Startup Handmedowns

This was one of my first interviews when I was still getting into podcasting. This interview was first aired in 2017 and you can hear just how bad of an interviewer I was! But luckily, I was interviewing an OG! Tom Bilyeu brought that fire regardless of my poor interviewing skills! SO many great insights and killer pieces of advise for startup founders that he drops here. If you haven’t already checked out Impact Theory–– Tom’s Youtube and podcast–– make sure you do, he has some of the best interviews and with some of the highest performers in the world. Quick background on Tom, Tom was one of the co-founders of Quest Nutrition which was recently acquired $1bn in cash and is now the founder and host of Impact Theory. Before Quest Nutrition he ran a successful tech company for 7 years before he started working on Quest on evenings and weekends. What’s crazy is that at the time of this Quest was only valued at a billion dollars so for them to have actually recently sold for a billion dollars is incredible.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Adam Liebman who's currently VP of Sales at Seated who is known in New York City as one of the top sales executives in the tech ecosystem. Adam has built and grown sales teams for some of the largest tech startups in New York City such as Yext (YEXT) which is now a publicly traded company where Adam was sales hire number one and SinglePlatform where he also played an integral role in craft the sales experience before rapidly growing the team. Adam started out wanting to be a journalist before getting into sales which turns out to be a pretty interesting story. This is definitely a sales 101 episode as Adam drops some serious bombs on this one so make sure you got your notes app at the ready.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Nathalie Molina Nino. Nathalie is an impact investor targeting high-growth businesses that economically benefit women and the planet. A confessed but recovering serial entrepreneur, Nathalie launched her first tech startup at the age of twenty and like most of us got hooked. She's the co-founder of Entrepreneurs@Athena at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies of Barnard College at Columbia University, where the idea for LEAPFROG was first born. Before that, she spent over a decade sharing her no-BS, opinionated flavor of business advice and growth strategy with folks like Disney, Microsoft, MTV, Mattel, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Everyone needs to hear this episode and if you know a vc then share this with them. Just prior to launching her last venture, BRAVA Investments, Molina Niño led the launch of Nely Galán’s New York Times bestselling book and online education venture, Self-Made, and stepped in as CRO of PowerToFly, the fastest growing hirin

Angel Gambino is a WIRED Top 100 executive who has built companies on three continents. She's also an urban regeneration pioneer, a visionary investor, a passionate environmental lawyer, and a dedicated and loving mother. The technology phase of her career has included co-founding investment partnership Prehype Partners, senior roles at the BBC and MTV Networks, and leading the pioneering UK social network Bebo. She has also played pro soccer, and she ran logistics for the USWNT at the Olympics. Raised in Detroit, she recently returned to San Francisco as founder-CEO of a social artificial intelligence startup called Sensai. This is fitting as it’s Women’s Month and Gambino is nothing short of an incredible entrepreneur and investor. Her background should inspire you to take more risks, pursue your goals and do whatever you feel passionate and compelled to do.  Check out our site: Startuphandmedowns.com

This week is a repeat episode with Ian White who’s the co-founder and former CTO of Sailthru. Recorded June 2017 On this episode, we discuss: - How to build a product - The importance of talking with users - Speed to market Ian White was the CTO and Co-Founder of email service provider Sailthru. They’ve raised over $48m and now staff over 200 people in New York City. He also helped build Silicon Valley Insider which later grew to become Business Insider. He’s known for building the famous slideshows feature in Business Insider articles. Ian is now the Founder of Stardog which is his consultancy business for startups. In this episode of Startup Handmedowns Philip and Ian talk about the early days of Business Insider and building Sailthru whilst still at Business Insider. They talk about product managers, CTO’s and more Listen on Spotify, iTunes and anywhere else you listen to podcasts!

This week we sat down with Austen Allred of Lambda School, Fit Marketing, Grasswire, and Lendup. On this episode we discuss: - Growth marketing galore - The free upfront model - When to invest Austen Allred has a super interesting origin story, having dropped out of university himself, he went on to co-found his own school and pushing the envelope for the future of education. For those of you who are out of the loop, Austen created Lambda School, a coding school that asks for no money up front in an exchange for a percentage of your salary after you get a job making more than 50k. Austen got his start in the business world at Stubtopia, a ticket brokering company that he started with his brother at 18. After handing over the reins to his brother, he went on to complete an LDS mission in Ukraine which ended up setting a tone of dedication and perseverance for his whole career. If you’re an entrepreneur trying to make your move, I suggest listening to what Austen has to say as he gives honest advice about

This week we're interviewing Tony Conrad of True Ventures, Sphere, about.me, Wordpress and many other great startups.  On this episode we discuss: - The turning point of modern startup culture - Expert level networking - The emotional intelligence necessary to excel in the startup landscape The theme of this episode is networking, networking, networking! And no, you aren't just going to hear the obvious "just get out there and meet people!", Tony has some concrete advice for how to surround yourself with people that will guide you along your journey as an entrepreneur. Coming from a tiny midwestern farming town, Tony was not set up for the life as an entrepreneur that he went on to lead. His startup experience more or less fell into place after a decision to move to California after working in the corporate world for 8 years, and he's been killing the game ever since which is why we call him the Godfather of Silicon Valley. Having invested in companies such as Blue Bottle Coffee, Bandcamp, Fitbit, P

This week we're sharing our interview with Tammy Nam, COO of PicsArt, a photo editing platform with over 100 million monthly users. Tammy has worked at tons of cool companies such as Slide, Scribd, and Viki, and has earned quite a name in the consumer-facing tech world. On this episode we discuss: How to deal with different founders The attributes of virally successful companies The role of culture in startups Full of helpful startup marketing tips, this episode is for all non-technical entrepreneurs out there. Voted one of the top 25 women to watch in tech by AlwaysOn, Tammy has a ton of expert advice to share, from how to bring out the best in different founders to navigating the challenges of being a woman in tech. Our favorite part of this episode is her strategic, purposeful marketing and growth strategies. Marketing is often boiled down to storytelling or hacking, but Tammy shows us how you can approach marketing in any stage of your company in a thoughtful, future-focused way. Don't miss this episo

This week we've interviewed David "DJ" Jamilly, co-founder of Theme Traders, a creative event production business (emphasis on the creative) which grew to the impressive from his party entertainment gig as a teenager! On this episode we discuss: The social aspect of doing business Setting client expectations Kindness (both the not-for-profit organization David founded and just kindness in general) David is just a super nice guy who has figured out how to make millions off of having fun. You know when people tell you "just do what you love and it'll work out" and you don't believe them? Well, it actually worked out for David! He founded an event production business with his sister called Theme Traders which has worked on events such as Pride London 2018, album launches for Island Records, and much more. David is equally as dedicated to his philanthropic work, which has led to him founding Pod Children's Charity, The Good Deeds Organization, and Kindness Day UK. If you are disheartened by the cold nature of

Ok I know last week we promised a new episode but you're going to have to wait one more week... this week we're playing a rerun of one of our favorite interviews with Mat Braddy, former CMO of Just Eat and current mentor extraordinaire. On this episode we discuss: - Why Mat Braddy ran for office - Eating the Big Fish by Adam Morgan - The importance of bold marketing as a brand competitor - Some marketing tips and tricks (read: how to not waste your whole marketing budget on an ineffective ad) Mat is a pretty funny guy which is why 30% of this episode is Phil laughing, and it's also why Just Eat got to be one of the biggest takeaway brands ever! From ads such as "give hunger the finger" and bold marketing stunts such as kidnapping celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson, Mat Braddy could be described as a marketing genius. My favourite bit of advice in this episode is to consciously try and take in every ad you see on your walk home, and in the morning, ask yourself which ones you remember because those are th

This week we are reairing and old episode- our interview with Anton Derlyakta, CEO & co-founder of Sweatcoin and founder & managing partner at Talent Equity Ventures. On this episode we discuss: How to tell when someone is going to be a success The best qualities of an entrepreneur The contextual nature of the startup world This episode was aired two years ago and since then, he’s been busy. For those of you out of the loop, Sweatcoin is an app that pays you in Sweatcoins to move outside. SweatcoinsThis interview is full of great venture capital insights as well as his origin story. Anton tells us that he wasn’t a natural born entrepreneur (though technically he did have a startup at university). He didn’t go to business school until he’d already had a significant career as a marketer in a large company. But, in the past decade, he’s funded countless startups at his VC, Talent Equity Ventures are their own cryptocurrency and can be exchanged for real stuff on their app like a fitness watch, gift car

This week on Startup Handmedowns, we sat down with Gaston Tourn, CMO of Badoo which for those of you who don’t know is a dating app that is most popular in Europe and South America. Gaston describes himself as a writer and a poet, creating the narrative of the customer and integrating their stories into the product in question. Like many of us, Gaston once had the belief that marketers go out and trick people, that it’s more of a "slimy job", which makes his journey to marketing even more interesting. Hear how he didn’t set out to become a marketer at all, and how he was actually convinced by Google to try it out. I mean, if Google told me what job I’m meant for, I’d believe them too. Gaston talks about his time working on projects such as Google Adwords and Youtube before joining Badoo as CMO. The work he’s doing at Badoo is pretty impressive, and from the way he describes it in the interview, it totally makes sense that he sees himself as a writer and a poet. Gaston is working to fix online dating, on the

Welcome to another episode of Startup Handmedowns! We promise this episode was worth the wait! This week, we chat with Porter Braswell, co-founder and CEO of Jopwell, a career advancement platform for people of colour. As Porter describes, Jopwell was created out of necessity. When Porter entered the finance industry, he noticed that there were very few people in the industry that looked like him, and as a black man who had many opportunities that most people of colour are systematically barred from, he allocated the responsibility onto himself to fight for diversity in the workforce. Part of the reason why Jopwell is so successful is that Porter is able to foster a community that is about more than just finding a job. He knows that bigotry isn’t something that is just felt in a controlled environment like work or school; being a marginalized person means that you experience the world differently, giving you a unique perspective on the world around you. This can make it very hard to find success in a workfor

