School of Startups

Top Digital Marketing & Investment Trends with Neil Patel #050

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Neil Patel is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and analytics expert who specializes in SEO and digital marketing, he has co-founded several marketing & tech. companies including KissMetrics, Hello Bar, and Crazy Egg. He also now runs his own ad agency called Neil Patel Digital and a KW research tool, UberSuggest. Over the years he has helped big companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Airbnb, Google, and HP to help them grow through his amazing marketing skills.

Among his many achievements, Neil has been recognized as a New York Times bestselling author, a top influencer by the Wall Street Journal, a Top 10 Marketer by Forbes, a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by former US president Barack Obama, a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations, and he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies according to Entrepreneur Magazine. Neil also runs a blog about marketing that has generated over 3 million visitors per month, he co-hosts his own podcast with Eric Siu, Marketing School, that has generated over 1 million listens per month and a YouTube channel about marketing that has over 10 million views.

In this interview, we cover:

- Digital Marketing trends - Risk & opportunities for SaaS founders & Marketers

- Ubersuggest Freemium to Customer conversion rate numbers

- The right time to make the switch to go from freemium to paid vs. Raise VC capital to keep fueling user growth

- Comparing keyword research tools in the market and where does Ubersuggest stands

- SEO Automation and AI

- Investing trends for 2020 and during COVID-19

- Key Metrics and Red Flags to look for when Investing

- Building a SaaS company VS Marketing Agency

- Real SEO experts and high-value products VS frauds/lower quality ones

- Where to focus your Marketing efforts and budget in 2020

- Focusing on Mid or Top of funnel content marketing?

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Links and mentions:

NPDigital

Get in touch with Neil:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkpatel/

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Bootstrapping Your Startup to Acquisition with Einar Vollset #049

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Einar Vollset is currently the Co-Founder and General Partner at Tinyseed, a remote-based startup accelerator designed for early stage, bootstrapped SaaS Founders which provides funding, community, guidance, advice and mentorship.

He is also the Managing Partner of Discretion Capital, a technology enabled Investment Bank focused on M&A, due diligence and strategic partnership development for tech & technology enabled services businesses.

Einar was a professor of Computer Science at Cornell University. He is a serial entrepreneur who founded many companies like ReMail which was acquired by Google in 2010, Octopus Mercantile, and AppAftercare, a company which was built from scratch, with zero outside funding, which was completely bootstrapped from zero revenue until acquisition in 2016.

Einar was also CEO at Left Coast R&D, and an advisor at Trigger.io and Biomeme.

In this interview we cover:

-Exiting to big corporations like Google

-How we manages his investment strategy during a crisis

-The importance of having a specific investment criteria and what he looks for in funding startups

-Initial traction and acceleration programs

-Benefits of Bootstrapping vs. VC funding of your startup

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Get in touch with Einar:

Einar's LinkedIn

Links and mentions:

Tinyseed

DiscretionCapital

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How to Perfect the Onboarding Process & Reduce Churn with Jeff Epstein #048

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Jeff is an entrepreneur, team-builder, hustler & investor. He is the founder of Onboard.io which is a SaaS made specifically for customer implementation to automate, optimize & create the perfect journey for every customer and enabling companies to manage the perfect onboarding process.Jeff was previously the founder of Ambassador for over 9 years, a referral tracking, attribution, and management platform for businesses. Acq by West Corp. in late 2018.

He’s a lifelong entrepreneur, a 2011 NYC TechStar graduate, and is described as one of those rare founders you only read about in books because of his unmatchable drive to succeed.

In this interview we cover:

- Intro

- Right Time to Sell, Negotiation Tips & Emotional load when selling your business (selling Ambassador)

- Most Common Areas where you can Improve Onboarding for your SaaS Business & Why you Should Invest in Onboarding Practices

- Why the Customer Success Team should own the Onboarding Process

- How to Measure ROI on Customer Success

- Why you should personalize and Balance the Onboarding Process

- Proactive VS Reactive For Customer Success

- Why to Have a Customer Success Team from Day 1

- Tech Stack Recommendation & When to Expect Onboard.io

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Get in touch with Jeff:

Jeff's LinkedIn

Links & Mentions:

Onboard.io

Baran Ozbek

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How to Make Better Decisions Around Cost Management with Hani Abdou #047

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Hani is Founder and CEO of Tradogram, an online purchasing system that helps businesses manage their purchasing process and control their business spending. Tradogram also offers advising and coaching for organizations on the implementation and development of a better procurement process.

Hani holds a degree in Financial Accounting and an MBA from Azusa University in California.

Prior to Tradogram, Hani was the manager at the Magdi Store Company, An importer and wholesaler of dry foods, and was also Partner and Managing Director at Madji Food Centre, where he was able to manage several large projects such as establishing a new factory, conduct business analysis, implementation, and configuration of a Sage ERP system. He played a major role in negotiating the deal and in planning the entire set up when the company was acquired by another large corporation.

Finally, Hani has more than 30 years of experience in business management including working in Wholesale supply, Food Processing, and Business Services.

In this interview we cover:

-Procurement process: Risks and challenges

-Making better decisions when managing your costs in your startup

-Growth channels that helped him build and grow Tradogram (hint: PLG)

-Better cost control frameworks

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Hani:

Hani's Email

Links and mentions:

Tradogram’s website

More About Akeel:

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How to Find your Economic Moat in a Competitive SaaS Market with Jeroen Corthout #046

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Jeroen is the co-founder and CEO of Salesflare, a fast, powerful, and intuitive CRM for B2B SMBs focused on improving prospect relationships and sales. Salesflare has been featured on TechCrunch and Entrepreneur.com and has been named as one of the top CRMs on both Product Hunt and AppSumo.

Prior to Salesflare, Jeroen founded Doctura, a medical personal journal that worked with tech startups and healthcare companies with new ways of doing business by fusing modern technology. He worked as a PM and account manager for some of the leading health and life science companies in Europe, the US, and China. Some of his work and expertise was focused on multichannel promotion, diverse multichannel campaigns, mobile sales apps, multichannel mix assessments, strategic consulting projects, mobile strategy workshops to digital benchmarks, competitive analysis, innovation workshops, and many more.

In this interview we cover:

- Building a Sales Platform For Salesforce

- The Need For a New CRM Over the Other 600+ Options

- Why You Should Start Using a CRM

- What Analytics Data is Most Useful for Your SaaS Sales/Marketing Team

- Getting The First 100 Customers

- How to Effectively Take Advantage of Launching With ProductHunt & Appsumo

- Salesflare User Acquisition, Content Marketing Strategy & What hasn’t Worked

- The Founder Coffee Podcast

- Habits Over Goals For Self Improvement & Business Growth

- $1MM in External Funding & Next Milestones For Salesflare

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Jeroen:

Jeroen’s LinkedIn

Mentions:

6 foolproof ways to get your startup its first 100 customers

Founder Coffee Podcast

More About Akeel:

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Land Clients with Your Proposals and Launch a Competitive Spin-Off with Ruben Gamez #045

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

How to Land Clients with Your Proposals and How to Launch a Spin-Off Product in A Competitive Market

Ruben is a specialist in Bootstrapping, marketing, User Experience, and software development, he is the founder of Bidsketch, a professional web app focused on designing, tracking, and customizing proposals in no time.

