Startup Sense Podcast

Rob LoCascio is one of our more successful entrepreneurs on the podcast because he's already taken his company LivePerson public but more interestingly is that he did it back in 2000 at the peak of the dot-com bubble. Rob was the solo-founder of LivePerson which is the world's largest messaging platform for some of the biggest brands and companies we know and love such as Microsoft, IBM, Intuit, Adobe, Ted Baker, Virgin Atlantic, United Way and hundreds more. LivePerson raised $40 million from their IPO and at the time Rob still owned 20% of the company (he still owns 10% today). LivePerson has 1,100 employees spread across 12 global offices and now gets 50% of their revenue from outside the U.S. LivePerson currently has a market cap of $775 million.

In this interview I had a great time chatting with Rob about his journey of taking LivePerson from startup to IPO to now being a public company for 17 years. I asked him what it's like to be a public company CEO, what does LivePerson do, who are their clients, how are clients leverage their products and services, how has LivePerson adapted to new technologies over time, how hard was it getting through the dot-com bubble (early 2000's), why do they have so many global offices, what are the difficulties growing a global company and managing so many people/offices, what are some of his favorite customer success stories, how do they typically acquire their biggest customers, how long is the sales cycle, what have been the biggest challenges for him and the company over the past 20 years, what are some of his favorite memories and milestones, how do you recruit great people, how much do you invest back into product innovation and much more. 

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.

Nearly 70% of American's take at least one prescription drug and millions more take daily vitamins and supplements. One of the problems is that everyday millions of people forget to take those pills which can lead to devastating health issues including death in the most severe cases. Pillsy is a smart pill bottle that automatically tracks your required doses and sends intelligent reminders when you forget. Whether you need to take certain pills in the morning, afternoon or evening...Pillsy has you covered. Pillsy was started in 2014 but didn't start shipping product until 2016. The company has 5 full-time employees and has raised $500,000 from some angel investors including 500 startups.    In this interview I spoke with Jeff LeBrun, co-founder of Pillsy about why he started this company, what was his motivation, how big is this market, how are they selling the product, are they going into retail, how are they acquiring users, what is their marketing strategy, why did product development take 2 years, when did they raise their seed funding, what was that money used for, are they going to raise additional capital, what have been the biggest challenges, what have been the lessons learned, will their smart pill bottles be covered by insurance someday, how did they determine the right selling price, was it hard to setup the manufacturing process and much more.    ----------   Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing AJ Gerritson and this episode was particularly special because I've known him for almost 10 years. That's given me a back row seat in watching him grow this company into a 90-person, $20 million agency juggernaut. Agency 451 is a fully vertically integrated agency offering services such as branding, digital marketing, media buying, PR, social media, video production and almost anything else that helps a company launch new products, expand their brands and grow their revenues. Agency 451 is based in Boston with satellite offices in NYC and LA. The team is currently at 90 people and growing rapidly considering they were at just 30 people in 2012. 

In this interview I spoke with AJ about his 13 year journey in building Agency 451, why did he start the company, what did the company look like in 2004, what types of clients were they working with, what started to fuel their growth, how long did it take to get to $1 million in annual revenues, how big are they today, how much media buying do they do, how has marketing changed over the past 13 years, how do they stay ahead of the competition, what's the secret for recruiting great people, how do they find their biggest clients, what's one client they've been able to help the most over the past few years, what's it like building a company in Boston, what does it take to build an amazing company, what were some of the biggest challenges over the past 13 years, what have been some of his best decisions, what's his favorite thing about being an entrepreneur and much more.

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.

The world is moving to better, cheaper and more efficient energy equipment but when it comes to upgrades and replacements Sparkfund is introducing a new financing model. SparkFund is a financial technology company that let's businesses pay over time for new energy efficient products and services. The company is based in Washington DC, has raised $20 million from investors and has 42 employees (25% working outside of their main office).

