I had the pleasure of speaking with Kjael Skaalerud, seasoned sales executive, investor, and President of Skaling Ventures. He has found success in acquiring and growing micro SaaS companies.
Kjael's contrarian approach focuses on small, profitable, and enduring businesses rather than chasing larger, venture-backed companies that often prioritize growth over profitability.
Kjael shares his insights on why micro SaaS companies can be just as safe and stable as their larger counterparts, despite conventional wisdom suggesting otherwise. With lower valuations and less competition from institutional players, these businesses present a unique opportunity for investors like Kjael.
We dive into his first acquisition, a vertical niche SaaS for photographers and creative professionals that had been profitable for years and boasted impressive retention rates - a clear indication of the product's usefulness and the founder's deep understanding of their target market.
Key Takeaways:
- Micro SaaS companies can be just as safe and stable as larger businesses, offering lower valuations and less competition from institutional players.
- Founder-product fit is crucial, as founders solving their own problems often create useful products with great retention.
- Founder burnout can be a buying signal, indicating a solid business with a founder ready to move on.
- The first 90 days post-acquisition should focus on visibility, documentation, transition, and validating diligence assumptions before pursuing growth.
- Building transparently and maintaining open communication with users post-acquisition helps preserve the human element and avoid the pitfall of going silent.
- Simplicity equals mastery - if it takes a complex explanation to justify an acquisition, you probably don't fully understand the business.
- Establishing reasonable incremental growth goals based on baseline performance (systems over goals) is more effective than setting arbitrary targets.
- Fostering a culture of care and respect enables honest feedback and allows teams to move faster through a shared commitment to truth-seeking.
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
In this episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Brandi Susewitz, the founder and CEO of Reseat, a groundbreaking marketplace that aims to solve the pressing issue of office furniture waste. Brandi's journey from industry expert to tech entrepreneur is a testament to her passion for sustainability and her commitment to driving positive change.
After being laid off during the pandemic, Brandi recognized two key problems plaguing the office furniture industry: the lack of a plan for existing furniture when companies move or renovate, and the staggering statistic that 98% of all contract furniture ends up in landfills, with less than 2% being properly recycled or given a second life.
This realization sparked the idea for Reseat, a platform that connects companies with excess furniture to those in need, fostering a circular economy and reducing waste. As Brandi eloquently stated, "I really believe with all of my heart and soul that reuse is the future. It's the only way to really save this planet."
Building Reseat from the ground up was no easy feat, but Brandi's determination and industry expertise paved the way. By leveraging technology and forging strategic partnerships, Reseat has become a driving force in the circular economy, enabling companies to track their carbon emissions and make informed decisions about their furniture assets.
Brandi's journey from industry expert to tech entrepreneur is a testament to her resilience and unwavering commitment to sustainability. As she navigates the challenges of scaling Reseat, her vision for the future is clear: a world where every piece of furniture has a unique identifier, enabling companies to track their assets and make informed decisions about their environmental impact.
In this episode, we delve into the intricacies of Reseat's business model, the role of technology and partnerships in enabling a circular economy, and Brandi's insights on the future of sustainable office furniture solutions.
Key Takeaways:
- Addressing Office Furniture Waste: Reseat tackles the critical issue of office furniture waste, providing a platform for companies to repurpose excess furniture and reduce their environmental impact.
- Enabling a Circular Economy: By connecting buyers and sellers, Reseat fosters a circular economy, giving furniture a second life and reducing the strain on landfills.
- The Power of Technology: Leveraging technology and partnerships, Reseat enables companies to track their carbon emissions and make informed decisions about their furniture assets.
- Brandi's Entrepreneurial Journey: From industry expert to tech entrepreneur, Brandi's story is a testament to the power of passion, resilience, and a commitment to driving positive change.
- Envisioning a Sustainable Future: Brandi's dream of a world where every piece of furniture has a unique identifier highlights the potential for technology to revolutionize sustainable practices.