In the past, Ruben owned 9thSign, a small business specialized in web development and consulting, after that Ruben worked In Oasis Outsourcing as a Web development Manager, the largest privately-held PEO at the time, then Ruben decided to quit his job and founded Bidsketch where he’s been growing and improving since 2009.

In this interview we cover:

- Not a full-time StartUp

- Identifying your StartUp idea & problem to solve

- VC vs Bootstrapped

- Growth Strategies for Bidsketch

- Failures & how to use them as experience

- Key differences for winning or losing business proposals

- Conceiving Other ideas to integrate with your StartUp (Docsketch)

- Proposals for SMB’s vs Enterprise lead

- Trends in e-Signature Market during COVID-19

- Making Docsketch Competitive

- Growth Hacks

- Considering Merger or Acquisition

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Get in touch with Ruben:

Ruben's LinkedIn

Extends Logic

Links and mentions:

Bidsketch

Docsketch

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The Impact of Branding & Building Innovative Digital Products for Your StartUp with Dmytro Grechko #044

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Dmytro Grechko is a self-taught Entrepreneur & Software Engineer who found his passion & borrowed his inspiration from the constant process of learning and meeting new people, his skills and interests range from emerging technologies and latest market trends to sports and music.

As a Founder and CEO of Deskree & Deskree Studio, he specializes on helping brick and mortar companies, digitalizes their operation and reinvents their business with the latest technologies, his personal goal is to help early-stage startups and entrepreneurs uncover their potential in new unique markets, and connect them with like-minded investors and the right people for the job.

In this interview we cover:

- After launch CTO for non-tech founders

- Deskree playbook on founder resource management

- Assessing the market viability for Startups

- Trends on innovation and automation solutions for startups

- The importance of branding design for startups

- Differences in the investment and startup ecosystem between Canada, Europe, and the US

- Focusing on the functional features, the problem that the solution aims to solve, and the solution that delivers the maximum value

- Deskree’s ideal profile of entrepreneurs to work with

- Dmytro’s top underrated digital tools for SaaS founders

- Raising a VC fund focused on teaching branding, sales, and development

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Dmytro:

Dmytro's LinkedIn

Dmytro's Email

Links and mentions:

More About Akeel:

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How to Source High Quality Leads Who are More Likely to Buy in the B2B SaaS Industry with Mark Colgan #043

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Mark is the Co-Founder & CEO of Speak on Podcasts, which is an Outbound Prospecting Coach at the Sales Impact Academy, CRO at Task Drive, a B2B SaaS Revenue Growth Consultant at Yello O & Mentor at Growth Mentor. By day Mark works with B2B companies to increase revenue by helping them with their Lead Generation and Data Enrichment strategies & by night he helps B2B SaaS companies scale revenue with their Sales & Marketing Automation and Customer Journey Optimisation.

Revenue Generation is Mark’s brain default state and his personal mantra is to give without expecting anything in return.

In this episode we cover:

- Mark’s Background (From Prospecting to B2B Revenue Growth)

- Channels for Building a Predictable and Scalable Outbound System

- How to Source Leads who are More Likely to Buy or Convert

- Key Metrics to Look at to Keep the Pipeline Flowing

- How to Invest on Acquiring the first & Right Customers

- How to Better Build the Customer Profile for Higher Success in Positive Responses

- If you Create Content, Customers Will Come?

- What’s the Story Behind Launching Speak on Podcasts?

- Why You, as a SaaS Founder or Marketer, Should Launch a Podcast

- How Should We Be Thinking About Lead Generation Through Podcasting as a Marketing Channel

- Mark’s Top Marketing/Sales Stack Tools

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Mark:

Mark’s LinkedIn

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Why Understanding Your Customer Persona is Important in Copywriting with Bhaskar Sarma #042

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Bhaskar Sarma is a full stack growth marketer who helps companies and leaders to get more qualified traffic to their site, increasing conversions on their website, converting more free trial users to paid customers and keeping them loyal, upsell and cross sell them and setting up a customized analytics stack which tracks users right through the entire customer cycle.

Bhaskar is experienced in many marketing channels including Conversion copywriting, SEO, Website/competitive audits, Email marketing, Case Studies, Whitepapers, Video and Webinar scripts, Onboarding design, Revenue optimization, Marketing automation and Sales funnel optimization.

Bhaskar was a Features writer at Digit, India’s largest tech magazine, and more recently he was a SaaS marketer and full stack growth hacker at Pixels and Clicks, where he wrote SEO web copy, whitepapers and case studies and also consulted clients on content marketing strategy. His niche and expertise is in the B2B space.

In this episode we cover:

-The importance of copywriting

-Writer’s block: what to do

-The persona development process (Jobs to be Done)

-Tools and strategies for copywriting

-Incorporating your brand’s voice

-Hiring copywriters: when and how to do so

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Bhaskar:

Twitter: @bhas

Bhaskar's LinkedIn

Bhaskar's Website

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Top Marketing Challenges that Cost SaaS Startups $100k+ Each Year with Oren Greenberg #041

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Oren Greenberg is the founder of Kurve - a modular growth marketing consultancy with experience of helping FTSE 250s and funded startups to navigate the perilous waters of growth and marketing, his impressive track record of results include; managing over £10M marketing budgets, juggling paid search campaigns with over 13.7 million key phrases, organic traffic growth from 2.3M a month to 3.1M a month for a single client, scaling paid search delivery by 139% to 12,600 B2B clients.

Oren’s highly regarded digital strategy and commercial expertise have been instrumental in the growth of client brands including Investec Bank, Peakon, Wonga, Wink Bingo, Nutmeg, Funding Circle and he has been featured in The Telegraph, Social Media Examiner, Forbes, virgin entrepreneur, the guardian, and the HubSpot blog, and nonetheless, he’s also an instructor on Skillshare and Jolt.

In this episode we cover:

- How to communicate effectively and convince the board to invest in your marketing strategy

- Operating on the Wrong Channels & Spending the Money in the Wrong Places

- Best Framework and Channels for SaaS Businesses & Best Content Creation-Promotion Ratio

- Hiring an On-Demand Marketing Department

- What to Value about Seniority VS Young Talent

- How to Decide which Channels to Focus Budget for your B2B SaaS Company

- How to Go From 0 to 500 leads a day

- Don't lose 110+ Right Touch Point Strategy to increase your ROI

- Why Use Personalized Videos in your B2B outreach Efforts

- The Importance of Choosing the Right Tech Stack

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Oren:

Oren's LinkedIn

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Using an Omnichannel Approach In your Marketing Campaigns with Rytis Lauris #040

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Rytis Lauris is a serial entrepreneur of various start-ups, and an expert on E-commerce, Online Marketing and Email Marketing. In 2009, he was the Founder of Treenex, which was a company focused on environmental services.

Rytis was also the Co-Founder of IQ Polls, which is an easy to use voting tool that interacts with audiences during conferences, seminars and training sessions.

In 2009, he became the Founder and CEO of Soundest, which first started off as a digital marketing agency operating in the Baltic states but then in 2014 transitioned to focus on a newly built email marketing platform. 3 years later Rytis is still the Co-Founder and CEO of the now renamed platform, known today as Omnisend. His startup Omnisend,is an all-in-one and omnichannel e-commerce marketing automation platform that helps companies boost their sales by converting their visitors and retaining their customers through personalized messages.

