Run With It

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Nuggets:

• When you build a business realize that your community of clients may be more valuable than the money they give you. You can always build additional products and services that they need. But without an audience, you have no business.
• It’s okay to provide different amounts of compensation to co-founders based on their needs at a given time, but it’s also useful to start with an even share of the company.
• Communications add-ons for LinkedIn is still an underserved niche.

Action Steps:

1. Choose to focus on a very simple product first: LinkedIn Inbox integration with Gmail.
2. Create a landing page and collect emails of interested folks.
3. Connect with technical co-founder(s) (or sales and marketing co-founders if you are technical)
4. Start building with a small equal share investment from your co-founders
5. Realize you are building an audience as you gain users. Focus more on the relationships and building it than monetization and your initial idea.
6. Add features and build relationships with team members at LinkedIn to make sure you  are not stepping on their strategy and to seed the prospect of acquisition by LinkedIn at some point.
7. Grow your users and grow your features through feedback and rapid iteration.

Links:

• lemlist: Your Go-To Cold Email Software & Outreach Automation Tool
• Contact Center Software Market Size Report, 2021-2028
• Front - Customer Communication Platform | Team Email
• TechCrunch Twilio confirms it is buying Segment for $3.2B in an all-stock deal
• Paul Graham on Earnestness
• Territory Foods
• CookUnity: A Chef Collective

Guillaume is the Co-Founder and CEO of lemlist, a personalized cold email sequencing software. In 3 years, lemlist went from 0 to $8 million ARR and 10k+ customers worldwide, without any funding. His mission is to help 1,000,000 entrepreneurs to build a profitable business by 2025.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

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If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• You can often dominate a local business niche by implementing current marketing and technology (e.g. residential cleaning)
• People often get excited about new tech (drones, 3D printing, etc…) but their enthusiasm wavers before the breakthrough tech makes a sizable impact on the real world. There’s plenty of opportunity implementing tech from five years ago.

Action Steps:

1. Contact Lucid Drones and get pricing for leasing one of their cleaning drones
2. Investigate permitting in your local city
3. Pre-sell window cleanings to several property managers (they often sign yearly contracts)
4. Your selling point is that your clients will never have to talk to you again after signing up. You take window cleaning off their plate so they can focus on other things.

Links:

• MaidThis
• MaidThis Franchise
• Aurum property management is implementing drone window cleaning
• Tim Byrne Almost Live Podcast
• Don't Forget, Window Washing Is a Lot Safer Than Driving a Taxi
• Cleandrone
• How will drone window cleaning change your business? | INTERCLEAN
• Lucid Drone Tech – We build drones
• Window washing drone takes flight

Neel Parekh founded MaidThis, which helps short-term rental owners and homeowners meet their cleaning needs quickly, easily and affordably. He also founded MaidThis Franchise, which helps remote owners achieve financial independence via MaidThis.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• Plant a lot of seeds in the early stages of your business and see what grows. You may be surprised by the results.

Action Steps:

1. Sell the vision to large companies (think IBM, Google, Amazon) in order to get a sponsorship
2. Ask school teachers in your area to send you students that that are selling things to their classmates
3. Recruit entrepreneurs to mentor students, both for pay and as volunteers to test which works best.
4. Setup opportunities for students to start businesses and learn key lessons, like the nuances of how to fail toward success and how to build a support network of other entrepreneurs.

Links:

• Versus Game
• VCs Are Pouring Money Into the Wrong Education Startups
• The Thiel Fellowship
• Smart Face Masks - Way Beyond Air Quality
• Best Countries for Education | US News Best Countries

John Viti is the CEO of VersusGame, a pop-culture gaming app that lets users bet on trending topics. They've granted over 16 million in cash prizes to over 7 million players. VersusGame is a global entertainment pop culture gaming app where users can put money on trending topics about celebrities, pop culture, sports, entertainment, food, and more. This app is the first of its kind to bring power to the masses and allow consumers to capitalize on their knowledge of mainstream culture. Since its launch in 2019, VersusGame has grown significantly, with over $16 Million in cash prizes ($4 Million of that during the “COVID-19 Era”) to more than 7 million players.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• Startups like Uber and GreenPal succeeded by giving the common person a top-tier experience

Action Steps:

1. Get a job as a concierge in a luxury hotel and note the ingredients essential to a smooth, positive and remarkable check in experience
2. Discover ways to automate the most remarkable check in experiences. You could implement an app that senses location, includes pre recorded audio and video content, and tightly coordinates concierge behaviors.
3. Partner with some mid range hotels, get paid as a consultant while testing your idea within their ecosystem. Sell them on the fact that customer satisfaction can dramatically be increased with lower wait times: a 5 minute wait to check-in lowers guest satisfaction by 50%
4. Create a metric like lowering check-in times just 30 seconds and raising customer satisfaction to five stars

Links:

• GreenPal
• How Check-In Wait Times Impact Hotel Guest Satisfaction

Bryan Clayton is CEO and cofounder of GreenPal an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. 

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• Aside from the hype, there are many smart people excited about the practical potential of blockchain and NFTs
• Steveblank.com offers an incredible resource for entrepreneurs
• There are multi-billion dollar opportunities for companies that help crypto “cross the chasm,” making it more accessible to mainstream audiences

Action Steps:

1. Get your own crypto security and succession plan in order
2. Stay up to date on the latest developments in estate planning and password management as it applies to crypto assets
3. Use a site like aytm.com to “Ask Your Target Market” about what type of product will serve them best.
4. Consider a relatively lightweight solution to digital estate planning (e.g. set up smart contracts that automatically distribute assets to your family if you don’t log in every six months)
5. There could be various niches within this broader category to build businesses in.

