Pawel Solyga didn’t mean to create a software development company. 

It was 2012 and he’d left his job to build a mobile trivia app. He secured some funding. Built a small team. Things were going okay.  

But in the background of his workdays, his email inbox was brimming with requests from friends who wanted his help with their projects. And when things slowed down with the trivia app, he finally realized that his over-full inbox wasn’t a nuisance. 

It was a business. 

Today Tooploox has grown to more than 100 employees who work on state-of-the-art solutions for startups and enterprises, including ING, Coindesk and Lufthansa. 

Louis talked to Pawel about his journey with Tooploox, the latest software trends and why launching the absolute best version of your product is sometimes a bad thing. 

Highlights include: 

What is a software development company? 

How long does a software development company like Tooploox generally work on a project? 

What are the big trends in software development in 2021? 

What should companies ask a software development company when in the process of hiring one? 

When does it make sense to hire an in-house developer vs. hiring a software development company?

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-15-software-developer-pawel-solyga/. 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Pawel Solyga is a Polish programmer and entrepreneur. His company Tooploox provides state-of-the-art solutions for startups and enterprises, which altogether amount to over $4 billion in value.  

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

http://www.rocketplace.com/podcast

Anthony Armendariz is an agency guy — even if, by his own accounting, the agency model has been broken for a long time. 

So when he was faced with two options, to work in-house as a design lead or return to agency life, and both ideas depressed him, Armendariz created a third. He and his wife started Funsize, a service and design shop that acts as a bridge between the in-house and agency design experiences. 

Seven years later the company has grown to more than 25 designers and services powerhouse clients like Volvo, Capital One and PayPal.   

He tells us more about that journey, this week on the podcast. 

Highlights include: 

Design basic: What is service design? What is experience strategy? What is experience research? 

What to expect when hiring a design agency to work on an existing product. What to expect when hiring a design agency to work on a new product. 

Why legacy brands are often ill-equipped for digital-first design challenges.   

What to ask before hiring a designer. Red flags to look out for when hiring a design agency.

A survey of the latest design trends & how COVID-19 has affected the way products are designed. 

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-14-product-designer-anthony-armendariz/. 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Anthony Armendariz is a founding partner and the head of design at Funsize, a digital design studio based in Austin. He hosts his very own podcast, The Hustle, which is all about design.  

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

www.rocketplace.com/podcast

It’s an established fact in Silicon Valley that a few big companies dominate the talent pool. Think about it. Airbnb. Uber. Google. And while 2020 pretty much demolished the idea of a “local workforce,” the fact remains — these companies know how to hire. 

So what’s their secret? 

This week, longtime EPAD recruiter Mike Morell joins us to discuss. In the last two decades Mike’s company Riviera Partners has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry — and he’s ready to share what he’s learned. 

Highlights include: 

- What do companies like Airbnb do right when it comes to EPAD hiring? 

- What does a commitment to diversity & inclusion actually look like in a people strategy? 

- What is the benefit of hiring an EPAD-specific recruiter? 

- How long does an average executive search take? And how long is too long?  

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-13-epad-recruiter-mike-morell/. 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Mike Morell is a partner at Riviera Partners, where he’s been running EPAD executive searches for almost two decades. Riviera Partners is an executive search firm with a focus on emerging growth, venture backed, private equity and public companies in North America. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

www.rocketplace.com/podcast

The internet is crowded. Standing out — much less, selling product — requires time, luck, savvy, and, according to Nima Gardideh, really smart software. 

Nima’s growth studio Pearmill helps create and run creative advertising campaigns for companies who want to make a big splash but don’t have the manpower to do it. This week he and Louis talk about performance marketing and how it’s changing the way we think about our marketing dollars.

Highlights include: 

- Performance marketing basics: What is performance marketing and who is it for? 

- What does it take to set up a performance marketing operation & how much money should you expect to spend? 

- What is the future of user generated content & why is it trending down? 

- What are the benefits of broad marketing? 

- How has Facebook changed the game when it comes to running targeted marketing campaigns?

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-12-performance-marketer-nima-gardideh/. 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Nima Gardideh is the Cofounder & President of Pearmill, a growth agency specializing in digital performance marketing. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

www.rocketplace.com/podcast

We’re kicking off the new year with a conversation about all things fintech. Louis is joined by an expert, Hugh Norton-Smith, whose executive recruiting firm Intersection Growth Partners works with both incumbent financial institutions and fintech up-and-comers. Hugh has an insider’s perspective on what went on in 2020  — and what’s next. 

Highlights include: 

- Hugh’s unusual path to executive recruitment 

- The convergence of old and new world financial services companies 

- Segmentation in the recruiting industry 

- When to hire an executive recruiter

- Why incumbent institutions are having their “Kodak moment”

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-11-fintech-recruiter-hugh-norton-smith/. 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Hugh Norton-Smith is Founder of Intersection Growth Partners, a San Francisco-based executive search firm focussed specifically on fintech. Intersection builds out leadership teams for scrappy startups, incumbent banks working on digital transformation, as well as the investors into fintech. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

www.rocketplace.com/podcast

Failure is life's greatest teacher. And god knows, it's been a year full of them. 

