Startup Stories - Mixergy

By Andrew WarnerSociety & Culture Business Education

Startup Stories - Mixergy episodes

September 14, 2016 #1353 Bouqs will overtake 800-Flowers and FTD
If you think that headline is an exaggeration, you should know The Bouqs Company is already doing 10s of millions in annual sales.
John Tabis, the flower company’s founder, says his advantage is shipping directly from flower farms to customers. Meanwhile, the established companies are married to local shops whose flowers often look as cheesy as the mylar balloons they try to upsell their customers.
Still not convinced? Listen to the interview.
John Tabis is the founder of The Bouqs Company, which is an ecommerce floral delivery service.
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HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
Acuity Scheduling – Acuity Scheduling helps businesses offer and manage their appointments online. With this tool, you’ll be able to automate your client bookings, cancellations, reminders & even payments without sacrificing you soul. Plus, automated reminders and follow-ups eliminate your no-shows, and incentivize repeat bookings. Get an exclusive 45-day trial at AcuityScheduling.com/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
1 hr 1 min
September 12, 2016 #1352 How a killer Kickstarter campaign and a “Shark Tank” appearance got BetterBack to $3M in year ONE
You might remember hearing about an app years ago called Everest. It was an app for ambitious people and I kept hearing about it. It was designed to give driven people a way to set big goals for themselves and achieve it. Peter Thiel–Peter freaking Thiel–invested in the company and then it shut down.
Well, Katherine Krug is one of the cofounders of that company and she says it’s one of the many failures she’s had in life. But you know what? Her latest company actually is really taking off.
What does it do? Well, it’s a device that helps improve your posture. Frankly, of all the businesses Katherine created, if you told me that’s the one that was going to do it, I would be shocked.
Katherine Krug is the founder of BetterBack, a brace that improves your posture, eases back pain, and improves your health.
Katherine Krug is the founder of BetterBack, a brace that improves your posture, eases back pain, and improves your health.
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HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
Acuity Scheduling – Acuity Scheduling helps businesses offer and manage their appointments online. With this tool, you’ll be able to automate your client bookings, cancellations, reminders & even payments without sacrificing you soul. Plus, automated reminders and follow-ups eliminate your no-shows, and incentivize repeat bookings. Get an exclusive 45-day trial at AcuityScheduling.com/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
1 hr 3 min
September 09, 2016 #1351 How Spokeo is taking on Whitepages by bringing social data to people search
I remember back in the mid-2000s the VCs and people in the tech community were really excited about the idea that just like Google searches for web pages, there were going to be these new search engines for people. They were so hopped up about it. That’s the thing that was going to be huge. I remember when it launched. It got so much attention. Michael Arrington, back when he wrote for TechCrunch wrote about it. VentureBeat wrote about it. So many people talked about these sites. And then I never heard anything.
I assumed that today’s guest’s business just disappeared, that it failed. But it didn’t. It transitioned. It just transitioned into something different and has been doing really well. I didn’t know about it because TechCrunch didn’t tell me it’s been doing really well because no one told me.
Well, my team did tell me and I’m so proud to have today’s guest on to talk about how he built up the business. His name is Harrison Tang. He is the founder of Spokeo, people search engine. Let me tell you what that means.
You can search someone’s phone number and find out who owns that phone number or you can search someone’s name and find out their address. If you’re looking for someone and Facebook isn’t helping you reconnect, this is the way that you can actually find out where they are and what they’re up to. It’s kind of big. It’s kind of a big thing and we’re going to find out how big the business is.
Harrison Tang is the cofounder of Spokeo, a people search website that aggregates data from online and offline sources.
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HostGator is your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 – 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email – any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all.
HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
Acuity Scheduling – Acuity Scheduling helps businesses offer and manage their appointments online. With this tool, you’ll be able to automate your client bookings, cancellations, reminders & even payments without sacrificing you soul. Plus, automated reminders and follow-ups eliminate your no-shows, and incentivize repeat bookings. Get an exclusive 45-day trial at AcuityScheduling.com/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
59 min
September 07, 2016 #1350 How Kosta Gara survived an Iranian prison at age 13 and became a multimillionaire by 33
I’ve got an interview here that I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t really wrap my head around it.
I’m not sure what to make of it. I ask everyone on my team when they suggest a guest to also suggest a headline so that I have a sense of where we’re going with the interview…
So here’s the headline they out together for this one, “How Kosta Gara Survived an Iranian Prison at Age 13 and Became a Multimillionaire by 33.”
