The world of wealth management is always changing especially for the millennials that now want innovative investment solutions that meet their needs and preferences. The baby boomers like sitting down with their financial advisors on a quarterly basis to review their investment strategy and portfolio bt today's younger investors want access to technology and software that can help them manage their money easier and more effectively with lower fees and all of this from the comfort of their home with just a few clicks on their computer or smartphone. Wealthfront is the largest and fastest growing automated investment service, with over $6 billion in assets under management. The company was started in 2011, is based in the Bay Area, has 140 employees and has raised $129 million from investors. 

In this interview I spoke with Andy Rachleff, co-founder of Wealthfront about the changing landscape of wealth management, where did the idea for Wealthfront come from, what were the many things that needed to happen to get this company off the ground, how did he meet his co-founder, who did they start hiring to help build the platform, when did they raise their first round of capital, what's it like going from VC to Entrepreneur, how quickly has Wealthfront been growing, how are they acquiring their customers, who are their customers, how does the Wealthfront service work, how often does the investment strategy change and who makes those decisions, what's the key to building a great 140-person team, what have been the biggest business challenges over the past 6+ years, is there anything he'd do differently while growing Wealthfront and much more. 

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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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

The global tea industry is probably much larger than most people realize (including me). After doing some research it appears to be in the range of $40 billion annually but unlike the coffee industry there are not many well-known brands dominating this massive market. Teforia wants to change that. Teforia is creating a new tea experience for tea drinkers which includes their beautiful brewing system along with dozens of different tea leaf blends. Owners of these systems can source their tea from other companies but Teforia has found that the majority of their consumers are very loyal to their product due to the consistency of their high-quality whole leaves. Teforia is based in Silicon Valley, has raised $17 million from investors and currently has 16 employees. 

Save 25% at Teforia.com with the discount code "StartupSense" 

In this interview I spoke with Allen Han, founder of Teforia about his love to tea and how it motivated him to start Teforia, why does the tea industry provide such a huge business opportunity, how did he build a world class team of engineers and product designers, how did he source the manufacturing parts of the business, how long did it take to go from idea or prototype, how many prototypes did they need before having the final go-to-market product, how long did the company bootstrap, when did they raise their first round of capital and how much progress has they shown, besides their website where else can you buy a Teforia brewing system, how did they build relationships with their retail partners, are they selling internationally yet, what is their current marketing strategy, what have been the biggest challenges and lessons learned, why is tea better for you than coffee, and much more. 

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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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

When you talk to Jeremy Haynes it's obvious that he is extremely passionate about what he does which is one of the key reasons as to why he's building a successful digital agency. Before starting Megalodon Marketing he did marketing for Grant Cardone who is renowned for his sales training programs and workshops. Jeremy and Megalodon have capitalized on the desire of influencers, entrepreneurs and celebrities that want to grow their personal brands, expand their social reach, better engage with their audience and create new income streams. Megalodon is based in Miami and Los Angels, is approaching 20 employees and has been bootstrapped by Jeremy since the beginning which dates back to early 2016. 

In this interview I spoke with Jeremy about his motivation behind starting Megalodon, with all the digital agencies out there what makes his different, what valuable lessons and skills did he learn by working with Grant Cardone, what types of clients do they work with, how do they find their clients, what level of results can their clients expect to see, what does their client audit consist of, what is the purpose of reverse engineering your goals, what tips does he have for the average person that want to grow their personal brand, what type of background does someone need before they can be considered credible, what drives him as an entrepreneur, why does he love helping people so much, what productivity hacks has he figured out, how does he manage stress and his busy life, what is he the most proud of since starting Megalodon, and much more. 

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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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

As you probably know by now the Startup Sense Podcast loves interviewing the founders of innovative companies disrupting massive industries and today's guest is no different. Heal provides on-demand healthcare services which means they bring a great doctor to your home or office, on your schedule, when you need it. Heal is currently operating throughout California and recently launched in the Washington DC which aggressive expansion plans on the horizon. We all know that healthcare is a massive, inefficient, slow moving industry but thankfully companies like Heal are bringing new innovations and new business models while providing services that consumers love. Heal went live in 2015, has raised more than $51 million from a host of top notch investors and is quickly approaching 100 employees. 

