How A Stress Balloon Led To Ownership Stakes In Bit.ly, TweetDeck, StockTwits, LifeLock And Other Companies – With Howard Lindzon

Howard Lindzon, StockTwits, Funding, Physical Product

If you think this interview is helpful, why not thank Howard on Twitter? –AW

When I asked Howard Lindzon to go back in time and tell us how he came to own stakes in companies like Bit.ly, StockTwits, and Rent.com, he showed me a ball called “The Grip.” It’s a balloon full of seeds that users squeeze to relieve tension. Howard liked the product so much that he found the man who created it, wrote him a check for $25,000 and became his partner. The pair poured their energy into marketing The Grip and he says it took off “in a Pet Rock kind of way.”

That’s the way Hoard says he invests to this day. If he loves the product after using it and loves the team after meeting them, he’s in. If that seems a little over-simplistic to you, then you’ll want to listen to the full program to hear me walk Howard through his milestone investments and learn how he discovered them and why they worked. (You can also scan the bullet points below for a quick overview.)

Howard Lindzon

StockTwits

Howard Lindzon is the co-founder and CEO of StockTwits, the community-powered idea and information service for investments. He’s a hedge fund manager and partner in two other funds called Knight’s Bridge Capital Partners, as well as a partner in Social Leverage, whose mission is to invest in, syndicate, and help grow web businesses.

 

Andrew: This interview is sponsored by WuFoo, where you can get embeddable forms and surveys on your site for free. And you can even get beautiful reports like this one, so you can analyze the results you get. It’s also sponsored by Shopify. If you go to Shopify.com, you’ll be able to create and manage your own online store. And they even have an apps store, which lets you enhance your store with powerful plug-ins. And this interview is sponsored by Grasshopper, which has unlimited extensions. And here, let me let them explain them to you.

Announcer: Dedicate an extension to each employee and department, so your business can run more efficiently and project a professional image to callers. Each extension has its own call forwarding, voice mail, and message notification settings. And even if you’re the only employee, by utilizing multiple extensions, you’re giving your small business the big company sound it needs.

Andrew: All right....

Continue reading the transcript...