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Matt Wolach, a seasoned SaaS sales coachand entrepreneur. With roles as CEO of ToroWave and Chief Revenue Officer at RingBot, alongside his B2B sales coaching at Xsellus, Matt brings a wealth of experience in dramatically scaling SaaS businesses. His insights into shortening sales cycles are critical for any SaaS company looking to accelerate growth.
Matt shared his journey from a hospitality management background to becoming a SaaS sales expert, highlighting the pivot points that led him to discover and refine his sales strategies. His DEAL process, centered around understanding customer pain points rather than pushing product features, will help you improve your close rate and shorten your sales cycle.
We cover:
- Understanding Customer Pain Points
- Mastering Discovery Calls
- Creating Urgency
- AI and Personalized Communication
- Fostering Cross-department Collaboration
- Building a Strong Brand
- Matt's D.E.A.L. Process
Tune in for a comprehensive guide on drastically improving your SaaS sales strategies.
Where to find Matt:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwolach/
- Website: https://mattwolach.com/scale-time
- ToroWave: http://www.torowave.com/
- Matt's podcast: Scale Your SaaS
- RingBot (text widget): https://www.ringbot.io/
Where to find Michel:
- Newsletter: https://www.stunandawe.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheljgagnon/
- X: https://twitter.com/michelgagnon
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Luis Valente, the CEO and co-founder of iLoF, for an enlightening conversation about his journey in the deep tech world and the pioneering work iLoF is doing in personalized medicine. Luis, who has been honored in the Forbes 30 under 30 list, shared the story behind iLoF, a company at the forefront of using AI to transform our approach to treating complex diseases.
During our chat, Luis opened up about the passion driving him and his team to tackle some of the healthcare sector's most pressing challenges. He detailed how iLoF is making it easier and faster for pharmaceutical companies and researchers to develop personalized medicines, ultimately aiming to deliver more effective treatments to patients. Luis didn't shy away from discussing the hurdles they've faced, including sourcing the right talent, navigating unforeseen challenges, and the ongoing quest for funding.
We also delved into some of the technical and strategic aspects of iLoF's work, from their approach to personalized medicine and data handling to their innovative strategies for patient selection in clinical trials. Luis even shared insights into the startup's business model and their 'foot in the door' strategy, which has been pivotal in navigating the complex regulatory landscape of the healthcare industry.
Tune into this episode of Growth Leap to hear our deep dive into the story of iLoF and Luis Valente's entrepreneurial journey, and learn about the exciting potential of AI in revolutionizing personalized medicine.
Where to find Luis:
- LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/luisvalente28
- Website: https://ilof.tech/
Where to find Michel:
- Newsletter: https://www.stunandawe.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheljgagnon/
- X: https://twitter.com/michelgagnon
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Double Your Revenue in 90 Days with Strategy Sprints CEO, Simon Severino
Imagine doubling your revenue in just 90 days—sounds too good to be true? Our guess doesn't believe so. In fact, he has done that repeatedly with his clients.
Simon Severino is CEO of Strategy Sprints, a seasoned B2B advisor who developed a simple approach to growing revenues and building businesses.
In this episode of Growth Leap, Simon explains his agile business strategies, his focus on marketing, sales, and operations, and his tireless emphasis on simplification.
We cover:
- Doubling Revenue in 90 Days: Uncover the secret that's driving growth for many businesses
- Discover the benefits of staying nimble and responsive in a dynamic marketplace
- Pipeline Management: Keep track of your leads and never let another opportunity slip
- Stay on top of your game by monitoring the right data and performance
- Understand the importance of choosing the right KPIs and how it affects your growth
- Learn the importance of crafting offers that are simply too good to resist
- Keep a finger on the pulse of your business with real-time updates
- Strengthen your daily and weekly routines to drive consistent progress
- Meaningful Business: See how agile methods improve not just your bottom line, but your overall quality of life
___
You can download Simon's Strategic Value tool at https://www.strategysprints.com/tools
Where to find Simon:
- X: https://twitter.com/simonseverino
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonseverino/
- Website: https://www.strategysprints.com/
Where to find Michel:
- Newsletter: https://www.stunandawe.com/
- X: https://twitter.com/michelgagnon
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheljgagnon/
In this episode, we cover:
00:27 Intro
03:22 How Simon doubles his clients' revenue in 90 days
05:48 The top mistakes Simon finds in underperforming businesses
07:14 The three key numbers Simon puts in his dashboard
11:05 Simon's strategy to simplify and have a better life
15:28 Why Simon believes niching down doesn't work
17:16 How to build an irresistible offer
22:10 Simon's take on AI and automation
25:55 What Simone borrowed from his triathlon coach
29:16 Measuring inputs to get real time data and successful projects
31:47 60% of what you do is not important
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Would you turn down a great Sales Executive job to start your own startup? That’s exactly what our guest did.