In this interview I spoke with Nick Desai, co-founder of Heal about his motivation behind starting the company, what was he doing prior to Heal, how did he find his co-founders (spoiler: one of of them is his wife), what problem is Heal solving, how big is their addressable market, what are the problems with the existing (outdated) system, how inefficient is healthcare, how did Heal attract their early investors (including Lionel Richie), how much regulation did they need to get through, how long did it take to develop partnerships with the major insurance companies, how did they acquire their first 100 customers and what is their marketing strategy today, why did they chose Washington DC as their first expansion market outside of California, what is their recruiting strategy (especially with doctors), what have been the biggest challenges, how did his previous 3 companies prepare him for Heal and much more. 

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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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

Ori has spent the bulk of his life in the biggest real estate market in the world, New York City. NYC is unlike any other market, from the millions of people to the thousands of buildings, the opportunities in luxury sales and rentals is endless. Several years ago Ori came to realize through personal experience that the process of finding luxury apartment rentals was broken. The majority of sites were using old pictures, misleading content, inaccurate prices and all kinds of sketchy marketing techniques that were unfair to consumers. So he started Loftey which helps you find your next great apartment while saving you time, money and stress. Loftey was originally bootstrapped by Ori then raised a small friends and family round. He has 2 co-founders, 18 employees and of course the company is based in NYC.  

In this interview I spoke with Ori about his motivation behind starting Loftey, why he believed there was an opportunity in the NYC real estate market, what was the existing pain point for consumers (especially in rentals), how are they growing and marketing their services, how does Loftey make money, what's been his hiring strategy for new team members, how does Loftey retain their best people, how much of their business is rentals vs sales, what have been the biggest challenges, what have been the lessons learned, what are the company's expansion plans, what advice does he have for other founders and much more. 

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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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

The logistics industry is mindblowingly large with several national companies dominating however the team at Sudu wants to change that. Their service gives smaller shipping companies an opportunity to compete for larger contracts they would normally not have. Sudu matches the shippers and carriers based on many factors such as availability, load type/size and route optimization. Sudu also works with many minority owned carriers and helped start the National Minority Transportation Consortium. Sudu is an 11 person team, has raised $1.1 million, went through the ATDC Accelerator and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

In this interview I spoke with Amari Ruff, co-founder of Sudu about his previous business experience and how it led him to start Sudu, what does Sudu actually do, how does their service work, how did they land clients like Walmart and Shaw Floors, how are they acquiring their users, how long did it take to build out their platform, how does Sudu make money, what is the Atlanta startup scene like, how did the ATDC accelerator help Sudu in the beginning, what was the fundraising strategy, what is their recruiting strategy, who are some of his target clients, and much more. 

----------

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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

I really wish something like Kudzoo had existed when I was in school because it would have added some extra motivation to studying harder, attending classes more frequently and getting better grades. Kudzoo is a free mobile app that rewards high school and college students with deals, giveaways, scholarship opportunities, concert tickets and other rewards. Kudzoo has more than 1 million users (80% high school) and has started partnering with brands that want exposure to Gen Z (people born after 1995) which is in the tens of millions of students. Kudzoo is free for students but they also offer an enterprise version for schools that want to customize the content. Kudzoo is based in NYC and has raised $1.6 million already with another $1.5 million round in the works.

In this interview I spoke with Logan Cohen, co-founder of Kudzoo about her motivation behind starting the company, where the idea came from, what exactly does Kudzoo do, who is using it, how are they growing their active user base, what marketing tactics have worked the best, what was she doing before starting Kudzoo, how long was the company bootstrapped, when did they raise their first round of capital, who built the first version of the Kudzoo mobile apps, how long did it take to launch the product, what have been the biggest challenges, did the team make any mistakes, how are they leveraging PR and influencers, what type of brands are they partnering with and much more. 

