Let's pretend you just bought a new house or condo, or perhaps moved into a new office space and want to make it look amazing...where do you go for help? how do you find the right interior designer for your needs, your budget and your preferred taste? Well the old way of doing it was through google search or maybe getting a referral, but the new way (and better way) is going to Homepolish.

Homepolish was started in 2012 as a platform for connecting homeowners with the perfect interior designer. They screen the interior designers very carefully as to only let the best in. Currently they have around 600 designers available across the country but not surprisingly NYC, LA and SF are their three biggest markets. Homepolish has raised $20 million, in based in NYC and has 65 employees. It's also worth noting that two of their early investors are Jennifer Hyman (co-founder of Rent the Runway) and Andy Hunt (co-founder of Warby Parker). 

In this interview I spoke with Noa about his motivation and vision with Homepolish, how did they get started, how did they find their early customers and designers, how does the service work, what is the pricing model, what was their fundraising strategy, how were they able to get Jennifer and Andy involved, what have been the biggest challenges, what have been the lessons learned, what are his favorite memories of the past few years, what is his favorite thing about being the founder of Homepolish, what are his goals for 2017 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. 

My guest today accomplished something that most of us entrepreneurs truly aspire to which is growing a company to $100 million then selling it to a Fortune 500 company. After working in the financial services industry after college, Kelcy decided to join his father's roofing company and transform it into one of the leading solar companies in the country. When Roof Diagnostics Solar was purchased by NRG in 2014 it was the 8th largest solar installer in the U.S. (which they accomplished in just 3 years). After selling Roof Diagnostics Solar, Kelcy stayed with NRG for 2 years before jumping into his next project called MemberWhen. MemberWhen is a service that helps families tell their life story and receive an audio memory file that will live on forever and be passed down to the next generation. 

In this interview we started off by talking about Roof Diagnostics and how they were able grow this company so incredibly fast, what does it really take to build a $100 million company in 3 years, what were their biggest challenges, how did they find the best employees, what mistakes did they make along the way, how has the solar industry changed over the last 5 years, why did they decide to sell the business to NRG and much more. In the second part of the interview we chatted about MemberWhen, Kelcy's new company and passion project. I asked him about his motivation behind starting this company, what do they offer, how much does it cost, how are they acquiring new customers, how are they funded, what are his goals for this new project, what type of impact does he want to make and much more. 

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Thanks for listening. 

All of our interviews and episodes are available 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. 

I've known today's guest for a few years when he launched his first company Ubidock, a wireless charging system for bars, restaurants, coffee shops, hotels and other venues. Not only is this a solution for customers so their phone doesn't die but it also provides valuable customer data to the venue and keeps the customer there spending more money. Ubidock is still in growth mode but our guest Izzy is in the process of launching his next business called JackAI. Jack is a 24/7 chat service for everything home related. Whether you're trying to find a plumber or landscaper or any of a thousand other possibilities, soon you'll have Jack to help you. Learn more at ubidock.com and 247jack.com

In this interview I spoke with Izzy about both companies but started with Ubidock since he's been working on this one longer. I asked him about why he started Ubidock, how he founder his co-founders, what it took to design the product and setup manufacturing, what were the biggest challenges, how are they acquiring customers, what is their pricing model, what are their goals for 2017 and much more. Next up in the interview we chatted about JackAI and why this is huge a huge business opportunity, I asked him about the vision of the company going forward, how does Jack work, how is chat and AI changing the business landscape, what has the company learned in their private beta, when will the service go live, how do they plan on making money and much more. 

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Thanks for listening. 

All of our interviews and episodes are available 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. 

Today's interview was extra special for me because I've been a big fan of Quest Nutrition and our guest Tom Bilyeu for many years. I remember back in 2011 when I tried a Quest bar for the first time and was immediately hooked. Not only did their protein bars taste great but the macros were much better than everything else on the market. It was finally possible to get a healthy protein bar that wasn't loaded up with sugars and artificial ingredients. For the first couple years Quest was only available online but they were crushing it with social media and with influencers (in full disclosure I've been an ambassador with Quest since 2012). As demand for Quest bars continued to grow the company began distributing through retail stores. Fast forward to today and thousands of retail stores, nutrition stores, websites and gyms are selling Quest bars. They are definitely the #1 protein bar on the planet but Quest is not just a protein bar company, they are a legitimate food company that is changing the way people eat. The journey for Quest was undoubtedly a hard one for Tom and his two co-founders because not only did they have to build their own machinery and setup their own facilities but they did it all without raising any outside capital. Quest was built with lots of sweat equity along with debt and credit. Quest has already surpassed the $400 million revenue mark and is valued at over $1 billion. The company is headquartered in California and has 1,400+ employees. You can find all kinds of amazing healthy food products at QuestNutrition.com