We're launching our new podcast season with the driven and generous Frank Sondors, co-founder and CEO of Salesforge, an AI-powered app that enables salespeople send personalized cold emails at scale.
Frank believes sales tech is in for a massive disruption, and he's keen on being in the driver's seat.
We talk about his thought process, decision-making, and reasons behind transitioning from a sales expert to a tech entrepreneur. We delve into how he plans to disrupt the sales tech space with Salesforge.
He shares tons of tips including:
- His multi-thread approach to winning new accounts
- How he found early customers in a coffeeshop in Berlin
- Consumption-based pricing
- And more
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Imagine a world where we could significantly reduce our carbon footprint, effectively giving our planet a much-needed breather. What if I told you that is the goal of my guest, Carla Glassel, the co-founder and CTO of Ucaneo Biotech?
With an ambitious target to extract 1 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2030, Carla joins us today to explain the cutting-edge technology and innovative methods her startup uses to combat the climate crisis.
In this fun and enlightning conversation, we talk about the intricate world of climate tech, exploring the challenges of bringing a hardware product to market. Carla shares a ton of advice and anecdotes about the importance of assembling a World Cup-level team, hacks to reduce experiments timelines with hardware, her plan to scale a hardware tech, and the secret to get to the finish line. And she doesn't shy away from sharing some of the mistakes she's made.
We conclude with a deep dive into the investor landcape for climate tech and the expected timeline for Ucaneo's product development. Plus, Carla shares her outlook on climate tech, why putting a value on CO2 is critical, and emphasizes the need for multiple solutions to tackle the climate crisis.
If you're a tech entrepreneur interested in fighting climate change, building a meaningful business, or getting into a hardware tech, this is the perfect episode for you!
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Andrew Gazdecki is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Acquire.com. After going through two successful exits, he decided to build the world’s number-one startup acquisition marketplace.
If you're thinking about selling your startup or are building a venture with an exit in mind, you'll find the episode rich in actionable insights and pitfalls to avoid.
Andrew shares all his secrets:
- The mistakes he made when selling a company for the first time
- His preferred marketing strategy, and why it's the most defensible approach
- How Andrew builds teams as a non-tech founder and the three attributes in he looks for
- What types of businesses sell better than others
- What types of buyers are buying companies on Acquire.com
- What Andrew focuses on to run a successful marketplace
- What can you expect if you want to sell your company on Acquire.com
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Are you worried about the impact of generative AI on the job market? In this episode of "Growth Leap", I discuss the importance of becoming AI literate and adapting to the transformation.
I cover three AI marketing tools that can help with content creation, image generation, and video editing, including Copy.ai, Midjourney, and Runway. But the most valuable lesson is the need to stay ahead in the marketing and growth game by embracing the opportunities presented by AI technology.
Don't miss out on the chance to learn how to effectively use these tools to drive customer acquisition, create content, and generate sales by signing up for the paid AI marketing workshop mentioned in the episode.
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
In our latest podcast episode, we had a blast chatting with Henning Heinrich, a seasoned product growth expert who's driven millions in incremental revenue for companies across the globe. As the Group Product Manager at Hootsuite, Henning knows a thing or two about creating disruptive and meaningful products.
