Riding The Startup Roller Coaster With The Former CEO of uBid – with Jeff Hoffman

Jeff Hoffman, Color Jar, Customer Acquisition, Failure, Mental Game, Sell Your Business, Web 1.0

He became a millionaire at 29 when he sold American Express the tech company he founded to modernize the travel industry. Then he helped launch one of the dotcom world’s most successful companies, Priceline. He followed that up with Perfect YardSale, Priceline’s failed attempt to bring its “name your own price” to yard sale items. The market was worried about internet companies and pushed Priceline to shed non-performing sites, so Perfect YardSale had to go.

Later in his career, he produced (and even had a role in) “Cabin Fever,” the move shot for $1.5 million that went on to earn a stunning $30.5 million at the box office. After that, he went on to head uBid, the company that saw its stock price dive from $3.90 to 20 cents per share in the 2 years he ran it.

It’s been a roller coaster ride. In this interview, you’ll hear how it all happened and what he learned from the experience. You’ll also hear about the good causes he was able to help along the way.

Jeff Hoffman

Color Jar

Jeff Joffman is the founder of, Color Jar, a venture accelerator firm that helps entrepreneurs and small business owners launch and grow new business ventures. Previously, he was the CEO of uBid. He was also CEO of Perfect YardSale, a Priceline company, and founder of Competitive Technologies Inc.

 

“Andrew: Before we get started, I want to tell you why I keep urging you to use KISS insights. Haven’t you noticed that one of the big ideas that keeps coming up in my interviews is the need to ask your customers and users what they want instead of imagining that you know? Now, when you add a survey to your website, isn’t it true that hardly anyone fills or your survey, and people who do fill it out aren’t necessarily your typical users? Well, what KISS insights does is give you surveys that are so easy to fill out that your users will actually complete them. Here’s a screenshot of how I use KISS insights. You can use it for free, right now. Just go to kissinsights.com. Next thing I want to show you is the phone number at the top of DNAmail.com. When you have trouble with your email and its costing your business both money and reputation, how frustrating is it? Well, who can you call at those moments? If you use DNA mail, you’ll have a phone number you can call...

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