What should it look like when you have a startup idea? What do you do first? How do you know if it's a good idea for you? We go through seven archetypes of innovation, then go through a framework to understand if you're uniquely positioned to pursue that idea. We then apply it all to a startup idea Brian has. This is the first of a few episodes testing out an idea Brian has in the food space.
Brian Linton, founder of outdoor apparel and accessory brand United By Blue , stops by to tell the story of how he built a purpose-driven brand that's removed over 2 million pounds of trash from the ocean. He talks through the earliest days - how driving up and down the east coast selling t-shirts gave him the foundation to build an omni-channel brand - and the tradeoffs necessary to build a profitable brand that also has a clear philanthropic North Star....
To build a great company, you need to build a healthy customer acquisition funnel. You need a consistent flow of customers coming in the top, tactics to keep them engaged as you build your brand and story, and urgency to get them to pull the trigger. The way to measure how effective your company can be at this is to measure how selfish you can be with your customers. How often can you contact them before they get pissed? The Selfish Score measures the potential for your company to have a solid g...
Rob Petrozzo, co-founder of Rally Rd, stops by for an awesome interview that at it's core is about storytelling. Rally Rd is growing incredibly fast, but the early days were tougher to navigate. Rob talks through how building storytelling into the DNA of the product laid the groundwork for future growth, and how early stage founders can do the same. We touch on personas, customer segmentation, fundraising, growth, team building and composition, design, and more. Enjoy!
There's a mystery company that is one of the 10 best performing stocks since 2010. You've heard of them. You've eaten (hint) their product. You'd never in a million years guess who they are. They've grown because of two mental models, and we break down how you can leverage them for your startup.
Ashley Merrill, the founder of premium sleepwear brand Lunya, stops by and delivers a masterclass on how to build a brand in the DTC era. She talks about the earliest days, about what differentiation in a crowded space really looks like, about pricing and business model, brick and mortar, focus and prioritization, and self-doubt. If you're a startup founder interested in brand, or trying to start a DTC company, get a notebook ready. This is packed with insight.
Hot Ones is a show on Youtube that you've probably heard of. A host interviews guests while they each eat 10 progressively hotter hot wings. The growth is preposterous - episodes routinely get over 10 million views. Hot Ones structure is brilliant - it creates and drives the growth - and it's something you can (and better) implement in your startup.
Marc Merrill, founder of Riot Games, joins the podcast to talk about building League of Legends into a cultural phenomenon (with over $20bn in revenue). We discuss the early days - how he built a complex product for customers with high expectations, fundraising, managing people, growth, prioritization, and more. It's an amazing conversation with one of the sharpest and most thoughtful people I've met. Enjoy!
Fewer new businesses were started in 2019 than in 1970. That's terrible. We look at the two cognitive biases holding you back, and lay out a framework to help you overcome them and start your startup.
Fewer companies were started in 2019 than in 1970. That’s preposterous. This is the single best time in human history to start a company - so why aren’t more people doing it? Season Two of Idea to Startup digs into why. Brian speaks with successful founders about how they navigated the tricky early stages, and delivers solo episodes on tactics founders can implement to start something in 2020. This is the year to start your company, and this is the podcast to help you do it. See you January 8th....
Dave Idell is the founder of Croissant, a flexible coworking company beloved by freelancers and entrepreneurs around the world. We talk about the early days - how he tested the idea, how they grew with some counter-intuitive and aggressive decisions, and how he thinks about growth. We also talk through his thoughts on early stage founders and the stuff they should nail down early. Enjoy!
Rich and Vicki Fulop built Brooklinen after realizing there wasn’t an easy way to find and buy high quality sheets. There were no strong brands, no transparency into manufacturing - nothing they valued in a product. This interview is about how two founders turned that core insight and little else (no textile background, no knowledge of the bedding industry, etc.) into a global brand and the sheets I happily sleep on every night (and would whether Rich came on the podcast or not). Hope you enjoy!...