Product-led growth is all about putting the product front and center of your growth strategy. This means creating a product so damn good that customers will want to shout it from the rooftops and bring their friends along for the ride. It's all about using data, feedback, and experimentation to inform product development and drive growth.
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Design a digital channel strategy to gain leads and win new customers.
We don’t talk enough about how a smart digital channel strategy can drive customer acquisition, retention, and overall satisfaction. I have probably wasted months of my life on either the wrong marketing channel or doing a poor job using one of them. And I still cry sometimes alone in my bed, thinking about it ;)
Marketing channels are how you get your message to prospects and customers. Picking the right channels and using them properly can help you find new customers, increase sales, and build your brand.
You're probably already using email marketing, social media, and maybe podcasts or video. They are many ways for you to make the same mistakes I’ve made.
Many people often waste time trying to increase their productivity per channel. It's not necessarily wrong, but your first step should be to have a coherent digital channel strategy. You can then avoid wasting time on the wrong channels.
In this episode, I cover:
- What are marketing channels, and how to think about them
- What are the top marketing channels
- All marketing channels have distinct cost structures, reach, and ROI.
- Typical mistakes people make with channel strategy
- An overview of our own marketing channel strategy example for 2023
Selected Links:
- Arvid Kahl's book The Embedded Entrepreneur
- Arvid on Twitter
- Luca on Twitter
- Luca's lead generation product: https://www.hivoe.com/
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Today’s guest is Jimmy Coleman, a talented salesman and LinkedIn genius. He is the founder of LeadBaller, a US-based agency that offers done-for-you lead-generation services. His clients include TikTok, Northwestern Mutual, The Real Brad Lea, and others.
Releasing this episode is long overdue. For a variety of reasons, we were not able to do so earlier. But the insights and advice that Jimmy offered were just too valuable not to share with all of you.
Jimmy’s approach to generating leads on LinkedIn is totally out-of-the-box. He doesn't use the same boring, automated, spammy methods everyone else is teaching. In fact, he’s mastered three key elements that most have a hard time replicating:
- The numbers game
- Authentic selling
- Personalization
If you want to up your B2B lead generations and sales game, that’s the episode for you. We talk about the numbers game, how his sales experience evolved into his outbound process that beats advertising, his trick to finding the right prospects, and his idea about making lead generation for good.
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
After a long and well-deserved summer break we're back in full force with another season of Growth Leap and we have somebody very special to kick things off.
Our guest today is Fabian Wesemann co-founder and CFO of wefox a Germany-based digital insurance company. wefox recently closed a $650 million Series C funding round led by Target Global and reaching a post-money valuation of $3 billion.
Founded in Berlin in 2015, wefox decided to make an important strategic bet. The company has focused on tech enabling insurance advisors instead of seeking to cut the middleman. The results so far have been quite positive. The company posted 119 million in revenues last year and is on track to reach 325 million this year.
We talk about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, wefox' journey to becoming a unicorn, and the importance of employee equity compensation.
What you will learn:
- Why Fabian decided to quit a corporate job and become an entrepreneur
- Key challenges and skills to have to be a successful entrepreneur
- wefox' strategic positioning and channel strategy
- How to build and grow your team
- Remote working, the pandemic, and preserving your company culture
- wefox' plan for the next 12-18 months
- The importance of employee ownership
Enjoy the show and happy listening!
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Today’s guest is Alexej Habinski, a multifaceted growth expert who has developed his growth hacking craft at Rocket Internet and later at foodora (later acquired by Delivery Hero). Alexej was Global Director of Performance Marketing & Rider Growth there and scaled annual GMV turnover from close to €0 to >€500M.
Growth advisor and angel investor, he now develops growth systems and teams for venture backed startups, including TIER Mobility, Sharpist, Weezy.co.uk, vation.io., and Jodel.com.
In this episode, Alexej shares his personal philosophy and outlook on growth. He talks about the importance of making your product social and speaks on the fortune he has had in working with diverse business models.
What you will learn:
- Background to his career and the businesses he is involved in
- The biggest growth hack he has discovered and implemented
- Common mistakes startups make and the still relevant 4Ps of marketing
- The value of talking to your customers
- Simple growth tactics startups can use to approach potential customers
- Typical mistakes startup founders make
- His advice on channel strategy why he believes you need to crack marketing on TikTok
If you tend to overthink and procrastinate, Alexej has a few solutions for you that you can implement in your business. He favors focused actions, values customer feedback, and has a unique perspective on marketing and why he recommends not using paid advertising early in your startup development.
He shares simple tactics to approaching customers that are often overlooked, common mistakes founders make such as being unfocused, and how to strategically prioritize your to-dos.
Enjoy the show and happy listening!
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Today’s guest is an entrepreneur, investor, author, and mentor every German entrepreneur looks up to. He founded alando, which was acquired by ebay, then ran ebay Germany for 7 years.
He’s a Member of the Board of Bahlsen, Co-founder of betterplace.org, Co-Founder and Lecturer at UNTERNEHMERSCHULE from ESCP Europe and so much more. Most importantly, he’s just a great human being who played a significant role in turning Berlin into a startup hotspot.
Joerg Rheinboldt is Managing Director APX - a joint venture between Axel Springer and Porsche investing in early-stage startups from around the world.
In this episode, we talk about his experience in building and growing startups as an entrepreneur and as an investor, his investment strategy, and his views on the startup ecosystem in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What you’ll learn about:
- His experience with startups from opposite perspectives
- APX’s investments in teams with ideas
- How the pandemic impacted APX and the VC realm
- Common mistakes startups make on the venture path
- What APX looks for in a team to invest in
- Mental Mining: APX’s mental health programme
APX is also one of the few who has taken a stance and acted on startup founders' mental health. Joerg discusses APX’s approach to equipping these people with the skills needed to maintain a healthy balance. He discusses how being busy is the new stupid and how imperative it is to own your time.
APX provides much needed support to startups with big ideas. If your business is just starting out and you want to know how to go about seeking out a VC or to approach APX, this episode will be your roadmap to success. A very captivating interview, thank you Joerg Rheinboldt!
Enjoy the show and happy listening!
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://academy.stunandawe.com
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Notion is shaping the work-from-home revolution, by offering an application that simplifies and declutters your digital home office. Think of it as an all-in-one workspace for notes, docs, wikis, projects, and collaboration.
The company is on the fast-track to becoming the new normal and its recent presence expansion in EMEA and APAC is a testament to this.
Here to discuss the company’s growth and how he is pioneering its development in the region is General Manager EMEA Robbie O’Connor, whose career spans across the globe’s most prominent tech companies: Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, and Asana.
In this episode we discuss how to take a Series B company and expand it across international boundaries, the elements a startup needs to go global, how Notion drives growth, Robbie’s personal favourite frameworks and the secret ingredients to building high-performing teams.
What you’ll learn
- Robbie’s background and experience
- His experience in rapid growth of tech companies, what other companies can do to follow suit.
- How to prepare your startup for international growth
- How to define your vision and clear objectives
- His perspective of the EMEA market.
- How to stay relevant and competitive
- How to overcome growth challenges in your career
Getting your company from zero to hero has never had a clearer path thanks to Robbie O’Connor’s insights, tips, tricks, trials and tribulations.
The most impactful tools for learning come from other people’s experience. If ever there was a time to unpack an industry leader’s career, this podcast is your blueprint.
A very interesting and insightful interview, thank you Robbie O’Connor! Happy listening!
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://academy.stunandawe.com
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Isn’t there a fundamental conflict between running a business and solving global problems? Our guest today doesn’t think so. He believes that designing innovative partnerships can accelerate the development of sustainable businesses.
Nadim Choucair is Founder of 2030 Cabinet, an impact-oriented ecosystem builder and partnership architect. His goal: to enable sustainable innovation using the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nadim also coordinates the UN Global Goals Jam in Germany. The Jam is a two-day design sprint held in over 90 cities around the world, during which multidisciplinary teams work out solutions for real world problems.
