Sit Down Startup
120 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago -Here’s how to startup. Even when the world goes topsy-turvy.
From one home office to another, Zendesk leaders chat with founders, CEOs, and makers on their startup journey. There’s rule-flipping, new dogma and recycling failure into growth.
Plus, why customer experience is at the heart of success, as told by people who know unpredictability inside out. (That seems pretty helpful right now.)
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Episodes
[$400M raised] FLYR Labs’s Founder, Alex Mans: journey to product-market fit
March 20, 2024 14:45 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBWelcome to the latest episode of Sit Down Startup, where host Adam O'Donnell explores FLYR Labs’ founder and CEO Alex Mans' meteoric rise with $400M raised, #boom! Transitioning from a consumer-focused model predicting ticket prices to a B2B powerhouse, they're now strategically collaborating with airlines to optimize pricing. Adam and Alex discuss why pivoting to high-margin, recurring revenue streams with big companies was a game-changer for their business model. Also critical to success...
[$80M+ raised] THAT Product-market fit moment: Avoid the analysis trap; Shippo’s Founder, Laura Behrens Wu
February 21, 2024 16:30 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBIn this episode of Sit Down Startup, join Laura Behrens Wu, founder of the multimillion-dollar shipping platform Shippo, as she reveals the pivotal moments that led to staggering growth and product-market fit success. Discover Shippo's journey using customer retention tactics (8:12), an API-first strategy (13:33), and conquering the Shopify App Store with a savvy inbound marketing approach (00:35:15). Listen to this interview for a deep dive into the game-changing approaches Shippo took to t...
Trulia’s Founder; product-market-fit journey with Sami Inkinen
February 08, 2024 16:30 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBIn the latest episode of Sit Down Startup, uncover Sami Inkinen's entrepreneurial journey, [00:11:28] beginning with how seizing the opportunity in his 20s set the stage for a phenomenal career. Sami shares his groundbreaking strides in [00:19:51] revolutionizing residential real estate with interactive maps, helping Trulia achieve an unparalleled product-market fit. Venturing into health tech, [00:36:53] Sami discusses Virta Health's mission to reverse diabetes through nutrition, not pharma...
Failed startup to $98M raised; Thoropass’s Founder, Sam Li shares their product-market-fit journey
January 24, 2024 15:59 - 22 minutes - 1 MBSam Li, co-founder and CEO of Thoropass, has a rich background. His perspective on achieving product-market fit as a startup founder is rooted in resourcefulness, curiosity, and adaptability. Here are some cool parts of the episode to check out! (00:02:18) Navigating Rookie Mistakes as a Founder (00:07:48) The Importance of Intellectual Honesty in Pivoting (00:12:36) Discovering Customer Pain Points for Product Market Fit (00:19:50) Framework Thinking and Curiosity: Sam Li's Superpowers ...
[$163M raised] Knowing you’ve hit product-market fit; Redpanda’s Founder, Alex Gallego
January 10, 2024 16:33 - 22 minutes - 1 MBIn this insightful episode, Red Panda's founder, Alex Gallego, embarks on a comprehensive exploration of the entrepreneurial journey. [00:02:33] He reveals the intertwining of personal struggles and leadership challenges, while advocating for a more supportive startup community. [00:10:36] Alex unpacks his ever-evolving CEO priorities; from achieving product-market fit in the early stages to focusing on team recruitment and understanding market structure later on. [00:18:49] He underscore...
[$100M+ raised] How to get product-market fit validation without an MVP
December 06, 2023 21:47 - 28 minutes - 1 MBSit Down Startup is back with Arjun Narayan, founder of Materialize, who shares how they nearly hit product-market fit before their MVP was ready! Host Adam O'Donnell dives into Arjun's journey from India to raising $100M+ (1:40) and revolutionizing real-time data processing with Materialize (00:45). Founders will appreciate the dialogue on tech database funding and the role of investor expertise (16:16). Tune in for more! Shoutout to this episode's partners Capchase and FounderPass! Capch...