That’s all I’m going to say because I want to ask Kosta questions about how he did it too and what those businesses are.
Kosta Gara is founder of Vionic, Inc. which provides marketing solutions for social media.
Sponsored by
HostGator is your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 – 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email – any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all.
HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
Acuity Scheduling – Acuity Scheduling helps businesses offer and manage their appointments online. With this tool, you’ll be able to automate your client bookings, cancellations, reminders & even payments without sacrificing you soul. Plus, automated reminders and follow-ups eliminate your no-shows, and incentivize repeat bookings. Get an exclusive 45-day trial at AcuityScheduling.com/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
57 min
September 02, 2016 #1349 How a hippie raised in the woods of Maine coded (and sold) Infoactive – with Trina Chiasson
Joining me today is an entrepreneur who really did not have a tech background. She had a hippie background that I’m so excited to talk about. But what’s even more interesting is the thing that she did to get into tech world and the startup world.
It was something that shows what she’s made of and I’m eager for you to hear that story. She launched a company and sold it exactly three years later. She’s here to talk about how she did it.
Today’s guest is Trina Chiasson and she’s the founder of Infoactive, which makes it easy to build interactive, mobile-friendly infographics with live data.
Trina Chiasson is the founder of Infoactive, which makes it easy to build interactive, mobile-friendly infographics with live data.
Sponsored by
HostGator is your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 – 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email – any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all.
HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
Acuity Scheduling – Acuity Scheduling helps businesses offer and manage their appointments online. With this tool, you’ll be able to automate your client bookings, cancellations, reminders & even payments without sacrificing you soul. Plus, automated reminders and follow-ups eliminate your no-shows, and incentivize repeat bookings. Get an exclusive 45-day trial at AcuityScheduling.com/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
54 min
August 31, 2016 #1348 How a founder grew his software by wowing customers with support – with Gavin Zuchlinski
Back in 2011, I was really struggling to book guests on Mixergy. Part of the struggle was that I was starting to invite so many people to do interviews that I had a hard time of keeping track. If one person said yes to one date and then another person said yes to the exact same date, it would be a little bit awkward. I was ready for the big time but a little thing like scheduling people was driving me nuts.
I remember going to my mentor this problem and soon after, he sent me a link. He said, “Hey, I found this site. Go sign up for this.”
The site was Acuity Scheduling and it just fixed everything.
I know that this happened back in 2011 because I had a question about the software back then and the founder emailed me back. The founder did my tech support, which was really interesting and it turns out the founder was a Mixergy fan.
His name is Gavin Zuchlinski and he’s the founder of Acuity Scheduling, a calendar scheduling service.
Gavin Zuchlinski is the founder of Acuity Scheduling, a calendar scheduling service.
Sponsored by
Converted 2016 is an entire conference dedicated to increasing your leads, sales, and conversions at every stage in your sales process—from the second a new visitor arrives at your website for a very first time—to the day that new visitor joins your email list—to the moment that new lead purchases your first product—becomes your recurring customer—and even goes on to become your advocate and customer for life. We’ll show you how that’s done, step by step.
As a Mixergy fan, you can save up to $250 on the price of your ticket. That’s the “early bird rate” that’s no longer available anywhere else. To claim this discount, visit http://www.leadpages.net/mixergy to get your tickets.
HostGator is your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 – 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email – any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all.
HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
1 hr 7 min
August 29, 2016 #1347 Burned out on corporate bureaucracy, Elizabeth Dukes built a software to help companies run better
My goal at Mixergy is to go outside of the Silicon Valley stuff that you hear over and over again, the same companies that you hear and see, and talk about.
I want to introduce you to companies that you wouldn’t have known about otherwise, so that you can open your eyes to a new way of doing business. You can learn from these companies, and then bring back their ideas to your company, grow it, and hopefully I’ll have the honor of getting to interview you.
Joining me today is an entrepreneur named Elizabeth Dukes. She is the co-founder of iOffice Corp. They offer innovative facilities management solutions. Bet you didn’t know that. We’re going to talk about that and what that means in this interview.
Elizabeth Dukes is the co-founder of iOffice Corp. which offers innovative facilities management solutions.
Sponsored by
HostGator is your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 – 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email – any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all.
HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
Acuity Scheduling – Acuity Scheduling helps businesses offer and manage their appointments online. With this tool, you’ll be able to automate your client bookings, cancellations, reminders & even payments without sacrificing you soul. Plus, automated reminders and follow-ups eliminate your no-shows, and incentivize repeat bookings. Get an exclusive 45-day trial at AcuityScheduling.com/mixergy
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
44 min
August 26, 2016 #1346 How Zee Ali went from selling cigarettes in the hood of Chicago to selling 1+ million products
I’ve got someone who’s been a longtime Mixergy fan who I met in Chicago where I went to speak at Podcast Movement, a conference for podcasting. As I walked into the after party, I met this guy and after we talked for about a sentence or two, I said, “Let’s get out of here. Let’s go talk outside. I want to hear more of what you said to me.”
His story was so freaking fascinating. So much about his life was fascinating–the business that we’re going to talk about is fascinating.
I want to hear how he got started as a kid selling individual cigarettes, how he got started in chef school hustling, selling stuff.
And frankly it’s also a story about depression. He was that open with me that it helped me see a little of myself in what he went through.
His name is Zee Ali. He is the founder of the Zee Group, which makes custom apparel, print and promotional products.
Zee Ali is the founder of the Zee Group, which makes custom apparel, print and promotional products.
Sponsored by
Converted 2016 is an entire conference dedicated to increasing your leads, sales, and conversions at every stage in your sales process—from the second a new visitor arrives at your website for a very first time—to the day that new visitor joins your email list—to the moment that new lead purchases your first product—becomes your recurring customer—and even goes on to become your advocate and customer for life. We’ll show you how that’s done, step by step.
As a Mixergy fan, you can save up to $250 on the price of your ticket. That’s the “early bird rate” that’s no longer available anywhere else. To claim this discount, visit http://www.leadpages.net/mixergy to get your tickets.
HostGator is your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 – 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email – any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all.
HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
1 hr 6 min
August 24, 2016 #1345 How Jilliene Helman brought crowdsourcing to real estate investment
When I was 17 years old, I saved up $20,000 from all the little jobs that I had, all the little businesses. I remember hearing that real estate was how you made it big, how you preserved wealth and grew it. So, I said, “Great, I’m going to get into real estate.” I started reading all these real estate books. I started looking around at real estate that was available–nothing great, I only had $20,000. But I was looking. I didn’t know how to even get it going. I didn’t know how to get started.
Well, today’s guest started a company for people like me, maybe a little bit older with more money. The idea behind RealtyMogul is you can team up with other investors and buy property together and actually get your returns. And those returns will come via email that actually says, “You’ve got money,” which is pretty cool. I want to understand how this business works and how she got it where it is today. So, I invited her on to talk about it.
We’re talking to Jilliene Helman. She is the cofounder of RealtyMogul, a marketplace for accredited investors to pool their money together online to buy shares of real estate investment properties.
Jilliene Helman is the cofounder of RealtyMogul, a marketplace for accredited investors to pool their money together online to buy shares of real estate investment properties.
Sponsored by
Converted 2016 is an entire conference dedicated to increasing your leads, sales, and conversions at every stage in your sales process—from the second a new visitor arrives at your website for a very first time—to the day that new visitor joins your email list—to the moment that new lead purchases your first product—becomes your recurring customer—and even goes on to become your advocate and customer for life. We’ll show you how that’s done, step by step.
As a Mixergy fan, you can save up to $250 on the price of your ticket. That’s the “early bird rate” that’s no longer available anywhere else. To claim this discount, visit http://www.leadpages.net/mixergy to get your tickets.
HostGator is your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 – 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email – any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all.
HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
59 min
August 22, 2016 #1344 How Robby Berthume survived a business partner fallout, embezzlement, tax audits, and divorce
A few weeks ago I got an email from someone I’ve interviewed in the past, a guy named Robby Berthume. I want to share part of that email for you so you know why I’m doing this interview.
He wrote, “It’s been a while since we last spoke and quite a bit has changed. As you know I became a millionaire in my early 20s and I did an interview with you about it back in 2009.
“What you don’t know is that afterwards, I lost it all. Everything. From divorce to a business partner who left, embezzlement, mugging in Barcelona, audit, I lost my house, you name it.”
I want to hear that story. I want to hear how he lost it all back in 2009 and what he did to recover.
Robby Berthume is the founder of Bull & Beard which provides matchmaking and digital services for advertising agencies.
Robby Berthume is the founder of Bull & Beard which provides matchmaking and digital services for advertising agencies.
Sponsored by
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HostGator is your one-stop shop for all things web hosting. From design and marketing services to easy-to-use website builders, they are with you every step of the way. Thanks to their 24/7 – 365 days a year live support – which you can get via chat, phone and email – any and all questions you have can be answered in no time at all.
HostGator offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, an easy to use control panel, one click WordPress installs and more.
More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint
56 min