Entrepreneur Interviews – Under30CEO

We’ve all had restless nights: staring up at the ceiling, hoping to fall asleep. As an air vent blew warm air into the face of Ryan Fant keeping him awake, he faced a dilemma. He could turn off the heat and freeze to death, or pile blankets and pillows over his head to avoid the annoyance. For Ryan, opportunity was staring down at him, and he chose neither option. Instead, he turned to fixing the problem on a wider scale with his own venture. Ryan is co-founder of Keen Home with Nayeem Hussain. Keen Home builds hardware devices that enhance the core functions of the home. The company’s first product is the Keen Vent. The vent can reduce the runtime of central heating and cooling up to 30% by redirecting airflow. Ryan started attacking his air vent conundrum by looking at the function and inefficiencies with heating and cooling vents. After doing some research, it was clear that this was a problem worth solving. “An average homeowner spends half of their total energy bill on heating and cooling costs, or roughly $2,000 per year.” Social media research revealed that Ryan was far from the only person complaining about an annoying […] The post Tech VENTure: Interview with Ryan Fant of Keen Home appeared first on Under30CEO.

Nat Disston found his passion for surfing at an early age. At the age of 4, Nat and his cousin made pretend surfboards out of cardboard. Although he unsuccessfully rode carpet waves in his living room, creating cardboard surfboards was an early sign that his passion would soon come out through his work. Years later, Nat took a backpacking trip in Costa Rica. He met a surfboard designer who created custom boards by whittling. When Nat got back from the trip, he bought a blank piece of wood and $100 worth of hand tools. After three unsuccessful attempts, he finally was able to create a fully-functional board. His craft improved, and his passion grew as he created boards over the next few years for his personal collection. This hobby turned into something greater after a family member asked Nat for a custom surfboard. Shortly after, he started receiving additional requests for boards. It took a total of six years from the start of his hobby to the launch of his business – VoyVoy. Surfboards to a surfer are about much more than just riding a wave. Their boards represent their personal style. They are a work of art, and it was […] The post Passion Wave: Interview with VoyVoy’s Nat Disston appeared first on Under30CEO.

Every business requires investments, but not all investments are monetary. When Eli Ostreicher started New York City based boutique travel agency Regal Wings, startup capital was not the most important investment made in the company. “It wasn’t so much about investing financially, but investing effort and everything that I could give to it.” Regal Wings acts as both a travel consolidator and business travel management provider. The company was founded in 2006 and started as a single booking made by Eli in the bedroom of a small apartment in Miami. His first customer was his uncle. Word quickly spread among his uncle’s friends and Regal Wings took-off. Eli admits that he started Regal Wings with basically nothing. “I knew no business tools. I didn’t know what payroll meant.” Eli didn’t know much about how to run a business, but he did know how to work hard and how to provide exceptional service to others. The effort invested in the company and service has not gone unrecognized by customers. Regal Wings has focused on customer service from the start and it remains their strongest competitive advantage. In my interview with the young entrepreneur (audio below), he told the story of a […] The post Investing in Service: Interview with Regal Wings Founder Eli Ostreicher appeared first on Under30CEO.

My interview with Phil Dumontet was interrupted by a police officer knocking on his window after he pulled over safely to the side of the road. As rare as an interview starting with a police intervention is a company starting with just a CEO and a bicycle. Dashed has grown into the leading restaurant delivery service in the Northeast. Dashed delivers for over 600 top rated restaurants in 6 cities who wouldn’t otherwise offer delivery. The company, founded in 2009 now has over 90 employees and was named to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies in America in 2013 (#119). Their focus on the speed of delivery while being eco-friendly has set them apart from competitors and made Dashed a favorite among users. Dashed was co-founder Phil Dumontet’s first job and entrepreneurial endeavor. I guess you could say it was love at first bike. The idea for the company stemmed from a conversation he had with his brother and an opportunity in the market after a would-be competitor in the area went out of business. “The opportunity to do something that is relatively simple (food delivery), but do it better and do it faster than anyone else is […] The post Founded on a Bicycle – Interview with Dashed Founder Phil Dumontet appeared first on Under30CEO.

