School of Startups

Rytis Lauris is a serial entrepreneur of various start-ups, and an expert on E-commerce, Online Marketing and Email Marketing. In 2009, he was the Founder of Treenex, which was a company focused on environmental services.

Rytis was also the Co-Founder of IQ Polls, which is an easy to use voting tool that interacts with audiences during conferences, seminars and training sessions.

In 2009, he became the Founder and CEO of Soundest, which first started off as a digital marketing agency operating in the Baltic states but then in 2014 transitioned to focus on a newly built email marketing platform. 3 years later Rytis is still the Co-Founder and CEO of the now renamed platform, known today as Omnisend. His startup Omnisend,is an all-in-one and omnichannel e-commerce marketing automation platform that helps companies boost their sales by converting their visitors and retaining their customers through personalized messages.

In this episode we cover:

- Covid-19 e-commerce trends that he's experienced

- Omnichannel marketing for your marketing campaigns

- Effective omnichannel trends and stats

- Target audiences and sales cycle

- Why and how to use segmentation effectively

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Rytis:

Twitter: @RytisLauris

Omnisend.com

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Tristan Pelligrino is the Co-Founder of Motion where he helps tech companies get noticed, engage their prospects, and become thought leaders. Early on in his consulting career, Tristan worked for firms such as Oracle and IBM and learned how challenging it is to articulate the value of technology. While working towards his MBA in Marketing, Tristan launched a video production company that he ended up getting on the Inc. 5000 list before selling his stake to his business partner. Now, Tristan is able to combine his firsthand experience in technology with his marketing expertise in order to help tech companies develop amazing visual content, position themselves as the choice in their industry, and ultimately, show the world their value. Tristan also co-hosts a B2B tech marketing podcast, Tech Qualified, where he interviews industry leaders to uncover what is working in the world of B2B technology marketing.

In this episode we cover:

A Podcast or Video Series to Get Better Consistent Results in your Content Creation Strategy

Establishing your Expectations Upfront and Baseline When Determining your Content Marketing ROI

Why to set The Audiovisual Channel as Your Main for a Solid Marketing Strategy

Should all SaaS Startups Launch a Podcast or Video Series?

How to Get the Most Out of Your Podcast Interviews and Guests

How to Ensure the Content you Produce Reach, Engages & Converts to the Right Audience, at Scale.

Establishing & Finding Credibility & Authority, Voicing the Content & Standing Out for the Audience's Attention

A Good Marketing Budget Balance (Organic & Paid)

Recommendations for a Content Creation Cadence and Publication Timing

Podcasts for B2Bs to Check Out

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Tristan:

Tristan's LinkedIn

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

In this episode, Arvind Jha joins us for a 1-on-1 interview on the SaaS District podcast.

Arvind is the director and co-founder at Pariksha Labs, a software consulting and development company working with global start-ups and SMEs.

He’s the founder of Partee Hai, a lead generation platform & marketplace for party services, and the founder of a cloud video startup, Movico, India's leading video asset management company.

Arvind has built and led large software R&D teams for major global players in delivering leading products. His speciality has been in conceptualizing innovative new products and building businesses from scratch. He now mentors tech startups in India. Finally, I’d describe him as a Startup Evangelist, Advisor, and Investor for over 10 companies, including an exit of a notable company, Signals. In our interview, Arvind shares his experience and views on the SaaS industry.

In this episode we cover:

-World’s current environment of the SaaS industry

-Strategies to plan around uncertainty

-Main challenges in the SaaS industry

-Focusing on a strategy to gain initial traction

-Growing your SaaS business pre and post investment

-Strategic partnerships

-Investment criteria/strategies

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Arvind:

Arvind's Linkedin

Arvind's Twitter

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Jesse Mecham is a founder, CEO, and Bestselling author of You Need a Budget, which is not only an award-winning software and proven budgeting tool but also an education company where they teach people a whole new way of thinking about their money so they make better financial decisions, get out of debt, and build the life they want.

In this episode we cover:

- Why Your SaaS StartUp Need a Budget

- From Personal Finance Spreadsheets to One of The Best Budgeting Tools

- The 4 Budgeting Rules ( Personal finance and Business Owners )

- Why solutions are squeezed out of scarcity

- Focusing the Product Usability and Intentionality as a Differential from Your Competitors

- The Importance of Making Better Hiring Decisions

- Why Never to Tell Your Users When to Expect a New Version

- Founders Affiliate and Partner To Early

- Jesse’s Investment tips.

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Links and mentions:

YNAB

Get in touch with Neil:

Jesse's LinkedIn

Jesse's Email

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Diego is an Entrepreneur, angel investor, SaaS expert, and the CEO of Rock Content. After studying advertising he met Victor - his co-founder. They were both avid blog readers which led them to start a blog about trends, technology, and the Internet.

