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#1830 Marathon Series: Bolt and the Estonian founder with a billion dollar valuation at age 25

Arie Saint — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 13:00:10 +0000

When I arrived in Estonia it was clear to me that I was in Bolt country. The logo was on cars everywhere and even on taxis! Joining me today is the founder of that company. Markus Villig is the founder of Bolt, formerly known as Taxify, an Estonian transportation network. I want to find out how he did it.

Markus Villig is the founder of Bolt, formerly known as Taxify, an Estonian transportation network.

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#1829 You asked, I listened; Here’s my interview with a founder in the cryptocurrency space

Arie Saint — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 13:00:12 +0000

Joining me is an entrepreneur who’s in the cryptocurrency space. It is a space that’s been full of potential and opportunity, and I wonder if there are profits and real businesses being built there. Well, today’s guest created what has been called the QuickBooks of cryptocurrency. His name is Alon Muroch. He is the founder of Blox. Blox allows professionals to do crypto accounting, tracking, and management. I invited him here to talk about how well the business is doing today but also how we got here, and what the vision is for the future.

Alon Muroc is the founder of Blox, which allows professionals to do crypto accounting, tracking, and management.

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Toptal – If you’re having trouble finding developers, Toptal is a network of elite pre-vetted software developers. You tell Toptal what you’re looking for, they search their network for the best people, they test the candidates, and then they present you with only the candidates who meet your individual needs. Once you pick someone you can start work with them the next day. They offer a no-risk trial period. Go to Toptal.com. Get the best of the best right now.

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#1828 How Meredith Hill brought the travel agency back to relevancy

Andrew Khalili — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 13:00:14 +0000

I thought that once online travel booking became a thing that needing to hire a travel advisor or travel agent would just be a thing of the past, but it’s not. Today’s guest discovered that not only are people still doing this but that they’re often independent contractors. And they were struggling with a problem. Well, today’s guest realized what that problem was, and she created a company that solved it. Meredith Hill is the founder whose company we’re going to find out about today. The company is called Gifted Travel Network. They are a travel host agency created to support travel advisors and their brands. So why would travel advisors need someone like her? We’ll find out.

Meredith Hill is the founder of Gifted Travel Network, a travel host agency created to support travel advisors and their brands.

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#1827 Building a sophisticated Internet of Things company (that can change the world)

Arie Saint — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 13:00:45 +0000

Today’s guest is somebody who was actually trying to create a much simpler business and then ended up with one that was a much bigger vision than he expected. Eric Simone is the founder of ClearBlade, an edge computing software company that enables enterprise to engineer and run secure, real-time scalable Internet of Things applications. Eric is actually working on real problems that in many ways are going to seem less exciting to people but have a bigger impact on the world. I want to talk about how he did it.

Eric Simone is the founder of ClearBlade, an edge computing software company that enables enterprise to engineer and run secure, real-time scalable Internet of Things applications.

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#1826 Marathon Series: The Estonian unicorn company Veriff

Arie Saint — Sat, 14 Sep 2019 13:00:57 +0000

I’m here in Estonia because I feel like we’ve gotten too comfortable in America. Everyone seems to just be focused on the four or five companies that seem to control everything. I want to learn from a place that supports entrepreneurship and technology at such a critical level. Kaarel Kotkas is the founder of Veriff which helps banks, marketplaces, and other online businesses start trusting relationships with customers.

Kaarel Kotkas is the founder of Veriff which helps banks, marketplaces, and other online businesses start trusting relationships with customers.

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Bubble – You don’t need to be a coder to build software. Bubble is a code-free programming language that lets you build and host web applications without engineers. Anyone who wants to try it right now is going to get 40% discount for the first three months. Go to Bubble.is/mixergy to sign up and start using it immediately.

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#1825 Case Study: Niche subscription box service Plate Crate

Arie Saint — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 13:00:28 +0000

Josh Band is an entrepreneur who is a professional baseball player. He said, “I need to make some money on the side, so you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to create a box of baseball products to send to people but only if they commit to getting it every month and pay me for a subscription to it.” I want to find out why are people subscribing to something like this and why Josh has to curate these things for customers. Josh Band is the founder of Plate Crate, a subscription service that delivers a box of baseball gear monthly.

Josh Band is the founder of Plate Crate, a subscription service that delivers a box of baseball gear monthly.

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#1824 The first social media influencer, crashes & rises

Arie Saint — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 13:00:12 +0000

Over 10 years ago, I interviewed Jason Zook about how brands paid him to wear their shirts on social media. Every day of the week, without a break, he’d broadcast himself live, post YouTube videos, take photos, Tweet, etc. He showed followers his life, and promoted brands the paid him. How much money did he make? What happened when he crashed? How did he rediscover himself? Listen. It’s worth it.

Jason Zook is the founder of Wandering Aimfully which is a membership community for client-based business owners who want to transition into selling digital products.

