Startup Stories - Mixergy

By Andrew WarnerSociety & Culture Business Education

Startup Stories - Mixergy episodes

November 04, 2020 #2006 Profitable WordPress plugin
My guest today created a plugin that allows people to create a membership site on top of WordPress. It’s called Paid Memberships Pro.
I want to find out how he came up with this product as a result of consulting. I also want to find out what event in his personal life was the breaking point that led to Paid Memberships Pro.
Jason Coleman is the founder of Paid Memberships Pro, member management and subscriptions plugin for WordPress.
Sponsored by
Toptal – Toptal is a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on demand. Toptal serves thousands of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, delivering expertise and world-class solutions at an unparalleled success rate. With elite freelancers in over 100 countries, Toptal connects the world’s top talent with leading companies in days, not weeks. Plus, every new engagement begins with a no-risk trial period, so clients only pay if satisfied with the work. Get started hiring with Toptal today.
HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit www.hostgator.com/mixergy to see what HostGator can do for your website.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
November 02, 2020 #2005 Shorty Awards Creator
I met today’s guest at a podcasting conference in Las Vegas 10 years ago when no one even knew what podcasting was. Since then I’ve never missed an episode of his show Venture Voice which he put on hold for a decade while building his other businesses, but just relaunched.
But he’s gone on to do amazing things including creating The Oscars of social media, The Shorty Awards, and Muck Rack. I invited him on to talk about all of it.
Gregory Galant is the creator of the Short Awards and founder of Muck Rack where you can find journalists, get press for your story, monitor the news and report on the impact of your PR.
Sponsored by
Toptal – Toptal is a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on demand. Toptal serves thousands of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, delivering expertise and world-class solutions at an unparalleled success rate. With elite freelancers in over 100 countries, Toptal connects the world’s top talent with leading companies in days, not weeks. Plus, every new engagement begins with a no-risk trial period, so clients only pay if satisfied with the work. Get started hiring with Toptal today.
HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit www.hostgator.com/mixergy to see what HostGator can do for your website.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
October 30, 2020 #2004 David Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group
Today I have David Rubenstein, the billionaire businessman and philanthropist. But one of the things that I’m most excited to talk to him about is his book, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEO’s, Founders and Game Changers, where he sat down with people like Oprah, Tim Cook, and past presidents.