[$217M raised] Stop convincing prospects and find the ones who get it: Sentry’s Founder, David Cramer
November 08, 2023 21:19 - 30 minutes - 1 MBIn this new episode of Sit Down Startup, Adam interviews Sentry's founder David Cramer, who shares insights from his illustrious journey that led to successfully raising $217 million. Tune in as David delves into diverse topics such as unraveling unique product monetization, cultivating unwavering belief in success (00:05:41), the power of focus and core concepts (00:08:45), and managing feedback at scale (00:18:37). The conversation touches upon customer engagement wisdom: distinguishing va...
Arc’s $181M Success: Unity-Led-Growth with Founder, Don Muir
October 25, 2023 19:15 - 23 minutes - 1 MBIn this week's episode of Sit Down Startup, get to know Donald Muir, the creator and driving force behind Arc, a digital bank crafted for the tech-savvy crowd. As an experienced business leader with a keen desire for breakthroughs, Muir's interpretations of the explosion and teamwork in online banking post-SVB collapse (2:45) come from his hands-on experience of building Arc from scratch. Muir underlines the value of a dynamic digital bank that blends the personalized touch of a bank like F...
Bootstrapped to $40M and then raised $125M? Slice’s Founder, Ilir Sela
October 04, 2023 19:57 - 26 minutes - 1 MBJoin us for the latest episode of Sit Down Startup! Anyone want to order a pizza? You're in luck. This week's guest Ilir Sela is the founder and CEO of Slice, a platform that "builds innovative tech to empower America’s independent pizzerias." Sounds delicious! Ilir dives into... Fax-machine-MVP - meet the customer where they are Why he bootstrapped to $40M GMV vs. raising sooner What he looked for in a VC partner And more! Shoutout to our partners DocSend and The Launch Box! DocSend...
[$150M raised] OpenStore’s Co-Founder, Jeremy Wood: Building the Right Engine: Overcoming Doubts
September 06, 2023 20:16 - 23 minutes - 1 MBJeremy Wood's solution, OpenStore, offers these founders the option to sell their businesses or have OpenStore operate and run the stores on their behalf. This innovative approach has not only provided a lifeline for many e-commerce founders but has also positioned OpenStore as a major player in the e-commerce market. Join Adam O'Donnell and Jeremy Wood as they delve deeper into this topic on the next episode of Sit Down Startup. Lark is a next-generation team productivity suite that boosts...
[$200M+ Raised] Self-Doubt & Worry to Thriving Through Startup Challenges; Electric.ai's Founder, Ryan Denehy
August 24, 2023 23:48 - 22 minutes - 1 MBRyan Denehy discussed the importance of overcoming self-doubt in the early stages of a startup. He shares his own experiences, practical advice, and data-driven insights that can help founders navigate the competitive business landscape. Thank you to this week's partners Aktie Now and WorknetGPT! Aktie Now has a special offer for startups joining the Zendesk for Startups program: Zendesk Express implementation - Have your Zendesk up and running, fully configured to your processes, includin...
The Founder-led Content Formula; Atrium’s Founder Pete Kazanjy
August 09, 2023 20:14 - 22 minutes - 1 MBAtrium, a software company co-founded by Pete Kazanjy in 2016, has achieved more business success with fewer Sales Development Representatives (SDRs). This accomplishment can be credited to their strong inbound game and their valuable content that educates and provides insights to their community of 35,000 members. Atrium's software helps businesses implement data-driven sales management by monitoring KPIs and providing alerts. Host Adam O'Donnell also discusses the challenges of business...
[$1.2B Val] Epidemic Sound's Founder, Oscar Hoglund: Overcoming Gov Regulations & Launching A Marketplace
July 26, 2023 19:31 - 27 minutes - 1 MBThe success of Epidemic Sound, a platform for content creators and music artists, is a testament to the skill, and creativity of Oscar Hoglund and his team. Despite the numerous legal and financial obstacles they encountered, they refused to give up on their mission and took the fight to Brussels to change copyright laws and protect artists from exploitation. The key to their success was their passion for the project and the support of those around them. Through their dedication, they were...