In today’s episode, we go all in on sustainability and business. We touch on a couple of themes, such as:
- How to make your startup more sustainable using the SDGs framework
- Enabling innovation to advance the SDGs
- Running 2-day design sprints to solve global challenges
- Moving from human-centered to life-centered design
- The need for different incentives to drive entrepreneurs and businesses
- Lean approaches to measuring your startup impact, and a lot more.
If you want to build a meaningful tech startup that will make a positive impact, that’s the right episode for you.
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
If you’re interested in building a startup that works like clockwork, you need to listen to our guest today. He’s done it, and he’s done pretty much everything right. He co-founded Feedbackpanda.com, a SaaS startup and went from launch to selling it in just under two years. Arvid Kahl is an entrepreneur, investor, author, software engineer, and bootstrapped startup expert. He’s the author of the book Zero to Sold: How to Start, Run, and Sell a Bootstrapped Business and he’s busy writing a second one.
We talk about what to do to build a sellable company, his approach to automation, how to stay in touch with end users, how he made build or buy decisions, his secret to onboarding employees quickly, and his take on founders’ mental health and bootstrapping. It was such a fun and insightful interview. Enjoy!
We cover:
- Arvid’s background and what he’s been up to since selling his startup
- What problem Arvid and his partner faced that led to the launch of FeebackPanda
- The simple marketing strategy that generated a constant influx of customers
- How Arvid avoided previous product validation mistakes
- The resources and frameworks that helped Arvid built an automated and sellable bootstrapped startup
- Arvid’s advice to allow engineers to do coding deep work without losing touch with the end users
- The automations Arvid put in place to increase effectiveness and productivity
- How Arvid made made or buy decisions while developing his product
- The biggest hiring mistake Arvid made
- Arvid’s secret to hire and get people up and running in a matter of hours
- Arvid documented his processes
- The habit you need to acquire to
- Why Arvid prefers startups who ride a sustainable linear curve instead of a hockey stick
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
If you don’t own any Bitcoins yet, this episode is for you. We talk to Dave Pouliot, Founder and CEO of Coinmiles, a Montreal-based startup that gives you free Bitcoins when you shop online. Dave is a former detective and lawyer turned tech startup founder. He’s extremely authentic. He’s passionate about cryptocurrency and the positive impact it can have in our society. Dave shares his experience and practical advice on how to raise money, build a tech startup with a non-tech background, hire engineers, and how to survive an app launch in the middle of a pandemic.
We talk about:
- What’s Coinmiles’s offering
- Coimiles’s business model
- How Coinmiles complied with regulation on Bitcoins
- Coinmiles’s go-to-market strategy
- Dave’s journey from being a detective cop to founding Bitcoin Startup
- Dave’s advice on fundraising
- What investors looked into while investing in Coinmiles
- How Dave managed to get first prototype without tech background
- Dave’s team building strategy
- Dave’s approach to manage remote and distributed team
- Dave’s experience on launching app in pandemic times
- Coinmiles’s incredibly effective customer acquisition strategy
- What does Bitocoin mean for average consumer according to Dave
- The Cryptocurrency’s future from Dave’s prospective
- How does Dave measure success at Coinmiles
- Dave’s advice on being an entrepreneur
- Coinmiles’s growth plans
- Dave’s key takeaways from his journey and advice to young entrepreneurs
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Our guest today isn’t afraid of challenges. She founded a startup to take on not one, but two sustainability problems. Alina Bassi is Founder and CEO of Kleiderly, a Berlin-based startup that aims to reduce the fashion footprint and the usage of oil based plastic by replacing it with its patent-pending sustainable plastic alternative. She’s a Google for Startups Female Founder alumni, she recently joined the Forbes 30 under 30 and holds a Masters in Chemical Engineering. She’s converted coffee into biofuel, and she just launched Tech in Color.
We talk about Kleiderly’s business model, her approach to prioritization, the metrics she uses to measure progress, and what’s the future of the fashion industry.