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#1823 Flywheel Hosting: An agency to acquisition roadmap

Arie Saint — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 13:21:01 +0000

Joining me is an entrepreneur who was running a development shop, saw problems that his clients had and said, “I think I’m going to pursue this idea that has nothing to do with that problem.” So he built that other idea, he started to understand what it’s like to build a software as a service. And he said, “You know, let me come back to this problem that I saw before.” And the problem was how hard it was for businesses to build websites. Dusty Davidson is the co-founder of Flywheel Hosting, a premium WordPress hosting company built specifically for design firms.

Dusty Davidson is the co-founder of Flywheel Hosting, a premium WordPress hosting company built specifically for design firms.

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The James Altucher Show – James Altucher has started and ran more than 20 companies and is currently an investor in and advisor to over 30, but at one point, James lost everything. In a matter of months, his account drained from $15 million to $143. Depressed and on the floor, James realized the only way to be truly successful and fulfilled is to “choose yourself.” Now, James Altucher is a bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, angel investor, chess master, & host of The James Altucher Show podcast. Text ANDREW to 50445 to receive James Altucher’s free Ultimate Guide to Self-Publishing

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#1822 Marathon Series: The Estonian bike sharing startup

Arie Saint — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 13:00:33 +0000

I’m embarrassed to admit that I was surprised to learn that Estonia is one of the most technologically advanced societies in the world. Kids start programming in first grade. There’s more startups here than anywhere else. Joining me here is Teet Praks. Teet is the founder of coModule, a bike and scooter sharing service. I want to find out how he built it up.

Teet Praks is the founder of coModule, a bike sharing service.

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#1821 How pivoting to subscription model grew this insights platform

Arie Saint — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 13:00:51 +0000

Joining me is a woman who came up with a company that allows businesses to ask questions of their potential customers to understand them better. I want to understand why they would need a company to do that instead of doing it themselves. Nadia Masri is the founder of Perksy, a next-gen consumer insights platform.

Nadia Masri is the founder of Perksy, a next-gen consumer insights platform.

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Brain.fm – If you are working and you need to focus, try Brain.fm. You can go study the science behind pink noise and what it does to the brain, or you can just go try it. You’re going to focus; you’re going to be more productive; you’re going to get more results. And if you go to brain.fm/mixergy, they will give you 20% off.

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#1820 How to get clients to use your SaaS themselves (so you don’t have to sell your services)

Arie Saint — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 13:00:47 +0000

Today’s guest is a guy who had a company that didn’t actually pan out the way he wanted it to. It was called Site2Mobile and the goal was to take your website and make it mobile-friendly. And it didn’t really scale. It didn’t grow. It didn’t become what he wanted it to. We’ll talk about why not. But as he was building it up, he recognized two needs that led to the creation of a tool that would scale. Robert Kreuzer is the co-founder of Channable, a data feed management tool for webshops and marketing agencies.

Robert Kreuzer is the co-founder of Channable, a data feed management tool for webshops and marketing agencies.

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#1819 Shufflr Case Study: Turning a consultancy into a SaaS

Arie Saint — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 13:00:52 +0000

Joining me today is someone whose path to software creation is very similar to many of the other entrepreneurs that I’ve interviewed here. She started out by doing consulting services, helping businesspeople with their presentations. Then she recognized that they had a problem with consistency across presentations. She said, “You know, I can solve it.” And she created a software company to solve that. So AlexAnndra Ontra is the co-founder of Shufflrr, a presentation management software tool.

AlexAnndra Ontra is the co-founder of Shufflrr, a presentation management software tool.

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#1818 The Facebook Live interview with Brett Linkletter (that everyone keeps asking me about)

Arie Saint — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 13:00:24 +0000

When I asked people about who was doing chat well today, the name that kept coming up was Brett Linkletter. Brett is the founder of Misfit Media, which helps restaurants target & acquire local customers. I invited him here to talk about how he built up his agency and where he’s getting his clients.

Brett Linkletter is the founder of Misfit Media, which helps restaurants target & acquire local customers on automation with ease.

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#1817 Building a $200k/mo digital marketing agency from the ground (using Messenger Marketing)

Arie Saint — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 13:00:04 +0000

One of the people who is way ahead of the pack when it comes to growing an audience through chat bots is Manuel Suarez. Manuel is the founder of Attention Grabbing Media, a modern digital marketing agency. He’s started managing chat bots for huge online personalities. I invited him here to talk about how he built up his agency.

Manuel is the founder of Attention Grabbing Media, a modern digital marketing agency.

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#1816 How do you get users to try software with a learning curve?

Arie Saint — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 13:00:19 +0000

Today’s guest has a company that basically fights against the idea of explainer videos. The idea that you have to make somebody watch a three-minute video is a quixotic pursuit at best. And even if you get them to watch it, you’ve failed because they are watching something instead of using your software. So today’s guest created in-product tours. Pulkit Agrawal is the founder of Chameleon which offers product tours that blend seamlessly into your product experience.

Pulkit Agrawal is the founder of Chameleon which offers product tours that blend seamlessly into your product experience.