Tailscale's $113M Success: Developer-Led-Growth
July 14, 2023 01:32 - 25 minutes - 1 MBTailscale has been a huge success, raising over $113 million and growing to 80 employees. They discovered that if developers love the product, they will tell their decision makers in their organization to buy it, and the money will follow. To ensure customer satisfaction, they use Net Promoter Score to move people from the middle to the top and offer free support for everyone, even those on the zero dollar plan. NachoNacho is a marketplace for B2B SaaS, a single platform for you to manage ...
[$161M Raised] From Series A Struggles to 400 Employees: LinkSquares' Growth Strategies with Founder Vishal Sunak
June 21, 2023 19:17 - 19 minutes - 1 MBVishal Sunak, Founder of LinkSquares, shares his journey of building software for legal teams. Listen as he speaks to Sit Down Startup's host Adam O'Donnell about raising $161 million over five rounds of venture capital, overcoming fundraising struggles, and unlocking the secrets to growth. Discover the importance of building a strong product, founder-led sales, and knowledge assembly, as well as how to validate product ideas before building solutions. Vishal also gives invaluable advi...
Bootstrapped to $100M+ Exit: Pardot’s Founder, David Cummings' Startup Journey
June 07, 2023 20:16 - 21 minutes - 1 MBJoin Adam O'Donnell on Sit Down Startup as he sits down with David Cummings, the founder of Pardot, which eventually sold to Salesforce. In this episode, they discuss pivoting from unsuccessful strategies, customer discovery, and marketing automation platform, while sharing their personal stories of startup challenges.
Instacart's Former Chief Growth Officer; Building a Successful ML Startup: Anomalo's, Founder, Elliot Shmukler
May 24, 2023 19:39 - 21 minutes - 1 MBAdam O'Donnell sits down with Elliot Shmukler, former Chief Growth Officer at Instacart and co-founder of Anomalo, to discuss the challenges data teams face in detecting and solving data quality issues using machine learning. Despite the initial failure of their product to meet customer needs, Anomalo was able to grow 10x ARR during the big recession by listening to customer feedback and building a fully-featured product to address gaps in their initial product. Elliot emphasizes the imp...
$0 to 100M ARR in 18-months: Revolutionizing Cloud Security With Base Thinking; Wiz’s Co-Founder, Ami Luttwak
May 10, 2023 19:22 - 21 minutes - 1 MBWelcome to the Sit Down Startup podcast, where host Adam O'Donnell interviews entrepreneurs and startup founders about their inspirational stories. In this episode, Adam brings in Ami Luttwak, the CTO and co-founder of Wiz, one of the largest cloud security companies. Ami shares the hands-on culture of the company, where all managers do the work themselves, and explains how they identified a gap in the market by combining vulnerability, application, network exposure, and identity analysis....
($155M raised) Glean’s Founder, Arvind Jain: How to close enterprise deals from day one
April 26, 2023 20:10 - 20 minutes - 1 MBGlean was founded in 2019 as an AI-powered workplace search engine aimed at helping people browse through their company apps to find the information they need and boost productivity. Since then, Glean has raised $155M+ and grown to 200+ employees while staying true to its initial mission. In this episode its founder, Arvind Jain, shares his experience and provides a few key insights: Ask the hard questions. Make sure prospective clients are willing and able to implement what you’re offeri...
Bootstrapped to nearly $100M exit to Citrix; Jesse Lipson; knowing when to ignore the “smart” advisors vs. just building
March 29, 2023 19:09 - 22 minutes - 1 MBJesse Lipson initially thought he would become a philosophy professor — until he took a job with a startup that changed his career path. After founding his first company Sharefile in 2005, he sold it to Citrix in late 2011 for almost $100M. And in October 2017 he established Levitate, which helps relationship-based businesses keep in touch with clients in a more personal and authentic way. This entrepreneur offers a few insights from his career to date: Acquisitions are a rollercoaster. D...
[$271M raised] Frubana’s Founding Engineer, now board member, Daniel Bilbao; GTM tactics for $0 - $1M
March 22, 2023 19:23 - 26 minutes - 1 MBDuring Truora’s first year, they raised no money. Four years later, this customer-engagement and WhatsApp-first startup has come a long way, with 8M USD in ARR, 14M USD in revenue, and presence across seven Latin American countries. Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Bilbao shares his tips for founders looking to succeed: Hire the best people you can. Talent comes first; good recruiting never fails. Do the homework beforehand. Spend time on the setup and talk to founders before going to market....