In this episode we cover:

- Covid-19 e-commerce trends that he's experienced

- Omnichannel marketing for your marketing campaigns

- Effective omnichannel trends and stats

- Target audiences and sales cycle

- Why and how to use segmentation effectively

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Rytis:

Twitter: @RytisLauris

Omnisend.com

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How to Become a Thought Leader Through Consistent Content Marketing for your SaaS with Tristan Pelligrino #039

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Tristan Pelligrino is the Co-Founder of Motion where he helps tech companies get noticed, engage their prospects, and become thought leaders. Early on in his consulting career, Tristan worked for firms such as Oracle and IBM and learned how challenging it is to articulate the value of technology. While working towards his MBA in Marketing, Tristan launched a video production company that he ended up getting on the Inc. 5000 list before selling his stake to his business partner. Now, Tristan is able to combine his firsthand experience in technology with his marketing expertise in order to help tech companies develop amazing visual content, position themselves as the choice in their industry, and ultimately, show the world their value. Tristan also co-hosts a B2B tech marketing podcast, Tech Qualified, where he interviews industry leaders to uncover what is working in the world of B2B technology marketing.

In this episode we cover:

A Podcast or Video Series to Get Better Consistent Results in your Content Creation Strategy

Establishing your Expectations Upfront and Baseline When Determining your Content Marketing ROI

Why to set The Audiovisual Channel as Your Main for a Solid Marketing Strategy

Should all SaaS Startups Launch a Podcast or Video Series?

How to Get the Most Out of Your Podcast Interviews and Guests

How to Ensure the Content you Produce Reach, Engages & Converts to the Right Audience, at Scale.

Establishing & Finding Credibility & Authority, Voicing the Content & Standing Out for the Audience's Attention

A Good Marketing Budget Balance (Organic & Paid)

Recommendations for a Content Creation Cadence and Publication Timing

Podcasts for B2Bs to Check Out

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Tristan:

Tristan's LinkedIn

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How to Better Manage your Startup through Uncertainty with Arvind Jha #038

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

In this episode, Arvind Jha joins us for a 1-on-1 interview on the SaaS District podcast.

Arvind is the director and co-founder at Pariksha Labs, a software consulting and development company working with global start-ups and SMEs.

He’s the founder of Partee Hai, a lead generation platform & marketplace for party services, and the founder of a cloud video startup, Movico, India's leading video asset management company.

Arvind has built and led large software R&D teams for major global players in delivering leading products. His speciality has been in conceptualizing innovative new products and building businesses from scratch. He now mentors tech startups in India. Finally, I’d describe him as a Startup Evangelist, Advisor, and Investor for over 10 companies, including an exit of a notable company, Signals. In our interview, Arvind shares his experience and views on the SaaS industry.

In this episode we cover:

-World’s current environment of the SaaS industry

-Strategies to plan around uncertainty

-Main challenges in the SaaS industry

-Focusing on a strategy to gain initial traction

-Growing your SaaS business pre and post investment

-Strategic partnerships

-Investment criteria/strategies

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Arvind:

Arvind's Linkedin

Arvind's Twitter

More About Akeel:

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Leveraging The 4 Rules of Smart Budgeting to Grow Your Startup with Jesse Mecham #037

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Jesse Mecham is a founder, CEO, and Bestselling author of You Need a Budget, which is not only an award-winning software and proven budgeting tool but also an education company where they teach people a whole new way of thinking about their money so they make better financial decisions, get out of debt, and build the life they want.

In this episode we cover:

- Why Your SaaS StartUp Need a Budget

- From Personal Finance Spreadsheets to One of The Best Budgeting Tools

- The 4 Budgeting Rules ( Personal finance and Business Owners )

- Why solutions are squeezed out of scarcity

- Focusing the Product Usability and Intentionality as a Differential from Your Competitors

- The Importance of Making Better Hiring Decisions

- Why Never to Tell Your Users When to Expect a New Version

- Founders Affiliate and Partner To Early

- Jesse’s Investment tips.

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Links and mentions:

YNAB

Get in touch with Neil:

Jesse's LinkedIn

Jesse's Email

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How to Use Interactive Content for Improving Conversions with Diego Gomes #036

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Diego is an Entrepreneur, angel investor, SaaS expert, and the CEO of Rock Content. After studying advertising he met Victor - his co-founder. They were both avid blog readers which led them to start a blog about trends, technology, and the Internet.

Not long after that Diego Created EverWrite, which was an SEO platform that was reverse-engineered by Google to give brands intelligence when creating content. To demonstrate that the SEO hypotheses worked, they created a blog and Diego spent his days producing content on the most diverse topics.

Diego always wanted to undertake and build an impactful company in Brazil. With Diego's experience and network, that gave rise to Rock Content, one of the largest content marketing companies in LATAM.

Today, he and his 2 co-founders lead Rock Content, a team of more than 300 professional Rockers, produces content for 20 global companies in different languages and their revenue continues to grow at a fast pace. They’ve hit over $25 million in annual revenues and they have big plans for their next steps, which we’ll cover today.

In this episode we cover:

About RockContent, it’s Product & Trajectory

A Service Driven Creative Marketplace

The Talent Rating System that Ensures Quality & Growth

Why You Should Start Using Interactive Content in Your Marketing Strategy

Create Authority by Summarizing Articles through an Original Post

Super Specialized Niche Content VS Larger Audiences

How to Deploy Your Content Marketing To Max Long Term ROI

High-Quality Media VS High Volume Approach

Best Content Schedule (Length & Frequency)

Successful M&A Strategies & Market Expansion

Perspectives of the Future Entrepreneurial Scene in LATAM

Customer & Talent Differences Between Center, South & NorthAmerica

The Future of RockContent

Diego’s Favourite Thought Leaders To Check Out

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Diego:

Diego’s LinkedIn

More About Akeel:

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How To Effectively Hire & Review Professionals Online & Not Get Burned with Liz Pearce #035

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Liz Pearce is the CEO of Seattle-based Fresh Chalk, where they aim to build a faster and more efficient way to find highly-vetted professionals, everything from doctors to plumbers to landscapers to photographers online. The site allows users to create profiles and search through service providers to see which have been recommended by their friends. They can also offer their own recommendations across more than 500 categories. Fresh Chalk is taking on the giants of Facebook, Google, Yelp, and other giant platforms.

Liz holds a B.A. and M.A. from The George Washington University. Prior to starting Fresh Chalk, Liz was with LiquidPlanner for 11 years, starting as the company's marketing contractor and working her way up to COO in 2011 and ultimately to CEO in 2012. Before LiquidPlanner, she held marketing roles at Amazon, Google, and PlayStation and ran an independent marketing consulting business.

In this episode we cover:

- Lessons Learned Working on Amazon, Google & Sony

- How Hunger & Proactively Acquiring Responsibilities can get you a CEO Position

- Liz’s Best Management Practices

- FrshChalk Idea and Development

- Maximizers VS Satisfiers

- Raising 2M in VC Founding

- The Value on Connection & Recommendation

- Owners Reviewing other Owners

- Post-COVID Service acquisition trends

- Hiring higher quality Professionals and Freelancers

- Liz’s Approach to Challenges & Opportunities

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Get in touch with Liz:

Liz' LinkedIn

Links and mentions:

Freshchalk

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How You Can Start Implementing AI in Your Marketing Campaigns with Eric Vardon #034

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Eric is an accomplished AI Tech Entrepreneur and Advisor with more than 20 years of success in different verticals such as marketing, advertising, health and wellness, fashion, technology, and digital industries.

Eric’s broad areas of expertise include brand development, digital strategy, entrepreneurship, leadership, and growth. Most notably, Eric is the Co-Founder of Arcane, a digital marketing and advertising agency, where, under Eric’s leadership, Arcane grew from zero to $15M in just six years.

Currently, he holds equity positions in multiple rapidly-growing organizations and is focused on his current game-changing machine-learning and AI tech venture called Morphio.

Morphio is an AI-driven anomaly platform built for advanced marketers described as the first marketing security software, where it integrates your marketing data in one platform and delivers insights from landing page health, marketing & AI anomalies, segmentation, budget recommendations & many other marketing and analytics anomalies.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
01:45 - From $0 in a Basement to $15M & a 4,000 sq ft Building
05:32 - Stepping Down as a Startup CEO & Building Morphio
08:17 - The decision to Raise $1M Seed Round in Canada
10:06 - “Spend the Money Like You Don’t Have It” & Other Growth Strategies
14:58 - Lessons From Tests & Growth Hacking With Morphio & Past Ventures
19:11 - What Makes Morphio a Different & Unique AI Marketing Tool
23:08 - How Morphio Ensures You Have Both Quantity & Quality of the Data Used for the Analytics
25:41 - How Marketers & Founders Should Consider Using AI In Their Plans or Budgets
27:58 - Full AI for the Future or Predictive+Human Decision making/judgement?
29:45 - The Future of Marketing for the Next CMOs
32:00 - The Rest of 2020 For Eric Vardon, A question For Rand Fishkin & Lessons from his Book

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Eric:

Eric’s LinkedIn Profile

Mentions:

Books:

Lost & Founder by Rand Fishkin

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Bootstrapping and Managing a 3000+ Team Marketplace While Hitting 50% YoY growth with Steve Pockross #033

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Steve brings more than 20 years of startup, Fortune 500, and nonprofit experience to his role at Verblio. As the CEO, he applies leading gig economy and SaaS principles to provide a high-quality, fast, and flexible content creation platform.

Steve was part of the early management team at marketplace services pioneer LiveOps, growing the company into the largest virtual contact center in the world. At LiveOps, Steve served as vice president of business development and strategy, and also spearheaded the creation of the award-winning LiveOps Foundation.

Steve holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Business and his MA in history from Wesleyan University.

Outside the office, Steve is a Denver native and enjoys ultimate frisbee, hosting jazz concerts, history, telemark skiing, practicing Portuguese, and spending time with his two boys.

In this episode we cover:

02:40 - The Idea of Launching Verblio, a SaaS Content Marketplace in 2010
04:11 - Staying Bootstrapped & Hitting 50% Growth Year Over Year
08:19 -The “Blue Apron ” Strategy
13:05 - How to Manage Over 3,000 Content Creators & Fit the Talent to the Client Needs
20:18 - Should You Invest Your Market Budget on Written Content?
29:07 - How to Leverage Video on Your Content Marketing Strategy
31:48 - Why You Should be Using An Content Marketing Agency
34:35 - Cut Back Your Marketing Budget or Adopt a More Aggressive Strategy in The Still Ongoing COVID Crisis.

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Steve:

Steve’s Linkedin

More About Akeel:

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How to Create an Epic Content Marketing Plan for your B2B SaaS Company with Bree Brouwer #032

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Bree Brouwer is a specialist in the B2B SaaS and online video industries. She has created blog posts that landed on the #1 and #2 spots in Google search for their respective keywords, re-written home page copy which increased product downloads by more than 64.5% and written blog posts that generated $40K in extra revenue.

Bree has a Bachelor’s degree in English Writing.

Bree’s professional experience includes being a Staff Writer and Digital Media Journalist at Tubefilter, a Freelance Copywriter at Tubebuddy, a Public relations consultant at Unreel Entertainment, An Online Video and Digital Media Contributor at Forbes, an Online video Columnist at EContent Magazine, a Blogger and Content Marketing Writer for Asset Panda, a Freelance Public Relations Consultant at Unscreen, and B2B Content Marketing Consultant and Writer for video and tech brands at Brouwer Power Media LLC.

Most recently, Bree was a Content Marketing Writer at Tubular Labs, and now she is the Editor-In-Chief of Tubular Insights. Tubular Labs is the leading global video measurement and analytics platform that powers broadcasters, publishers, and brands to create successful content and scale audiences faster.

In this episode we cover:

- When contenting marketing becomes important for a B2B SaaS company in their growth journey

- Effective strategies and what you need to get started to if you’re a founder or marketer looking to use video marketing to real drive ROI

- The blog post you wrote that helped drive $40k in revenue and why was it so successful

- Habits, tools and proven strategies to overcome writer's block and produce high quality content

- Using pillar content as a strategy to distribute to many channels as a SaaS company

- Providing a great experience to your audience and stand apart to get the Wow factor

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Bree:

Bree’s Twitter

Bree’s LinkedIn

Bree’s Website

Links and mentions:

Tubular Labs

Bree’s Bio

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Managing Hyper-Growth & Int. Teams for B2B SaaS Companies with Elliot & Dom Chapman #031

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

The Chapman Brothers are the Co-Founders of SocialChaps, a Marketing Agency described as a no-nonsense B2B agency focused on growing pioneering businesses by understanding them and working towards their goals.

Elliot and his brother Dom, after years of searching for a good marketing agency in the B2B space they decided to roll up their sleeves and founded SocialChaps, after 3 successful years of growth they decided that the systems & processes they put into place are replicable across all types of B2B businesses, which we will discuss today.

In this episode we cover:

- Searching for a Marketing Solution, not Finding it & Building it yourself

- Methodologies, Analytics, Software Tools, & Growth Marketing Tactics for B2B Startups

- How SocialChaps Work With Founders to Ensure they’re Actually Ready to Scale

- Main Scalable Channels

- Dealing With Leads, Sales & Business Growth on Hyper-growth

- Marketing Priorities While on Hyper-Growth VS Normal Growth

- Step By Step to Generate leads

- Is There Still Value on Podcasting?

- Benefits & Challenges When Building & Operating an International Team

- Tools For Remote & Modern Workflows

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with The Chapman Brothers:

Elliot's LinkedIn

Dom's LinkedIn

Socialchaps Website

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How to Find Disruptive Ideas for your Next Startup with Dan Sallis #030

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Dan Sallis is a Software Architect and Database Designer. He is an expert in Software Development, E-commerce, Enterprise Software and Strategic Planning. He is also a serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder and CEO of Cynch! (formerly OrderStorm), a global provider of the next generation of ERP.

Cynch is a unified commerce platform that enables small to large enterprises to manage their sales and services both offline and online including online commerce, in-store sales, CRM, inventory, purchasing, and after-sales operations including repair, warranty claims, service contracts, and 3rd party repair operations.

Dan is also the founder of Repair Storm, an all-in-one platform built for growing and optimizing the modern service center and repair business.The application is designed to save time automating tedious tasks and delivering a professional, smooth experience to both workers and customers.

Welcome Dan, really glad you were able to join me and thank you for taking the time to be here today.

In this episode we cover:

- Finding a disruptive product in an industry that others may find boring

- How he previously hired one junior sales rep close 157 stores in 15 months

- His proven model for his sales and and growth process

- Dan's framework on how to uncover new business models that are worth exploring in 2020

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Dan:

Dan's Email

Links and mentions:

Cynch!

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How to Get Your First 100 Customers with Confidence and Clarity with Asia Orangio #029

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Asia Orangio joins us for a 1-on-1 interview, where her focus is on working with early-stage startups and high-growth technology companies. She is an expert at helping SaaS companies define their go-to-market strategy, craft a data-driven approach to growth, implement marketing strategies and programs that help them win an audience in their market and to beat the "90% of startups fail" statistic.

Asia is currently the CEO and Founder at DemandMaven, a company focused on helping startups either get their first 100 customers, or help them get to the next stage in their growth.

She was also head of marketing at Hull, an Advisor at Atlanta Tech Village, and is currently a mentor at companies like Tinyseed and GrowthMentor.

In this episode we cover:

-Defining demand generation

-Getting your first 10 and 100 customers as a Start-up

-Her recommended SaaS marketing strategies

-The biggest marketing mistakes Startups make

-How to approach conversion optimization in the marketing funnel

-Top underrated growth hacks

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Asia:

Asia's Twitter

Website

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Sticking to Your Values When Building your StartUp with Peldi Guilizzoni #028

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Peldi Guilizzoni is the Founder and CEO of Balsamiq, a fully bootstrapped ISV focused on prototyping UI/UX.

After studying Computer Science in Italy he moved to San Francisco, where he worked for a couple of years. Through his experience at adobe systems as an Engineering lead, he discovered an opportunity to develop a tool that could make everyone more productive and help them do a better job, something he describes as a “no going back technology”.

After a series of events that lead to quitting his job at Adobe and focusing on his project, he decided to go back to Italy and found his successful company.

In this episode we cover:

-Early Web Apps and conceiving Balsamiq from the beginning

-Staying bootstrapped & the love of the craft (money as a consequence)

-How to compete as a bootstrapped company vs. VC funded competitors

-Longevity rather than growth

-Building a business in non-VC friendly market

-Specialist product for non-specialized customers

-Usability & customer service as a growth strategy

-How a transparent startup gains customer trust

-Why you can copy technical, but you can’t copy people (the golden puzzle concept for customer output)

-Why is it important for a SaaS company to teach you what to make for dinner (unique customer interactions)

-Who can start wireframing and how can someone like me can get good at it

-Plus policies & investing in people for remarkable results

-The importance of developing company values for a better work culture (to compete with Google, Apple)

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Peldi:

Peldi's LinkedIn

Peldi's Twitter

Links and mentions:

Balsamiq (Use Balsamiq cloud free for 3 months! Enter the code: SAASDISTRICT)

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How to implement performance management in your SaaS organization with Denis Coleman #027

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Denis started his career as a qualified CIMA Accountant, working for US multinationals located in Ireland, Eastern Europe, and the US. It was after two and a half years of researching management practices, the behavioral science, and the competitive landscape which led to WorkCompass being founded.

Denis Coleman is the CEO of WorkCompass, a performance management software designed to help organizations to manage their talent through ongoing performance check-ins, The company's software uses artificial intelligence to improve performance appraisal, revenue growth, customer reviews, and domain influence, enabling organizations to set goals for the employees, monitor their progress and give feedback.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
01:21 - Getting the Best Out of Your Team & Teaching Grit
07:47 - Why is Performance Management Important & at What Point Should you Consider Using It?
14:12 - How WorkCompass Assess the performance & Team Management
15:50 - Why the SaaS Industry is Still Using The Traditional Performance Appraisal Process
17:40 - Recommendations to Implement an Efficient Performance Appraisal System (Employees Feeling Helped not Policed)
24:41 - Leveraging AI, ML (machine learning) and NPL (Natural Language Processing) to assess the business outcomes
31:47 - Recommendations On Improving Employee Onboarding
33:48 - What to Look For When Hiring & Screening Top Performers
39:22 - Why Your Sales Process should be Your Star Performer

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Denis:

Denis’ LinkedIn

Denis' Email

More About Akeel:

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Storytelling, Failed startup & Adaptive Marketing with Marketplaces with Murali Satagopan #026

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Murali is a strong marketer and storyteller who loves communication and solving problems in the web space. He founded a company, got funded, grew it big, and then had an unsuccessful exit where he left with no money and lots of experience. He used that experience at Freshdesk to help grow their marketplace. Product GTM, Content Marketing, telling great stories, and crafting creative marketing campaigns are some of his many strengths.

He is currently Head of ISV Partnerships and Partner Marketing at Freshworks Marketplace where he handles marketing for the Freshworks Marketplace - one of the hottest horizontals at Freshworks.

Murali is also a standup comedian with a strong theatre background. He was invited to the Short+Sweet Festival in Sydney where he performed.

In this episode we cover:

-The importance of leveraging strategic partnerships and integrations to grow your startup

-How an “unsuccessful exit” was the foundational experience for a successful Marketplace

-The do’s and dont's when creating a product.

-Trying again to start a business VS joining a company

-Why use Freshworks as a leveraging channel for growth

-COVID-19 customer trends and unique approaches to problem-solving

-How can a SaaS founder or marketer validate whether a partner program will be worthwhile for their product

-The 2 best practices to build better products

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Links and mentions:

Freshworks

Get in touch with Murali:

Murali's LinkedIn

Murali's Twitter

More About Akeel:

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Generating High Quality B2B Leads Through LinkedIn with Isaac Anderson #025

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Isaac has his LinkedIn Industry Top 1% SSI certification meaning. Meaning he is an all LinkedIn Expert. Including marketing, consulting, conversion optimization, and business strategy.

He was the former COO at an online marketing agency, TEV Marketing, where they specialized in LinkedIn, Adwords, and SEO.

Isaac is currently the CEO of Zeeko, a platform that uses LinkedIn to create real, meaningful relationships between clients and customers so that businesses can improve their ROI.

He is also a LinkedIn instructor and educator at Data Driven U, an online training program platform for people who want to master the skills of digital marketing. He has a video course: “LinkedIn Jumpstart”: to teach other business owners how to use LinkedIn to do market research and create relationship-driven leads, which we’ll cover more on today’s interview.

In this episode we cover:

-Running an effective LinkedIn Campaign

-Cold Email Outreach vs LinkedIn

-Engagement through targeted outreach

-Semi Personalized messaging

-Tools for prospecting leads

-The Quad Method

-ROI through lead generation

-Content sharing strategies through LinkedIn

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Isaac:

Isaac's Twitter

Isaac's LinkedIn

Links and mentions:

Zeeko Website

LinkedIn Outreach Bootcamp Course

More About Akeel:

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How to Become a More Effective CEO and Leader with Mark Green #024

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Mark Green (@MarkEGreen) is a Speaker, Author, Strategic Advisor and a Business & Leadership Growth Coach. He facilitates workshops with executive teams to help them stay on track, hit their goals and continue growing.

He coaches CEOs and executive teams all over the world, where he’s worked with thousands of different business leaders, helping them unlock more of their potential and also teaching them how to do the same for their teams.

Mark is also a Certified Behavioral Analyst, a Certified Values Analyst, and a Certified Attribute Index Analyst. He is the founder and president of Performance Dynamic Group, where he helps organizations accelerate their revenue and profit growth. We’ll share Mark’s expertise and advice in today’s interview.