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Brain.fm – If you are working and you need to focus, try Brain.fm. You can go study the science behind pink noise and what it does to the brain, or you can just go try it yourself. You’re going to focus; you’re going to be more productive; you’re going to get more results. And if you go to brain.fm/mixergy, they will give you 20% off.

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#1815 Marathon Series: The Y Combinator Alum who returned to Singapore to build Saleswhale

Arie Saint — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 13:00:10 +0000

Joining me is Gabriel Lim. He is an entrepreneur who went to Silicon Valley, who got funded by Y Combinator, and who of his own choice decided to come back to Singapore. Gabriel Lim is the founder of Saleswhale, which uses AI to engage every lead over email, qualify them, and identify leads that are ready to buy. I want to find out how he built up his business and why he decided to do it in Singapore instead of Silicon Valley.

Gabriel Lim is the founder of Saleswhale, which uses AI to engage every lead over email, qualify them, and identify leads that are ready to buy.

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#1814 LIVE with the chatbot creators behind the $3M bot experience

Arie Saint — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 13:00:41 +0000

If we are using chat to communicate with the people we love then why are we only using email to talk to our customers? There are two people who created a chatbot that got a lot of buzz because it generated $3M in revenue in one hour. I invited them hear to talk about how they did it but I don’t want to focus on these outlier results. I want to talk about other successes with chatbots like a loyalty program they created for smaller businesses. Philippe LeCoutre and David Sambor create messenger marketing experiences for their clients.

Philippe LeCoutre and David Sambor are the co-founders of Messenger Marketing Experts where they create messenger marketing experiences for their clients.

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#1813 Toptal CEO responds to criticism

Arie Saint — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 17:00:59 +0000

Toptal’s CEO was accused of not giving options to employees who felt they were entitled to it, even though their legal agreements stated they were conditional. I asked him to do an interview, expecting him to say no way, but instead he said, glad to. My summary of his response. Regarding investors: I’m not going to raise unnecessary funds just so their debt could convert to equity. Be patient. Regarding employees: I keep telling people not to work here if they’re doing it for a stock windfall. Regarding his cofounder: Legally, I can’t say anything.

Taso Du Val is the founder of Toptal, which enables start-ups, businesses, and organizations to hire freelancers from a growing network of top talent in the world.

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#1812 How to pivot a marketplace into a different business model

Arie Saint — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 13:00:11 +0000

A few years ago I noticed there was a handful of companies whose goal was to help founders raise money. This angel crowdfunding idea was growing in popularity and it felt like it was going to be the future, and for some reason, it wasn’t. Joining me today is an entrepreneur who went down that path. He found that wasn’t actually the right approach. I invited him here to find out why. My guest is Brock Blake. He is the founder of Lendio. Lendio is a marketplace for business owners to comparison shop and get loans that they need. So they’re no longer matching entrepreneurs like you with angel investors, they are now helping you get the loan that you need. We’ll find out why he made the change in this interview.

Brock Blake is founder of Lendio a marketplace for businesses owners to comparison shop and get the loan they need.

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#1811 The story behind E-Junkie

Arie Saint — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:00:00 +0000

Joining me today is an entrepreneur who, in the early internet days, figured out a simple solution in a world of really difficult online sales. I’ve been wondering what happened to him. Robin Singh is the founder of E-Junkie which offers copy-paste buy-now and cart buttons for selling downloads, codes and tangible products on any website, blog, social media and messenger.

Robin Singh is the founder of E-Junkie which offers copy-paste buy-now and cart buttons for selling downloads, codes and tangible products on any website, blog, social media and messenger.

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#1810 The step by step process of launching an apparel company (with $4k and zero experience)

Arie Saint — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 13:00:29 +0000

Joining me is an entrepreneur who wanted to get into clothing—specifically undergarments. I wonder how she can build a real business while competing with all the brands that feel intimidatingly large. But she’s growing and recently expanded to activewear which means she’s now competing with Lululemon and NIKE and other giants. Megan Grassell is the founder of Yellowberry which specializes in undergarments and apparel for tween girls.

Megan Grassell is the founder of Yellowberry which specializes in undergarments and apparel for tween girls.

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#1809 The startup with a social mission of solving the payday loan problem

Arie Saint — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 13:00:01 +0000

Today’s guest looked around at the payday loans space, saw how many people are going to get payday loans at exorbitant rates, and he said, “There should be a solution.” So he came out of retirement to start a new business and solve the predatory payday loan problem. I wonder how his solution conflicts with people who have an interest in seeing the problem continue. We’re going to find out all that and how he built up his business. Safwan Shah is the founder of Payactiv which is a financial wellness platform that enables employers to provide their workers instant relief from their between-paychecks financial headaches.

Safwan Shah is the founder of Payactiv which is a financial wellness platform that enables employers to provide their workers instant relief from their between-paychecks financial headaches.

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#1808 Marathon Series: The Singapore telco company with the heart of a SaaS startup

Arie Saint — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 13:00:53 +0000

Today for my marathon series has brought me to Singapore. Abhishek Gupta is the co-founder of Circles Life, which provides a modern mobile experience. The reason I’m excited about this interview is that it isn’t just a SaaS that could be created by one person on a computer. Abhishek had to come up with the idea, find partnerships with established companies and convince customers to switch carriers. None of those things are easy. I want to find out how he did it.

Abhishek Gupta is the co-founder of Circles Life, which provides a modern mobile experience.

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#1807 Turning tech that’s ahead of its time into a company with a long tail

Arie Saint — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 13:00:48 +0000

Joining me is entrepreneur who started his company back in 1999. It was a period of raising money, changing the world, and being changed by the world. There was a lot of evolution and a lot of obstacles in Germany at the time. I want to understand how today’s guest built a company in that environment. Eckhard Ortwein is the founder of several companies, but the company we’re focusing on today is a company called Paybox Solutions. They set out to make money a mobile experience at the same time PayPal was launching. They decided people should be able to pass money to each other, to businesses using mobile phones. That world exists today but back then it was ahead of its time. They raised money and we’ll find out in this interview what happened.

Eckhard Ortwein was a co-Founder of Paybox Solutions which helps people send and receive payments via mobile.

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#1806 Content creation in the world of influencers on Instagram

Andrew Khalili — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 13:00:16 +0000

Joining me is an entrepreneur who demystified content marketing for me. I see these companies on Instagram that have beautiful photos and I’m amazed. I think, “They must have a full-time creative directors and photographers.” Well, today’s guest showed me how it really works. And how companies like his make brands look REALLY good. Corbett Drummey is the co-founder of PopularPays, a marketplace that connects brands and creators.

Corbett Drummey is the co-founder of PopularPays, a marketplace that connects brands and creators.

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COO Alliance – If you want your second in command to have a tribe, check out Cameron Herold’s COO Alliance. COO Alliance gives access to mentorship to run ideas by and guide your COO, VP of operations, general manager, or president. If you want them to have that kind of help from Cameron directly and from others, see if it’s a good fit for you or that second in command by going to COOAlliance.com/mixergy

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#1805 How to modernize an old technology like outdoor billboard advertising

Arie Saint — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 13:00:09 +0000

Today’s guest saw an old technology and said, “What if I modernize it?” Instead of forcing people to remember the company name on a billboard, their phone number, write it down, and go buy it. “What if I create a web page where anyone can go and buy like they buy anything else?” I care about his story. But I’m also thinking in my head, “What else is outdated that we can modernize using some of the things that we already know?” And as you’ll see, he started out very basic the way that you can when you come up with something that you want to modernize. Matt O’Connor is the founder of AdQuick, a marketplace to buy and sell outdoor advertising.

Matt O’Connor is the founder of AdQuick, a marketplace to buy and sell outdoor advertising.

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Trainual – Trainual is a SaaS that helps businesses automate their onboarding and training by documenting every process, policy, and procedure in one simple, searchable, teachable system. Trainual is on a mission to make small business easier by automating training manuals for busy companies around the world.

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#1804 Marathon Series: Singapore’s $10M restaurant app

Arie Saint — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 13:00:32 +0000

My marathon series has brought me here to Singapore and I’ve got an interview with an entrepreneur I’ve really been looking forward to meeting. His name is Arrif Ziaudeen. He is the founder of Chope. Chope lets you book a reservation at a restaurant, but you also have the backend stuff that we’ll talk about in this interview.

Arrif Ziaudeen is the founder of Chope, a real time restaurant-reservation booking platform that connects diners with its partner restaurants.

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#1803 How Stash is creating the Netflix of financial services

Arie Saint — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 13:00:07 +0000

Stash is a mobile first investment platform that helps people simplify their investing and banking through education and user experience. I don’t think even that description does it justice. Users are really happy that they invested $200 or $300. Most finance companies don’t get excited about their users who have $200 or $300. Stash seems to be drawing them in. I want to know if you can actually build a business that way. We’re going to find out how he is changing investing and changing banking in this interview.

Brandon Krieg is the co-founder of Stash, a mobile-first investment platform that helps people simplify investing and banking through education and user experience.

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#1802 A founder gets open about entrepreneurship and Adderall addiction

Arie Saint — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 13:00:02 +0000

When I was a kid, aspiring to be an entrepreneur, I remember hearing that Howard Hughes was addicted to something that let him work through the night. Frankly, it was a handful of entrepreneurs who had that and in my head, I said to myself, “I’d be willing to make that trade-off. If I could take a drug that would make me work harder through the night, I’d be absolutely willing to do it. Yeah, my health would suffer, but you know what? Life makes your health suffer. I’d be willing to do it.” My biology doesn’t allow me to get into drugs. But it turns out that it’s not some kind of superpower, at least according to Michael Dash’s experience. He is an entrepreneur who built an HR company called Parallel HR Solutions, grew it. We’ll find out how big he got it. And along the way was addicted to Adderall. Most entrepreneurs will not talk to me about it here. They will talk to me about it in private. Michael Dash is willing to do it, so we’re going to talk to him about that.