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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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

If you're a developer or a marketer than you've probably heard of SendGrid because they're one of the biggest customer engagement platforms. They were one of the first companies to provide transactional email services enabling them to land customers like Uber, Airbnb, Spotify and Yelp. They have since added other email services which puts them in direct competition with Mailchimp, Aweber and others. SendGrid has been around since 2009 when they were one of the first companies to go through the TechStars accelerator in Boulder, Colorado. The company has raised $80 million from investors, has 380 employees, have made 2 acquisitions and currently operate offices in Denver, Los Angeles, London and the Bay Area.

In this interview I spoke with CEO Sameer Dholakia about joining the company 3 years ago to be the new CEO, what was his prior business experience and why did he think SendGrid would be a good fit, what has fueled SendGrid's growth over the past 5+ years, why did they start out by targeting developers, how did they land some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies, when and why did they roll out traditional email marketing services, how did their sales strategy need to change, how important is culture at SendGrid, what is their overall recruiting strategy, why did they open up a London office, what have been the biggest challenges since taking over the CEO role, what does he think of TechStars, what's his favorite thing about working with VC's and much more. 

---------

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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

There's a saying in the capital finance industry that goes something like "the only companies that qualify for financing are the ones that don't need it" and it's not much different in the franchise financing world because certain requirements and qualifications must still be met however the team at Apple Pie Capital is becoming a leader in this market. They current work with more than 60 brands and their franchisees to provide alternative financing options from $200,000 to $2 million. To this into perspective the annual capital demands for franchise financing is greater than $30 billion so clearly this a massive opportunity. Apple Pie Capital spends the time and resources needed to build strong relationships with the brands to help them better grasp the risks, the upside, the unit economics, the challenges, the marketing strategy, the best locations and everything else that goes into business planning for franchisees. Apple Pie continues to service all loans they make however they do sell some of them off to hedge funds, private family offices, banks, high net worth investors and other alternative lending companies. Apple Pie is headquartered in San Francisco, has 42 employees and has raised $26 million from investors.  

In this interview I spoke with Denise about her motivation behind starting Apple Pie Capital, what does the company do, what types of brands do they work with, what industries are they focused on, where did the company name came from, what is her prior business experience that led to the formation of this company, when and why did they raise their first round of outside capital, what was their fundraising strategy for the additional rounds, what makes them different than more traditional lenders like the big banks, what have been the biggest challenges over the last 3 years, are their any mistakes or missteps she can tell us about, what is she the most proud of, what has been her hiring strategy, why did she hire one of her kids to work for the company, what advice does she have for someone starting a franchise and much more. 

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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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits. 

Andrew Weinreich is a prolific serial entrepreneur with a 20 year track record of starting, building and selling companies. In the mid 90's Andrew gave up his career as a lawyer and launched the very first social network called SixDegrees. 5 years later he sold that company to YouthStream and stayed on to help with the transition. He then jumped into his next startup called Voltage which was determined to create wifi hotspots for public spaces. Unfortunately that company didn't lead to a successful exit like his first venture. Determined to innovate new industries he then started I Stand For to help politicians with online donations, then Xtify (sold to IBM) which offered location based services, then MeetMoi (sold to Match.com) which was the first location based dating app and finally his most recent company Indicative which does predictive analytics. Andrew also runs a startup bootcamp in NYC and a podcast called Predicting Our Future. 

In this interview I spoke with Andrew about his 20 year startup career, what each company did and what he learned along the way, which startup provided the most challenges, does he have any regrets about how things turned out, any failures he can share with us, what advice does he have for other founders, why is it important to understand every facet of your business but hire smarter people, what are the critical components of building a successful company, what is his bootcamp all about, how long is it, what do they teach, what types of companies/founders are coming, what is his podcast about, why does he host it, which industries does he believe still have the biggest opportunity for disruption and much more. 

----------

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. 

Jool helps entrepreneurs and founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

Jool helps clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

Jool puts clients in the best position to raise capital, hire employees, grow revenues and maximize profits.