Being a small business owner can be very rewarding but it also means lots of stress, responsibilities and long hours. As a business owner it's important to network and meet other local leaders in order to find new customers and grow your business but finding that time in your busy schedule can be hard. Joining breakfast groups and attending Chamber of Commerce events often feels like wasted energy. Alignable knew it was time for business networking to move online so you can meet the right people at the right time. They've built an amazing platform with hundreds of thousands of business owners signed up and using the service across 10,000+ communities. To date they've done very little external marketing as the majority of growth has come organically through member referrals. 

In this interview I spoke with Eric Groves, co-founder of Alignable about many topics including the origin of Alignable, why he started the company in his hometown, how big the opportunity for Alignable could be, how he found his co-founder, at which point they decided to raise outside funding, how they were able to close 3 rounds with many incredible investors, what the revenue model might look like, how their members are using Alignable to grow their businesses, what's been the marketing strategy and how it will change in 2017, how his previous work experience prepared him to be a successful founder, how he thinks about hiring and building culture, what advice he would share with other aspiring entrepreneurs and much more. 

 

Thanks for listening.

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Message me at jonahlupton@gmail.com

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