As if the Quest story is not awesome enough, Tom has actually stepped away from the company he built to work on his new company called Impact Theory. This new project is something that Tom is clearly very passionate about. Impact Theory is all about igniting human potential by getting into the minds of the world's most incredible people to learn their secrets. It's very clear that Tom wants to make the world a better place. First with Quest's mission to change the way we consume protein foods and now with Impact Theory's mission to give millions of people the tools, confidence and motivation they need to go be more successful. Check out ImpactTheory.com for incredible interviews.

In this interview I spoke with Tom about his 7 year journey at Quest taking this company from the kitchen to more than $400 million in annual sales, what were their biggest challenges, why didn't they take any outside investor money, how were they able to carry out their original vision of changing the food industry, what was their marketing strategy in the beginning and how has it changed over the years, have any larger food companies tried to acquire them, what are some of his favorite moments over the past 7 years and much more.

Now in the second part of the interview we talked about his new company Impact Theory, what is their mission, how are they different than other content creators, what is his long term vision for this company, what keeps him motivated, what are his tips for finding the right people to work with and so much more.

Thanks for listening. Please share across social media so other's can enjoy this wisdom and advice from Tom Bilyeu. 

Many of us are using dozens of web apps on a daily or weekly basis for everything from sending emails to saving documents to managing contacts to assigning tasks to taking notes or so on. Most of these web apps don't automatically connect with each other unless they're using Zapier. The founders of Zapier realized back in 2011 when they started the company that the explosion in web apps would create this massive opportunity to connect hundreds of the most popular web apps to make us more productive and save us time. You can see all 750+ of the web apps currently connected through Zapier by [clicking here]. Zapier has 85 employees with no office or headquarters meaning every single person works remotely. The company went through Y-Combinator in the summer of 2012 and raised $1.3 million in late 2012. They have been cash flow positive since 2014 so they have not needed to raise any additional funding.

In this interview I spoke with Wade, co-founder of Zapier about his journey as an entrepreneur over the past 6 years, why did he start the company, what is their mission, how were they able to bootstrap in the beginning, why was he working full-time at another company and only working on Zapier at night, what was their experience with Y-Combinator, what has been their strategy for acquiring customers, how did they manage to build a profitable company so quickly, are they planning to raise more capital, why does Zapier not have any main office, what are the pros and cons of having a full distributed team, what advice can he share with the rest of us about building a profitable fast-growing company and much more.

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Thanks for listening. 

All of our interviews and episodes are available 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. 

Questis has created a financial wellness platform for companies and their employees because it's well documented that financial stress leads to increased employee productivity so it certainly makes sense that companies would want happy, stress-free employees. Steve and his business partner John Tabb started Questis back in 2004 as an Investment Advisory firm but after 6+ years of running that business and providing advice to retirement plan clients they realized their was a much bigger opportunity to build the current platform solution. Questis is based in Charleston, South Carolina and has already closed on $3.6 million with another $2 million closing in the next couple months. 

In this interview I spoke with Steve about Questis and what the company does, why did they decide to pivot away from the Investment Advisory business, how are they growing the Questis platform through marketing and partnerships, what is their client acquisition strategy, what has been their fundraising strategy, what has been their recruiting strategy, why is Charleston emerging as one of top startup hubs, how was Charleston changed over the past decade and is their talent in the area, what are his top goals for Questis this year, what does the future of Questis look like and much more.

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Thanks for listening. 

All of our interviews and episodes are available 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. 

When you're looking for a fun night out with friends or maybe you have a hot date or perhaps you're traveling to a new city and want to search for the best spot based on criteria like ambiance, noise level, price, food style, and so on. Which website would you use? Is there a good app or this? Unfortunately there isn't any good solution which is why the founders of DateSeat see a large market opportunity. It's still very early for the company as they only launched in Summer 2016 and currently operate just in Boston but they do have near term expansion plans. The company is still a small team and still bootstrapped but they are planning to begin talking to angel investors later this year. 

In this interview I spoke with Mike Laskowski, co-founder of DateSeat about his motivation behind starting the company, what problem are they solving, how did he find his co-founder, what type of development work was required pre-launch, what is their marketing strategy, what are the challenges with bootstrapping, what types of partnerships are working best for them, what is their strategy for fundraising, what are their upcoming expansion plans, when will they begin doing paid marketing, and much more. 

