The Funded Podcast

Chris Ripley is the Founder and CEO of Smarter Sorting and they have just secured their first round of $1.5 million in funding. Chris has a history of using technology to “connect unsexy, non-digital problems with important digital solutions.” On this first episode of The Funded Podcast, Chris explains that household paint ends up being the most numerous, by number and by weight, and the most expensive household hazardous waste in the US. Their company is solving a common, and often overlooked, problem by using technology, data and logistics to recycle products that were once thought to be unrecyclable. Click to Play Episode Click to Listen on Apple Podcasts In this episode… How Amazon Web Services impacted their decision to launch. The decrease of barriers to development due to SAAS. The moment that they jumped into launching the company with both feet. The metrics that they used to calculate how much funding they needed. Building their first pitch deck in 48 hours that resulted in $250,000 in 1 week. Choosing to take the angel route instead of the venture capital route. Fine tuning their pitch by entering pitch competitions. How they learned the venture capital side of startup fundraising. Managing their burn rate and runway that made raising more money easier. How they solved a very narrow problem that made their bigger goals more attainable. How they got from their first seed round to their second by having a terrible product…that worked. Filing a patent on that terrible product. The lessons that they learned through this process and how their fundraising journey would have been different. “Do something and build something first before you start asking for money.” – Chris Ripley, CEO at Smarter Sorting Show Notes Connect to Chris Ripley on LinkedIn and Smarter Sorting Founder & CIO, Charlie Vallely. Smarter Sorting The Funded Podcast: Connect to hosts Chris Saum and Michael Girdley on LinkedIn. Like the show on Facebook @TheFundedPodcast Follow us on Twitter @FundedPodcast Subscribe, Rate and Review us on Apple Podcasts @TheFundedPodcast All Rights Reserved