Michael Dash is the author of Chasing the High which chronicles his journey through addiction and lawsuits.

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#1801 Solving the problem of form abandonment (with a more modern experience)

Arie Saint — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 13:00:25 +0000

Joining me today is an entrepreneur I’m especially excited to talk about for a few different reasons. Number one, he’s a Mixergy listener. He’s somebody who’s listened just like you and has had these stories embedded in his head. Number two, he is outside the United States. He is in India where I’m seeing more and more entrepreneurs are doing killer stuff. The problem he saw is people don’t like forms. People like people. And so you’re going to get a lot of drop off when leads don’t want to fill in your form and give you their email address. That means you are losing people that you paid money for or you worked hard to create a site to cater to. Ish Jindal is the founder of TARS which helps businesses boost their PPC conversion rates through Conversational Landing Pages.

Ish Jindal is the founder of TARS which helps businesses boost their PPC conversion rates through Conversational Landing Pages.

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#1800 Marathon Series: The Southeast Asia recruitment company Glints

Arie Saint — Sat, 27 Jul 2019 13:00:09 +0000

Oswald Yeo is the founder of Glints, a tech-enabled recruitment platform. I want to find out in this interview how he started with a niche and grew the company out.

Oswald Yeo is the founder of Glints, a tech-enabled recruitment platform.

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#1799 Niching down in the crowded space of email marketing

Arie Saint — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 13:00:42 +0000

How many freaking email marketing companies are there out there? And how could so many of them be doing well? Joining me today is an entrepreneur who said, “I see that there are people sending out email. I see that there’s software to do it. I’m going to jumping in and do it too.” And the reason that he was able to do it, he says, is because he saw a problem that nobody else addressed. He was dealing with a market that other people weren’t familiar with. Rytis Lauris is the founder of Omnisend, an omnichannel marketing automation tool for e-commerce. He’s doing well and I want to find out how.

Rytis Lauris is the co-founder of Omnisend, omni-channel marketing automation tools for e-commerce.

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#1798 Chili Piper founder Nicholas Vandenberghe on partnering with John Sculley and navigating acquisitions

Arie Saint — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 13:00:01 +0000

Joining me today is an entrepreneur who, while in school, had Steve Jobs come into his class and rock his world. He ended up doing business with someone who worked with Steve Jobs, as you’ll hear in this interview. Nicholas Vandenberghe is the founder of Chili Piper, which helps qualified leads automatically book a meeting or start a phone call right after they fill out a form on your site.

Nicholas Vandenberghe is the founder of Chili Piper, which helps qualified leads automatically book a meeting or start a phone call right after they fill out a form on your site.

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#1797 Case Study: Bootstrapping a web builder from Moscow

Arie Saint — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 13:00:33 +0000

Joining me is an entrepreneur coming at us straight from Moscow in Russia. Nikita Obukhov is a guy who realized it’s really hard to build websites. We need to make it easier. And so he created a company called Tilda. It’s a website builder that doesn’t require you to use any code. I want to find out how he bootstrapped it.

Nikita Obukhov is the founder of Tilda, a website builder that doesn’t use any code.

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#1796 Marathon Series: The Singapore-based software you should know about

Arie Saint — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 13:00:21 +0000

Today I’m in Singapore and there’s so much that has blown my mind while I’ve been here. I want to talk to today’s guest about that and so much more. Oliver Tan is the founder of ViSenze, which does visual search recognition. I want to understand how he came up with this technology and how he got his first customers to trust him. Sometimes I feel I’m missing out on software by being limited to the U.S. This company is a perfect example of that. We’ll find out more about it in this interview.

Oliver Tan is the founder of ViSenze, which does visual search recognition.

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#1795 How Insticator founder is solving engagement for advertisers

Arie Saint — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 13:00:31 +0000

Joining me is an entrepreneur who recognized the problem that advertising kind of sucks online. People have ad blockers because ads are distracting and aren’t usually helpful. Publishers aren’t in love with ads because they just pollute the site and they don’t add much value. Today’s guest stepped in and said, “You know what? What if we don’t just run banner ads? What if we offer a quiz or a poll that gets people more engaged?” That’s the idea that worked for him. And after failing with a previous idea, this business is actually taking off really fast. I invited him here to talk about how he did it. Zack Dugow is the founder of Insticator, which increases revenue and engagement for publishers.

Zack Dugow is the founder of Insticator, which increases revenue and engagement for publishers.

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If you’re with one of their confusing competitors and you want something new, you owe it to your business to check out ActiveCampaign.

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#1794 When should you transition from SaaS to Service as a Service?

Arie Saint — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:00:45 +0000

Joining me is a repeat guest. Bryan Kreuzberger came on a few years ago to talk about how he was helping salespeople send out email and get responses. And his approach was so good. His simple approach for getting an email to the CEO, and then having him forward it down to the right person has been phenomenal for me. He’s made a transition though. He went from teaching people how to do this to both teaching and doing it as a service. I’m fascinated by that transition because I’m noticing that more and more companies are making the switch. I want to learn from it and I want to feature that here on Mixergy.