In this interview I spoke with Nikko about this new financing model through Sparkfund, where the idea came from, when did the founding team begin working on it, when and why did they raise their first round of capital, when did they launch their service, what types of businesses/industries do they work with, how did they acquire their early customers, what have been the biggest challenges, what have been the biggest mistakes, why are they down to 2 founders, what's the value of a good board of directors, how are the investors adding value, why is the company based in Washington DC, what's his favorite thing about being an entrepreneur, what advice can he share with other founders and much more.

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 Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.

    All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.

A couple months ago I took delivery of the Autonomous SmartDesk and it was love at first sight. This desk is amazing. Not only does it come in variety of colors and designs but they start at just $299. The coolest thing about this desk is that it's motorized so with the push of a button I can drop down to 24" or move up to 51" which makes it the perfect sit/stand desk. Research shows that standing throughout the day is beneficial to your body and your productivity. After using the desk for a few days I was so impressed that I reached out to Autonomous and offered to interview the founder, thankfully he accepted my invitation. Autonomous is the creator, manufacturer and distributor for unique, ergonomic office furniture including desks, chairs, stools and robots. Autonomous was started in 2014 but didn't begin shipping product until 2015. The company is based in NYC, raised a small seed round of capital and has 50 employees distributed across 5 global offices. 

In this interview I spoke with Duy about why he started Autonomous, what motivated him, how did he first get started, what were the biggest challenges, were they really developing their own products, how was the company funded, where did he find his first employees, how complicated are the global logistics of shipping these products, how much money are they spending annually on product development, what is their customer acquisition strategy, how much do they spend on marketing, do they sell through retail yet, have they tried selling on Amazon, what mistakes has he made over the last few years, what is he most proud of, why does he like being an entrepreneur, what advice does he have for other founders and much more. 

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.  

Connor Gillivan has a wealth of entrepreneurial experience especially when it comes to ecommerce and building a successful drop-ship business. He started his first company in college and grew it to more than $20 million in total sales, almost exclusively through Amazon. At one point they were selling hundreds of thousands of different items through Amazon and using thousands of different drop-shippers. But over the past couple years he was scaled back that business to focus more on his new company FreeeUp.com which helps individuals and companies hire the top 1% of online freelancers. FreeeUp recruits and vets their marketplace of freelancers to ensure they all meet a certain level of experience, skills and professionalism. FreeeUp is currently bootstrapped but has thought about raising capital, they're based in Orlando, FL and work with 700+ freelancers in many different categories from graphic design to customer service to digital marketing to virtual assistant.

Click here to order Connor's book called "Free Up Your Business: 50 Secrets to Bootstrap Million Dollar Companies"

 

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.

Raise your hand if you like doing laundry. I'm going to assume not many of you raised you hands. What about this scenario: you live in a big city and don't have a washer/dryer in your residence so twice a week you have to trek down to the laundromat, spend 2-3 hours doing your laundry, then trek back home, possibly in bad weather. Ugh, that sounds miserable!! Well, Cleanly is your solution to this epic time-wasting problem because they pick up your laundry, wash it, press it (if needed) and return it within 24 hours. They are currently operating in NYC and Washington DC with expansion plans for later this year into San Francisco. Cleanly has raised $9 million from investors including Joe Montana (the NFL Hall of Fame QB). The company first launched during Y-combinator in early 2015 and currently has 20 employees but hiring aggressively.

Use "StartupSense" at Cleanly.com to receive $20 in free credits. 

In this interview I spoke with Tom Harari, co-founder of Cleanly about why he started this company, what was the motivation, how big is this laundry problem in big cities, what is their business model, how did they setup operations and logistics, how much does their service cost, what does the rush delivery mean, why did they start in NYC, why was Washington DC their second market, when did they start raising capital, how did they get Joe Montana involved, what value do their investors add to the company, how does he think about recruiting, how are they acquiring new customer, how important is customer referrals, what have been the biggest challenges, and much more.

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.  