We talk about:
- Why Alina decided to launch Kleiderly and what it's all about
- Kleiderly's supply chain
- Keiderly's target and customer acquisition strategy
- The impact of the circular economy on fashion brands
- Kleiderly's current production operations and future plans
- Alina's funding strategy and the challenges she's faced
- Alina’s experience in going from zero to 7 employees
- How putting your team members in the deep end can be a great path to growth
- How Alina prioritizes and set goals to align her team and drive progress
- What metrics she uses to measure success
- Alina's view on what is missing for us to accelerate the change towards a more sustainable world
- Alina's experience as a female founder and how the Google Female Founder Program helped her
- And more
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Today’s guest made it his mission to reduce online misinformation & abusive content from the internet. Dhruv Ghulati is Founder and CEO of Factmata, a London-based tech startup who uses unique algorithms to score and classify content. Since 2017 he has raised 3.5 million from the likes of Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, but also from the Founders of Zynga, Brightmail, Twitter, and Craigslist, to name a few.
He’s building an AI to bring more truth to the world. Dhruv has a truly outstanding experience. We talk about how he went from investment banking to launching his own company, traction, fund raising, and we cover some of the mistakes he made along the way.
We talk about:
- Factmata’s Unique Selling Proposition
- Dhurv’s path from investment banking to founding AI-powered startup
- How Dhruv balanced impact and profitability
- Factmata’s incredibly effective customer acquisition strategy
- Some early mistakes Dhruv made with go-to-market strategy
- Dhruv’s advice on fundraising and the story about how he bring investors like Mark Cuban, Mark Pincus, Founder of Zynga, Sunil Paul, Founder of Brightmail, Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist
- How Factmata approached challenges such as algorithmic biases
- Dhruv’s top mistakes as a first-time tech startup founder
- His ideal employee profile
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
In this episode, our guest wants to bring transparency to the environmental impact of our online shopping. Marissa Liu is Co-Founder of Neutral, a browser extension that allows users to understand and offset the CO2 emissions generated by the products they buy online. The startup is on a roll. Neutral has been selected by the Mozilla Builders Incubator and was recently featured in Fast Company.
We talk about:
- Neutral’s unique selling proposition and business model
- The challenges of feature prioritization in product development
- Finding product/market fit
- What’s the company’s vision and true north
- The importance of rapid feedback loops
- Neutral’s key metrics to measure impact and progress
- The most challenging part of building a startup
- Neutral’s approach to user feedback
- Marissa's view on the progress of women in tech
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Today we look into how you can finance your startup without losing your shirt and your conscience. Julia Profeta Johansson is Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at Conscious Growth, a Berlin-based company that offers founder-friendly, non-dilutive lending. She’s seen it all in finance, having worked in investment banking, private equity, VC, and impact investing.
We talk about:
- Smarter ways to finance your tech startup growth with revenue-based financing
- Their customer acquisition strategy to generate solid traction
- The problems with VC funding
- Her strategy to use technology, business and investments to generate social and environmental impact.
- Tools that you can use to measure the impact of your tech startup
- How women are doing in tech and business
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
In this episode, we talk to a serial entrepreneur who’s launched 6 startups and went through a few successful exits. Joseph Fung is Founder and CEO of Kiite a sales enablement software and of Uvaro, an Online Tech Sales Training program.
He has lots of experience and shares a ton of advice on:
- Joseph’s secrets to gain traction, find product market fit, and acquire customers
- The revolution that’s happening right now in tech sales
- Kiite's sales and marketing strategy
- What you need to be successful in sales today
- Joseph's secret weapon to scale startups
- What Joseph recommend early-stage startups to do as early as possible
- The three components of a startup culture
- Joseph's perspective on the startup CEO
- The single biggest challenge for entrepreneurs
- What kind of hires should early-stage startups look for and how to grow people
- How to build and grow the right team
- The importance of having a clear True North or positioning
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Today, we deep dive into how LinkedIn develops products and innovates. Our guest left Germany a few years ago to work for some of the top tech companies in Silicon Valley. Christian Byza is Principal Product Manager, InMail & Premium Messaging at LinkedIn. He’s also Co-Founder of the OMR Festival, one of the world’s largest events for digital marketing and technology.