Not long after that Diego Created EverWrite, which was an SEO platform that was reverse-engineered by Google to give brands intelligence when creating content. To demonstrate that the SEO hypotheses worked, they created a blog and Diego spent his days producing content on the most diverse topics.

Diego always wanted to undertake and build an impactful company in Brazil. With Diego's experience and network, that gave rise to Rock Content, one of the largest content marketing companies in LATAM.

Today, he and his 2 co-founders lead Rock Content, a team of more than 300 professional Rockers, produces content for 20 global companies in different languages and their revenue continues to grow at a fast pace. They’ve hit over $25 million in annual revenues and they have big plans for their next steps, which we’ll cover today.

In this episode we cover:

About RockContent, it’s Product & Trajectory

A Service Driven Creative Marketplace

The Talent Rating System that Ensures Quality & Growth

Why You Should Start Using Interactive Content in Your Marketing Strategy

Create Authority by Summarizing Articles through an Original Post

Super Specialized Niche Content VS Larger Audiences

How to Deploy Your Content Marketing To Max Long Term ROI

High-Quality Media VS High Volume Approach

Best Content Schedule (Length & Frequency)

Successful M&A Strategies & Market Expansion

Perspectives of the Future Entrepreneurial Scene in LATAM

Customer & Talent Differences Between Center, South & NorthAmerica

The Future of RockContent

Diego’s Favourite Thought Leaders To Check Out

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Diego:

Diego’s LinkedIn

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Liz Pearce is the CEO of Seattle-based Fresh Chalk, where they aim to build a faster and more efficient way to find highly-vetted professionals, everything from doctors to plumbers to landscapers to photographers online. The site allows users to create profiles and search through service providers to see which have been recommended by their friends. They can also offer their own recommendations across more than 500 categories. Fresh Chalk is taking on the giants of Facebook, Google, Yelp, and other giant platforms.

Liz holds a B.A. and M.A. from The George Washington University. Prior to starting Fresh Chalk, Liz was with LiquidPlanner for 11 years, starting as the company's marketing contractor and working her way up to COO in 2011 and ultimately to CEO in 2012. Before LiquidPlanner, she held marketing roles at Amazon, Google, and PlayStation and ran an independent marketing consulting business.

In this episode we cover:

- Lessons Learned Working on Amazon, Google & Sony

- How Hunger & Proactively Acquiring Responsibilities can get you a CEO Position

- Liz’s Best Management Practices

- FrshChalk Idea and Development

- Maximizers VS Satisfiers

- Raising 2M in VC Founding

- The Value on Connection & Recommendation

- Owners Reviewing other Owners

- Post-COVID Service acquisition trends

- Hiring higher quality Professionals and Freelancers

- Liz’s Approach to Challenges & Opportunities

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Liz:

Liz' LinkedIn

Links and mentions:

Freshchalk

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Eric is an accomplished AI Tech Entrepreneur and Advisor with more than 20 years of success in different verticals such as marketing, advertising, health and wellness, fashion, technology, and digital industries.

Eric’s broad areas of expertise include brand development, digital strategy, entrepreneurship, leadership, and growth. Most notably, Eric is the Co-Founder of Arcane, a digital marketing and advertising agency, where, under Eric’s leadership, Arcane grew from zero to $15M in just six years.

Currently, he holds equity positions in multiple rapidly-growing organizations and is focused on his current game-changing machine-learning and AI tech venture called Morphio.

Morphio is an AI-driven anomaly platform built for advanced marketers described as the first marketing security software, where it integrates your marketing data in one platform and delivers insights from landing page health, marketing & AI anomalies, segmentation, budget recommendations & many other marketing and analytics anomalies.

In this episode we cover:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:45 - From $0 in a Basement to $15M & a 4,000 sq ft Building
• 05:32 - Stepping Down as a Startup CEO & Building Morphio
• 08:17 - The decision to Raise $1M Seed Round in Canada
• 10:06 - “Spend the Money Like You Don’t Have It” & Other Growth Strategies
• 14:58 - Lessons From Tests & Growth Hacking With Morphio & Past Ventures
• 19:11 - What Makes Morphio a Different & Unique AI Marketing Tool
• 23:08 - How Morphio Ensures You Have Both Quantity & Quality of the Data Used for the Analytics
• 25:41 - How Marketers & Founders Should Consider Using AI In Their Plans or Budgets
• 27:58 - Full AI for the Future or Predictive+Human Decision making/judgement?
• 29:45 - The Future of Marketing for the Next CMOs
• 32:00 - The Rest of 2020 For Eric Vardon, A question For Rand Fishkin & Lessons from his Book

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Eric:

Eric’s LinkedIn Profile

Mentions:

John D’orsay

Jeff Epstein Episode

Nima Mirbakhsh

Rand Fishkin

Books:

Lost & Founder by Rand Fishkin

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Steve brings more than 20 years of startup, Fortune 500, and nonprofit experience to his role at Verblio. As the CEO, he applies leading gig economy and SaaS principles to provide a high-quality, fast, and flexible content creation platform.