In this episode we cover:

-Being a more effective leader for your team

-Leadership habits

-Inspiring your team

-Accountability practices

-Importance of developing your network

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Mark:

Mark's Website

Mark's Twitter

Mark's LinkedIn

Books:

Activators: A CEO's Guide to Clearer Thinking and Getting Things Done by Mark Green

Creating a Culture of Accountability by Mark Green

More About Akeel:

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How to Validate and Launch a Successful Product in the Market with Mike Watts #023

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Mike Watts is an experienced entrepreneur who has 6 startup companies under his belt including founding three consecutive multi-million dollar companies in the last 10 years. He has successful exits from three companies including one for over $6 million, and he had a business partnership with Shark Tank famous: Daymond John.

He currently serves as Founder and CEO of LoveHandle, a fast-growing American manufacturer of custom smartphone grips. His products which have been featured on Good Morning America, QVC, HSN, The Today Show and sold through major retailers such as Walmart, CVS, Home Depot, Lowe’s, RiteAid, Office Depot and more.

Mike is also a regular keynote speaker for entrepreneur and inventor group, a guest professor at Texas AM University's entrepreneur program in College Station, a 2-time winner of the Aggie 100 Award for fastest growing companies and has been listed on the Fortune 5000. In today’s interview Mike shares his tips and experience on how to overcome the market’s most challenging scenarios.

In this episode we cover:

-Challenges when becoming an entrepreneur

-Sourcing and manufacturing a product during a crisis

-Finding a reliable supplier

-Increasing the odds for success

-Finding a valuable investor/mentor

-Steps on overcoming the “perfect” idea

-Validating your business model

-Dealing with competition or property loss

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Mike:

Mike's LinkedIn

Mike's Twitter

Mike's Instagram

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How to Create Sustainability in Your SaaS Business with Josh Patrick #022

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Josh Patrick's specialty is helping private business owners grow and create more value in their business. He has over twenty years of experience as an adviser to private businesses. For nineteen years (1976-1995) he owned a vending and food service company, where he managed to take it from 1.5 to 90 employees before successfully selling the business. During that time he admits to have made a lot of mistakes, but now, he uses that experience as part of his advising strategy, which we share throughout the interview.

In this episode we cover:

-Business sustainability

-Lessons on how to be a better entrepreneur

-Maintaining sustainability in your business during a crisis

-Mistakes when seeking for success and financial freedom

-Setting appropriate expectations for your business

-Setting an appropriate Business strategy

-Effective hiring

-Underrated resources to grow your business

-Overcoming the “finding the right idea” hurdle and taking action

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Josh is the author of his Stage 2 blog: “Creating Value” (http://www.stage2planning.com/blog). He’s also a writer for American Express Open as well as Inc.com, The Huffington Post and Forbes.com.

Josh is also the author of the book: “Sustainable: A Fable About Creating a Personally and Economically Sustainable Business”. (https://www.sustainablethebook.com/)

He’s the host of the podcast called “The Sustainable Business” (https://sustainablebusiness.co/catego..., where he talks with leaders to help his audience think about the future of their business and clients.

The cash flow code: https://thecashflowcode.com

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Stand Apart From Competitors through Product Positioning & Messaging with Praval Singh #021

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Praval is an expert at brand, product positioning & messaging, go-to-market strategy, demand generation, and content-led marketing initiatives. He is a serial entrepreneur and has co-founded several start-ups.

He worked as a freelance content marketer for web publishers and blogs in Europe, South-east Asia, and India. Also, he was the Co-Founder of Dokito, an in-house social media analytics tool at Media Redefined; a digital media agency in New Delhi he also Co-Founded.

He is now Vice President of Marketing and Customer Experience where he focuses on brand, positioning, messaging, communication, and other marketing initiatives, Praval also works closely with various product teams and helps them with go-to-market strategy and special projects.

As one of the official spokespersons, Praval represents Zoho before media and analysts, as well as at various international conferences and forums.

In this episode we cover:

-The importance of standing out through messaging and positioning for --B2B SaaS companies.

-How using social media helps customer experience for growth

-Working beyond the scope for personal and professional growth

-The marketing strategy approach of large product company VS a SaaS business

-Building an all-in-one SaaS business ecosystem solution as a differentiator from the competitors

-The current value and impact of remote work tools

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Praval:

Praval's LinkedIn

Praval's Twitter

More About Akeel:

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VC Seed Stage Investment Market & Key Metrics to look at post-COVID with Cindy Padnos #020

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Cindy Padnos is an innovator and an advocate for all things entrepreneurial. She is a founder (both of a VC-backed tech startup and a VC firm), with a passion for enabling experimentation that can lead to the discovery of new business models and unique points of leverage. Cindy bleeds B2B/Enterprise Tech – gaining the moniker “Queen B2B” and a place at the table with the top institutional investors in the category.

Cindy has been working with enterprise technology startups for more than 20 years - as a founder, operating executive, adviser, or investor. She founded Illuminate Ventures, a seed and early-stage venture capital firm that invests exclusively in enterprise cloud and mobile software companies. Illuminate seeks entrepreneurs that are "re-inventing the enterprise" with products that deliver dramatic productivity and decision making improvements while leveraging better, faster, cheaper - cloud technologies and innovative business models.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
02:09 - Early SaaS Experience from Raising VC Capital to Acquisition
15:00 - The Decision Behind Illuminate Ventures and Transformation to what it is today (Metrics)
22:21 - Experience & Perspective on the Volatility of Deal Flow Investments with the COVID-19 Pandemic
24:10 The Value of a Dollar & Current Challenges in the COVID-19 Environment
26:18 How Founders Deal with the Slow Down in Decision to Buy or Renew Software from Customers and Some Strategies for the New Normal
31:34 What Illuminate Ventures Share with Startups Beyond Capital Support
38:46 What is a Founder Heroic & Why Any Founder Should Aim to Become One
40:54 Cindy’s Winner Startup Criteria for Investing
42:29 Cindy’s Turn Down Startup Criteria for not Investing

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in Touch With Cindy:

Cindy’s LinkedIn

Cindy’s Twitter

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How to Run More Effective Growth Experiments with your Startup with Emilia Chagas #019

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Emilia is an expert in online marketing, enterprise content management, content strategy, growth hacking, and entrepreneurship.She started her career as a content manager at a marketing agency, managing multiple projects for enterprises and SMB’s. In 2015, Emilia founded ContenTools, a streamline content creation software. Ever since then, she has been a full time serial entrepreneur. Last year, Contentools joined operations with GrowthHackers, a company originally founded by Sean Ellis, in order to offer a full stack of software for growth and marketing using A.I. at its core.

Emilia is currently the CEO of GrowthHackers, an online community for the growth obsessed to connect and get inspired from other top marketers in the industry. In today's interview, Emilia shares her experience on how she managed to grow her company to the point it is today.

