#27: "Only start a business if you absolutely have to” - Brian Meece
3.5X Podcast: | Start-ups | Entrepreneurs | Scale-ups
English - November 12, 2018 17:29 - 42 minutes - 97.4 MBEntrepreneurship Business Technology founder business businessowner ceo enterprise entrepreneur entrepreneurship inspiration interview investment Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
In this episode I had the pleasure of chatting with Brian Meece - Co-founder of RocketHub, Founder of Wingadoos, and a pretty mean ukulele player! Brian has also spoken at world-renowned events such as SXSW, TEDx, and the World Economic Forum.
Brian has always had a huge interest in music, and for a good chunk of his life (and still to this day) has played in bands, performed, and recorded. It was his love of music that led him to his first venture, RocketHub. RocketHub was created as a crowdfunding platform allowing artists to raise the funds they needed to produce their music and continue doing what they love. After successfully working in the arts space, RocketHub soon attracted the attention of the science sector, and thereafter entrepreneurs looking to raise money. After 5 successful years of growth, this led to an acquisition valuing the company at $15million.
Following the acquisition of RocketHub, Brian worked with Citi Ventures and helped mentor and advise newer startups, with a particular focus on the FinTech sector. As with his musical background previously, Brain used his understanding of the Finance space to work on his next venture: Wingadoos. This venture was created to tackle the huge, and global, issues of under education when it comes to financial empowerment and understanding. Brian and his team aim to work with young students, with the help some clever technology, games, and music, to better educate people when it comes to all things finance!
This episode covers a lot of ground (including raising money for a meth lab… yes really!) and was great fun to record! Let us know what you think :)
In this episode we discuss:
Following your passion
Utilising your network
Recruiting the right team and how it’s like a band
Fixing pain points
Looking for ‘whitespace’ and new opportunities
Financial empowerment and education
Social impact
And as always, plenty more...
Links mentioned in this episode: