Zero to a Million

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Rob Fraser, Founder and CEO at endūr. Bootstrapping a business while creating his product category presented many initial challenges to Rob.

He had to maintain several side jobs in the beginning to fund the initial $1,000 needed to start a Shopify account and order the first batch of socks. He then relied on word of mouth and the help of micro influencer friends to get his brand out there.

By the third year, the company had already made $1 million in revenue and Rob had started paid acquisition too, but it was the shift to online business care of COVID that accelerated the growth of his business.

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Ori Zohar, Co-Founder of Burlap and Barrel. Bootstrapping a spice business has its share of challenges, but Ori shares the innovative ways he kept the business profitable and how he grew acquisition with little to no investment.

By creating an online forum and passionately posting even when there was no engagement, he laid a solid foundation for his community when super influencers started posting their own content, much to the delight of the community. Ori also discovered that creating an engaging buying experience for repeat customers is much better than trying to focus on bringing in new customers.

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Tyler Sickmeyer, CEO of Fidelitas Development. Networking is key in PR, and nurturing the relationships with journalists and editors, gift wrapping everything for them so their job is as smooth as possible, is Tyler's secret sauce in getting his clients the exposure that they need to grow.

By mixing the strengths of PR and SEO, Tyler is able to generate genuine interest when they release something on the wire and disavow bad links on the same day. This is another differentiating factor of their strategy by ensuring that their clients do not get penalized by Google.

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Elaine Hsieh, Co-Founder of EH Chocolatier. What started as Elaine's passion for pastries made a natural progression to entrepreneurship.

She shares how it all began and the challenges in scaling a business that relies on delicate shipping and storage. Elaine also goes into the best marketing for their business which utilizes newsletters and word of mouth.

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Michael Epstein, CMO at PostPilot. In a clutter-filled world where brands compete intensely for attention, PostPilot leverages its strengths in direct mail to reach customers who actually want to receive mail from their favorite brands.

Michael also shares how they use other innovative ideas and technologies to make mail personalized and even attractive to open—a stark contrast to junk mail which automatically goes to the bin without ever being opened.

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Hansol Hong, Co-Founder of Robolink. Hansol shares how their product was first tested rigorously in an after school program which turned out to be an excellent strategy to ensure product market fit.

Hansol shares how they utilized Kickstarter as a main marketing and sales channel and how PR worked for them because their product Zumi, a self-driving car education kit, received the CES 2019 Best of Innovation Award. Community is central in Robolink's success as their students and their parents became their first advocates and evangelists.

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Drew Himel, Founder and CEO of PCR. He shares the genesis of his agency and the early days when they tried to serve any and all clients, and the eventual trimming down and focusing of their services.

He shares how they improve conversions through simple tweaks in the interface, especially taking into account mobile versus desktop, by making it more intuitive and easier for customers to add to cart.

Drew also shares his insights on subscription models and how sellers can put to rest customer concerns by making the option to unsubscribe easier, therefore making them stickier customers.

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego showcases the season's best moments. We featured founders and organization movers who built their companies from the ground up as they shared their biggest wins, losses, and all the lessons they learned in between.

SHOW NOTES

HIGHLIGHTS

Aneela Idnani, Co-Founder of HabitAware

Ryan Smith, Head of Partnerships at Emotive

Nathan Rothstein, Co-Founder of Project Repat

Phillip Rivers, Founder and CEO of Tetra Marketing

Melissa Tavss, Founder of Tipsy Scoop

Laura and Kelly Moffat, Founders of Kirrin Finch

Albert Matheny, CEO at Promix

David Roger, Co-Founder & CEO at Felix Gray

Gihan Amarasiriwardena, Co-Founder and President of Ministry of Supply

Chris Meade, CEO and co-founder of CROSSNET

You can connect with Zero to a Million's amazing guests in the links below:

Aneela Idnani - https://habitaware.com/

Ryan Smith - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-rsmith/

Nathan Rothstein - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanrothstein/

Phillip Rivers - https://www.linkedin.com/in/emailautomation

Melissa Tavss - https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-tavss-a3a55833/

Laura and Kelly Moffat - https://www.instagram.com/kirrinfinch/

Albert Matheny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertmatheny/

David Roger - https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-roger-2a9b2632/

Gihan Amarasiriwardena - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gihanamarasiriwardena/

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Chris Meade, CEO and co-founder of CROSSNET. He recalls how they came up with the idea of a crossnet as a fun mashup of their favorite games and how they made up the rules as they played it.

Chris shares their go-to-market strategy of just playing the game and their marketing strategies which leaned heavily on Facebook ads. One of their first main obstacles was their messaging as different people with literally different voices would speak to the market on various platforms differently.

LinkedIn has also been massive in connecting Chris with people who he thinks are great fits for Crossnet. He shares the difficulties in finding a trusted and reliable PR agency to get eyeballs, and how they work today with Amazon agencies for PPC and others for Google and Facebook ads and email.

SHOW NOTES

HIGHLIGHTS

Inventing Crossnet: The cross between four square and volleyball

Going to market by demoing the game in Miami and word of mouth

Marketing: Paid ads on Facebook and unifying brand message across platforms

Finding true partnerships in PR, Amazon, Google ads, Facebook ads and email

Connecting on LinkedIn

Retail support and building communication with buyers

QUOTES

Chris: "Everyone talks about proof of concept and all this garbage. That was our proof of concept. We just played and we had fun and we're like, alright, let's get to work."

Chris: "It's all about the messaging, making sure they're playing correctly because nobody wants to buy a product that they're playing terribly. It looks awful. It's all about getting them outside and actually playing and getting them to be a part of our community."

Chris: "We never paid for press a day in our life. It was reaching out and being genuine. The best thing has been LinkedIn for us. I built up a very, very nice LinkedIn following. I love to read, I don't know about you, but I genuinely enjoy reading good entrepreneurial pieces."

You can connect with Chris in the links below:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAlGNrQBqj1pCKbD1o4lNdalsiF6Arb5rJs/

Website - https://www.crossnetgame.com/

This week’s episode of the Zero to a Million Podcast with Zach Rego features Gihan Amarasiriwardena, Co-Founder and President of Ministry of Supply. Today, Gihan shares how he and his brand fulfill the market desire for performance apparel that goes beyond the gym.

Gihan wanted to create apparel that is not only versatile but comfortable and stylish as well. He shares that he and his co-founder, during the market research stage, even had a competition as to who can pack the least when they were traveling to prove the utility of their product.

Shopify and Kickstarter have also been instrumental in the brand's success. Gihan shares how they launched on Kickstarter and the massive amount of work required before the launch could even happen.

He also shares the dev work needed to make an enjoyable user experience on the site and how other brands should take note of its many features to tailor the experience according to their ideal customer profiles.