Founders Nextdoor: Entrepreneurship | Small Business | Startups | Freelancing | Washington DC

Allen Gannett is the founder and CEO of TrackMaven, a marketing analytics platform whose clients have included Microsoft, Marriott, Saks Fifth Avenue, any many other well known names. He has been on the “30 Under 30” lists for both Inc. and Forbes. He is a contributor to FastCompany.com and is the author of the new book The Creative Curve, on how anyone can achieve moments of creative geniu

In this episode, Allen talks about how he attracted early investments in TrackMaven, got initial customers from referrals, and grew the company using paid advertising. He also gives tips on how companies and entrepreneurs can become more creative in marketing by leveraging consumer psychology.

“When you’re trying to raise money, it’s more about identifying the right problem to solve in your market, rather then coming up with the perfect solution right away.”

 

– Allen Gannett

 

Reference:

thecreativecurve.com

allen.xyz

trackmaven.com

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin

Reference

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Melissa Biggins is the owner of Sweeter Hue, a popular bakery in Washington DC’s Shaw neighborhood. In this episode, Melissa talks about what it’s like to start a brick-and-mortar business in a very competitive industry, and what she did to make sure she had a successful launch day and beyond.

 

“If you’re in an industry that has a lot of competition, that means there’s a lot of demand also. You’ve just got to set yourself different.”

 

– Melissa Biggins

 

 

Sweeter Hue

Facebook

 

Reference

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Elise Crawford is the founder of Ringlet Studio, a digital marketing agency in Washington DC that helps women entrepreneurs build their brand online.

As an expert in online marketing, branding, and event hosting, Elise has a lot to teach entrepreneurs and small business owners about marketing. In this episode, she talked about her own entrepreneurial story and how to build a consistent brand image for your business online and offline. She also gives plenty of tips for Instagram and event marketing.

“Instagram is a long game. It took us about a year to see a translation from social followings to clients.”

 

-Elise Crawford

 

Ringlet Studio

Instagram

Planoly

Reference

Soundwise: innovative podcast publishing platform that helps you capture, keep and convert listeners

Kim Bryden is the CEO and founder of Cureate, a company that helps emerging food and beverage businesses grow and scale, and also helps big brands and institutions connect with their target audiences through local food and drink. In this episode, Kim talked about how she started her consulting business focusing on the food industry, and the common mistakes entrepreneurs make in launching and growing a food business.

“Getting local and granular in your launch strategy is super important.”

 

-Kim Bryden

 

Cureate

Cureate Connect

School of Food

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

 

Reference

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Ahmad Ishaq is the founder and chief innovation officer of ByteCubed, an IT consulting firm in Arlington Virginia. In 2017, ByteCubed was ranked No 46 on the Inc magazine’s list of fastest growing companies. It was also voted one of the best places to work in DC by the Washington Post.

In this episode, Ahmad talked about how he built a successful company in the very competitive government contracting space, the challenges of managing hyper-growth and the importance of having a unique value proposition.

 

“You need to have clear, concise stories of who you are and what your unique value proposition is.”

 

-Ahmad Ishaq

 

 

 

ByteCubed

Facebook,Linkedin, Google Plus,Twitter

 

Reference

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Mina Fies is an award-winning designer, remodeler, and the founder and CEO of Synergy Design & Construction. She is also the author of the Renovation Roadmap system. In this episode, Mina told the story of how she started a business in an industry that she had little prior experience in, how she built a successful business by really focusing on the customers’ needs, and gave lots of tips on business development and networking.

“You can’t be in entrepreneurship for the money alone. You have to have the passion and see the vision ahead of you. That needs to be fuel for everything.”

 

– Mina Fies

 

Reference:

Synergy Design & Construction

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, Youtube, Google Plus, Houzz 

Renovation Roadmap system

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

Resources:

SCORE

BNI- Business Networking International

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business

Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business

Soundwise: innovative podcast publishing platform that helps you capture, keep and convert listeners

PJ Taei is the founder of UScreen, a video platform that enables content creators launch their own video streaming service and build a profitable business selling their videos online

In this episode, PJ talked about how he created UScreen from scratch, from building prototype and getting initial customers, to iterating on the product vision and launching marketing campaigns.

“Ultimately the best way to test your idea is to build something (quickly) and get it into customers’ hands.”

 

PJ Taei

 

UScreen

Facebook, Twitter

Reference:

Soundwise: innovative podcast publishing platform that helps you capture, keep and convert listeners

Ryan Croft is the co-founder and COO of TransitScreen, a technology company in DC that helps millions of people save commute time by providing real time display of local transportation information at different locations.

In this episode, Ryan shared the story of how TransitScreen found its market sweet spot by continuously studying its customers, trying new approaches and failing repeatedly. The journey to product-market fit is not a straight line. And Ryan’s story demonstrated that so well.

“I was a serial networker. I would go to an event every night or every other night, to meet as many people as possible, to get our name out there, and to try to understand our market. It was a lot of trial and error, with people saying no over and over again.”

 

– Ryan Croft

 

TransitScreen

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin

Reference:

Soundwise: innovative podcast publishing platform that helps you capture, keep and convert listeners

 

Joel Holland is the founder and executive chairman of Storyblocks, a subscription-based online platform for high quality stock media.

Joel has won numerous awards for his work with StoryBlocks. His company has been listed on the Inc 5000 list six consecutive times and was named one of Washington. D.C.’s best places to work by Washingtonian magazine.

In this episode, Joel tells the story of how he started the business selling videos he made himself on eBay, gradually built up his customer base, and bootstrapped the company to what it is today—an online digital media subscription service that offers millions of royalty free videos, audios, and images.

“Until people are voting with their real dollars, you don’t know how customers are gonna behave.”

 

-Joel Holland

 

StoryBlocks

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin

Reference:

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Alex Hastings and Mike Galyen are co-founders of Guerrilla Vending, a company that creates custom curated vending machines, in collaboration with local Washington DC businesses.

 

In this episode, Alex and Mike talked about how they started Guerrilla Vending with a refurnished vending machine they found online, and how they discovered their business’ market sweet spot by constantly experimenting with different products they could carry and learning from their own mistakes.

“We had too many ideas (about what to put in the vending machines). We had to see what worked and what didn’t. There was a lot of trial and error.”

 

-Alex Hastings

 

guerillavending.com

Facebook, Twitter

Reference:

Soundwise: innovative podcast publishing platform that helps you capture, keep and convert listeners