 

   

Hyperbiotics is a company that most of us have not heard about. They have not raised tons of VC money and they're not part of the sexy on-demand economy but what they have done is create a product that's helping millions of people all while selling more than $20 million of their probiotics. Jamie and her husband started the company a few years after having a personal health scare that caused her doctor to recommend probiotics. After doing some research Jamie felt there was nothing on the market that met her level of expectations so she created her own. Fast forward 3 years and Hyperbiotics has sold more than 1 million bottles of probiotics, a big portion of which are happening on Amazon. Jamie and her husband are currently running the company from Spain, they have manufacturing in Nevada and 35 employees distributed around the world. 

In this interview I spoke with Jamie about her health scare and why it motivated her to start the company, how are her products different and better than their competitors, what exactly a probiotic and why should we be taking them, how have they grown the company so fast, when did Amazon become such a critical part of their growth story, what are some tips for selling millions of dollars worth of product on Amazon, what are the pros and cons of running a distributed team, why have they remained self-funded, would they ever entertain an investment or a buyout, what new products have they introduced over the past few years, what is their overall marketing strategy, how much time and money do they spend on content and much more. 

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.  

Every good sales person understands that it's all about building relationships with your customers and prospects. After a previous successful exit the founders of Nudge came together again to build a new sales platform to help sales people find and create stronger relationships with the people that matter. Nudge connects to your email, your calendar and your social media to provide alerts and analytics for your network. Nudge has a free product to help you get started, that also gives you access to the mobile app and chrome extension, then you can upgrade to the $30 per month paid version when needed. As a lifelong sales person I understand the value of services like Nudge so I'd recommend you check it out. Nudge is based in Toronto, has raised $7.5 million and currently has 22 people on their team. 

In this interview I spoke with Paul Teshima, founder of Nudge.ai about his motivation behind starting Nudge, what does Nudge do, how is it different from other relationship management software, who is their target customer, how has Nudge been acquiring their customers, how did he find his co-founder, what is his previous business experience (spoiler: he built Eloqua from startup to IPO to $957 million acquisition by Oracle), how does the free product compare to the paid product, what have been the biggest challenges with building Nudge, how did his experience building Eloqua better prepare him to build this new company, what are the pros and cons of doing startups in Toronto, how important is recruiting, and much more. 

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.

Today was one of my favorite all-time interviews...not only because Scrub Daddy is an amazing product loved by millions or that Scrub Daddy is the most successful Shark Tank company ever or that Aaron Krause seems like one of the nicest guys in the business world...but because Aaron and his kickass team have grown Scrub Daddy from a 1-person company out of of his home into a 65-person company with 70,000 square feet of manufacturing/warehouse space and more than $100 million in sales. Perhaps the most remarkable part is that Aaron and his team (including Lori Greiner) have accomplished all of this in just 4.5 years. Most of you remember Scrub Daddy from Season 4 of Shark Tank (watch the pitch here) where Aaron closed a deal with Lori at $200,000 for 20% equity. Since then the growth at Scrub Daddy has been like a rocket ship, fueled by distribution at tens of thousands of retail stores across the world and more than 200 appearances on QVC. 

In this interview with Aaron Krause, founder of Scrub Daddy we covered a ton of topics such as why and when did Scrub Daddy get started, where did the idea come from, how did he first get onto QVC, was his first appearance a successful one, when did he apply for Shark Tank, what was the vetting process like, what was his reaction when he found out he'd be on the show, how has Shark Tank changed his life and helped build Scrub Daddy, what is it like working with Lori, how have you grown distribution so quickly, how important has QVC been to the Scrub Daddy story, why are you building the company in a suburb of Philadelphia, who are you hiring, where are you finding them, why is it so important to keep developing new products, what have been the biggest challenges over the past 5+ years, what lessons have you learned, how important was your previous manufacturing experience, what advice would you like to share with other entrepreneurs, and much more. 

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.   All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net   You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]   Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard.   Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services.   SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.