Backed by a16z, Virtually Human Studio’s Co-Founder, Chris Ebeling: Building with community, listening vs. letting them lead
March 08, 2023 21:25 - 27 minutes - 1 MBWhen Chris Ebeling co-founded entertainment company Virtually Human back in 2018, Blockchain was just becoming popular. Since then, the company has raised $21M+ and their online horse racing game ZED RUN gained an impressive following. In this episode, Chris talks to Adam about his experience launching in the digital world and shares a few tips: Innovation comes with risks. Don’t be afraid to seek advice; be transparent and self-critical. Nothing is permanent. If you believe in an ide...
Zapier’s Founder: scalable growth strategies
March 01, 2023 21:27 - 19 minutes - 1 MBZapier has one mission: to help companies use automation to connect tools and apps so data can automatically move between them. The business was founded in 2012 and their remote team has since expanded worldwide across 40 countries. Founder Mike Knoop shared some takeaways from their 11-year journey so far: Stay patient. Growth is organic, so be prepared to play the long game. Tap into search. Creating landing pages will make your product more visible to potential customers. Always look...
[$0 - IPO] Braze’s Founder, Mark Ghermezian; knowing when to pivot & the power of persistence
February 22, 2023 21:22 - 20 minutes - 1 MBBack in 2008, when mobile apps were the talk of the town, Mark Ghermezian had an idea: build a bridge between app developers and users. That was the seed for Braze, a customer engagement platform, which has grown to 1200+ employees and 3.5M+ monthly active users. In this episode, Mark tells his story and teaches us a few lessons: Iteration is key. Listen to feedback from designers and people using your app in order to innovate. Trust the process. Sometimes the market won’t be ready for...
Talkdesk & Cleverly Co-Founder: Cristina Fonseca - Product obsessed, 5-min rule & not being distracted by competition
February 15, 2023 21:20 - 18 minutes - 1 MBCristina Fonseca, our very own VP of Product, knows a thing or two about being a founder. She has set up two companies specializing in CX: Talkdesk, back in 2011 (right after college!), which went on to raise over 250M USD; and Cleverly in 2017, now acquired by Zendesk. In this one-to-one with Adam, she shares her experience: Build trust. Stay present and proactively communicate with your customers. Be aware of the market. If there is more than one company offering the same product, t...
[$396M Raised] Nailing pitch-market-fit? Eightfold AI’s CEO, Ashutosh Garg
February 09, 2023 21:51 - 17 minutes - 1 MBWhen Ashutosh Garg founded talent intelligence platform Eightfold AI in 2016, he had one clear goal in mind: to help businesses hire and retain the best professionals out there. The company has since grown to almost 700 employees and has raised $400M. Ashutosh sat down to discuss Eightfold’s journey with Adam, sharing a few learnings along the way: Strike the right balance. Both a lack of and overconfidence will stop you from going anywhere. Keep evolving. Adapting to market changes in o...
[0-IPO] Yext’s Founder, Howard Lerman: key to building a lasting company
January 25, 2023 21:29 - 21 minutes - 1 MBHoward Lerman founded tech company Yext in 2006, recording revenues of $100M during his final quarter as CEO. In November 2022, he started building his next project: Roam, an all-in-one Cloud HQ — and predicts it’s going to be even bigger. The entrepreneur joined Adam for a chat to share some key insights and strategies from his +20 years’ experience: Make customers love you. Happy clients will get you everywhere. Try and try again. There’s no single magic trick to growth — except to ...
[$0-IPO] Shift’s Co-Founder, Toby Russell; knowing when to pivot DESPITE having product-market-fit?!