People probably won’t remember your startup, but they’ll remember a story. Today we lean on Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling to help you tell a story that breaks through to your customer and changes behavior.
Today, we’re speaking with Kim Kaupe, the founder of Superfan. Superfan was built to give fans unparalleled opportunity for engagement. Superfan works with clients like the Red Sox, Shawn Mendes, Carrie Underwood, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Buffett, and way more. Kim has built Superfan over the past eight years with $0 in funding. Additionally, she’s built a powerful personal brand that has her LinkedIn startup videos amassing 10s of thousands of views, and has placed her on all sorts of 30 under 30 ...
Today, we’re talking burritos. Leo and Oliver Kremer founded Dos Toros in 2009 because they couldn’t find the Mission-style burritos they grew up with on the west coast anywhere in NYC. However, they weren’t cooks and had never been in the restaurant or food space. We talk to them about the early days - about validating the need, creating the supply chain, getting into brick and mortar, creating a culture, and growth. It’s an awesome, helpful, and inspiring conversation. Enjoy!
You need two things to build a great startup: specific knowledge and a lever to amplify that knowledge. On today’s pod, we’ll start a CBD startup with specific knowledge and leverage mind, and hear how Tejas, founder of Via, (a Tacklebox founder) was able to build a great business on the back of a mental model.
Elizabeth Yin is a founder and general partner at Hustle Fund, where she invests in “hilariously early founders.” Prior to Hustle Fund, she ran the accelerator program at 500 Startups, started Launchbit (acq. 2014), and she writes my favorite VC blog @ http://elizabethyin.com . We cover a lot of ground, including who should and shouldn’t raise funding, how to build a customer base pre-product, how to find angel investors, and how to prioritize during the early stages of your startup....
Entrepreneurs can do anything, but they can’t do everything. How do you prioritize early on? How do you differentiate? This episode presents a framework that’ll ensure you work on the things that give your startup its best chance at success.
Ben and Luke, the founders of Luke's Lobster, knew how to make a killer lobster roll when they decided to start Luke’s Lobster, a lobster shack in the East Village in 2009. They didn’t know much else. Ben talks through how they were able to build an incredible company with locations all over the globe while keeping sustainability as a top priority. We focus on the early days, discussing tactics and learnings that will be extraordinarily helpful for our early stage founders.
There’s one decision that early stage founders make that can drastically tip the tables in their favor. This is a tactical episode, helping you push through the critical question of what customer segment to target first. We delve into a framework to help you identify and evaluate customer segments as your startup evolves.
We chatted with Katherine Krug, founder of BetterCo. This conversation is packed with insight - you'll need a notebook handy as you listen. Katherine takes us through the tactics and tools she used to ideate and develop BetterBack, a product that raised over $3mm on Kickstarter (first solo female founder to do so). We then touch on validation techniques, not raising funding, life design frameworks, and prioritization. She also gives an amazing answer to the "Taco Truck" question....
A walk down memory lane checking in on Brian's past startups and how you can make sure you're starting a company that has a shot at working out.
We chatted with Joey Cofone, founder of Baron Fig, about the early days of building the company. He touches on a bunch of helpful topics, from breaking through to your customer with his archetype of the Attention Pie, to how non-designers can prioritize design, to building a company without outside funding.
Most startups fail. Entrepreneurs assume there are a bunch of reasons for this, but there's really only one. Your startup will fail because of customer indifference. This episode explores in detail a few examples of startups that have avoided this fate, and lays out a pragmatic approach to avoiding it with your idea.
Less than 1% of all businesses raise Venture Capital money, and only a small percentage of those (again, less than 1%) end up becoming "unicorns." Yet that's all we hear about. How can you raise money? How can you build something attractive to VCs? This podcast is for entrepreneurs that want to build real businesses. Businesses that are profitable, businesses that customers love, and businesses that will transform the founder's life. We'll focus on early tactics that allow you to go from idea to...
