Working as a startup mentor can be very rewarding. Even if you don't have any startup experience of your own, being a startup mentor allows you to learn more about the startup industries while giving back to your own startup community.

Most of the startups I know are eager to find professionals, with the right expertise, that can help by providing guidance around various topics.

Investors like startup founders who know their numbers. That includes knowing the key performance indicators, KPIs, that investors look at when evaluating an opportunity.

In this episode, I talk about some of those KPIs and why they matter to investors. As well as the importance of projecting those numbers if you are pre-revenue.

One of the most common questions I get is "Where can I meet investors?". It is so common that I created a free eBook on the topic.

Of the places, I talk about meeting investors through online sites. One of the more commonly known sites is AngelList.com. But, there are others that I recommended.

Keep in mind that the use of online sites has made connecting with investors easier. But, that also means that you are competing with more startups for the attention of those investors.

We are back!

After a being away a bit longer than I anticipated, we are about ready to go live with Season 5 of the Southern Startup podcast (formerly the SouthFound podcast).

I am announcing a new format that includes twice a week episodes, but fewer interviews. Instead, I will be spending time answering the most common questions I get from startups across the U.S.

Also, if you'd like to be part of the larger SouthFound startup community, be sure to join us in our free, private Slack channel. 

You can learn more at SouthernStartups.com/Slack/

Hey there!

In today's episode I wrap-up Season 4 with a quick recap of the guests we have heard from this season, as well as the things we had the opportunity to learn from each of them.

I also share some brief news about the new content I am working on that will likely air, at least partially, on the podcast.

As always, if you are enjoying the podcast, please be sure to share it with your contacts and consider leaving a review on iTunes.

On today's episode, I interview the team over at StoragePug.

Tommy, Matt, and Richard share how their software solution for storage facilities came to be. Including how they decided on a name.

They are fresh off a win at Knoxville's StartUp day pitch competition and leveraging their momentum to grow beyond their existing clientele (86 clients in 17 states).

They also get personal with us, sharing why they made a decision to leave their day jobs, what it is like to work with co-founders who were friends beforehand and the best/hardest part of being an entrepreneur. 

On this episode of the SouthFound podcast, I talked with John Batcheller and his team from Franchise Innovation Group.    While franchising is not for every business, John shares the important things that his team looks for in a business model that allows a company to scale. So, whether or not your company is considering franchising in the future or not, the lessons from this episode are truly valuable.   You also get the opportunity to hear John’s personal entrepreneurial story. Including how his early days in the corporate world taught him the importance of policies and processes, how businesses should be built on trust, the importance of managing your cash flow, and more.

Many entrepreneurs would call it quits after selling their very first business to Apple. In fact, that is what Scott Moody of K4Connect tried to do. Until a mission trip, and chance coffee encounter opened up his eyes to the possibility of providing a solution to a much-needed pain point.   Scott’s early years included 18 years in the corporate world. His first entrepreneurial endeavor came when his existing company didn’t have the bandwidth to take a new solution to market. So, Scott and his team convinced the company to spin their unit out into a separate entity in order to pursue the solution. That company was AuthenTec and the idea was the first Touch ID for smart devices. AuthenTec eventually went public and was acquired by Apple for a reported $356M.   It was during his first retirement that Scott happened upon the unmet need of helping seniors and consumers with disabilities live a more free life by leveraging technology. That realization led to the creation of K4Connect, whose flagship product is a market leader in senior living smart home automation.   In this interview, Scott shares the many lessons he has learned as an entrepreneur, including the importance of having a team that likes to work together. As well as the challenges that come with running a high-growth company.

Hunter Marlowe, of Marlowe Guitar, gets a little stir crazy when he isn’t getting the opportunity to express his creative nature. That is why entrepreneurship was a natural fit for him professionally.   Hunter was exposed to being an entrepreneur through his father’s vending machine business. Which he says taught him a lot of positive lessons around hustle. Because of that exposure, Hunter began his own entrepreneurial journey in his youth using his musical talents to play gigs.   Like many entrepreneurs, Hunter’s first real startup came out of solving his own pain point.    While playing solo gigs, Hunter was always looking for ways to add new sounds to the music his playing. For example, adding a tambourine sound to back up his guitar licks. While many musicians his electronic foot pedals, Hunter wanted something more.    That is why he created the Jambourine, which is a tambourine that fits into the hole of an acoustic guitar and can be played in unison while you are strumming away on the guitar strings. The Jambourine even won Hunter his startup seed money by coming in first an Middle Tennessee State University pitch competition.   In this interview, Hunter opens up about the ups and downs that come with being an entrepreneur. For example, of six original co-founders, Hunter is the only surviving member. He also talks about the impact that learning new skills, such as digital marketing, has planned in his professional evolution.   To learn more about Marlowe Guitar head here.

Selling two companies before you graduate from college tends to establish a person as a lifetime entrepreneur. But, that wasn’t necessarily the case with Bryan Barringer of ProxBox. In fact, Bryan admits that he has tried to leave the startup world behind, unsuccessfully, many times.   Bryan started his first business, with his father, when he was thirteen. Although his father was a salesman by day, he always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Besides having a knack for seeing an opportunity, both Bryan and his father saw creating businesses as a way to bond and spend time together.   Their first venture was a video rental store that sold to BlockBuster. Following that success, the duo decided to open a pizza store next door to their old video store. That too sold.   By the time Bryan finished up college he decided to give “big business” a shot. His career began at FedEx, where Bryan admits he learned a lot of valuable skills but also saw how big businesses struggle with entrepreneurship. A problem Bryan coaches companies on to this day via his consulting practice.   Bryan’s current startup, ProxBox, provides proximity-based marketing beacons that broadcast the details of a piece of real estate that is for sale.   The journey to the current model wasn’t easy. However, as a savvy entrepreneur, Bryan has been wise enough to listen to his end user. This type of customer discovery has lead the company to pivot there pricing model to more of a SaaS model. Which Bryan says has helped with their growth.   Listen in to the rest of this interview to catch some of Bryan’s tips for startup success.   Or, if you’d like to connect with Bryan he suggests saying hello on LinkedIn.