BusinessDictionary.com defines a serial entrepreneur as “an entrepreneur who continuously comes up with new ideas and starts new businesses.” Alex Furmansky is a great example of someone who not only comes up with ideas, but turns those ideas into ventures of all shapes and sizes. Young entrepreneur Alex Furmansky was an early teen when he turned his first idea into a business. Alex started Lucky Leaf Collectors, a service based company that raked yards in his city. He purchased rakes and supplies, recruited a friend to work with him, and set a price to rake lawns. After a lot of hard work, he landed their first client. That first client turned out to have a yard the size of a football field. He may not have planned out his first venture thouroughly, but although this first yard was the last yard the Lucky Leaf Collectors would rake, this would not be Alex’s last venture. Alex has come a long way since his early leaf collecting days, but he’s retained the passion and enthusiasm for venture creation that he displayed at a young age. “Don’t do it for the glory at the end, do it for the fun of the process.” […] The post From Stuffed Animals to Dating: Interview with Serial Entrepreneur Alex Furmansky appeared first on Under30CEO.

Glamour Kills embraces the spirit of the underdog, from their flying pig logo to the humble beginnings of the brand. Nearly a decade after their start, this alternative fashion brand has gone from the basement to the center stage. Mark Capicotto started doing freelance art designs of CD covers, t-shirts, and logos for friends’ bands while in High School. In his parents basement in New York with a grand sum of $300, Mark Capicotto started Glamour Kills. He was working as a pizza delivery boy and had no background in business. He had little to lose and dedicated all of his free-time and energy intro the brand. Mark admits that there wasn’t a conscious decision to turn in into an actual business. The brand wasn’t formed as an LLC until several years after initial work had begun on designs. “The first couple of years was just figuring things out.” The clothing company was founded on Mark’s love and passion for music. The company started by working with bands he had relationships with. Glamour Kills continues to work with bands today by sponsoring bands, concerts, festivals and tours. “It just made sense that if I was going to start a brand […] The post From Basement to Center Stage – Interview with Glamour Kills Founder Mark Capicotto appeared first on Under30CEO.

Dropout is such a negative word. Young entrepreneurs all across the country and world are ‘dropping out’ of school, but not because they are failing.  Aaron George may have dropped out of law school, but it wasn’t to take a  job or because he couldn’t handle it. He left law school to focus on something he was truly passionate about – lawyers. But why work with lawyers if you don’t want to be one? “Find a problem that you’re really passionate about solving. Once you find that, the pieces fall into place and your able to make it happen if you really care about it.” Aaron may not have wanted to become a lawyer himself, but after experiencing the problems that both lawyers and people who needed legal services faced in the current market, he found his calling to offer a solution to both sides of the equation. Aaron is co-founder of LawKick, which he describes as “an online marketplace aiming to revolutionize the legal industry by making it easier and more affordable to get legal help.” LawKick allows users to post what they are looking for from an attorney. Attorneys who are qualified and vetted can then view the […] The post Law School Dropout – Interview with LawKick’s Aaron George appeared first on Under30CEO.

SalesBus Founders Rickey Berrin (left) and Seth Murphy (right) Entrepreneurs are often fueled by passion. When asked what’s important in vetting an idea to pursue as an entrepreneur, Ricky Berrin responded, “Make sure it’s something you are passionate about because you’re going to be spending a lot of time on it. The second part is making sure what you’re building is something people actually care about and want.” Ricky is a passionate entrepreneur who started his entrepreneurial ride at a young age selling mangos on the street with his sister. In 2012, Ricky and his team SeeMore Technology took home a share of $75,000 in NYU’s Technology Venture Competition. Since the competition, he has also been involved in the Dorm Room Fund, served as the co-president of the NYU Entrepreneurs Network, and worked in business development at The Fancy. Q: What’s your best piece of advice for fellow young entrepreneurs? A: “Make it happen. Go for it!” It’s been a crazy past few years for Ricky, but so is the life of a young entrepreneur. “You may have a lot of obstacles and it’s going to be tough. You have to recognize that going in, but for me it’s been […] The post This Bus Runs on Passion – Interview with Ricky Berrin of SalesBus appeared first on Under30CEO.