Steve was part of the early management team at marketplace services pioneer LiveOps, growing the company into the largest virtual contact center in the world. At LiveOps, Steve served as vice president of business development and strategy, and also spearheaded the creation of the award-winning LiveOps Foundation.

Steve holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Business and his MA in history from Wesleyan University.

Outside the office, Steve is a Denver native and enjoys ultimate frisbee, hosting jazz concerts, history, telemark skiing, practicing Portuguese, and spending time with his two boys.

In this episode we cover:

• 02:40 - The Idea of Launching Verblio, a SaaS Content Marketplace in 2010
• 04:11 - Staying Bootstrapped & Hitting 50% Growth Year Over Year
• 08:19 -The “Blue Apron ” Strategy
• 13:05 - How to Manage Over 3,000 Content Creators & Fit the Talent to the Client Needs
• 20:18 - Should You Invest Your Market Budget on Written Content?
• 29:07 - How to Leverage Video on Your Content Marketing Strategy
• 31:48 - Why You Should be Using An Content Marketing Agency
• 34:35 - Cut Back Your Marketing Budget or Adopt a More Aggressive Strategy in The Still Ongoing COVID Crisis.

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Steve:

Steve’s Linkedin

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Bree Brouwer is a specialist in the B2B SaaS and online video industries. She has created blog posts that landed on the #1 and #2 spots in Google search for their respective keywords, re-written home page copy which increased product downloads by more than 64.5% and written blog posts that generated $40K in extra revenue.

Bree has a Bachelor’s degree in English Writing.

Bree’s professional experience includes being a Staff Writer and Digital Media Journalist at Tubefilter, a Freelance Copywriter at Tubebuddy, a Public relations consultant at Unreel Entertainment, An Online Video and Digital Media Contributor at Forbes, an Online video Columnist at EContent Magazine, a Blogger and Content Marketing Writer for Asset Panda, a Freelance Public Relations Consultant at Unscreen, and B2B Content Marketing Consultant and Writer for video and tech brands at Brouwer Power Media LLC.

Most recently, Bree was a Content Marketing Writer at Tubular Labs, and now she is the Editor-In-Chief of Tubular Insights. Tubular Labs is the leading global video measurement and analytics platform that powers broadcasters, publishers, and brands to create successful content and scale audiences faster.

In this episode we cover:

- When contenting marketing becomes important for a B2B SaaS company in their growth journey

- Effective strategies and what you need to get started to if you’re a founder or marketer looking to use video marketing to real drive ROI

- The blog post you wrote that helped drive $40k in revenue and why was it so successful

- Habits, tools and proven strategies to overcome writer's block and produce high quality content

- Using pillar content as a strategy to distribute to many channels as a SaaS company

- Providing a great experience to your audience and stand apart to get the Wow factor

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Bree:

Bree’s Twitter

Bree’s LinkedIn

Bree’s Website

Links and mentions:

Tubular Labs

Bree’s Bio

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn

The Chapman Brothers are the Co-Founders of SocialChaps, a Marketing Agency described as a no-nonsense B2B agency focused on growing pioneering businesses by understanding them and working towards their goals.

Elliot and his brother Dom, after years of searching for a good marketing agency in the B2B space they decided to roll up their sleeves and founded SocialChaps, after 3 successful years of growth they decided that the systems & processes they put into place are replicable across all types of B2B businesses, which we will discuss today.

In this episode we cover:

- Searching for a Marketing Solution, not Finding it & Building it yourself

- Methodologies, Analytics, Software Tools, & Growth Marketing Tactics for B2B Startups

- How SocialChaps Work With Founders to Ensure they’re Actually Ready to Scale

- Main Scalable Channels

- Dealing With Leads, Sales & Business Growth on Hyper-growth

- Marketing Priorities While on Hyper-Growth VS Normal Growth

- Step By Step to Generate leads

- Is There Still Value on Podcasting?

- Benefits & Challenges When Building & Operating an International Team

- Tools For Remote & Modern Workflows

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with The Chapman Brothers:

Elliot's LinkedIn

Dom's LinkedIn

Socialchaps Website

More About Akeel:

Twitter

LinkedIn