Online voting will probably never move online because the risk for fraud is just too high but that shouldn't stop municipalities and political groups from using software to organize and streamline their operations. With all the complexities of elections, EasyVote has a platform for managing inventory, people,, finances, schedules and much more. With hundreds of districts across the country using EasyVote, they have clearly proven that their platform is far superior to the old way of managing these things which relied on word docs, spreadsheets and emails. EasyVote is a solution that saves time and money while increasing accuracy and accountability. EasyVote is based in Atlanta, Georgia with approx 15 employees (distributed around the country) and they've raised $2 million from a couple Angel Investors (with plans to raise more money soon). 

In this interview I spoke with Charles Davis, co-founder of EasyVote about his motivation behind starting this company, why does EasyVote actually do, how is the company funded, how hard is it to deal with the government, why are they slow to adopt new technologies, what is the pricing for EasyVote, what is their sales process, how long does it take to close these deals, how big is the market opportunity for EasyVote, what have been the biggest challenges, what's one thing he wish he knew before starting EasyVote 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. 

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 people at Kinsa are determined to build a globally impactful healthcare company that is literally mapping human health, diseases, outbreaks and more. Through their "connected, smart thermometer" and a couple other products more than 1 million people are benefiting from their new technologies. The company is also using their anonymous data to help schools, cities and companies better understand the health of their students, residents and employees. Kinsa is based in San Francisco, has 30 employees and has raised $29 million from amazing investors like Founder Collective, IA Ventures, FirstMark and Kleiner Perkins.

In this interview I chatted with Inder Singh, solo-founder of Kinsa Health about his motivation behind starting this company, what did his career look like before Kinsa, why is human health mapping such a huge market opportunity, what have been the biggest challenges, how do they handle the manufacturing, where are their products sold, what is the price point, have they started expanding internationally, how long did it take them to get through product development and the necessary regulations, where does he see Kinsa in 3 years 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. 

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.

Entrepreneurs, founders and CEO's have a variety of platforms and software products to help them with marketing, hiring, financials and just about every other aspect of running a company but there's no platform to help CEO's be better CEO's. That is until Joel Trammell launched Khorus in 2012. Khorus is an innovative enterprise platform built to give leaders a simpler, better way to align teams and execute strategies. Khorus offers a single system for driving results across the whole organization. Khorus has 15 employees, has raised $6.6 million (much of which came directly from Joel) and is based in Austin, Texas.

In this interview I spoke with Joel about his previous ventures leading up to Khorus and why he saw a huge opportunity to built out a platform for CEO's, what exactly does the platform do for CEO's, how do they find their customers, what does the sales process look like, what have been the biggest surprises and biggest challenges over the past 5 years, what is the startup scene in Austin like, is he able to find the right talent, what does he look for in a sales person, what advice can he share for other entrepreneurs building a B2B software platform 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. 

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.

Companies and brands are always trying to get to know their customers better as well as figure out what the market is looking for so they can develop new products and services. However if company's reach out to their customers directly they will most likely get biased results so they hire a company like Survata to help them out. Survata constructs and carries out large consumer and market research surveys. They work with a long list of Fortune 100 companies. Survata has raised $7.7 million from investors, has 25 employees, is based in San Francisco and is hiring.  

In this interview I spoke with Chris about his motivation and vision behind Survata, what was he doing before starting this company and why is this opportunity so large, how are they finding clients, what does the sales process look like, what is the pricing model, how does their service work, how do they find the right consumers to answer the surveys, what publishers do they work with and what is their incentive, what have been the biggest challenges, what have been the best lessons learned, what was their fundraising strategy, what does the future look like for Survata 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. 

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.

Today's guest is a perfect reminder that the American Dream is still going strong. In Season 4 of Shark Tank, Tracey Noonan and her daughter Danielle (from Wicked Good Cupcakes) wowed the sharks with their cupcakes in a jar. After some negotiating the ladies finally did a deal with Mr. Wonderful who offered them $75,000 for no equity but instead $1 for every jar sold until he recouped his initial investment then $.45 for every jar in perpetuity. Their appearance on Shark Tank kicked off a wild 4-year growth story that has led to more than $13 million of sales and a 10x return for Mr. O'Leary. The story gets even cooler for us business TV reality fans because Marcus Lemonis invested into the company in 2014 to help support their rapid expansion plans.

In this interview I spoke with Tracey about this amazing story of success, how and when the company got started, when did they decide to apply for Shark Tank, when was the show produced and when did it air, what happened with sales post-Shark Tank, how have Kevin and Marcus been as partners, how have they expanded their product line, how are they acquiring new customers, why are they focusing on the gifting market, why have they decided to begin franchising with Wicked Good Cupcake trucks, how much does would it take a franchisee to get started and how much money can they make, what have been the biggest lessons learned over the past few years, how satisfying has all this success been, what advice can she share for the rest of us and much more. 

If you're interested in opening a Wicked Good Cupcakes franchise (Cupcake Truck) you can email Tracey at [email protected]

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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, SoundGuard, 10x3 Group, Parabolic Ventures and Inspired Futures Foundation. 