Parking in Chicago can be as difficult as it is expensive.  In trying to find an affordable place to park while attending a Bachelor party, I discovered SpotHero. The options available to me before finding SpotHero included paying $50 a day for valet parking at the hotel, spending $6.50 an hour for metered parking, or searching for a parking lot the day of, which averages $32 a day.  I found a place to park for three days near my hotel for $25. I was very impressed with the startup that is trying to “relieve the stress of parking,” as SpotHero Founder and CEO Jeremy Smith put it. Trying to avoid valet fees was a strong motivator for me, but Jeremy had a stronger incentive to create a solution to decrease the difficult nature of finding parking in a busy city. What was it that inspired him? $3,500 in parking tickets! “I wasn’t very good at reading signs. I always thought that I’d get away with it…but I got busted every single time.  I really started developing this frustration against parking because it was costing me so much money.  I decided that I actually needed to make a solution for it […] The post Finding the Right Spot – Interview with Spot Hero’s Jeremy Smith appeared first on Under30CEO.

We all love online advertising!  The wonderful pop-up videos, banner ads, and numerous links to click appearing while getting our daily fix of streaming television shows online makes our daily lives better, right?  Odds are that online ads and have little effect on your daily life.   Outside of an annoyance and a little bit of waster times, you quickly forget online ads and have gain lasting impression of the brands that were begging for your attention.  Jebbit co-founder Tom Coburn realized the ineffectiveness of the current forms of online ads one day while he opened a second browser instead of watching a video ad.  The advertiser whose ad was being displayed was just wasting money while also wasting Tom’s time.  The idea for Jebbit was born to battle the low impact ads that were wasting the time and money of brands and consumers. There was a time when banner ads were all the rage, but Tom stated that click rates of static banner ads can be as low as 00.05%.  Even modern ad types are starting to lose their luster as *bounce rates range from 70-90%. Jebbit saw this as a big opportunity for a new entrant into the market […] The post Ad Answers – Interview with Jebbit’s Tom Coburn appeared first on Under30CEO.

What is OrderGroove? “We power subscription commerce programs for brands and retailers to help them extend lifetime value of their most valuable customers.” E-commerce subscription platforms are a significant part of online business now, but in 2008, convincing investors that a subscription commerce model would take off was a significant challenge. OrderGroove founder and CEO Greg Alvo turned to bootstrapping instead of dwelling on the lack of investors initially interested in the company and industry.  Greg focused on building a great product and pleasing clients.  This strategy resulted into turning one of his early clients into the company’s very first investor. The startup world is flooded with ‘success stories’ of companies raising significant rounds of funding, but Greg warns against solely relying on raising money as a sign of success.  “Raising money is just a means to an end. Too many entrepreneurs that I meet are enamored with the venture world and what they think raising money actually means. Raising money is just the start of your journey.  Focus on building a great business and adding unprecedented value to clients… investors will come.” To date, OrderGroove has been able to raise over $10 million in venture capital funding, which only […] The post Subscribing to Success – Interview with OrderGroove Founder Greg Alvo appeared first on Under30CEO.