Links:

• http://edgeofnft.com/
• https://wearecanopy.com/
• https://steveblank.com/
• Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes
• Wallet Recovery Services
• https://safehaven.io/
• AYTM Market Research: Online Market Research
• Territory Foods | Healthy Meal Delivery

Jeff Kelley is a serial entrepreneur, investor, creator, and graduate of West point with a Yale MBA. Josh Kriger is a serial entrepreneur from Boston now staying warm in SoCal who has launched and consulted with businesses across a variety of industries.

Jeff and Josh co-founded Territory Foods, a national ready-to-eat prepared meal delivery company utilizing a unique network of distributed chefs. They also founded Canopy, a sustainability-focused apparel company that connects fans with what they love through collectible interchangeable patches.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• Successful businesses are incredibly focused. This often manifests as simplicity.
• When you’ve got high volume you can negotiate credit card fees down to 1%

Action Steps:

1. Contact political candidates and pitch them on the benefits of a more transparent fundraising and spending platform
2. Be simple with your strategy. Create a simple platform to collect donations and a simple ledger of categories politicians must report on.
3. Take 5-10% of the money raised through your platform
4. Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be

Links:

• SkinX Funding Platform
• Nicole Guerrieri Loftus - Founder & CEO - SkinX
• GiveWell | Charity Reviews and Research
• Blueprint: your home for strategic political giving
• WinRed Pricing
• Political advertising on Google
• HR1 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): For the People Act of 2021

Nicole Loftus is a seasoned entrepreneur who has previously made it to #8 on Inc 500’s fastest growing companies. She’s now built SkinX, a tech-enabled ecosystem that is ready to launch and get every American in the game investing in entrepreneurs, innovators and job creators.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• There’s no need to partner with a developer if you haven’t already built a relationship.
• Agencies encounter great app ideas all the time but don’t have the bandwidth to pursue them.
• Hire the most expensive resource you can afford.
• Shopify is rapidly expanding their API access; now is a great time to build an app there.

Action Steps:

1. Search Reddit, Quora, Facebook groups, etc… for pain points from Shopify store owners
2. Speak to Shopify agency owners to collect more pain points
3. Wireframe a solution
4. Follow Shopify’s free app development to learn to build your solution
5. (If you’re non-technical,) find a cofounder that “you would marry” and pay as much as you can afford

Links:

• Electric Eye
• Honest Ecommerce
• GuruHotel
• CartHook
• Charge Me Later

Chase Clymer is the Co-founder at Electric Eye where he and his team create Shopify-powered sales machines from strategic design, development, and marketing decisions. He is also the host of Honest Ecommerce, a weekly podcast where we provide online store owners with honest, actionable advice to increase their sales and grow their business.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• If an idea is doomed to fail, it’s best to find that out as soon as possible. You don’t want to get stuck in the uncertain middle ground

Action Steps:

1. Research what happened to defunct trip planning apps (WorldMate, Google Trips, Kayak Trip Huddle)
2. Talk with unsatisfied users of TripIt
3. Create programmatic landing pages for “Napa trip itinerary” etc...

Links:

• Topic: The Best SEO Content Optimization Tool
• Air Travel Forecast: When Will Airlines Recover from Covid-19?
• US Travel Answer Sheet
• WorldMate's Retreat Leaves Itinerary-Organizing Rivals in Dogfight
• How I Started A $450K/Month Travel Agency That Curates Surprise
• Guruhotel: official hotel websites optimized for ecommerce
• Guruhotel on Indie Hackers

Nikhil Aitharaju is co-founder of Topic, a software which helps writers research and create search optimized content. Their AI analyzes the top results in Google, extracts key topics to cover, and provides an interactive editor to allow writers to grade their work. Topic is great for those writers looking to get actionable suggestions to drive higher traffic and get real results.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• The competitor software you create for early adopters may appeal by solving a specific complaint they have about the dominant solution. Later other’s will join just to join the crowd.

Action Steps:

1. Investigate why people log in to LinkedIn; prioritize those functions in the new platform
2. Conversely, research what are the biggest complaints people have about LinkedIn
3. Research economics of Steemit
4. Choose a niche hungry for connection
5. Experiment with the incentive structure and pivot as necessary

Links:

• clarity.fm
• QuickMail
• Steemit

Jeremy Chatelaine a software developer that quit his job in 2014 and started his own successful SaaS business from scratch. That platform is QuickMail.io, a 7 figure business and a leading platform for cold email automation today.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• You can license an expensive domain name, if you need it for SEO or marketing but don’t have the capital in your business yet.
• If a client takes advantage of you or your idea gets stolen consider the odds of it happening again before wasting time on reparation or retaliation.

Action Steps:

1. Brainstorm incentive structures with a behavioral economist
2. Wireframe the app and shop it to JetBlue, Delta, etc…
3. Research economics around credit card companies’ partnership with airlines
4. Search for existing flight tracking apps. Offer to buy one for cheap. Add this idea to it.

Links:

• Swag.com
• Air Travel Forecast: When Will Airlines Recover from Covid-19?
• thoughtbot
• Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast
• Chad Pytel on Run With It
• Sani Abdul-Jabbar on Run With It
• [Inside the Business] AwardWallet with Alexi Vereschaga
• Track frequent flyer reward programs and plan your travel
• The Man Who Turned Credit-Card Points Into an Empire

Jeremy Parker is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a serial Entrepreneur. He is CEO and co-founder of swag.com. He has also successfully exited a startup called Tipped media.

Love a part of the show? Did we get something completely wrong? Let us know at [email protected].

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run