Ryan Evans is the founder of Tend.io.  Tend.io gives businesses clearer insights to what drives customer through their proprietary search tool.  In the episode Ryan talks about his path into technology and the steps he's taken to successfully launch 2 startups.  He shares his approach to early customer acquisition and customer discovery.  Ryan also highlights several steps every entrepreneur can take to land their first paying customers and how to find those customers!   Key Highlights:

• Insights on how to find a problem that technology can solve
• Importance of understanding your customer and their pain points
• How to acquire customers and grow your business

Tools & Resources Mentioned in the Show: SEM Rush Nerdy Data Trello Intercom WhoIs   Favorite Business Book: "How to Fail at Absolutely Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the story of my life" by Scott Adams   Connect with Ryan! bitesizepr.com tend.io @ryanevans   Music by Calid B | @CalidB   Connect with Innovator Tribe on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter! IG: @InnovatorTribe Facebook: Innovator Tribe Twitter: @InnovatorTribe

Chidi Afulezi is the co-founder of Akoma, a content/storytelling technology platform where a combination of user generated and original content about Africa and its diaspora are created, published and shared with the world. Prior to building Akoma Chidi helped to solve problems for some of the world's largest corporations.  From building mobile network infrastructure for AT&T to helping build out technology solutions as a music exec at Sony Music.  In this episode he shares how his ability and experience solving problems led him to building out a platform to serve the continent of Africa. He discusses how he met his co-founder and the moment they decided to build Akoma.  He also shares some of the challenges of working with a global team and the strategies that allow them to work efficiently.   Key Highlights:

• Transitioning from the corporate world to entrepreneurship
• Identifying your users and user personas
• How to manage a globally distributed team 
• Leveraging partnerships to fuel your mission

Tools & Resources Mentioned in the Show:   Trello Slack Zoom   Favorite Business Book: "Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration" by Ed Catmull   Connect with Chidi!   Chidi Afulezi @cafulezi   Music by Calid B | @CalidB   Connect with Innovator Tribe on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter! IG: @InnovatorTribe Facebook: Innovator Tribe Twitter: @InnovatorTribe

Dr. Sima Pendharkar is the founder of Valeet Healthcare, a company that is leveraging technology to bridge the gaps in healthcare.  Dr. Pendharkar launched Valeet Healthcare with 14 years of experience working in hospital administration.  In the episode she shares how she leveraged her experience as a physician to create a solution that helps patients, doctors, and hospital administrators.  Dr. Pendharkar lived in silicon valley before moving to New York where she launched her startup.     Key Highlights:

• Using technology to solve problems in your industry/profession
• How to connect with your local tech startup community
• Importance of refining and fine-tuning your "pitch"

    Tools & Resources Mentioned in the Show: Twitter Meetup   Connect with Sima! @simapendharkar [email protected]     Music by Calid B | @CalidB   Connect with Innovator Tribe on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter! IG: @InnovatorTribe Facebook: Innovator Tribe Twitter: @InnovatorTribe

  Joey Womack is the Co-founder of Amplify4Good.  Amplify4Good uses rapid problem-solving to help organizations create social impact.  His company has led innovation labs for Google, Coca-Cola, Ford and other great companies.  In the show he shares how his experience in marketing and event planning led to an opportunity to organize a hackathon with no experience.  It was through this experience that he decided use technology to help his community and create his startup, Amplify4Good.  Joey also shares his goal of impacting the lives of 1 billion people and his plan to achieve it!   Key Highlights:

• His approach to customer discovery, the lean methodology, and business development 
• Turning a facebook group into a business
• Dealing with the challenges of managing multiple companies
• Tactics to help build processes and infrastructure to save time and maximize efficiency

  Tools & Resources Mentioned in Show

• Slack
• Google Drive
• Team Work
• Asana
• HBCU Spring Coming NYC
• Hive

Connect with Joey!

• @joeydigital
• amplify4good.com
• goodienation.org

  Music by Calid B | @CalidB   Connect with Innovator Tribe on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter! IG: @InnovatorTribe Facebook: Innovator Tribe Twitter: @InnovatorTribe    

 

Boyede Sobitan is the co-founder of OjaExpress, a mobile grocery delivery service.  The OjaExpress app takes stress out of your hard to find traditional foods, so you can have time to focus on more important things.  Boyede discusses how his perspective as a 1st generation Nigerian-American helped shape him as an entrepreneur.  With a background in healthcare and a masters in health administration Boyede shares how his experiences and skills translate to tech entrepreneurship. He also tells the story of how he met his co-founder and how an article in GQ magazine sparked the drive to execute on his idea.

 

Key Highlights:

• Using the lean methodology in building his startup
• Meeting his co-founder at a mastermind group
• The GQ article that was the spark to executing on the idea
• Life in the ER and how it prepared him for startup life

  

Boye's Hype Song:

"Knuck If You Buck" - Crime Mob

 

Tool & Resources Mentioned in the Show:

• A.Xi Virtual Assitant
• Google Productivity Suite

 

Favorite Business Book:

"Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-dollar Business Empire" by Reginald Lewis

 

Connect with Boyede!