From Kickstarter Success to Fully Scaling a Growing Startup Ricky Choi is a young entrepreneur who not only cares about his style, but makes sure to keep his friends up to date on fashion as well. Nice Laundry co-founder Phil Moldavski was a fashionable guy from head to toe – except when it came to his socks.  “Phil would come to work dressed in a nice pair of jeans, good buttoned down shirt, great pair of dark shoes…but every day with this outfit he would wear these same ratty white Adidas gym socks with black dress shoes.” Ricky, being a sock connoisseur himself, helped Phil get over this hurdle by refreshing his look with designer socks.  While doing this the two realized that the world needed their help – with their sock drawers. Co-founders Ricky Choi and Phil Moldavski met while working at Living Social and left their jobs to participate in Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco.  They spent several months learning how to code.  “We wanted to do something e-commerce and the only way to get that done is (to create) a website.” Their experience at Living Social showed them the value of having an in-house development team that could […] The post Off on the Right Foot – Interview with Startup Nice Laundry Co-Founder Ricky Choi appeared first on Under30CEO.

Knock knock. Who’s there? Blippar. Blippar who? Blippar, a startup that spun out of a joke to amass millions of users and bring static content to life.  It wasn’t a knock-knock joke, but a silly challenge between friends that brought the queen on a ten pound note to life, which later would be developed into Blippar.  CTO and Co-founder Omar Tayeb describes Blippar as an “Image and object recognition platform that allows users to point their camera device at any image or object and instantly get a rich piece of digital or media content.” Using his technical skills, Omar took the challenge of bringing the queen to life on the ten pound note from Co-founder Ambarish Mitra and developed a prototype.  “When we saw it working, we could immediately see that right now this is the best way to bridge the physical world with the digital world.” Before launching Blippar as a full scale business, Omar and Ambarish brought on co-founders Steve Spencer (CCO) and Jessica Butcher (CMO) to work on the brand and marketing side of the business.  Omar says that this was a key early move to help the company get off of the ground and capture early […] The post A Joke Turned Into a Multi-Million Dollar Business: Interview with Omar Tayeb of Blippar appeared first on Under30CEO.

Ever been locked out of your house or apartment?  If you’re anything like me or Greg Marsh’s wife, you have…often.  After several costly and lengthy lockouts, Greg took the problem of getting locked out and created an effective solution – KeyMe.  KeyMe is a mobile app that allows you to digitally store your key information for free.  Instead of paying hundreds of dollars and spending several hours locked out, customers of KeyMe can pull up the specific key making instructions based on a front and back picture of your key.  You can then choose to order key copies or take those instructions to any locksmith or key shop to get your key cut. During his first startup experience, Greg worked with hardware technology. Through working with the early-stage company, he learned the ins and outs of the business and gained important contacts, which were key to launching the business from the ground up.  From conceiving the initial idea to where he is now, Greg describes it as being “Quite a journey.”  With the goal of finding a fast and inexpensive way to solve a lockout, there were countless ideas to solve the problem before the end solution was constructed. KeyMe’s […] The post An Open Door: Young Entrepreneur Interview with KeyMe’s Greg Marsh appeared first on Under30CEO.

While the $11.8 billion bottled water market seems like an attractive option for innovation and new entrants, the market has some of the toughest competitors including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Poland Spring. Despite this strong competition, for Michael Fitzgerald II of My Cause Water, the beverage industry was always attractive, and bottled water appeared to be the best way to make a difference while creating a sustainable business. Starting a bottled water company was not Michael’s first idea within the beverage industry.  Although he and his family had no prior experience in the industry, Michael explored the idea of both a micro-brewery focusing on college towns and energy drinks before the father/son co-founders settled on bottled water. Why bottled water? “Everybody needs water,” said Michael.  With a passion for making a difference no matter what business he decided to pursue, My Cause Water immediately stood out from what was currently being offered. After deciding on bottled water, Michael started seeking out research and repots on the market. Instead of paying $14,000 for a report on the industry, he decided to go back to Clemson University to get that same report for free using the university’s resources.  Teaming up with his […] The post Water that Takes a Different Shape – Interview with My Cause Water’s Michael Fitzgerald II appeared first on Under30CEO.