November 16, 2022 21:13 - 25 minutes - 1 MBIn 2013, e-commerce platform Shift set out with one simple mission: to make car sales and purchases a seamless experience. The company began accelerating in late 2015 before they went public in 2020, and last year recorded revenues of 630M USD, selling vehicles in all 50 US states. Co-Founder Toby Russell joined Adam to share a few insights from their journey: Keep it simple. When scaling, don’t try to do too much at once. Make your mission matter. Will your idea have an impact on peop...
[$99M raised] Sweep’s Co-Founder, Rachel Delacour; listening for low signals during customer research to land big logos
November 09, 2022 22:19 - 18 minutes - 1 MBCarbon emission tracking company Sweep was founded in June 2020. In just over two years, they have evolved to employ +80 people across Europe and the United States and, in less than 12 months, raised an impressive 100M USD. We sat down with Co-Founder & CEO, Rachel Delacour, who shared some key learnings: Test your product with friends. Get in touch with past clients or contacts to present your new idea. Pick up the phone. Talk to big brands to get your product out to the markets and...
[$600M+ raised] Deel’s Founder, Alex Bouaziz: pivoting with conviction
October 26, 2022 19:16 - 23 minutes - 1 MBFounded in 2019 with the goal of offering a simple solution for hiring freelancers and contractors internationally, Deel pivoted just a week before demo day. They restructured their program and grew to over 1,900 employees, 10K+ customers worldwide and raised $600M+. Here are the key takeaways from our chat with Co-Founder & CEO, Alex Bouaziz: Time is money. Move fast and see what sticks — you are defined by your growth. Be customer-centric. Have strong customer empathy and work hard ...
[$679M raised] Deel’s Founder, Alex Bouaziz: pivoting with conviction
October 26, 2022 15:16 - 23 minutes - 31.9 MBFounded in 2019 with the goal of offering a simple solution for hiring freelancers and contractors internationally, Deel pivoted just a week before demo day. They restructured their program and grew to over 1,300 employees, 10K customers worldwide and raised +600M dollars. Here are the key takeaways from our chat with Co-Founder & CEO, Alex Bouaziz: Time is money. Move fast and see what sticks — you are defined by your growth. Be customer-centric. Have strong customer empathy and work...
[$1.6B val] Mercury’s Founder, Immad Akhund; rapid growth via word of mouth
October 19, 2022 19:06 - 15 minutes - 1 MBMercury, a banking service for startups, was launched in 2019 but their business idea had been brewing since 2013. Mercury has now grown to 357 employees and tens of thousands of customers. CEO & Co-Founder Immad Akhund joined us to share some advice: Classic strategies work. Encourage your investors to talk about you on social media to get word-of-mouth going. Show ambition. Make sure your message encapsulates the scale of what you’re trying to achieve. Get talking. Participat...
[$1.2B val] Pilot’s CEO, Waseem Daher; knowing where to stay in the weeds
October 12, 2022 19:29 - 20 minutes - 1 MBFounded in 2017, Pilot is a platform that offers bookkeeping, tax and CFO services for growing businesses. From a team of 10 to now 400, Pilot helps thousands of startups — crediting their speed, responsiveness and going above and beyond for customers as key to their growth. We sat down with CEO & Co-Founder, Waseem Daher, who shared his biggest takeaways: Be ‘in the weeds’. Stay close to the delivery of your product or service and know what your customer base is up to. Engage with ...
[Acquired by Apple] Beats by Dre’s Omar Johnson on building a brand and standing out
September 28, 2022 19:34 - 25 minutes - 1 MBIn 2010, Beats by Dre saw a huge opportunity to pivot and make a mark. They were able to uniquely combine the world of sports and music in a way people hadn’t seen before. A clear vision and authentic messaging helped differentiate themselves. We talked with former CMO, Omar Johnson, who shared insights from Beats’ early days: Set clear objectives. Find an authentic place for your product. Discover interesting ways to tell the same story. Come up with a clear and simple focus and ...
[$70M+ raised] Origin’s Matt Watson on finding clarity to target problems
September 21, 2022 19:45 - 18 minutes - 1 MBIn only three years, financial planning company Origin grew from 20 to more than 150 employees and raised over 70 million USD. While only beginning their journey, the company — created to help employers answer their employees’ tough questions about financial benefits — has found success by focusing on solutions for real-world problems. We sat down with Co-Founder & CEO Matt Watson, who shared tips from his experience: Run towards the pain of your customer. Find out what you can take...