Bryan Kreuzberger is the founder of Breakthrough Email, an outbound agency.

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If you’re with one of their confusing competitors and you want something new, you owe it to your business to check out ActiveCampaign.

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#1793 How to bounce back after losing $100M (through leveraging relationships)

Arie Saint — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 13:00:34 +0000

Joining me today is an entrepreneur who says he went from rags to riches. Unfortunately, he went right back to rags in a really bad situation that helped him lose what he says is over $100 million. But through hard work, through patience, and through the belief of people around him the guy was able to get right back up to the top. David Meltzer is co-founder of Sports1Marketing, a global sports and entertainment marketing agency. We’ll talk about what that means and what his connection is to events like the Super Bowl. He is also the author of multiple books, including the latest which is called “Game-Time Decision Making: High-Scoring Decision Making Strategies from the Biggest Names in Sports.”

David Meltzer is co-founder of Sports1Marketing, a global sports and entertainment marketing agency.

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#1792 Marathon Series: Can Australian founders have success without guilt?

Dan Gorgone — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 13:00:35 +0000

Today I have an Australian founder which is usually a challenge because they are in a whole other time zone from my office in SF. But as part of my marathon series, I’m making these interviews happen. Dylan Baskind is the founder of Qwilr, which allows people to create beautiful proposals, sales and marketing documentation as web pages. We’re going to find out how well this business is doing and find out a little bit about Australian culture in this interview.

Dylan Baskind is the founder of Qwilr, which allows people to create beautiful proposals, sales and marketing documentation as web pages.

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#1791 Samuel Morhaim’s Vantage IO: Giving entrepreneurs the development tools they need

Dan Gorgone — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 13:00:33 +0000

As an entrepreneur launching a company, getting a website or mobile app developed can be painful and out of reach. How do you get things done on a limited budget? Samuel Morhaim is Founder and CEO of Vantage IO which creates web/mobile applications, IoT solutions, voice skills and data analytics solutions in addition to consulting and advisory services. Samuel Morhaim saw the pain point of entrepreneurs needing development tools and launched Vantage IO to help deliver the software that entrepreneurs need.

Samuel Morhaim is Founder and CEO of Vantage IO which creates web/mobile applications, IoT solutions, voice skills and data analytics solutions in addition to consulting and advisory services.

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#1000 The 1,000 interview celebration

Andrew Warner — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 13:00:08 +0000

On August 4, 2008, I posted a video up on Mixergy where I looked up into the web cam on my computer and I said “I failed.” And I said that I was going to shut down my invitation business and start doing interviews with entrepreneurs and people in general who I admire so I can learn from them and take back what I’ve learned from them to build a more successful company in the future. And I said that along the way you’d get to watch and learn as I learned directly from my heroes. We did it. A thousand interviews later here I am today bringing back some of the most memorable and most influential interviewees. People who helped me both on camera here with you and off. I invited them on to a Google Hangout to talk about the old days, to ask them some new questions and to do short interviews with them all for you. That’s what this is all about. My goal when I started out was to build a successful company. I think Mixergy is that company. But I wanted to be even more successful. My goal is that I started to talk in interviews afterwards evolved into saying that I would like someone who is watching these interviews to learn from them, to use what they’ve learned and then build a successful company so they can come back and do an interview themselves.

I am the founder of Mixergy, home of the ambitious upstart. And this is my 1,000th interview.

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#1049 How a former lawyer built a multi-million dollar company that teaches social skills – with Jordan Harbinger

Andrew Khalili — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 13:00:43 +0000

How does a former lawyer build a multi-million dollar company that teaches social skills. Jordan Harbinger is the co-founder of The Art of Charm, a company that teaches confidence and emotional intelligence.

Jordan Harbinger is the co-founder of The Art of Charm, a company that teaches confidence and emotional intelligence, and the host of The Jordan Harbinger Show, which interviews top performers, from legendary musicians to intelligence operatives.

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Lead Pages – Lead Pages took my most successful page and turned it into a product that you can use—which magically converts strangers into leads. So if you want to use the page that I use to collect email addresses, check out AndrewsWelcomeGate.com. It will work on your site no matter what your site is built on. Even if you have no site, you can use this URL to collect email addresses for your business. It’s AndrewsWelcomeGate.com.

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#714 HearAndPlay.com: Turning $70 Into A Multimillion Dollar Instruction Web Site – with Jermaine Griggs

Andrew Warner — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:00:43 +0000

Update: based on the comments we’re getting, Jermaine sent this PDF about Automation. How does a high school senior from the inner city turn $70 into a multimillion dollar instruction web site? Jermaine Griggs is the founder of HearAndPlay.com, which trains musicians to play by ear, trains them to play by ear with online music lessons and piano video tutorials.

Jermaine Griggs is the founder of HearAndPlay.com, which trains musicians to play by ear, trains them to play by ear with online music lessons and piano video tutorials.