In this episode we cover:

-Building and maintaining a network for growth

-Effective channels for growth

-Growth strategies for startups

-Growth through acquisition

-Growth acceleration programs

-Tools for GrowthHacking

-Growth Experiments

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Emilia:

Emilia's Email

Emilia's Twitter

Emilia's Linkedin

Links and mentions:

Growth Master Training Course

GrowthHackers website

GrowthHackers Conference

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An Unusual Round of Founding & Unusual times to launch a Startup with Rand Fishkin #018

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Rand is an author, co-founder, and CEO of SparkToro, a company focused on allowing software that connects audience intelligence at every marketer's fingertips. Rand is a tech entrepreneur, blogger, and leader in the field of Search Engine Optimisation. He is a frequent keynote speaker for events around the marketing and startup world as well as a best selling author of Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
00:58: - Stepping down as Moz CEO, was the right decision?
03:14 - An Unusual $1.3M Round of Funding & Avoiding the Plague
10:00 - Why Raising Capital VS Bootstrapping
13:16 - Get Richer, die Trying & the Genetic Lottery
17:50 - An Unusual Time to Launch & Was it the Right Decision?
21:02 - Where to Focus your Marketing Efforts & Rand Best Practices
33:58 - Why Podcasting & Episodic Content are a Powerful Tool to Build Connections
39:08 - How to Leverage SEO in 2020
46:10 - What’s Rand a Lifer Of?
47:20 - A Question For Rand Fishkin from Eric Vardon
49:04 Outro

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Rand:

Rand’s LinkedIn

Rand’s Twitter

Mentions:

Where you Should Start Marketing

Books:

The Content Fuel Framework

More About Akeel:

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Validating and Building your Startup through Industry and Corporate Pain Points with Thomas Petersen #017

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Thomas Petersen (@Hello_World) is a serial entrepreneur and startup expert in Service & Product Design, Innovation, Branding, UI/UX and just generally building great innovative Start-Ups from scratch. He has worked with hundreds of different organizations spanning from early stage startups all the way to large Fortune 500 companies. Thomas also co-founded Hello Group in 2006 which was sold to NOA Group in 2018, while spending time with a company called 80/20 before they were acquired by Square in 2012.

He was the Creative Director at Square for 5 years, where he developed some of the core products and services that exist there today, taking it from a start-up idea all the way until their successful IPO.

He is now the Co-Founder and CEO at First Principle, a Creative Venture Studio focused on starting, helping and funding businesses, including founding several companies such as WeekendHacker and Ghostnote. At First Principle, Thomas and his team help entrepreneurs and corporations create category defining products around the world. Some industry leaders they’ve worked with to build these startups, include: Adobe, Intel, Verizon, HP, Fidelity, Sony, Google, CitiBank, Nokia, Amazon among many others.

In this episode we cover:

-Creative Venture Studios: what they do

-Validating your ideas as quickly as possible

-Ranking idea products that are most profitable

-Underrated growth strategies for startups to utilize when starting off

-The importance of design principles

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Thomas:

Thomas' Twitter

Links and mentions:

First Principle

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Leading the Largest Online Workplace & the Future of Work with Gary Swart #016

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Gary Swart is a tech and healthcare investor at Polaris Partners and a former executive with experience in general management of all size organizations, including leading sales, operations, staffing, and strategy.

Up until April 2014, Gary was the CEO of oDesk (UpWork now), the world's largest online workplace. He guided the company to industry leadership and through a merger with eLance, while serving as a leading voice for the future of work and the emerging online work industry.

Gary is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build their businesses, where he regularly shares his knowledge and provides mentorship on how to craft a successful path with fellow business people and anyone building their career.

In this episode we cover:

- Going through a merger and getting the acquired by IBM

- Leaving IBM and Gary’s career path criteria for choosing a position

- Growth and development in your career that's not too steep that you go off of the cliff

- Turning down an offer on Netflix as employee #3

- Making the decision to merge

- Why merge with a better business model (oDesk & eLance merge)

- User Experience as the best marketing tool.

- Insights of the Future of Work and the landscape after COVID-19

- Hiring talent criteria as a SaaS founder

- Investing trends surrounding Healthcare and Technology

- Adding value to a company post-acquisition

- Productivity and effective leadership habits advice (Hint: ABR)

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Gary:

Gary's LinkedIn

Books:

That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

More About Akeel:

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Human Experience as an Investment for the SaaS Onboarding Experience with Andy Mura #015

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Andy is an expert on Marketing, Business Strategy, Leadgen, SaaS, Digital Transformation, User Onboarding, and UX.

He is a marketer, founder, speaker, and mentor with over 10 years of experience in Saas, Digital Transformation, and Growth.

Andy's focus is on the HX (Human Experience), making sure that companies invest resources in creating a great employee experience to support successful change management processes that lead to enhanced customer experience.

Over the past years, Andy has been working directly (as a founder or head of marketing) and indirectly (as a mentor or consultant) with over 200 companies in North America and Europe and he's now in charge of marketing operations at ExB Group, an AI/ML-driven natural language processing platform that provides cognitive process automation for insurers.

In this episode we cover:

-Current COVID-19 Strategy

-Pre & Post Investment SaaS company Grow Advice

-Lead Generation VS Product Focused

-The importance of U/X (Tips & strategies)

-Effective Marketing Budgets

-Trial to Paid VS Enterprise Focused

-Sales Cycles & how to shorten them

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Andy:

Andy's LinkedIn

Andy's Twitter

More About Akeel:

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How Podcasting Can Still be a Powerful Marketing for Your Startup with Tom Hunt #014

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Tom Hunt joins us for a 1-on-1 interview on the School of Startups podcast. Tom has vast experience at building startups and SaaS businesses from scratch.

After graduating from the Imperial College in London, he decided to build Virtual Valley, a marketplace connecting online entrepreneurs and virtual assistants from scratch whilst travelling the world. He then sold 90% of the businesses in 2017. He then built up Repairly as the COO, which was on demand mobile phone repair delivery service.

He is now the Co-Founder of BCast, a podcast hosting platform for high growth businesses.

Tom is also the Managing Director at SaaS Marketer, where they publish biweekly SaaS growth case study and runs his own podcast: Confessions Of A B2B Marketer. At SaaS Marketer, he also helps SaaS businesses grow with their own profitable podcast.

Finally, Tom is an Angel investor at different companies, such as Gleam, Dusk Foundation, Taz.com, Ebsta, Parabola Labs and Stashbee.

In this episode we cover:

- Exiting his first business after get burnt out

- Deciding on moving forward on a startup vs. shutting down at Repairly

- The value of launching your own podcast for your startup

- Why he decided to start angel investing in startups

- Underrated growth hacks that startup founders should consider and work really well

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

Get in touch with Tom:

Tom's LinkedIn

Mentions:

bCast Podcast

SaaS Marketer

More About Akeel:

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Current Acquisition Environment post COVID-19 with Andrew Gazdecki #013

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Andrew Gazdecki is a storyteller and has been an entrepreneur for a very long time, he started his first company, Bizness Apps, while still in college, which was an affordable mobile app development platform for small businesses, and initially, raised around $100,000 in funding. By the time Bizness Apps was acquired by private equity firm Think3, they had grown to $10M in annual recurring revenue, operating in 40 countries, and employing over 100 people.

His second business, Altcoin.io, was a decentralized exchange (DEX) for trading digital assets, by trading on their decentralized, non-custodial platform, traders could protect their assets. Altcoin.io became a champion of security in a market dominated by custodial platforms that put users’ funds at risk. By challenging the status quo, they were defending the rights of traders everywhere – a story that their prospects loved. This eventually led the company to be acquired by global investment firm BnkToTheFuture.