[Over $70M raised] Origin’s Matt Watson on finding clarity to target problems
September 21, 2022 15:45 - 18 minutes - 17.1 MBIn only three years, financial planning company Origin grew from 20 to more than 150 employees and raised over 70 million USD. While only beginning their journey, the company — created to help employers answer their employees’ tough questions about financial benefits — has found success by focusing on solutions for real-world problems. We sat down with Co-Founder & CEO Matt Watson, who shared tips from his experience: Run towards the pain of your customer. Find out what you can take...
[$70M+ raised] Origin’s Matt Watson on finding clarity to target problems
September 21, 2022 15:45In only three years, financial planning company Origin grew from 20 to more than 150 employees and raised over 70 million USD. While only beginning their journey, the company — created to help employers answer their employees’ tough questions about financial benefits — has found success by focusing on solutions for real-world problems. We sat down with Co-Founder & CEO Matt Watson, who shared tips from his experience: Run towards the pain of your customer. Find out what you can take...
[Over $70M raised] Origin’s Matt Watson on finding clarity to target problems
September 21, 2022 15:45In only three years, financial planning company Origin grew from 20 to more than 150 employees and raised over 70 million USD. While only beginning their journey, the company — created to help employers answer their employees’ tough questions about financial benefits — has found success by focusing on solutions for real-world problems. We sat down with Co-Founder & CEO Matt Watson, who shared tips from his experience: Run towards the pain of your customer. Find out what you can take...
[$194M raised] Bizzabo’s Alon Alroy on pivoting early and fast
September 14, 2022 19:18 - 20 minutes - 1 MBIn March 2020, everything stopped for events company Bizzabo. So they quickly pivoted and designed a new product for the times we were living in — pairing in-person conference tools with a virtual event management platform. With offices spanning the globe and a team from all walks of life, the company is united by one mission: to define the future of hybrid events. We chatted with Co-Founder, CMO and CCO of Bizzabo Alon Alroy about: What to do when VCs are saying no, but prospects are sa...
[3M+ users] BharatAgri’s Founder, Sai Gole: micro influencers as a GTM channel
September 07, 2022 19:40 - 19 minutes - 1 MBBharatAgri began as a college project back in 2015 and came to reality when they launched in 2017. Since then, the company has stuck to their mission of being the bridge between tech and farming. Today, their app has over 100K subscribers and is available across India. Co-Founder & CEO Sai Gole gives us a glimpse of their journey: Think outside the box. When hit by adversity, work around it by changing your strategy. Personalize content. Keep users top of mind when designing your produ...
[$98M raised] Paystand’s Founder, Jeremy Almond; meet them where they are > selling a cool tech idea
August 31, 2022 19:42 - 20 minutes - 1 MBWhen digital B2B payment service Paystand launched in 2013, it had one mission: to democratize commercial payments. Today, the company has over 400,000 businesses making payments through their network, as well as $4B of volume on the block chain. Co-Founder & CEO Jeremy Almond joins Adam to give some advice: Stay true to your mission. Imagine the world not as it is, but as what it could be. Meet clients halfway. Make sure clients can understand what your business offers. Talk to...
[$164M+ Raised] Aisera’s Muddu Sudhakar on fundraising the right way
August 24, 2022 19:36 - 15 minutes - 1 MBSince launching in late 2017, AI service experience startup Aisera successfully raised over $164M from VCs such as Zoom, Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital and Norwest Ventures — helping them grow to the +180 employee company they are today. Co-Founder and CEO Muddu Sudhakar gives his tips on fundraising: Vision is everything. Make sure your investors share it and are in it for the long haul. Board members matter. Get people who are running businesses now. Don’t waste your time. If...