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Walker Corporate Law – Scott Edward Walker is the lawyer entrepreneurs turn to when they want to raise money or sell their companies, but if you’re just getting started, his firm will help you launch properly. Watch this video to learn about him.

Grasshopper – Don’t make the mistake of comparing Grasshopper with other phone services. Check out their features and you’ll see why Grasshopper isn’t just a phone number, it’s the virtual phone system that entrepreneurs (like me) love.

Revolution Productions – Do you have a great product, but people aren’t trying it? You might have too much text on your site. Video, more than text, helps people understand what you’ve created and convinces them to buy it. I recommend you go to Revolution-Productions.com. When you do, talk directly to the founder, Anish Patel, and tell him I sent you. He’ll make sure you have a great video that convinces people to buy your product.

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#989 Andrew’s process for overcoming entrepreneurial stagnation – with Samantha Alford

Andrew Khalili — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 13:00:35 +0000

A few weeks ago, Andrew was interviewed about his inner doubt by Samantha Alford of WomeninBusinesspodcast.com. I (Arie Saint) thought it was too good not to share with our audience, so I’m publishing it on Mixergy. Check it out and let’s talk about it in the comments.

Samantha Alford, the founder of the Women in Business Podcast.

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#214 How To Produce Like A Linchpin By Understanding Your Lizard Brain – with Seth Godin

Andrew Warner — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:39:00 +0000

You listen to my programs because I don’t do the cute “let’s get to know the author” interviews that others are known for. I hunt down information that you can use because I’m passionate about helping you build a business that your great-great-grandkids would admire you for. That’s why I kept digging in this interview. I want you (and me too, frankly) to be able to produce the kind of hits that Seth Godin keeps cranking out, seemingly without breaking a sweat. Not only has Seth created 2 big hit businesses, but he’s a writer who keeps introducing ideas that shape the way people think. In his new book, Linchpin, Seth talks about how to be this prolific. As you’ll hear in my interview, much of it is based on opening up your creativity and learning how to confront your fears, which he says come from your “lizard brain.” Imagine what you could accomplish if you were able to do that. Listen to the full program to find out how.

Seth Godin’s latest book is Linchpin. You can buy it here or see what others say about it on this Squidoo lens. He also writes the world’s most popular marketing blog. And is the founder of Squidoo.

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#709 iContact Founder Returns To Mixergy After $169M Sale – with Ryan Allis

Andrew Warner — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:00:15 +0000

How does a wristband help a founder build a $169 million company? Ryan Allis is the founder of iContact, a provider of email marketing tools for small businesses. And a company that was recently sold for $169 million to Vocus. Here’s a quote from the last time I interviewed him, “we incorporated in July ’03, lived in the office, slept on futons, cooked on a George Foreman grill, did whatever we had to do to keep expenses low, while we built up revenue and customers, and improved the product.” Those are the challenges for a startup and it was inspiring to hear his story from those days. This time, I want to ask him about the challenges of going from a successful startup to a company that generates tens of millions a year.

Ryan Allis is the Co-Founder of iContact, a provider of email marketing tools for small businesses.

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#216 How Clever Entrepreneurs Turned 3 Air Mattresses Into Airbnb, The Site That Makes Any Home A Bed And Breakfast – with Brian and Joe

Andrew Warner — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:35:50 +0000

The founders of Airbnb are guys who couldn’t make rent a few years ago, but they kept turning desperation into creative solutions. In October 2007, eager to make extra money, they noticed that local hotels were booked up because of a conference. So they pumped up some inflatable mattresses and listed their place online as an “air bed and breakfast.” It was quirky and it worked. That little act of creativity became Airbnb, the (profitable) site that allows anyone to list their extra space for rent. This interview is full of examples of that kind of hustle, like how they created and sold cereal called “Obama O’s.” That idea brought in a much-needed $30,000, but more importantly, it impressed investor Paul Graham of Y Combinator, who backed them. They jumped on that opportunity too, seizing every chance they could find to get Graham’s advice. His mentorship helped their company become profitable. Along the way, they got impressive media hits by crafting interesting stories, improved their design by sleeping in their users’ homes and kept changing their product based on feedback. In this interview, they teach you how they did it.

Brian Chesky & Joe Gebbia are two of the co-founders of Airbnb. (The third co-founder is Nathan Blecharczyk.) Airbnb is a marketplace for renting space. Their open platform accommodates a ‘couch to a castle’, including vacation rentals, bed and breakfast, private rooms, and entire apartments. Travelers typically save money and get a local experience, while hosts have an easy way to earn extra cash and meet new people.

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#401 Reddit Founder: “I Wish I Still Owned Reddit Now” – with Steve Huffman

Andrew Warner — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:50:56 +0000

Many founders I interviewed on Mixergy told me about how their companies virtually disappeared after they sold them. But 4 years after selling Reddit to Conde Nast, Steve Huffman is so proud of how much its grown that he’d be happy to still own it. I asked him to teach me how he grew his community, why some Y Combinator-backed founders, like him, succeed while others don’t get any traction and why he never resented his co-founder for getting so much attention. I also asked Steve about Hipmunk, the travel site he launched which replaces the spreadsheet-like search results that most travel sites use with a more useful design.

