Ep 42 [2014]: How Ridesharing App Sidecar Competes With Uber & Lyft With A Unique Pricing Model

Join us as we talk with Sidecar Co-founder and CEO, Sunil Paul. A serial entrepreneur, Sunil is the Founding Partner of the cleantech venture fund Spring Ventures, an angel Investor in LinkedIn and Co-founder of Brightmail. He helped found Sidecar with an intention to change the world and make owning a car obsolete. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you ...

Mar 08, 201835 min

GE Ep 41 [2014]: How A PR Agency Converts 30% Of Their Leads

Join me while I chat with Publicize Founder Conrad Egusa. A serial entrepreneur, Conrad also co-founded Espacio, a co-working space in Medellin, Colombia. He also served as a mentor at The Founder Institute, owns the English speaking news outlet Colombia Reports, and is a former Venture Beat writer. His newest start-up Publicize is looking to disrupt the PR industry. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in th...

Mar 07, 201822 min

GE Ep 199 [2017]: How Mixmax Acquired 5,000+ Customers Via Word of Mouth & Has a 20% Growth Rate

Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Olof Mathé, CEO and co-founder of Mixmax – which is one of my favorite tools. Listen as Olof discusses what it takes to build a successful remote team at a quickly growing startup, how they acquired their first 5,000 customers through word-of-mouth, and the art of product prioritization. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the...

Mar 02, 201822 min

GE Ep 197 [2017]: Hooked Author Nir Eyal On Mastering the Art of Habit-Forming Products

Hey everyone, in today’s episode, I share the mic with Nir Eyal, entrepreneur, educator and author of the best-selling book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Listen as Nir discusses the power of manipulation (and the two types of manipulation), the four essential elements that create a hook to forming a habit, why it's not the best product that wins but rather the product that comes first to mind, and the three pillars necessary for every successful new product. He illustrates his con...

Feb 24, 201831 min

GE Ep 196 [2017]: How Chris Coyier Grew CSS-Tricks to 7M Page Views/Month, 300K Followers and 24K Email Subscribers

Hey everyone, in today’s episode, I share the mic with Chris Coyier, the founder of CSS-Tricks, CodePen and Shop Talk Show. Listen as Chris shares the numbers (revenue, page views and listeners) for all his businesses, the most important thing he’s learned when it comes to building a community, why sponsored posts are the best revenue generators for him, and the difference between failing and giving up too soon. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk ab...

Feb 23, 201831 min

GE Ep 35 [2014]: How A 28 Year Old CEO Parlayed His $20M Company Into A Profitable Franchise Business In A Year

Meet Brenton Hayden, one of the nation's largest landlords who "retired" at 28. Founder and Chairman of Renters Warehouse, Brenton saw a need for a more sophisticated professional landlord service that helps everyday homeowners and real estate investors manage their properties. To date, it's the second largest professional landlord service in the country. Brenton is also an angel investor in software companies and started franchising his Professional Landlord services and has amassed around $20 ...

Feb 21, 201854 min

GE Ep 34 [2014]: How To Grow A SaaS Business In A Ultra Competitive Market

Today we’re talking with Blossom Co-founder and CEO Thomas Schranz. With an unfinished computer science degree under his belt, Thomas started building web applications and high-traffic Facebook apps for the European market. Thomas saw a need for a better software project management platform and launched Blossom, attracting clients like Twitter and Doodle in the span of about 3 years. To date, Blossom serves 346 clients with no signs of slowing down. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leav...

Feb 20, 201843 min

GE Ep 195 [2017]: How Crew President Michael Sacca Grew A Startup By Leveraging His Podcast

Hey everyone, in today’s episode, I share the mic with Michael Sacca. Michael is the president of Crew, a website that connects people with writers or designers for hire. Listen as Michael delves into the reasons why relationships are key to building your startup, how starting a podcast (Rocketship.fm) helped him successfully grow his new business, how he grew Unsplash by 30% MoM, and the challenges of building a marketplace. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave Some Feedback: What sh...

Feb 18, 201825 min

GE Ep 193 [2017]: How TEDTalk Speaker Shivani Siroya Built Financial App Tala That Has Dispersed $50M+ in Emerging Markets to 1M+ Global Customers

Hey everyone, in today’s episode, I share the mic with Shivani Siroya, CEO and founder of Tala, a mobile app that is revolutionizing the way that people access financial services. Shivani is also a TED speaker where she’s discussed the smart loans that people can take without having any credit history. Listen as Shivani walks us through how Tala analyzes desirable customers from the info on their mobile device in less than 2 minutes, why they've dispersed funds to 1 million global customers but ...

Feb 16, 201828 min

GE Ep 191 [2017]: How RD Station Continues to Double Its Growth Rate Each Year (After Raising $19M)

Hey everyone, in today's episode, I share the mic with André Siqueira, co-founder of RD Station, a digital marketing software company based in Brazil. Listen as André discusses how they were able to secure significant investments (the largest amount in Latin America) despite the political state of Brazil, their struggle with customer retention and their bold decision to do event marketing—something that is not very common in Brazil—and the fact that their biggest competitors in Brazil are busine...

Feb 11, 201828 min

GE Ep 30 [2014]: How Productivity App Lift Got 50,000 Customers Through Its Undervalued Marketing Strategy

Today we're talking to Lift Worldwide co-founder and CEO, Tony Stubblebine (relaunched as a coaching platform called Coach.me on January 1, 2015). With a brand messaging to "succeed at everything", Lift helps you achieve goals by coaching you to success through guidance, encouragement and optional reminders. Tony is a start-up junkie, previously serving as the CEO of CrowdVine Event Social Networks, part of the launch teams for companies like Wesabe, and Director of Engineering at Odeo.com and O...

Feb 08, 201841 min
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