[Ukrainian Founder] Fuel Finance’s Alyona Mysko; growth during a war
June 29, 2022 19:40 - 18 minutes - 1 MBIt’s been a rocky two years since Ukrainian cloud-based financial company Fuel Finance opened their doors. In 2022, they faced the toughest challenge yet — the invasion of their home country. Here’s what Co-Founder & CEO Alyona Mysko had to say: Adapt your priorities. When times of uncertainty hit, it’s important to look out for your family and team — understand where they are and be there for them. Find purpose to boost growth. Fuel reshaped their mission to include supporting Uk...
[$LFLY] Leafly’s Founder, Cy Scott - don’t hack everything & knowing which battles to fight
June 22, 2022 19:49 - 20 minutes - 1 MBThis week Adam sat down with Cy Scott, Co-Founder of Leafly — think Yelp, but for cannabis — now a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ ($LFLY). Here are some key learnings: Be smart about hacks — know when and when not to do them. In the long term, doing things the right way can bring far better results than cutting corners! Keep user experience top-of-mind to choose when to fight for your convictions. Navigating through change means pushing through barriers. Checkout this w...
[$73M+ Raised] Pair Eyewear’s Nathan Kondamuri - customer discovery & GTM wins
June 15, 2022 19:24 - 20 minutes - 1 MBWhen Pair Eyewear first started, their focus was on making glasses a fun and dynamic accessory for kids. Today, they provide frames for everyone and employ over 90 people across the U.S. In this episode, Co-Founder and Co-CEO Nathan Kondamuri shares their journey as we discuss: The importance of evaluating possible paths when opportunities arise How social media channels like TikTok can be used as a trigger for growth Why listening to what your customers want and need is the key to suc...
Carrot Fertility’s Tammy Sun on knowing your business inside and out
June 08, 2022 20:44 - 20 minutes - 1 MBTammy Sun co-founded Carrot Fertility in 2016 with a mission to provide personalized fertility benefits for everyone, regardless of age, race, sexual orientation, income or geography. Since then, the company has gone global and their services are available in over 120 countries. Adam sat down with Tammy to get her take on: Why you should always listen to your customers and stay connected to your mission Strategies for navigating rejection and developing resistance The importance of un...
Swag.com’s Jeremy Parker on targeting the top from the get-go
June 01, 2022 20:09 - 17 minutes - 1 MBJeremy Parker made the unusual switch from documentary filmmaker to entrepreneur in 2007 and hasn’t looked back. Since then, he founded promotional product platform Swag.com in January 2016, before it was acquired by major online apparel retailer Custom Ink in 2021. Adam sat down with Jeremy for a virtual chat to get the stories behind: How Swag.com landed Facebook as its first customer The importance of getting your foot in the door early on Why fully understanding your buyer is crucia...
[$6.5B Exit] Auth0’s Founder, Eugenio Pace on prioritizing people over segments
May 25, 2022 19:37 - 19 minutes - 1 MBAt the age of 42, Eugenio Pace was a late bloomer in the startup game. But he more than made up for lost time when he built up identity authentication platform Auth0 from scratch in 2013, before the company was acquired by Okta in May 2021. The Co-Founder joined Adam for a chat about: Why developers are so important in the tech industry The first sale being a valuable milestone for any startup How the right timing (and luck) both play their part in company growth Zendesk for Startups p...
Modern Health’s Alyson Watson on staying focused when navigating changes
May 18, 2022 19:27 - 14 minutes - 1 MBModern Health first opened its virtual doors in 2017 and has since grown to 400 employees — experiencing a surge in demand as a result of changing perceptions towards mental health. We caught up with Founder & CEO Alyson Watson to talk about: How focusing on the big picture is key in periods of growth Looking at business objectives to find out where to prioritize resources The importance of looking after and supporting your own team Check out Firstbase: 15% Off the $399 All Included ...
[$4.2B Valuation] Outreach’s Founder & CEO, Manny Medina on nailing the basics
May 11, 2022 21:48 - 18 minutes - 1 MBWhen sales software company Outreach began back in 2014, there were three people making the amount of sales a team of 20 would. Today, they have 1,000 employees across the world and over 5,000 customers. We were joined by Co-Founder & CEO Manny Medina to discuss: Encouraging your employees to be high performers in and outside the organization Using feedback to understand what you’re doing right and where you can improve The importance of prioritizing customer retention before expansion ...