• Ojaexpress Mobile App
• ojaexpress.com
• [email protected]

 

 

Music by Calid B | @Calidb

Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: @InnovatorTribe

  Jason Johnson is the founder of Konveau. The Konveau app uses personality science and common interests to help guests make connections at social gatherings.  Jason and his co-founder launched the app in 2016 but the idea of Konveau was an idea the team had been working on for some time.  In this episode Jason shares his journey of launching Konveau.  He discusses the difficulties of hiring developers and the pitfalls to avoid.  The importance of growing your business and showing traction before taking on investors. He also shares funny stories that include a former classmate who is a very well known Chicago rapper.   Key Highlights:

• The keys to getting investors
• Teaming up with co-founders for your idea
• How to hire app developers

  Show Notes     Tools  & Resources Mentioned in this Show:

• Proto.io
• PowerMoves Accelerator
• Bubble.is
• Cordova
• "The Hero and the Outlaw" by Margaret Mark

  Favorite Business Book: "Crossing the Chasm" by Jeffrey A Moore   Jason's Hype Song "Amazing" - Kanye West   Connect with Jason!

• Konveau.com
• @konveau
• [email protected]

Connect with Innovator Tribe!

Facebook|Instagram|Twitter: @InnovatorTribe

Andyshea Saberioon is the co-founder of Pledgecents.com. Pledgecents is a social impact marketplace that is bridging the gap between EdTech companies and classrooms. To date Pledgecents has helped over 400,000 students through the platform. In this episode Andy talks about how he and his co-founder started in the EdTech space with no education or tech background.  He shares how they immersed themselves in the space once they started working on the idea and built a strong team of industry experts as their advisors. He also shares tips on how to connect with industry experts leveraging social media.   Key highlights:

• Two-sided markets and the "chicken and egg" problem
• Securing industry experts as board members
• The relationship between co-founders
• Managing investor money and relationships

      Show Notes       Tools & Resources Mentioned in the Show  

• The Lean Lab
• Trello
• Slack
• Google Docs
• ET the HipHop Preacher

 

 

Favorite Business Book

"Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh

 

Connect with Andy!

• [email protected]

• @pledgecents

 

Music by Calid B - @Calidb

 

J.B Adkins is the founder of HYTE.  In the show JB shares how his passion for flying led him to building is startup.  He highlights his experiences raising money, travelling to meet investors, and his experience as a guest on a reality game show.

 

Key Highlights:

• MVP Generated $5,000 in one week
• Travelling to other countries to meet with Investors
• Landing on a reality show pitch contest
• Balancing startup life with being a husband and father

 

Show Notes

 

 

Tools & Books Mentioned in this Show

• Udemy
• Keynote
• Adobe Photoshop
• Wordpress
• Themeforest
• One Month
• Bubble

Favorite Book

"E-Myth" by Michael Gerber

 

JB's Hype Songs 

"Options" - Luke James

Planet Shakers

 

Connect with JB!

• hyteapp.com
• superpreneur.me
• [email protected]

Music Produced by Calid B @Calidb

Chris talks about raising $6 million for Review Trackers, his first few businesses, and the learnings that have helped him build Review Trackers from the early stages of an idea to the successful company customers love today.

Chris discusses how he talked to 100+ customers before building one line of code.  He shares his experience using the Lean Methodology approach to building his company.  He explores details about moving to South America to start his business and coming back to the U.S. and winning his first customer when they didn’t even have way to accept payment.  

Startups are hard, but Chris explores how resources like the gener8tor accelerator, a great team, and a visionary mindset led contributed to Review Trackers high growth. He credits the importance of fine tuning your “pitch” as the first step to build a high growth startup outside of Silicon Valley.

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter @InnovatorTribe

Top Three Tools

BitesizePR - https://bitesizepr.com/

Google Analytics - https://www.google.com/analytics

Evernote - http://evernote.com/

 

Cool Resources

Genr8ator - http://www.gener8tor.com/

Startup Chile - http://www.startupchile.org/

 

Music Produced by Calid B @Calidb

Prior to building the startup Cinchapi, Jeff Nelson, Co-Founder and CTO at Blavity, combined talents with Morgan Debaun, Aaron Samuels, Jonathan Jackson, to created the most culturally relevant venture-backed technology and media company aimed at building beautiful products and experiences for black millennials.

Through a series of cascading connections, Jeff shares the backstory about how the founders met and eventually decided to build Blavity after working on over 10 earlier ideas. He also shares a story of the founding team “sticking to their guns” when a potential investor tied their investment in the company to the team changing the name from Blavity.

Right now Jeff is excited about his new startup - Cinchapi. At Cinchapi, Jeff is building a platform to help people understand data, then use data more effectively to solve problems in a variety of places. Cinchapi is fascinated in how the accessibility of data is key to solving some of the World’s most challenging problems.

He dives into the major differences building an enterprise B2B ( Business to Business) software company versus his experiences building Blavity’s technology.  

Frankly, Jeff notes how one major differences is his target audience. On this episode, Jeff talks about diversity in tech, not “looking the part,” and trying to have conversations with 60 year old white guys at the bar as a twenty-something black man.

Jeff is married with two young children. The importance of life and work balance, mentoring, and helping other technology entrepreneurs reach their goals.

 

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter @InnovatorTribe

 

Fun Facts

Favorite TV shows

• Breaking Bad, Black-ish, and Modern Family

Hype song

• “Lose Yourself,” by Eminem

 

Cool Resources

Cyberlaunch Accelerator - http://www.cyberlaunch.vc/

 

Contact:

• @jeff4code
• www.github.com/jtnelson
• @Blavity
• @Cinchapi

 

Music Produced by Calid B @Calidb