App Guy:

Derik Lawlis, Founder & CEO at Mindbliss.com . In this episode, we talk about launching a mindfulness app, the importance of reconnecting with a deeper part of yourself and essential metrics to focus on.

Resources: Website / derik [at] mindbliss.com  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Derik...

• The pleasure of working on your own app startup comes from the effort you put in
• Starting an app is all about asking What Is The Problem, Who Is It Solving For, Can You Speak To These People? 
• Core metrics to focus on are revenue, retention rate for 1,3,7 days and conversion to paid subscriptions 

Rachel Cook, Founder/CEO at Seeds, talks about hr journey into stock trading, comedy, film directing and the inception of her idea during a night in a Kenyan jail.

Resources: Website  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Rachel....

• Female founders have it tougher than male founders when fund raising
• It's extremely popular in Africa to send money through text messages and has been for years
• A social good within an in-app purchase will lead to non-payers making their first of many in-app purchases

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Rachel Cook, Founder/CEO at Seeds, talks about hr journey into stock trading, comedy, film directing and the inception of her idea during a night in a Kenyan jail.

Anthemos Georgiades CEO at Zumper talks about his courage leaving a well respected early career in consulting because his idea was passionately burning a hole in his soul

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Anthemos...

• Often the biggest challenge is to remain focussed when running your startup
• The first $1 million is often harder to raise then the next $38 million
• Early fund raising is best served by having a single story and focussing on one metric

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Founder and CEO at silo.co . Silo is a new way to ask and help your network. Listen to the interesting journey that Moshik followed as he started solving problems he didn't even know existed when building his first prototype.

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Moshik...

• Listen to feedback to understand the real problems of your users 
• Doing a startup is not something you do because you think you're going to be successful and the next billionaire like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. If you're leaving a large company to do something on your own, it's got to be such a burning passion within you that you absolutely have to do it
• It's harder to self-promote when you're asking for help or you're asking a question. A founder has to rely on the kindness of strangers for introductions. In order to get these, you need to be willing to help others first

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Sandeep Jain, CEO and co-Founder of Leela Labs Inc. We talk through how listening to inspiring content from podcasts can make a dramatic change in your life.

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Sandeep...

• How to leave your corporate job by committing 25% of current salary to hiring freelancers to build your product or service
• Target the right PR influencers on Twitter because many have open DMs
• Radio gets $18 billion ad revenue and is dying, but podcasting gets $300 million ad revenue and is growing

Full Blog Post

Lennart van der Ziel CEO and Co-Founder of the Universal Translator --> TravisTranslator.com . A fresh entrepreneur with a great strategy on how to win over the global media and build a pre-launch list.

Resources:  Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Lennart...

• Customers are always better than equity funding. Customers provide a good way of validating an idea
• A good PR strategy is to get a booth at Mobile World Congress, get access to the press list, schedule interviews with limited time slots and have newsworthy press releases on several topics every few weeks to follow-up
• Getting very specific about your metrics is essential. e.g. something like we know 10% of an email list will engage and pledge, so what size list do we need to reach our funding goal on IndieGoGo?

Kshitij (KAY) Minglani Co Founder & CEO Mindvalley. This episode is packed full of extremely valuable lessons for app entrepreneurs. If you are planning launching an app, you'll learn how to validate your idea, the benefit of focussing on the end user rather than chasing PR and much more.

 

Resources: Website  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Kay...

• Get quotes (with keyword data) from several SEO firms to help validate your idea
• Spend a majority of your time interviewing potential users before touching a line of code
• Create a 'toothpaste' type app. In other-words, an app that is used everyday

Full Written Interview

Alexis Dornier Founder, Architectural Designer living in Ubud, Bali

Resources: Website  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Alexis...

• Some people wake up to a sunrise over a volcano before work
• Do something radically different from everyone else 
• Startup life is sometimes like surfing. You can spend days struggling, then you have the best ride of the week

Soren Nielsen, Founder & CEO at ERNIT . His mission is to empower children with real bank accounts and help them understand the value of money. Have you ever heard of the term wine entrepreneurs? No - then listen to this episode.

 

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Soren....

• You will simply know when to quit your job by working passionately on your idea 
• Kickstarter is not just for raising funding, but more importantly it helps validate your idea
• If you are going to quit your job, get the support of your family first 

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