Fares Ksebati is the CEO and co-founder of MySwimPro, the most popular app for swim workouts. The app was launched in 2015 and has been growing non-stop since then. One of the main secrets behind that growth is that MySwimPro has focused on building for new products and platforms. For example, they were the first and only swimming app for the Apple Watch, and one of only 10 pre-installed apps on the first Casio smartwatch. But how can you build a relationship with a tech giant like Apple, become their "app of the year," and be featured in Tim Cook's keynote presentation with your logo displayed right behind Apple's CEO? 00:43 How it all started 02:32 It was just a PDF—validating the idea 02:42 Building a relationship with Apple 09:56 Building for Casio and Fitbit 16:00 Why MySwimPro is not a social network for swimming 22:22 Raising capital from customers and fans 29:50 Being a remote team 35:00 Know when to delegate
Fryderyk Szydlowski is the co-founder and CMO of Embargo, the UK's number one CRM and loyalty platform for hospitality businesses. The company launched in 2017 and has since grown to over 1,000 coffee shops, restaurants, bakeries, and QSRs. In this episode, Fryderyk shares all the strategies and tactics behind Embargo's exceptionally low churn rate. 00:00 What is Embargo 08:17 Working with underserved businesses 12:15 Your users are your product advisors 14:50 Focusing on a specific segment 24:20 Why Embargo has succeeded where others failed 32:20 Expectations settings in the sales process 36:27 Help your customer succeed
Andy Pai is the CEO and co-founder of Finbox, a financial data platform that covers over 100,000 stocks on 130+ exchanges around the world. Andy co-founded Finbox in 2015 and bootstrapped it all the way to an exit to Investing.com, a leader in financial data and a Top 200 website globally. In this episode, he takes us behind the scenes of the entire journey: 00:00 What is Finbox 00:35 Origin story: How it all started 03:00 Validating the idea 06:27 Learning from founders in the industry 08:58 Iterating to find product-market fit 12:25 Working on two startups at the same time 15:02 Bootstrapping vs. venture capital 25:20 Hiring: You don’t have to solve every problem yourself 30:15 Getting acquired by Investing.com 39:08 Having a bias for action
Will Nitze is the founder and CEO of IQBAR, a brand that offers brain and body nutrition products including plant-based protein bars and adaptogen coffee. Since launching in 2018, IQBAR raised over $10M in funding and became a national brand with ~$25M in revenue. In this episode of Founder Secrets, Will takes us behind the scenes of: - Using Kickstarter to "de-risk" the business and raise funds at a higher valuation. - Getting into over 3,000 CVS stores within just six months of launching. - Lessons learned after raising ~$10M. - Why he distributes IQBAR "every which way" instead of focusing solely on DTC.
Kimberly Lewis is the CEO and co-founder of CurlMix, a brand of natural hair care products designed for curly and textured hair types. In this episode, Kim takes us behind the scenes of how she went from pivoting the business in 2018 to making ~$10M in annual revenue. She shared a ton of practical advice, including: - How she launched CurlMix, securing PR coverage in seven publications and partnering with three major influencers without spending a penny. - How she managed to pivot the business after realizing that her 30% margin was too low to be sustainable. - All the growth drivers behind the first $1M in revenue. - How she received her first check from Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital. - How she secured a $1.2M check from the former CEO of LinkedIn after rejecting an offer on Shark Tank.
Tyler Denk is the CEO and co-founder of Beehiiv, one of the fastest-growing newsletter platforms loved by thousands of creators, including us at Founder Secrets. Although "fastest-growing" is probably an understatement… Beehiiv launched just 18 months ago and is already doing ~$2.5M in annual recurring revenue with 30% MoM growth. But what impresses me the most is not their exponential growth, but the pace at which they ship product. I've been following Tyler since the launch of Founder Secrets, and I literally can't believe my eyes when I get to read a product update with killer features every two weeks. Needless to say, I was thrilled to learn some of the secrets behind their incredible growth and fast-cycle product development. And there are indeed a few secrets behind it, so let's dive in.
Renji Bijoy is the founder and CEO of Immersed, the most loved app for coding, designing, and working together, anywhere in the world, through virtual reality offices. Renji launched Immersed in January 2017, and after three years of R&D, they experienced explosive growth when COVID-19 changed the remote working landscape forever. Since then, they have raised ~$3M from VCs and an additional ~$9M from over 3,300 users via a community round on Wefunder. But this success is not just the result of building the right product at the right time. It is also the result of a team that had such a strong faith in Immersed that they went without pay for six months, and a community that believed in them so much as to invest millions. Immersed did not become a community-led company with a strong team by chance. In this episode, you will learn the exact strategies that Renji used to organically build a community on Reddit, as well as the key aspects to consider when hiring.
