For the millions of people that buy couches every year we all know the frustration that goes along with it. We have to visit a bunch of furniture stores hoping to find a couch we like, then we have to pay the ridiculous retail markup prices then we probably have to wait a couple weeks for it to be delivered. Burrow is here to change all of that by making couch shopping fun, easy and affordable. Just visit their website at Burrow.com, design your dream couch and wait for it to arrive at your house or apartment. Burrow relaunched their new website yesterday with an expanded product selection so now they can cater to even more customers. Burrow went through Y-combinator in 2016 and is based in NYC.

In this interview I spoke with Stephen, co-founder of Burrow about his company and why he started it, what made him want to get into the couch business, can the direct-to-consumer model work for furniture, how did Burrow setup their manufacturing operations, how do they handle delivery and keep the price affordable, what has been their customer acquisition strategy, what does their new product expansion consist of, what have been the biggest business challenges, what has been the most fun, what has been their recruiting strategy, what has been their fundraising strategy, what is the future for Burrow 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

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

When you're a brick and mortar business like a retail store, restaurant, car wash, dry cleaner, ice cream chain or any of the other millions of companies that make up this multi-trillion dollar market it's critical to know who your customers are, how often they shop with you, how much they spend and how you can bring them back as often as possible. If you don't know this data you're going to have a hard time building a successful business. So the real question question is how do you gather this data, analyze it and then leverage it in a profitable way...the answer is Thanx. 

Thanx is a loyalty and customer retention platform that gives these brick and mortar businesses the tools they need to grow a bigger, happier, more engaged customer base. Thanx has raised $23 million from some amazing investors including SoftTech, Floodgate, Icon Ventures, BoxGroup and Sequoia. The company is based in San Francisco, has approximately 50 employees and is preparing to open up their 2nd office.

In this interview I spoke with Zach Goldstein about his motivation and mission behind starting Thanx, what problem is the company solving, how are clients using the service, what it was like being a solo-founder and how quickly did he begin hiring top talent, what was his fundraising approach and how did he land so many great investors, what has been his recruiting strategy given the competitive landscape in the Bay Area, how did the company acquire their early users and how are they doing it today, why are they opening a second office, how have then managed to remain so lean, how does he balance growth vs. burn/profits, what are some of his favorite client success stories 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

David is the classic entrepreneur that created Peergrade out of necessity. He was teaching at a university in Denmark and as the class grew in size he became overwhelmed with having to grade hundreds of papers, essays and tests. Being the technical person he is, David decided to build a peer-grading platform where students would grade and provide feedback for other students. Over the past two years the platform has continued to evolve and improve via data and machine learning. The company has raised $300,000 and is being used by tens of thousands of students. David acknowledges the company will need to raise a larger round of capital in the near future to help support expansion into the United States. Learn more at Peergrade.io

In this interview I spoke with David about his motivation behind Peergrade, what problem the company is solving, how they found new users in the early days, how they allocated the $300,000 raised and when they'll need to raise more money, what it's like building a startup in Copenhagen, how does the startup scene in Denmark compare to the U.S. and Silicon Valley, what is Peergrade's marketing strategy and how to they raise awareness among the education industry, what is their pricing model and how did they generate early revenue, how does he recruit talent 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

8 years ago the founders of Brainly started the company to give students a genuine peer-learning platform but little did they know that over the years million upon millions of students would be helping and supporting each other. Brainly supports all of the major school subjects and makes it super easy for students to post questions and get answers. They are mostly focused on high school but their platform is still used by middle school and college students. The company has raised $24.5 million from some awesome investors including VC's like General Catalyst and Learn Capital as well as strategic investors like Naspers.  

In this interview we we spoke with Michal Borkowski about his motivation behind Brainly, what problem(s) were they solving, what it was like bootstrapping for several years versus how things changed since they raised capital, what marketing strategies did they try and which ones worked the best, how many students are using their platform every month, which subjects are the most popular, what are his top goals for this year and beyond, what's the hardest thing about being an entrepreneur, what's the best advice his investors have given him, will they sell the company someday 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

When I first came across Bannerman I thought they were just an "on-demand security guard service" which was in fact their original business model but they have morphed into an extremely valuable security solution for hundreds of clients and properties across several major markets including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas and New York City with plans to expand to other cities in the near future. For now the company is focused on corporate clients and property management companies. Their clients not only get highly qualified security personnel but they also get Bannerman's advanced technologies and dashboards that enable those security people to perform their job at a much higher level. 

