Want to wow your customers, your newest hire, or even your family member? Alex Kurkowski's company Tellinga lets you share a mini-story via custom comic-book style greeting cards you can send anywhere around the world. Think of it like a handwritten note on steroids. He joins me for a lightning chat in this week's #HYPEsession to share the goods. Alex shares:

• How you can use Tellinga to make a great impression on your desired stakeholder.
• Why standing out is of the utmost importance in today's overflooded communication ecoysystem.
• Tellinga's G2M strategy.
• How you can send your first Tellinga today.

Enjoy, and remember, #HYPEsessions are available here, and simulcast in video format on Linkedin at linkedin.com/in/rajivnathan and IGTV @startuphypeman!

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Regardless of your industry, product, or target market, at the end of the day you should be in the business of PEOPLE. That means even though you have projections and numbers you want to hit, you keep the human element at the forefront at all times. I first met aSweatLife CEO Jeana Anderson Cohen back in 2015 and I could sense immediately this was her mantra. In the time since, the media company has grown its presence to a national following, with big name partners like Michelob Ultra, and over 100k monthly unique website visitors. Jeana's people-first sales approach has been at the forefront of this growth, and we do some sweat-tastic reps on the topic in this week's episode.

Find aSweatlife and Jeana online at:

Twitter and IG @asweatlife | @jeanaandersoncohen

Today's episode is brought to you by Sales Hacker. The world's smartest community of forward-thinking B2B professionals. Grab their latest expert-created articles, webinars, and podcast episodes at www.saleshacker.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As marketplace startups become more and more popular, the strategy to capture the market becomes increasingly important, AND nuanced.

After raising a $400k angel round to begin 2019, Melbourne-based wellbeing marketplace Avaana focused the year on owning the B2B side first -- to the tune of over 1,200 practitioners now onboard.

Avaana is a Startup Hypeman client and in my conversation with Rohan, we talk through how they've successfully formed their footprint on one side of the market. It's a great conversation exploring how and why they underpromise, how their mission dictates who they target, and why Rohan believes the most overlooked but impactful element is TRUST.

Find Rohan and Avaana online:

IG@avaanawellbeing

www.avaana.com.au

Plus, this week on Startup Open Mic: Goodfynd.

Today's episode is brought to you by Sales Hacker. The world's smartest community of forward-thinking B2B professionals. Grab their latest expert-created articles, webinars, and podcast episodes at www.saleshacker.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to increase your trial-to-paid conversions?Aaron Krall has become a LEGEND in this game and he steps up to the mic for a lightning chat with me in my newest #HYPEsession!Aaron shares:

• Where most SaaS's experience user dropoff
• Capturing the Moment of First Value
• How he's building a community of thousands around this topic

Enjoy, and remember, #HYPEsessions are available here, and simulcast in video format on Linkedin at linkedin.com/in/rajivnathan and IGTV @startuphypeman!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Take a look at your potential customers. Now look again. Are you really looking at the total available market, or have you fixated on one subset that has the biggest names but is the hardest to reach? Sometimes your best customers are the ones you're not paying attention to. This week on the show I welcome Startup Hypeman client, and my friend, FanFood CEO Carson Goodale. FanFood combines concession food with sports games. Immediately you might think NBA, MLB, etc. And that's exactly what FanFood did at first. But they say that meant multiple decision-makers, extremely long sales cycles, and essentially one shot to get it right. So instead, they changed their strategy to a bottom-up approach, and it's led to 75 customers, $3.5 million raised, and now a team of 25 employees.

Find Carson and FanFood online:

Twitter and IG @fanfoodapp

www.fanfoodapp.com

Today's episode is brought to you by Sales Hacker. The world's smartest community of forward-thinking B2B professionals. Grab their latest expert-created articles, webinars, and podcast episodes at www.saleshacker.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey startups -- want to pitch the Chicago Bulls??

In my latest #HYPEsession I sit down with Navin Goyal, MD, Cofounder & CEO of LOUD Capital.