This week we sit down with Patrick, founder/CEO at HelloFresh. An all around foodie, Patrick talks us through his road to success and the difficulties of bringing a new product to market. For those who haven’t tried it yet, HelloFresh is a meal kit service that brings portioned packages of food to your door with easy recipes to follow, and it’s actually the first meal kit service of its kind. Being the first of your kind in any sphere is tough, and Patrick really brings to light the process of educating the public about your product, which can be a real struggle when your product fills a need that people don’t yet realize they have. Patrick’s origin story is also quite interesting and pretty entertaining, as he started his career as a lawyer in a buttoned-up law firm. He would literally sneak out of his office to cook at various restaurants downtown and he basically kept up a double life until he resigned to be a full-time foodie.

This week in Startup Handmedowns, we chat with Abhi Lokesh, founder CEO of Fracture and down-to-earth world traveler. Fracture is a glass printing company which emerged out of Abhi’s university passion project, an e-commerce art business which donated all of its profits to charity, as well as a trip to Swaziland with his classmate, Alex. A major lesson in this week’s episode is patience. Abhi talks about refreshing his order intake page and projecting the typical hockey stick growth curve in a naivié way that I’m sure a lot of us can relate too. His dreams for Fracture were pretty idealistic, but the steps to get there actualized in slogging through Facebook marketing campaigns, trying to get on Techcrunch, and really just trying stuff out and seeing what worked. Additionally, Abhi did not take the traditional fundraising route with venture capitalists, advisors, and a bunch of fundraising rounds. He believed in his product and its ability to grow on its own.

In this week’s episode of Startup Handmedowns, we sit down with Ryan Walsh who is currently a partner at Floodgate. Ryan has had a very rich career history, from starting out as a performing DJ in San Francisco to co-founding his own startup, and working as the VP of product at Beats by Dre. His origin story is wild, as Ryan got his start as a raver in Pittsburg, taking pictures of the polished DJ’s equipment with a disposable camera to figure out how to emulate that sound. After figuring out that the party life of a DJ was not for him, Ryan went on to found a company called Pulselocker, which was meant as a DJ tool to cooperate with streaming services. If you’ve ever talked to a musician who has been playing pre-Napster, you’ve heard all about how much the music business has changed and how rapidly the way we buy and sell music shifts. Well, the way music was being consumed and DJ’d changed even faster than his company could develop a product, and he eventually left Pulselocker.

In this week’s episode, we interview Paul Grossinger, an angel investor and co-founder of Gaingels Syndicate, Blue Jay Syndicate, A-Level Capital, and Pervasive Group Inc. Gaingels Syndicate is a group offering investment opportunities to LGBT founders and Blue Jay Syndicate offers investment to founders in the Johns Hopkins community, which Paul started partially as a way to give back to his community. During this interview, Paul challenges the idea that there is a perfect startup formula of funding and encourages founders to think critically about their company’s funding strategy. We are taught to go after big-name venture capitalists, but are founders really going to benefit when they sell their company for a huge chunk of cash and investors take their share first?

Jake Levine is the former Founder & CEO of Electric Objects, named one of Time Magazine's 25 Best Inventions of 2014. He started the company in 2013 to explore ambient computing and the future of art. In 2017 Electric Objects was acquired by GIPHY, which is basically the Google of gifs. Before Electric Objects, Jake was the General Manager of Digg, a Betaworks company which they acquired in 2012. Jake is a part-time VC at Notation Capital and is also a product manager at Square. We cover a lot of ground in this very chilled interview with Jake. we talk about his time at Digg and the painful process of starting a company. This episode was recorded at Betaworks.

Russ Shaw is the founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates. He originally founded Tech London Advocates in 2013 to establish an independent voice for the technology sector which would focus on the private sector. Since then he has been championing London as a global tech hub and campaigning to address some of the biggest challenges facing tech companies in the UK – diversity, digital skills, immigration, infrastructure and of course access to funding. Tech London Advocates is a network of more than 6,000 tech leaders, entrepreneurs, and experts in London, across the UK and in over 50 countries worldwide and Philip actually joined Tech London Advocates a few years back. Before starting TLA Russ was previously the Chairman of The Marketing Group of Great Britain following senior positions at Skype, Telefónica, O2, and CEO of a later stage startup called Mobileway. He’s an angel and venture investor.

Patrick Jackson who is the Chief Technology Officer at Disconnect, which allows people to browse the web without being tracked. given the new GDPR regulations you could say these guys launched way before their tme. Disconnect launched in early 2010 and has gone on to have over 50mill users, they’ve raised a millions of dollars and have google chrome and Firefox extensions of the product. Before joining Disconnect Patrick founded a number of startups through his company imaginary feet which received over 8 million downloads across various apps that they launched. Like one of our previous guests, Mckeever Conwell the 2nd Patrick also worked at the NSA, in fact they worked together and then went on to launch a number of startups together. In this episode we talk about how to launch an app quickly and also when to kill your project , why press releases don’t matter and why you shouldn’t buy into the hype.