Steve Huffman graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Computer Science in 2005. Immediately after leaving Virginia, he founded reddit.com with his college roommate, Alexis Ohanian.

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Shopify – Remember the interview I did about how the founder of DODOCase sold about $1 mil worth of iPad cases in a few months? He used Shopify. It’s dead simple and very effective.

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#1417 How Sam Ovens is helping everyday people start their own consulting businesses

Andrew Khalili — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 14:00:15 +0000

I’ll be honest with you. I felt guilt about an interview that I did years ago with today’s guest. This was back in, let me see here, 2013. I interviewed Sam Ovens about how he built up this consulting business and was teaching people how to do consulting. I thought maybe I got taken for a ride. It was too good to be true. Then I started hearing people who were in his program talk about how big the program is. Then I started hearing more and more people say they were in the program. I realized, “Actually maybe I underestimated the guy.” And the more research I did into it, the more I realized that was true. Then I went hat in hand and said, “Hey, Sam, can I interview you again on Mixergy?” Sam Ovens is the founder of Consulting.com, it offers online training programs to help everyday people start their own consulting businesses.

Sam Ovens is the founder of Consulting.com, it offers online training programs to help everyday people start their own consulting businesses. Sam’s hosting a free webinar which shows you in detail how to start your own consulting business, click here to register for the free training.

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Pipedrive is a sales management tool for small teams with big ambitions. It visualizes one’s sales pipeline and helps to make sure important activities and conversations won’t get dropped. Salespeople really like it because it’s easy to use and intuitive. Managers like it because they don’t need to nag their team to use their CRM. It also sports built-in forecasting, integrations with other software such as Google Apps, MailChimp and Zapier and a powerful API.

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#1453 The future of chat (and interacting with your customers)

Andrew Khalili — Fri, 26 May 2017 13:00:58 +0000

About a year ago I realized that no matter how much effort we’ve put into my email list, I could never double the response rate. We kept growing it, but people were not using email much. So I started looking around for solutions and I started looking at bots. Bots are basically software that communicates with humans via a chat app. I came across one company that looked too good to be true. It’s called ManyChat. And I said, “I’ve got to find out who the founder is.” And today, Mikael Yang is the founder of ManyChat. Not only does the software work, but the intelligence behind the scenes of dripping out content, tagging people, interacting with people is brilliant. This whole space is still pretty young but it’s important to have this conversation because he’s gotten very far and because I want you to see the future of chat as a way of interacting with your customers.

Mikael Yang is the founder of ManyChat, a visual bot builder for Facebook Messenger with broadcasts, analytics, scheduled posting and many other features.

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Acuity Scheduling – Acuity Scheduling helps businesses offer and manage their appointments online. With this tool, you’ll be able to automate your client bookings, cancellations, reminders & even payments without sacrificing you soul. Plus, automated reminders and follow-ups eliminate your no-shows, and incentivize repeat bookings. Get an exclusive 45-day trial at AcuityScheduling.com/mixergy

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#1524 When does a startup founder need a COO?

Arie Saint — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 14:00:27 +0000

A topic we don’t talk about on Mixergy is how to actually manage a company. I remember when I was in NYU as an undergrad I loved all my business classes, but management just didn’t feel like me. I always thought of the guys in Dilbert but entrepreneurs were the ones who were creating, the ones who were doing. Mixergy’s grown and I’ve been running it, but I have to be honest, I’m not doing a great job of running it. So earlier in the year, the Mixergy team said, “Andrew, go get a COO.” They kept challenging me. One of things that they told me to do was to talk to Cameron Herold. Cameron Herold was Chief Operating Officer at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? He is also the founder of the COO Alliance, the world’s only organization for those who are second in command.

Cameron Herold was Chief Operating Officer at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? He is also the founder of the COO Alliance, the world’s only organization for those who are second in command.

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#1559 Cameron Herold coaches me on hiring (so I don’t collapse at my desk)

Arie Saint — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 14:00:03 +0000

Hiring has been a huge issue for me. And in a past interview with Cameron Herold, I brought it up because he’s the founder of the COO Alliance, the world’s leading network for the second in command. I don’t get embarrassed by a lot of stuff. If you heard my interviews, you hear me get pretty frank about my flaws, my mistakes. But this issue is something I was embarrassed about. I think if I don’t hire somebody to be the second in command at Mixergy, I am probably going to collapse. So, that’s what today is about. It’s not so much an interview as it is a coaching call with the guy who knows hiring better than anyone else. You’ll get to hear what I learned and my hope is that you benefit from it too.

Cameron Herold is the founder of the COO Alliance, the world’s leading network for the second in command.

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With Bench, you get a professional bookkeeping team to do your books for you and our simple, elegant software to review your finances. It’s everything you need to forget about your bookkeeping, without actually forgetting about your bookkeeping.

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