In this episode we cover:

01:54 - How Andrew as College Student Built BiznessApss in 2010
13:28 - At $10 MM in ARR, Was Exiting the Right Decision?
23:12 - Building Microaquire & Current Vision
32:43 - Streamlining the Sales Process of a SaaS company
37:31 - What's more important, the content you publish, or where you publish it?
45:42 - Long-Term Strategies in the Market for Buyers & Sellers on the Post-COVID Environment
49:16 - What has Changed on Acquisition Deals, & Some Trends As Startups Emerge from Lockdowns
50:46 - Valuations that Sell Quickly in 2020 and Comparison from 2019
52:22 - How Does the Rest of 2020 Looks like for Andrew Gazdecki

Get in touch with Andrew:

Mentions:

Entrepreneur Magazine

Nathan Latka

Eddie Maachalani

Subscribe to the School Of Startups Channel on YouTube

More About Akeel:

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Growth Marketing Partnership Process Explained #012

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

How our team at Horizen Capital partners with SaaS companies and helps them grow. We share our process to help you understand how we work together.

Layout and build a 5 Tier System (Team, Costs, Website, Product and Marketing Plan) for a roadmap for the next 12 months.

Step 1) Audit of business. We need to understand the unit economics and metrics. We review your financial health, potential cost savings, review team structure (org chart) and responsibilities, review the product and website.

Step 2) Competitor analysis. Review all your competitors product, features, growth %, exit amount, valuations, capital raised, marketing strategy to define where the gaps are.

Step 3) Optimize the website

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How to Identify and Prevent Churning Customers #011

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Churn is a challenge that every single SaaS owner faces in the journey of building their own company. In this episode, I'll talk about how to IDENTIFY and PREVENT churning customers.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
00:30 - Identify at-risk customers: Low NPS scores.
01:27 - Identify at-risk customers: Low software usage.
02:22 - Identify at-risk customers: Increase in support tickets.
03:35 - Identify at-risk customers: Lack of awareness about learning materials.
04:30 - Identify at-risk customers: Changes in team members.
05:10 - Engage at-risk customers: Deliver outstanding onboarding experience.
06:15 - Engage at-risk customers: Use triggers to automate tasks.
07:17 - Engage at-risk customers: Start the renewal process early.
08:22 - Engage at-risk customers: Provide cohesive communication.

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How to Increase The Value of Your Company for An Exit #010

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

If you are looking to exit your SaaS company one day and get the maximum amount of value in what you're selling for. In this video, I'll be talking about 5 different ways in which you can increase the valuation of your company and make it more attractive for an investor or acquirer.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
01:09 - Financials: Growth rate, cash flow, EBITDA, recurring revenue.
02:37 - Operational metrics: LTV Churn, CAC, MRR.
05:07 - Market: Market trends, competitions, TAM.
06:37 - Product/Service: Quality, features, onboarding.
07:59 - Company profile: Owner involvement, team, age.

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How To Invest $200K In SaaS Acquisition #009

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Have some capital saved and wondering how to invest it in acquiring your own SaaS company?

Good news! In this episode, I'm going to tell you how to start with 4 different ways of how you can put that money to use and make the best ROI.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
00:56 - Straight cash deal of business for 200k.
03:15 - Use debt financing such as SBA or DBC.
05:42 - Co-invest as an LP.
06:52 - Raise outside investor capital for equity.

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Starting Your Own Business vs Buying An Existing Online Business [Compared] #008

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Imagine deciding to start your very own business and you were super successful, profitable and a major hit from Day 1. Does that normally happen in real life?

In this episode, I explore the advantages and disadvantages of buying an established business through the process of entrepreneurship through acquisition.

Some advantages:

1) Cash flow and profitable from Day one
2) Freedom to choose the type of business
3) Location independence to manage from anywhere
4) Feel like making an impact and real change
5) Easier to get financing as seen as lower risk

Some disadvantages:

1) Higher upfront cost then starting from scratch.
2) Buying other persons "problems”.
3) Easy for seller to manipulate or hide flaws in business.
4) Requires a lot more capital upfront and to improve bad performance.
5) May be tied to seller's personality or established relationships tied to owner.

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Top 5 Productivity Hacks to Win Back 4 More Hours in a Day #007

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

In this episode, I cover 5 productivity hacks for entrepreneurs to start using their day to win more time and be more efficient.

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Top 5 Ways To Reduce Churn In A Recession #006

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

When things are going well for your business, you stop giving the attention to every single one of your customers as you should. However, in times like this is when we have to go above and beyond for every single one of the customers to stop them to turning away on your SaaS product.

In this episode, I'll talk about the 5 ways to reduce churn for your SaaS product in a recession.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
00:49 - Re-tune your digital engagement strategies.
01:59 - Be proactive and deliver value.
03:18 - Communicate effectively.
04:47 - Perfect your onboarding experience.
06:16 - Build a community.

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Top 10 Reasons Why Startups Fail #005

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

In this episode, I'll talk about the top 10 reasons why startups fail. Whether you are looking to start your own business or buy an existing startup. I want to make sure you don't fail and you have all the tools you need to make sure you succeed at your startup.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 - Intro
01:00 - FOUNDER ISSUES: The founders didn't get along.
02:00 - FOUNDER ISSUES: Not enough startup experience.
02:57 - FOUNDER ISSUES: They couldn't make their own luck.
03:55 - FOUNDER ISSUES: Undisciplined/raised too much.
05:05 - FOUNDER ISSUES: EGO.
06:07 - PRODUCT/MARKET FIT ISSUES: Tech hard to build.
07:02 - PRODUCT/MARKET FIT ISSUES: NICE to have, not NEED to have.
08:20 - PRODUCT/MARKET FIT ISSUES: Poor pricing model.
11:00 - PRODUCT/MARKET FIT ISSUES: Not real customers.
11:47 - PRODUCT/MARKET FIT ISSUES: High churn.

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Where To Source Companies #004

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

A question that I get often is: "Where do I go and find my own company?" or "Where do I find high quality businesses?". So if you're looking to buy or acquire your own SaaS company, this video is perfect for you.

I'll talk about 6 different ways to find high quality SaaS companies, how to start looking for your own deals and acquire a company for yourself. There's two different ways I'm breaking down: Privately source and partnerships.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 Intro
00:45 Private: Networking/Events.
01:44 Private: Directories
02:37 Private: Marketplace
04:24 Partnership: River guides
05:36 Partnership: Brokers
06:50 M&A Advisors

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How to Validate a Startup Idea Before Building It #003

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 05:20:00 -0500

In this episode, I'll give you a few tips when you are trying to validate your business idea so you don't have to spend thousands of dollars just to learn if it's a good idea.

00:00 - Intro
00:52 - Contact your potential customers
01:54 - Separate the really interested people
06:18 - Analyze your competition
10:23 - Create a landing page
12:51 - Summary

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How To Make The Best Sales Demos #002

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 05:10:00 -0500

With your sales demo, you are showing the client how your product works and how it can solve their problems, most companies have a template for all their presentations. They forget that all clients are different and that is why in this video I will help you create the best demo for your product so you can get the close.

00:00 Intro
01:12 Prove the value
02:23 Do your research
04:17 Personalize your demo
05:56 Be direct and ask for the close
06:58 Understand their hesitation
09:08 How long should my demo be?
10:25 Closing

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Top 5 Books for Founders #001

Akeel Jabber | Horizen Capital — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0500

When people talk about investing your money, they always say that you have to look for the best ROI. They think this means how much money you get back, but one of the best ROI you can make is Books. For less than $10 you can get the knowledge that took someone years to acquire.

I'll talk about 5 books that every single founder should read to be successful.

01:04 Number 1: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
03:52 Number 2: Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
05:51 Number 3: Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
09:06 Number 4: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
11:58 Number 5: The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

Books:

The Lean Startup

Zero to One

Scaling Up

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

The Effective Executive

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