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Thanks for listening. 

All of our interviews and episodes are available StartupSense.net

You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]  

Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media

We help entrepreneurs and startup founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

We help clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

We put our clients in the best position to raise capital, grow revenues, hire employees and maximize profits. 

To learn more about our services please visit us at Jool.net

We spend nearly 1/3 of our lives sleeping which means over a 10 year period we spend upwards of 29,000 hours on our mattress. So doesn't it make sense that you'd want a premium mattress customized to your preferences, sleep style, body weight and age. Of course the answer is yes which is where Helix can help you. Helix launched in mid-2015 with a personalized mattress solution that was created just for you (based on your answers to some questions) and then delivered right to your doorstep in 5-7 business days. Helix has raised a little more than $8 million from investors across two funding rounds, the company is based in NYC and has 30+ employees.

In this interview I spoke with Adam Tishman, co-founder of Helix about why he started the company, what was his motivation behind getting into the sleep industry, how did he find his co-founders, when did they raise their first round of capital, what is their customer acquisition strategy and which marketing channels have worked best, what have been the biggest challenges thus far, how complicated does it get when you consider customizing mattresses with dozens of potential variables, what was their fundraising strategy in terms of finding the best investors for Helix, how are they attracting talent and keeping the right people, what does their retail store strategy look like, why are they selling on Amazon and much more. 

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Thanks for listening. 

All of our interviews and episodes are available StartupSense.net

You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]  

Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media

We help entrepreneurs and startup founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

We help clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

We put our clients in the best position to raise capital, grow revenues, hire employees and maximize profits. 

To learn more about our services please visit us at Jool.net

Prior to starting ConvertPlayer, our guest today Simon Payne was a co-founder of LeadPages and helped grow the company to millions in revenue, 150+ employees and tens of thousands of customers. Simon spent 4.5 years at LeadPages but then felt it was time to start something new. ConvertPlayer allows anyone to easily built a wrapper for their videos which then embeds an email subscribe button or social sharing buttons into the video. This makes it easier for video publishers, video marketers, brands and vloggers to engage with and grow their audience. ConvertPlayer is also able to provide some video conversion numbers that can be helpful to the video creators and publishers. ConvertPlayer is currently bootstrapped and has a small team but with Simon's experience I'm thinking they'll be booming soon.

In this interview I spoke with Simon about why he left LeadPages, does he still own equity in the company, why he started ConvertPlayer, what problem are they solving, who is their target client and how are they planning to reach them, what is the pricing model, how did his experience at LeadPages make him a better entrepreneur, what have been the biggest challenges at ConvertPlayer, what's his favorite thing about being a founder and much more. 

------

Thanks for listening. 

All of our interviews and episodes are available StartupSense.net

You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]  

Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media

We help entrepreneurs and startup founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

We help clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

We put our clients in the best position to raise capital, grow revenues, hire employees and maximize profits. 

To learn more about our services please visit us at Jool.net

We're living in an era where brands are constantly advertising to us and online companies are tracking our activity. Whether we like it or not these companies are gathering more and more data on us...so doesn't it make sense to start controlling what type of data they are seeing. The team at Autograph saw this trend coming back in 2011 when they started the company. They call it "opt in" marketing. Autograph allows individuals to customize the data that companies are using when sending them ads, offers and announcements. Think about it, if you're going to see banner ads and popup ads along with text alerts and email blasts, wouldn't you prefer that they're at least tailored to your likes and dislikes? Autograph has raised $13 million, is a team of 17 people and has offices in Seattle and London. 

In this interview I spoke with Henry Lawson, co-founder of Autograph about why he started this company back in 2011, what was their thesis on the future of marketing, what was their plan of attack, how did he find his co-founders, when did they raise capital, what exactly does the Autograph product do, who are some of their big clients, how many consumers have created profiles so far, what is this "opt in" revolution all about, why is is better to be a few years early rather than a few years late, how have they managed to keep the team so lean, how long do clients stay with them, what have been the biggest challenges the past 6 years and so much more. 

------

Thanks for listening. 

All of our interviews and episodes are available StartupSense.net

You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]  

Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media

We help entrepreneurs and startup founders build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. 

We help clients of all sizes, budgets and industries. 

We put our clients in the best position to raise capital, grow revenues, hire employees and maximize profits. 

To learn more about our services please visit us at Jool.net