For anyone that has been in charge of setting up corporate events you understand how tedious the process can be especially when you have to call a dozen different venues to get pricing, availability, menu options and so forth. Bizly makes your life much easier by providing a platform for corporate meetings and events. Everything you need to plan and execute a great function is available to you. Not only will they save you time but they'll also save you money since Bizly clients tend to get special rates. Bizly is based in New York, has 15 employees and has already raised $1.5 million with another $2 million closing soon. 

In this interview I spoke with Ron Shah, co-founder of Bizly about his motivation behind starting the company, what problem are they solving, how big is the corporate event market, how does the Bizly platform work, what types of companies do they work with, how do they find their suppliers (aka the venues), how do they make money, which markets are they currently operating in, how quickly are they growing, what are the challenges with international expansion, what has been their fundraising strategy, how do they recruit top talent, what have been their biggest milestones to date 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, SoundGuard, 10x3 Group, Parabolic Ventures and Inspired Futures Foundation. 

Americans are eating healthier because we have better choices and we're more educated about nutrition. This is no different for employees that spend 8+ hours a day at their office but don't always have time to go out for food, trek through the parking garage, sit in traffic, and wait in long lines. Why should it take 45 minutes just to satisfy your hunger. Obviously the great people at LeanBox agree which is why they're providing innovative food solutions to hundreds of companies in the New England area. The company is based in Boston with plans to expand to the Chicago area and down the East Coast over this year. LeanBox pivoted from an earlier business model which so far appears to have been the right decision. 

In this interview I spoke with Shea about his motivation and vision behind LeanBox, what was he doing before starting this company, how did he build the early team, what was their original business model and why did they pivot into LeanBox, when did they raise capital and what has that funding gone towards, what exactly does LeanBox do, what is their business model, how do they make money, how do they acquire their customers (companies with 25-750 employees), what have been the biggest challenges, what have been the lessons learned, what advice does he have for other entrepreneurs just getting started, what are the biggest challenges with expanding outside of New England 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, SoundGuard, 10x3 Group, Parabolic Ventures and Inspired Futures Foundation. 

It's undeniable that the world has gone more digital. This is also true for businesses that are spending more time and resources across social and digital platforms. But these companies are constantly at risk of being hacked, impersonated, blackmailed, defrauded and many other threats. ZeroFOX protects those companies, their employees and their customers from a variety of online, social and digital threats. ZeroFOX is based in Baltimore, has raised $40 million, is approaching 200 employees and is always on the hunt for more great people to join their team. 

In this interview I spoke with Evan about the mission of ZeroFOX, why did he start the company, what services do they provide, how are they protecting companies in the digital age, where are companies and brands getting damaged, what is their pricing model, what have been the secrets to building such a fast growing company, what is their customer acquisition strategy, why have they raised so much capital, what has been their recruiting strategy, what is the Baltimore startup scene like, what are the pros to building a company in Baltimore, what does the future of ZeroFOX look like, 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, SoundGuard, 10x3 Group, Parabolic Ventures and Inspired Futures Foundation. 

50 million Americans have gym memberships with 5-10% of those people using personal trainers. But what do you do for a workout when you can't get to the gym or you can't afford to use a personal trainer...you use Aaptiv which provides on-demand audio fitness classes for all types of workouts including yoga, running, strength training, cycling and several others. Aaptiv is the personal trainer in your pocket that promises to make your workouts more fun and more effective. The service only costs $9.99 per month and provides unlimited access to dozens of workout routines. Aaptiv is based in NYC and has raised $1.5 million. 

 In this interview I spoke with Ethan about his motivation behind starting Aaptiv, what was he doing before this venture, what does Aaptiv do, what is their pricing, how do they acquire their users, how do they pick their trainers, what's their LTV/CAC ratio (lifetime value / customer acquisition cost), what are the demographics of their user base, what have been the biggest challenges with starting and growing this company, which marketing channels have been the most successful, what's their experience working with influencers, what are his top business goals for the next few years 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, SoundGuard, 10x3 Group, Parabolic Ventures and Inspired Futures Foundation. 

A couple months ago I began using Hunter.io for my own prospecting efforts. I quickly became a fan of the service so I reached out to the founders and invited them onto my podcast. They're solving a very simple but important problem that most entrepreneurs and sales people deal with...how to get the right email address. They currently have a web app, chrome extension and plug-ins for services like Linkedin. Hunter.io allows you to search for email addresses and built prospecting lists that can be uploaded to your CRM or exported in a CSV file. Hunter.io is currently bootstrapped and cash flow positive. The team is small but they've had impressive traction over the past couple years thanks for word of mouth and being featured on ProductHunt. 

In this interview I spoke with Antoine about his motivation behind starting Hunter.io, what was he working on prior to this project, how much user growth have they seen so far, how are they finding those users, any growth marketing tips, how were they able to get to cash flow positive so quickly, why have remained self-funded, what are his goals with Hunter.io, how has the service changed since inception, what new features might still be coming, what are they conversion rates from free plan to paid plan, and much more. 

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