The Scott Barstow Show

How do you build an audience, how is YouTube relevant for your startup, and how do you decide what projects are worth pursuing? I covered these questions and more with my guest for this episode, Josh Taylor.

Josh is a video creator, podcaster, and entrepreneur from Nashville, TN. He is most well-known for the video series called Blimey Cow which he started with his siblings in 2005. In the last decade, the comedy videos have accrued over 400,000 subscribers and 70 million total video views on YouTube. Josh also hosts a weekly podcast called The Inner Tube, designed to help beginners take their first steps into the world of content creation.

Josh and I also talk about the future of video, alternative education, and what it's like to work with your family in business.

My guest for this show is Anthony Pompliano, one of the founding partners of Full Tilt Capital. Full Tilt is a venture capital firm who specializes in moving quickly, with decisions on investments in as little as 48 hours.

Pomp, as everyone calls him, has also spent time at Facebook and SnapChat, has started and sold a couple of companies, and served in the US Army in Iraq.

Pomp and I cover a lot of ground in this show, including:

• Why he started Full Tilt Capital and the mission they're on to change venture capital to be more founder-friendly
• What he learned from his time in the military and being deployed in a war zone
• His time at Facebook and SnapChat and his learnings from each
• How he thinks about the current issues regarding race and the police (unique perspective that you should hear)
• How Full Tilt evaluates companies
• and more

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, a notebook, and listen in on my conversation with Anthony Pompliano of Full Tilt.

If you like this show, please head on over to iTunes and give us a review. We'd really appreciate it!

If you like this show, please head on over to iTunes and give us a review. We'd really appreciate it!

My guest for this show is Jon Spinney, CEO and founder of Malartu Funds. Malartu brings individual investors, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists on the same platform to help entrepreneurs tell their story better and to help investors find companies doing great things. It's a big idea and they're starting to see some really great traction.

Jon's got a unique perspective on building a tech company as he wanted to be a chef for a long time, and then started building a company to support restaurant back office. When he and Sean Steigerwald, his co-founder, hatched the idea for Malartu it was largely out of the frustration of the struggle to raise money for prior ventures.

Like Brian Dally and Groundfloor, Malartu is battling entrenched regulations that are outdated and in flux. You'll hear Jon talk about all of the struggles they've endured as they waited for legislation to pass in their favor, how they planned for different scenarios, how his food service background helps him to run the company today, and a whole lot more.

If you like this show, please head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It helps other people find the show and makes me feel warm and tingly.

My guest for this show is Fred Stutzman, CEO and founder of Freedom. Freedom is a platform that gives you back your life by eliminating unnecessary interruptions when you're trying to get work done.

Fred's got a lot of great stuff to say about building a successful product company. The highlights include:

• Product pricing and how they tested to find the right price - 11:30
• Going from early traction to mainstream, and growth channels - 21:00
• Partnerships - 24:00
• The real value of one-time marketing events or chasing celebrity endorsements - 29:00
• Getting your users to sell your product for you - 32:00
• Hiring - 46:00

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy my conversation with Fred Stutzman

Eric Boggs is the CEO and founder of RevBoss, a sales pipeline automation company based in Durham, NC.

My conversation with Eric was pretty wide-ranging as usual, but we also explored some things that I've not yet talked about with any other guest. Eric talks openly about his prior company, Argyle Social, and what it was like to go straight up and then go over the cliff.

He also talks about the importance of delayed gratification as a founder, loving your people well, and how he deals with the "hindbrain."

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Eric, and as always, thanks for listening!

Find links to Eric at scottbarstow.com/podcast

Aaron Cleary is a world-class white-hat (mostly) hacker and cyber security expert. He works for a large multinational insurance company in Germany and gets paid fly around the world, break into systems, and then tell companies how to plug the holes. Not a bad gig, eh?

Aaron and I go deep (as deep as you can go in an hour or so) into his background, how he got interested in this area, how you prevent and protect yourself from attack, how you handle a breach, and even get into some macro-level discussions on the moral dilemma of Wikileaks and Anonymous.

This is an interview I've been wanting to do since I started this podcast. Jed Carlson is the CEO of Adwerx and co-founder of Reverb Nation.

Jed is one of the best thinkers and communicators about business I've ever met. He has the gift of being able to take complex principles, distill them down to their component parts and then implement them in a way that few other people can.

You'll hear evidence of this over and over again in our conversation.

Jed and I talk about:

• The value of an MBA (you might be surprised by his answer)
• How Jed sold junk mail in a briefcase door to door when he was 5
• The start of Reverb Nation and Adwerx
• How he thinks about successful partnerships (so much great stuff here!)
• How he picks ideas and tests them before going all in
• The difference between positions and interests with your customers - Fantastic!
• The value of doing the early, hard work yourself as founders
• and much more

Grab your notebook and listen in on my conversation with Jed Carlson.

Justin Schneider is the CEO of an up and coming fashion tech company called Wolf & Shepherd.

Justin was a decathlete at Notre Dame and after getting out of school he realized that men's dress shoes suck. He set out to fix it by using the best materials and latest technology in footwear.

The result is a product that his customers love, so much so that one of them ran a half-marathon in Atlanta recently.

Justin and I talk about:

• The founding story
• The importance of brand
• How his first manufacturing run was ruined in customs and what he learned from it
• The importance of energy and hustle in starting your own company
• How he deals with adversity and stress
• and much much more

Grab your notebook and listen in on my conversation with Justin Schneider of Wolf & Shepherd.

Links to Justin can be found at scottbarstow.com/podcast

Tatiana Birgisson is the founder and CEO of MATI Energy, an all-natural energy drink that goes toe to toe with the likes of Red Bull. I wanted to have her on the show to talk about what it's like to go from starting a company in your dorm room to the Inc 30 Under 30 list a few years later.

The truth is I had no idea how remarkable she is. You're going to hear from Tatiana about what it's like to start something that you care deeply about, something that matters. We talk about

• Her unique upbringing and flying around the world with her sister at the age of 5
• What she learned from her parents about new beginnings
• How she learned entrepreneurship from her grandparents while driving tourists around on jetskis
• How she got up 700 days in a row and renewed her commitment to see MATI through
• How she hustled her way into her partnership with Whole Foods
• What she looked for in her early hires
• Starting her own factory and learning how to ask for help
• and much much more

If you're not motivated to go do something amazing after listening to Tatiana, you need to check your pulse.

Links to Tatiana and MATI Energy can be found at scottbarstow.com/podcast.

Grab your notebook ans listen in on my conversation with Tatiana Birgisson of MATI Energy

Brian Dally is the CEO of Groundfloor, a crowdfunding real estate finance company based in Atlanta, GA. I first met Brian back when he was building Republic Wireless as an intrapraneur at Bandwidth and have watched him build Groundfloor for the past few years.

Brian is a different breed. He doesn't do small ideas. As you'll hear in this interview, Groundfloor invented a new kind of security. Who does that? He only goes after ideas that are worth 7-10 years of his life. Groundfloor has raised over $7 million in capital and operates in nine states.

I wanted to find out from Brian

• Why he takes on these kinds of challenges?
• How does he stay sane and healthy during periods of unbelievable stress?
• What kind of people he looks for in early employees, and how transparent he is with his employees?
• How he and his co-founder Nick got together, and what got him to "yes" on partnering with Nick?
• What he looks for in investors
• and much more

Brian is incredibly insightful and motivating to listen to. There's nuggets of wisdom throughout this interview that you can use regardless of your company's stage.

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and a notebook and listen in to my conversation with Brian Dally of Groundfloor.