Can a 48-person startup land a multi-million dollar deal from a global powerhouse with 33,000 employees? That's precisely what Brandon Metcalf did. And let me tell you, the story of how he nailed that deal is a really interesting one. Before we dive into the details, let me introduce the founder. Brandon is the CEO and founder of Place, a SaaS platform that helps companies with finance and revenue management in the Salesforce ecosystem. Before launching Place, Brandon founded Talent Rover, an operating system for recruiting agencies ranked by Inc. 500 as a top 10 fastest-growing software company in America in 2017. After expanding to nine offices in eight countries and serving customers in over 40 countries, Talent Rover was acquired by its biggest competitor in 2018. A huge part of this success came from that one big deal. Let's dive into the story…
Nick Telson is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of trumpet, the sales platform (used by Amex and Sky!) famous for microsites, or Pods as they call them, that you can launch in 10 seconds to make the sales process more efficient, collaborative, and personalized. Back in 2010 and before launching trumpet, Nick co-founded DesignMyNight which grew to 100+ employees, 15,000 SaaS customers, and 8M unique monthly visits. After exiting to Access Group in 2017, Nick launched Horseplay Ventures, invested in 55+ startups, started a podcast, and he is now back in the game with trumpet. Nick shared a lot of interesting insights with us, including raising a pre-seed round from a waitlist and the main growth strategy that got him acquired!
Andrew Gazdecki is a four-time startup founder with three exits, and the founder of Acquire. Last valued at over $110M, the acquisition marketplace has helped 100s of startups get acquired and has facilitated $500m+ in closed deals. Andrew launched his first company, Bizness Apps, as a broke, twenty-something entrepreneur. Eight years later, he sold it to a private equity firm. Since then, he has launched and sold two more companies. Andrew is a super positive and brilliant guy, and a great founder to share his wisdom on how to navigate the acquisition process successfully. Andrew also discussed his approach to building a sales team and executing kick-ass marketing strategies—such as sending a bunch of cakes from Acquire to Elon Musk's office at Twitter to try to entice him into giving Acquire the @acquire Twitter handle!
Would you turn down a $500,000 offer from Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran? That's exactly what Genius Juice did, and it turned out to be the best decision for their business. The all-organic smoothie company, founded by Alex Bayer, went from selling smoothies at local events to being distributed in over 2,000 stores across the US in just a few years. In this episode, we'll take a closer look at how Alex and his team built Genius Juice from the ground up, the impact of being featured on Shark Tank, and their approach to achieving profitability and scalability. Alex also shares insights on how branding, packaging, and SKU rationalization contributed to their success.
Ouriel Ohayon is the CEO and co-founder of Zengo, a crypto wallet that has become well-known for its unmatched security, user experience, and customer support. If you are not familiar with the cryptocurrency industry, this might not seem particularly noteworthy. However, as the former Head of Marketing at Linen Wallet, I know firsthand how difficult it is for any crypto startup to emerge amid the chaos. There are over 140 crypto wallets available on the market and no barriers to entry. Many competitors have been around for over a decade, with some having budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars. Additionally, some wallets benefit from a powerful network effect, making it challenging for any other wallet to compete. Despite being late to the party, Zengo has already managed to gain significant market share. All things considered, this is quite impressive. With almost a million downloads on Google Play, a $20 million Series A led by Insight Partners, and having crushed hundreds of competitors along the way, it was a great pleasure to have Ouriel as a guest on this week's episode of Founder Secrets.
Steven is the CEO and co-founder of Forecastr, the online software that helps founders who hate Excel to forecast revenue, predict runway, understand their numbers & get funded. The company launched in 2018 and has raised $3.4M from VCs, including Techstars. In this episode of Founder Secrets, Steven provides an inside look into his startup journey—from his mistakes building FantasyHub to how he has stolen Carta’s growth playbook and implemented it at Forecastr to achieve $1M ARR.
Josh is the CEO and founder of Zencastr, the all-in-one platform for podcasters. They launched in 2015 when it became technically possible to record a podcast from a browser. Since then, they have evolved from a simple recording tool into an all-in-one solution for creators to record, edit, distribute, and monetize their content. After bootstrapping for five years, Zencastr raised over $4M from VCs and recently raised ~$500k from their users via a community round on Wefunder. We interviewed Josh to learn more about his journey into the podcasting industry. It all started with a wild call to Jason Calacanis...
Anna is the CEO and co-founder of Sensate, a consumer device that uses infrasonic waves and sounds to relieve stress. Since launching in 2019, Sensate has experienced rapid growth, with a $10.2M revenue run rate and thousands of units sold globally. Time Magazine nominated Sensate as one of the best inventions of 2022, and the company is backed by venture funds including Unlock, Incisive, and Expert DOJO. Sensate recently raised ~$3M from their users via a community round on Wefunder. We had the opportunity to speak with Anna and learn about her captivating journey as a startup founder and former turnaround CEO. Here are the key takeaways: Dealing with loneliness Get a coach Ignore sunk costs Gamify your sales team Consider hybrid teams of in-house staff and part-time contractors Dedicate your life to what you love Sleep trumps hustle porn