We talk about:
- LinkedIn’s approach to feedback loops and user engagement
- What KPIs or North Star metrics Christian’s team uses to measure success and manage new feature prioritization
- How LinkedIn encourages innovation, tests ideas before starting to build, and measures success.
- LinkedIn's product development and vision, How Might Wes, and experiments
- How Christian interacts with users and creates fans
- The importance of experience in designing remarkable events
- The secret that helped OMR scale into one of the world’s largest events for digital marketing and technology
- How Christian sees the future of event in a post-COVID19 world
- Silicon Valley’s secret ingredient to driving innovation
- The personality traits of successful people in Silicon Valley
For detailed show notes and relevant links, visit www.stunandawe.com
If you want to accelerate traction, hit the growth stage, and upgrade your scaling skills, check out our Growth Leap online course. It’s a step-by-step guide to design your tech startup for high performance and impact. It’s packed with actionable and proven frameworks and tools to improve your startups performance, from better customer acquisition to clear prioritization and more productive meetings.
Learn more here: https://growth.stunandawe.com/course
- Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast or feedback to share? Leave me a message here.
- You'll find all the show notes, transcripts, and past guests at stunandawe.com
- Up your growth game with our hands-on Growth Marketing Course
- For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email marketing@stunandawe.com.
- Support the show on Patreon
Follow us:
Scaling Success: Acquiring and Engineering Growth in Micro SaaS with Kjael Skaalerud
54:27
Revolutionizing Office Sustainability through Circular Economy with Reseat CEO Brandi Susewitz
44:48
Reaching $1M MRR: Matt Wolach on SaaS Sales Strategies for Rapid Growth
42:06
Playing with Light and AI: iLoF's Answer to Personalized Medicine
42:32
Double Your Revenue in 90 Days with Strategy Sprints CEO, Simon Severino
37:05
The Power of AI in Sales: Cold Email Personalization at Scale with Frank Sondors, Salesforge’s CEO
42:51
Carbon Removal and How to Build a Deep Tech Startup with Carla Glassl
40:20
A Roadmap to Selling Your Startup: Tips from Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Acquire.com
56:28
Top 3 AI Marketing Tools That Beat ChatGPT and That You Need to Master Before It’s Too Late
11:20
Create a Killer Product: Experiments, User Research, and Product-Led Growth with Hootsuite Henning Heinrich
38:18
Marketing channel strategies that drive growth
15:53
From door-to-door knife selling to generating 7-figure B2B leads on LinkedIn with Jimmy Coleman
31:58
Wefox Fabian Wesemann on the inner game of entrepreneurship, culture, and the journey to a $3-billion valuation
36:45
Growth Hacking Secrets with Angel Investor and Growth Expert Alexej Habinski
34:58
APX Joerg Rheinboldt on building a successful VC-backed business, attributes of winning teams, and why people need more serendipity
40:00
Notion's EMEA GM on how to Grow a Series B Startup Internationally
42:10
Disruptive partnerships: How to make your startup more sustainable using the SDGs.
36:54
From launch to successful exit in less than two years with bootstrapped startup expert Arvid Kahl
1:04:39
Launching a Bitcoin Startup During the COVID-19 Crisis with Coinmiles Founder & CEO Dave Pouliot
39:45
Kleiderly’s Alina Bassi on running a purpose-driven startup and building a circular fashion industry
31:49
Raising $3.5M from Mark Cuban, Twitter, and Zynga to fight online misinformation with AI
42:15
Understanding the environmental impact of your online shopping with Neutral Co-founder Marissa Liu
35:33
How to raise 100K in a week to fund your startup growth with Conscious Growth CIO Julia Profeta Johansson
40:06
Joseph Fung on building six startups, gaining traction, and transforming sales
49:04
Driving innovation at LinkedIn and reinventing events at OMR with Christian Byza
49:56