 

So with 2021 just weeks away, as we all struggle to understand what went wrong and what comes next, we thought — why not give in? Instead of pushing all the bad stuff away, what if we reveled in it instead?

 

Afterall, what could be better than a long list of other people's mistakes to remind us that the bad stuff passes? It always does.

 

This week, we got back through the archives to tell some of The Startup Stack's greatest stories of failure. F***-ups to learn from, stories to inspire.

 

So enjoy this special episode of The Startup Stack and we'll see you in the new year — older and wiser and with loads of mistakes still ahead.

 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen.

https://rocketplace.com/blog/bonus-episode-the-big-whoopsies/

What do speech writers do? Outside of what we’ve gleaned from reruns of “The West Wing,” most of us have no clue. On this week’s podcast speechwriter Lloyd Rang joins Louis to clear things up. 

The Toronto-based communications specialist spent decades writing for top-ranking Canadian officials before starting LRC, a boutique communications firm. 

Who better to dissect this particular moment in U.S. politics, media & tech than an outsider who thinks about those things for a living? 

Lloyd and Louis talk about how social media has transformed communications — from how companies create buzz around product launches, to announcing an IPO — and what companies can do to cut through the noise. 

Highlights include: 

- The story of Lloyd’s life as a speechwriter & the parallels between political work & startup work   

- “Social listening” and the importance of understanding the conversation you’re entering 

- How to evaluate communications companies & measure impact 

- Tips for crafting your company’s online presence during a particularly noisy time

- Pandemic communications advice

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-10-speechwriter-lloyd-rang/. 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Lloyd Rang is CEO & lead speechwriter at LRC. Before launching his own boutique narrative & content firm, Lloyd spent years writing for top-ranking Canadian officials and the Canadian government. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

www.rocketplace.com/podcast

Jess Mah is a wunderkind. She started the company that would become inDinero with a handful of other undergrad computer science students while still at UC Berkeley. The team was young, scrappy and smart, with hundreds of mistakes ahead of them. For one, it would be years until the financial services outfit hired their first accountant. 

 

Almost a decade later inDinero company is thriving, with clients including Pinterest and Slack.  

 

Louis talks with Jess about the decade she spent building (and sometimes rebuilding) inDinero, the challenges and benefits of being a young founder, what happened to all those small business stimulus checks, and — yes — the future of financial services.  

 

Highlights include: 

- A terminology breakdown: What is a CFO, a controller, an accountant? 

- Advice for hiring a financial services company

- Jess’s story of building inDinero, including her “no a**holes” policy 

- The importance of being guided by your business plan & how Jess has changed hers

- inDinero’s response to the pandemic & financial roadmapping 

 

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-9-financial-services-jess-mah/. 

 

[Guest / Host bios] 

 

Guest: Jess Mah is the founder & CEO of inDinero, which she launched from her undergrad dorm room in 2010. She’s since been featured in Forbes and Inc. Magazine's 30 Under 30 Lists.  

 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

 

www.rocketplace.com/podcast

Cashflow issues — nobody wants them. Greg Capitolo has built a career around ensuring they never happen. His company, Attivo Partners, functions as a stand-in CFO, helping startups navigate every kind of financial and accounting challenge, from how to raise money to automating payroll. This week Louis and Greg dive into the world of startup financing and talk about what it takes to get a business off the ground. 

 

Highlights include: 

- The benefits of waiting to hire a CFO, and how companies like Attivo make that possible 

- Common issues arising from COVID-19 and funding freezes and how to navigate them

- Greg’s advice for how to evaluate whether a financial services company is right for your business 

 

[Guest / Host bios] 

 

Guest: Greg is one of the founders of Attivo, a full-service accounting and finance services company that supports emerging growth companies in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before founding Attivo, Greg spent almost a decade as an interim CFO and Financial Advisor.   

 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

 

https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-8-finance-accounting-greg-capitolo

This week Louis is joined by Mike Stone, the founder of The Gnar Company, a Boston-based software development consultancy. Louis and Mike talk about the highs and lows of running a business and the particulars of the industry, including when it makes sense to hire an outside engineering group — and what to know before you do.   

 

Highlights include:

-An explanation of “foundational software” as it relates to outside engineering support

-What to know before hiring a software dev firm 

-Emerging trends in software development 

-How The Gnar has changed in response to the pandemic (and why it’s called “The Gnar”!) 

 

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ www.rocketplace.com/podcast. 

 

[Guest / Host bios] 

 

Guest: Mike Stone is Founder of The Gnar Company, a Boston-based software development group that consults with both startups and enterprise companies, including institutions like The John Hopkins School of Medicine and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

 

www.rocketplace.com/podcast