They recently partnered with the Bulls to launch the first ever Chicago Bulls Venture Pitch Competition where the winning company takes home a $50k investment from LOUD!

Application deadline is December 16th. Tune in to today's #HYPEsession for full details, plus:

• Hear how LOUD believes in making an impact with its dollars.
• Learn their investment philosophy.
• And hear Navin's non-traditional path to VC.

LOUD Capital is one of my favorite investment groups, and I think you're gonna see why right here.

#HYPEsessions are provided to you here in audio format through our podcast feed, but also simulcast with video on my personal Linkedin (linkedin.com/in/rajivnathan) and IGTV via the @startuphypeman account.

If you're a partner of the startup ecosystem and want to be featured in a future #HYPEsession, email [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a sales-minded founder myself, a part of me cringes when I talk to other entrepreneurs who consistently avoid getting in front of customers themselves in favor of their other responsibilities. That's why I was excited to welcome PJ Taei, Founder & CEO of the VOD platform Uscreen on today's episode. Uscreen has 30 employees, has never raised outside capital, and amassed over 1,000 paying customers and thousands more users, including Wanderlust, Yoga With Adrienne, BBC, and Time Warner Media. PJ started off running the entire sales process, and over time delegated out. But he still steps in to help close certain deals, and it has a big impact on the customer. PJ and I have an energetic conversation on the topic that I'm excited to share with you.

Find Uscreen and PJ online:

Twitter and IG @uscreentv

www.uscreen.tv

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You've seen the videos, read the blog posts, and heard all the buzz about Y-Combinator.

But what's it really like to get into a YC cohort and go through the program yourself?

In today's podcast I chat with Shruti Kapoor, Cofounder & CEO of Wingman who shares her firsthand experience at the hailed Silicon Valley accelerator. Hear the big lessons and takeaways she learned, the changes her company made during the program, the mindset it takes to go through YC, and other 'behind-the-scenes' tidbits you'd only get from someone who's been through it themselves.

Find Shruti and Wingman online:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrutikapoor/

Twitter: @me_nder

Website: www.trywingman.com

And head to https://www.startuphypeman.com/articles/surviving-y-combinator-with-wingman-cofounder-shruti-kapoor for a blog post where Shruti expands further on the topic.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our second #HYPEsession features BJ Lackland, CEO of Lighter Capital. Lighter Capital is the most active revenue-based financing provider in the United States. In this chat BJ shares:

• What exactly is revenue-based financing and when does it make sense versus traditional VC or angel money, or bootstrapping.
• A look into Lighter's existing portfolio and the amount of funding they typically provide.
• What type of companies make the most sense with Lighter Capital's model.

#HYPEsessions are provided to you here in audio format through our podcast feed, but also simulcast with video on my personal Linkedin (linkedin.com/in/rajivnathan) and IGTV via the @startuphypeman account.

If you're a partner of the startup ecosystem and want to be featured in a future #HYPEsession, email [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

700 customers, including Hubspot, Linkedin, and PayPal. $68.1 million in funding. 200+ employees. Next-level brand awareness. Category leader.

Do you think all that happens just from direct selling? Think again.

Gong has produced, in my opinion, the BEST content in the game. And it's reflecting in those numbers you see above (and oh yeah, nearly all of their content itself gets hundreds and thousands of views, likes, and comments). I've been a huge fan of Gong for the last year so I was really excited to get their Content Strategy Manager, Devin Reed, on for this episode. Devin started as Gong's second sales hire and achieved $1 million in sales before transitioning to content. How have they dominated with their content? Devin lets us inside the Gong war room and shares their creative process.

We also talk hip hop, can you guess Devin's favorite rapper of all time?

Find Gong online:

IG @Gong.io

Twitter @Gong_io

Find Devin @thereederco

And head to https://www.startuphypeman.com/articles/devin-reed-podcast for a blog post where Devin expands further on the topic.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.