Summary:
Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!
On this episode, hosts Jeff Amerine and Caleb Talley sit down with Farzad Rashidi, the lead innovator at Respona, an all-in-one link-building outreach platform built for B2B, SaaS, and agencies to increase organic traffic from Google. As the former director of marketing at Visme, Farzad helped the company gain over fourteen million users, and since then, he’s been helping other companies achieve similar successes via Respona. Throughout the episode, Caleb, Jeff, and Farzad discuss how Respona is utilized as a promotion tactic and the concept of backlinking.
Show Notes:
(1:01) Introduction to Farzad
(1:21) About Respona
(6:59) The Resilience of Backlinking
(11:10) The Concept of Hyperlinking
(14:07) Link Building
(18:55) Respona’s Customer Journey
(21:57) Respona’s Focus on SEO
(23:30) Making the Choice Not to Raise Venture
(28:31) What’s Next for Respona
(30:43) Respona’s Company Culture
(34:15) Advice to Younger Self
(35:47) Closing Thoughts
Links:
Quotes:
“Instead of us trying to invest cash to pour into advertising to become a household name, let’s start showing up in places where people who are looking for a product or a solution like ours would naturally come and find us.” - Farzad Rashidi, (4:21)
“So now, not only do you have to create a good website with a good foundation that loads fast, you have to have content that people stay on to read and is relevant contextually. You also have to convince other websites to link back to it and talk about it.” - Farzad Rashidi, (9:05)
“We are not in the sales industry…the reason being is the way we structure our companies is entirely inbound. So, what we do is produce lots of educational pieces that are targeted for our industry. So, it touches all bases when it comes to the customer journey.” - Farzad Rashidi, (18:56)
Summary:
Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!
On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Davis McEntire sit down with Greg Shepard, founder and CEO of BOSS Capital Partners, a boutique investment firm focused on Series Seed through Series B technology businesses. Greg also founded BOSS Startup Science, a school for entrepreneurs. Greg is a twenty-year startup veteran and serial entrepreneur, a Forbes author, a TEDX speaker, and the host of Meet The BOSS Forbes Radio show. Throughout the episode, Caleb, Jeff, Davis, and Greg discuss the curriculum of BOSS Startup Science and the methodology behind startup accelerators.
Show Notes:
(1:06) Introduction to Greg
(1:45) Greg’s Background in the Venture Capital Arena
(3:39) About BOSS Capital Partners
(8:32) Insights from Greg’s Five-Year Study
(17:28) Thoughts on Raising Money vs. Selling a Product or Service
(20:55) Success of the BOSS Startup Science Methodology
(24:52) Concept Centric vs. Entrepreneur Centric
(34:42) Curriculum of BOSS Startup Science
(44:04) Advice To Younger Self
(50:32) Closing Thoughts
Links:
Quotes:
“I did this study and was trying to figure out why they were failing, but what I really needed to learn was when they were failing because the why was coordinated with the when. They always collided at the same time.” - Greg Shepard, (4:55)
“I thought that the first thing I should focus on was helping them not fail, but the first thing I needed to focus on was helping them get into an accelerator in the first place.” - Greg Shepard, (6:18)
“It enables the people that are running the venture studio to put together funds and start making money on the loads. I don’t feel that is helping the entrepreneur. I think a lot of these things developed are helping the middle man but not really helping the entrepreneurs.” - Greg Shepard, (25:40)
Summary:
Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!
On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Davis McEntire sit down with Will Trapp, founder and CEO of Gratavid, a tool for collecting and sending personalized videos. Before Gratavid, Will became a recognized expert in web development and design systems as the director of technology at Saatchi & Saatchi X. Throughout the episode, Jeff, Davis, and Will discuss the variety of ways customers utilize Gratavid, the process of being acquired by a private equity firm, and the benefits of bootstrapping.
Shownotes:
(1:12) Introduction to Will
(2:02) About Gratavid
(3:45) Acquisition by Private Equity Firm
(5:28) Bootstrapping Gratavid
(8:04) Finding Your Niche
(13:07) Pros and Cons of Being Acquired
(15:05) Integration Period While Being Acquired
(21:10) Different Ways Customers Use Gratavid
(22:45) Building the Gratavid Team
(24:26) What’s Next for Will
(25:42) Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
(30:30) Advice to Younger Self
(35:28) Closing Thoughts
Links:
Quotes:
“And I remember my lawyer, he said, ‘Start a business to run a business. Don’t start a business to try and sell a business.’ And I genuinely never intended to sell Gratavid.” - Will Trapp, (4:07)
“Companies that want to stay relevant have to embrace the fact that they’re going to have entrepreneurial people if they want to maintain a competitive advantage. And those entrepreneurial people are going to have side hustles going on.” - Jeff Amerine, (12:09)
“There’s just two different ways to go about it. You can raise money or you can bootstrap. I think your chances of success are so much higher if you can figure out how to bootstrap for as long as you can.” - Will Trapp, (34:27)
Summary:
Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!
On this episode, hosts Davis McEntire, Jeff Amerine, and Victoria Dickerson sit down with brothers Adam and Kfir Alfia, founders of Real Time Feedback, a two-way customer communication platform that allows customers to communicate directly with management in real time through technology. Adam and Kfir’s entrepreneurship experience spans three decades, including their 2004 venture Maestro Personal Assistants, the premier provider of personal assistance/concierge services. Throughout the episode, Davis, Jeff, Victoria, Adam, and Kfir discuss their multiple ventures, the current customer service space, and why addressing feedback is so important.
Shownotes:
(1:03) Introduction to Adam and Kfir
(1:21) About Real Time Feedback
(1:54) Adam and Kfir’s History with Maestro
(4:00) Idea behind Real Time Feedback
(6:18) Real Time Feedback’s Success
(9:05) Addressing the Problem of Disengaged Employees
(14:37) Customer Feedback Trends
(19:15) Ventures Involving Family Members
(23:28) Managing Multiple Ventures
(25:27) Feedback over the Next Five Years
(29:44) Advice to Younger Self
(30:43) Closing Thoughts
Links:
Quotes:
“And so we’re really hypersensitive to customer experience. When a customer calls up our service, we want them to hang up the phone and go, ‘Wow, that was one of the best phone experiences I’ve ever had with anybody.’” - Adam Alfia, (2:54)
“We actually put a lot of emphasis in that response time because you’re getting somebody that’s having a negative experience, and you want to respond quickly and save that relationship and save that experience in real-time and in the moment while that customer is in your business.” - Adam Alfia, (8:31)
“If you’re turning your customer into your eyes and ears, they’re able to let you know about deficiencies in your business that you otherwise wouldn’t have known because you don’t have the staff to properly address issues.” - Adam Alfia, (10:38)
“There’s a whole swatch of guests and customers that are silently having bad experiences and leaving, and then either thinking, ‘Oh let’s never come here,’ or, ‘I’ll tell my friends,’ but those are the people who are the silent majority that really need a voice and that's what this tool was created for.” - Kfir Alfia, (17:06)