David Rubenstein is a billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is also a co-founder The Carlyle Group, a global private equity investment company based in Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by
Toptal – Toptal is a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on demand. Toptal serves thousands of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, delivering expertise and world-class solutions at an unparalleled success rate. With elite freelancers in over 100 countries, Toptal connects the world’s top talent with leading companies in days, not weeks. Plus, every new engagement begins with a no-risk trial period, so clients only pay if satisfied with the work. Get started hiring with Toptal today.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
October 28, 2020 #2003 Failure led to massive success
One of the biggest hesitations that can keep us from starting something is how much time, work, and money goes into building something that’s likely to fail.
It gets in our head. It keeps us from building. Well, joining me as an entrepreneur who failed. He created a product called tldr.io. to summarize interesting content on the internet. He put a lot of himself into it and it still closed.
But because of this bad experience, he ended up learning how to create, what to create, and when to create it.
Today, Charles Miglietti is the founder of Toucan Toco, a data storytelling tool that is revolutionizing enterprise analytics.
Charles Miglietti is the founder of Toucan Toco, a data storytelling tool that is revolutionizing enterprise analytics.
Sponsored by
HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit www.hostgator.com/mixergy to see what HostGator can do for your website.
Launchpeer – Do you have a tech idea but you need help to launch your the first version? Use Launchpeer to validate your idea, find a business model and ensure product market fit. Launchpeer is an equity-free, online incubation program for busy non-technical founders. Mixergy listeners can get access to a nine-part course to de-risk their startup by going to Launchpeer.com/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
October 26, 2020 #2002 Edtech Series: Eruditus
Joining me is a guy who went to Harvard Business School and said, “This is really helpful, but it’s available to a limited number of people.”
So he decided to make online top tier education available to more people. He created a company called Eruditus which makes really high quality education more affordable and accessible. It’s backed by people who don’t just throw money at things and hope they work–including the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation.
My guest today is Ashwin Damera. He previously founded TravelGuru which he sold to Travelocity. We’ll talk about that experience and why he’s taking such a different direction with his current company.
Ashwin Damera is the co-founder of Eruditus, which offers executive education programmes from world’s top Business Schools.
Sponsored by
Trainual – Trainual is a SaaS that helps businesses automate their onboarding and training by documenting every process, policy, and procedure in one simple, searchable, teachable system. Trainual is on a mission to make small business easier by automating training manuals for busy companies around the world.
Toptal – Toptal is a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on demand. Toptal serves thousands of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, delivering expertise and world-class solutions at an unparalleled success rate. With elite freelancers in over 100 countries, Toptal connects the world’s top talent with leading companies in days, not weeks. Plus, every new engagement begins with a no-risk trial period, so clients only pay if satisfied with the work. Get started hiring with Toptal today.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
October 23, 2020 #2001 She legitimized online videos
At the time my guest launched her company, online videos were full of crap. But she somehow managed to get huge names like Richard Branson and Elon Musk to appear in videos on her platform. I want to find out how she did that.
I also want to talk about her new book which I read cover to cover, Digital Goddess: The Unfiltered Lessons of a Female Entrepreneur. My guest today is Victoria Montgomergy-Brown. She is the founder of Big Think, a collection of interviews, presentations, and roundtable discussions with experts from a wide range of fields.
Victoria Montgomergy-Brown is the founder of Big Think, a collection of interviews, presentations, and roundtable discussions with experts from a wide range of fields.
Sponsored by
Toptal – Toptal is a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on demand. Toptal serves thousands of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, delivering expertise and world-class solutions at an unparalleled success rate. With elite freelancers in over 100 countries, Toptal connects the world’s top talent with leading companies in days, not weeks. Plus, every new engagement begins with a no-risk trial period, so clients only pay if satisfied with the work. Get started hiring with Toptal today.
Outgrow.co – Get new customers with powerful and easy-to-configure interactive content. Outgrow offers feature packed Calculators, Quizzes, Chatbots, Surveys, and Forms. Unlike ads, interactive content adds value for your audience. Outgrow’s no-code content tools are inherently viral because they give your users personalized results. Outgrow is easy to use, easy to configure and easy to implement. Mixergy listeners get 30 days to try Outgrow for free at Outgrow.co/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
October 21, 2020 #2000 How Levels got a 37,000-person waitlist
Today I’m talking to the founder of Levels, Sam Corcos. He created a device that people actually want to wear. It tracks your glucose in real time so you can maximize your diet and exercise.
I want to know what he did to get people to even know that Levels exists and how he got so much freaking demand. I’ll ask about his previous company which went through Y Combinator, raised some money and sold.
Sam Corcos is the founder of Levels, which tracks your blood glucose in real time, so you can maximize your diet and exercise.
Sponsored by
Linkedin – How can you ensure the people you want to target are going to be in the right mindset to receive your message? The answer is LinkedIn. When you market on LinkedIn, your message reaches people who are ready to do business and that means your advertising campaign will work as hard as you can.
Over 62 million decision makers are on Linkedin and they’re thinking about their business when they’re on the platform. Do business where business gets done, get a $100 advertising credit towards your first LinkedIn campaign. Just visit Linkedin.com/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
October 19, 2020 #1999 Getting audience feedback before you build
Joining me is a listener who has started a company that I think is just phenomenally useful.
I think when you hear how he came up with his idea, it’ll actually help you think of better products to create for your audience too.
His name is John Li and he’s the founder of Pickfu, a do-it-yourself consumer research platform.
John Li is the founder of Pickfu, which allows you to get feedback from your target market in minutes.
Sponsored by
Toptal – Toptal is a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on demand. Toptal serves thousands of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, delivering expertise and world-class solutions at an unparalleled success rate. With elite freelancers in over 100 countries, Toptal connects the world’s top talent with leading companies in days, not weeks. Plus, every new engagement begins with a no-risk trial period, so clients only pay if satisfied with the work. Get started hiring with Toptal today.
HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit www.hostgator.com/mixergy to see what HostGator can do for your website.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
October 16, 2020 #1998 This founder opens up finally
Joining me is Martin Martinez. I know him as the founder of Alfred, which lets you market to people on LinkedIn.
If I wanted to expand my network to know every founder in San Francisco, Alfred would allow me to find all those founders, add them on LinkedIn and then send them messages. And then if they do add me on LinkedIn, I could follow up with them both in InMail, which is LinkedIn’s email system or with regular email.
And Martin said, “I’m going to let people decide how they’re going to communicate with people on LinkedIn.” So it got him into a little bit of trouble with LinkedIn, but he found a way out of it.
I want to find out about all that in this interview.
Martin Martinez is the founder of Alfred, which automates daily tasks on LinkedIn.
Sponsored by
Toptal – Toptal is a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on demand. Toptal serves thousands of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, delivering expertise and world-class solutions at an unparalleled success rate. With elite freelancers in over 100 countries, Toptal connects the world’s top talent with leading companies in days, not weeks. Plus, every new engagement begins with a no-risk trial period, so clients only pay if satisfied with the work. Get started hiring with Toptal today.
Trainual – Trainual is a SaaS that helps businesses automate their onboarding and training by documenting every process, policy, and procedure in one simple, searchable, teachable system. Trainual is on a mission to make small business easier by automating training manuals for busy companies around the world.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min
October 14, 2020 #1997 Braintrust guts the marketplace model
Joining me is Adam Jackson, a guy who has been building marketplaces for years–starting with one where he went door to door here in the San Francisco Bay area and signed up users.
He’s developed most of his businesses here and still, he told me before this interview that he would like to challenge the Bay Area mindset. This is a guy who’s benefited from it so I want to find out what he’d like to change. We’re going to find out about how he built his businesses, including his latest company, Braintrust, a user-controlled talent network.

Adam Jackson is the founder of Braintrust, a user-controlled talent network.
Sponsored by
SEMrush – If you’re doing content marketing of any kind, you need to know about SEMrush. Explore 40+ SEMrush tools and reports to find the best solution to your challenges. Find and fix SEO issues, track your daily ranks for any keyword, manage your editorial planning, discover the top content in your niche, and so much more. Mixergy listeners get to try their GURU level for two weeks, no credit card required. Just go to Mixergy.com/SEMrush to start getting insights for your content marketing.
HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit www.hostgator.com/mixergy to see what HostGator can do for your website.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
0 min