Betterment
SUMMARY: Jon and Eli break down what it took to launch Betterment in the middle of the century’s largest financial crisis. LESSONS LEARNED: Nobody likes planning for the worst, but it proved critical to have a game plan in place if a co-founder ever left. When the time came, the transition went smoothly as a [...]
Andrew Ferenci: Spinback
SUMMARY: Andrew finally reveals the key to success: rubber duckies, Purple Cows, and The Game. LESSONS LEARNED: Why reinvent the wheel? Look at guys who are successful and steal their template when designing your MVP. Advice isn’t the same as hand-holding. Early advisors said here’s what you should tackle next, but we’re not going to [...]
Jim Moran: Yipit
SUMMARY: Jim proves nice guys do finish first, but only when they’re twice as smart as everyone else and just a bit more humble. LESSONS LEARNED: Build domain expertise as resource to partners: Yipit helped identify what makes a “good” offer “great”? Differentiate: daily deals may have been crowded, but a tool to help users [...]
Eliot Durbin: Penny Black
SUMMARY: Eliot defines the benefits of pulling a Rudy, aligning incentives, and adding value. LESSONS LEARNED: Working capital leverage, lead times, replenishment rates, & cash-flow cycle aren’t just B School buzzwords. They can destroy your startup. Learn what they mean. Diligence isn’t about theoretical analysis. Pick up the phone and call potential customers. You’ll get [...]
Joe Essenfeld: JIBE
SUMMARY: Joe shares what it takes to bring great talent through the door. He should know, Jibe’s revolutionizing recruiting and turning Monster into a munchkin. LESSONS LEARNED: Debt’s aren’t just monetary: you’ll have to pay down your technical debt too so make sure it’s manageable when scraping together you’re beta. Early hires aren’t the same [...]
Ian White: Sailthru
SUMMARY: Ian breaks down how to tackle worst-case scenarios and what it takes to scale a technical team from 0 to 20. LESSONS LEARNED: Cardinal sin is over-promising and under-delivering: start simple and build on top of that incrementally in order to overcome customers skeptical initially. Can’t control macro: started Sailthru the week Lehman collapsed [...]
Neil Capel: Sailthru
Want more? Order the entire first season on DVD. We’ll send you episodes #1-10 BEFORE they’re released on the web. SUMMARY: Neil got married, launched Sailthru, and went out to fundraise the same week Lehman collapsed. Macro may be out of your control, but it didn’t stop this guy. LESSONS LEARNED: Tell your story: as [...]
Jordy Leiser: STELLA Service
SUMMARY: Jordy shares how vision, passion, and a bit of social engineering helps to light a fire under customers’ butts… LESSONS LEARNED: Build assets: we collect behavioral data on our shoppers [even if] we’re not doing anything with it yet. That way there’s an entire behavioral data business in the bank for us. Give people [...]
Shane Snow: Contently
SUMMARY: Shane shares how to fire the wrong customers while training the right ones to become great. LESSONS LEARNED: Reward the right customers by giving them incentives that improve your business. Contently closed down its beta to eliminate customers that hurt the brand. Customer acquisition strategy: Eat your own dogfood. Contently’s business is content marketing [...]
Wiley Cerilli: Single Platform
SUMMARY: Wiley breaks down how to get the girl, close the deal, raise the round, and leap buildings in a single bound. LESSONS LEARNED: When interviewing sales candidates, ask them to sell something in the room. In recruiting, I’m looking for a personality more than anything so [ask candidates]: of your friends, what role do [...]