In this interview I spoke with Johnny about his motivation behind starting the company, how did he find his co-founder and how are their roles defined, what was their experience with Y-combinator and raising money from investors, what was their go-to-market strategy and what pivots have their made over time, how are they acquiring their clients today and what types of clients are they working with, what is their pricing model and how have they managed to scale the company while remaining profitable, what have been the biggest challenges and what lessons can he share with the rest of us, what's the future of the company, what's the strategy for expanding into new markets 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

I love interviewing founders of companies that are solving massive problems especially in the healthcare industry. Through my own experiences this past year it's obvious there are still many issues that plague our trillion dollar health system. PatientPing has developed a cloud-based technology that allows all of your healthcare providers to operate and communicate more effectively which in the end gives patients a higher quality of care and also brings down costs for the payers/insurers. Basically your healthcare providers will be alerted when something important happens such as being admitted to the hospital. With most providers managing hundreds or thousands of clients it's extremely hard for them to stay informed and involved with patient care but PatientPing is a service that now makes it a little easier. Learn more at PatientPing.com

In this interview I spoke with Jay about this motivation behind starting PatientPing, what he was doing prior to this, how he found his co-founder, when did they launch the service, when did they raise their first round of capital, what markets they are currently operating in, what was their go-to-market strategy and how do they land new clients, what has been their hiring/recruiting strategy, what have been the biggest challenges, what's his favorite thing about being an entrepreneur, what's the best piece of advice his investors have given him, what's the end game 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

Government contracts represent a $3 trillion global opportunity for millions of businesses across all industries. Winning these projects can be very difficult but so is finding them. Tenderscout has created a service that allows any company to find potential government contracts that match their area of expertise and thus would be worth bidding on. After finding ideal projects, the company can either manage the bidding process themselves or they can pay Tenderscout a fee to do it for them. Tenderscout has already been involved with more than 1,000 contracts so they're becoming the experts that give you a huge advantage and Tenderscout has helped clients with projects from $50,000 to $40 million.

In this interview I spoke with Tony about a variety of things including why he started Tenderscout, what is his vision for the company, how are they helping clients find and win government contracts, what have been the biggest challenges over the past two years, what's it like raising capital in Ireland and why they'll focus on the U.S. for their next round, what are the advantages and disadvantages to building a company in Dublin, what is his end goal with Tenderscout, what exactly is machine learning, is it hard to recruit talent in Dublin 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

It's time that we take control of our medical records. For anyone that has dealt with the healthcare industry and the providers it can be extremely frustrating when your records are not updated properly or shared with your other doctors and specialists or available for you to review when needed. The medical records industry is outdated and inefficient. Google and Microsoft both attempted to provide solutions but ultimately failed to gain any significant traction. Patients Know Best (PKB) was started in 2008 by Levi Morehouse with a mission of giving patients more control over their medical records. The company is based in the U.K. and has raised $8 million from investors. 

In this interview I spoke with Levi about his vision for Patients Know Best and why he started the company, how many providers and patients are they currently working with, what has been their marketing strategy for the past 8+ years and how has it changed over time, what is their pricing model, why are their 42 employees spread across 12 countries, how are they scaling in the U.K. and when will they be coming to the U.S., how messed up is the medical records industry and why have other companies has such a hard time building a scalable solution, what are the biggest mistakes he has made, what are his proudest moments 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

Very few business owners enjoy doing the bookkeeping but it's an essential component to building and maintaining a successful and profitable business. Every year millions of businesses fail and some of the main reasons are due to bad bookkeeping, bad cash flow management, not paying bills on time, not keeping up with taxes and not knowing your financial metrics. Lucky for you companies like Ceterus can assist you and your business with all of these needs. Ceterus essentially takes over your bookkeeping, imports all of your financial/banking data and provides you with real time reports and analysis so you can run your business better and not stress out about the boring bookkeeping stuff. 

Learn more at Ceterus.com

In this interview I spoke with Levi Morehouse, founder of Ceterus about his journey as an entrepreneur, how he transitioned Ceterus from a service business to a software business, why he raised $4.2 million from investors, how their product offering helps business owners, what is their marketing strategy for acquiring new customers, what are their metrics in terms of churn and lifetime customer value, why did he choose Charleston, SC for building this company, how does he recruit top talent, what are the big mistakes that business owners make when it comes to bookkeeping/accounting 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

After a successful career working for Sun Microsystems, Sumaya began to realize the importance of social data intelligence and the opportunity to help large companies mine and analyze all this information so she started Sumazi in 2011. She officially launched at Techcrunch's Startup Battlefield which helped her get some valuable attention from clients and investors. Over the past 6 years she's raised a little over $1 million from a dozen or so angel investors. The company is still running lean and getting most of their new clients through referrals and word of mouth. Learn more at Sumazi.com

In this interview I spoke with Sumaya about her journey as an entrepreneur, why she left the corporate world to pursue her startup idea, what the first version of the company looked like and what they have pivoted into over the years, how she raised that first round of capital, how she landed clients like Microsoft and Accenture, how she was able to get into Startup Battlefield despite not having a finished product, what have been her biggest challenges as well as her biggest successes, what are her primary goals for 2017, will a stripped down version of her product offering be available to smaller companies, who is her dream client 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