Mixergy - Startup Stories with 1000+ entrepeneurs 171e37

Before we started, I asked Alyssa Ravasio, why she didn’t model her company on other marketplaces. “Why don’t you encourage more people to buy land near national parks and turn them into campgrounds that they list on Hipcamp? It’s a good way for entrepreneurs to make money and for Hipcamp to grow your inventory.” She didn’t seem happy with my suggestion. Alyssa is trying to preserve nature and get more people into it, not “capitalize” on nature. Still, her business is growing. This is the story of why and how she did it. Alyssa Ravasio is the founder of Hipcamp, the comprehensive resource for discovering and reserving unique tent camping, RV parks, cabins, treehouses, and glamping. Sponsored by Gusto – See how easy payroll and benefits can be. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Jess Mah was listening to my interviews when I first connected with her, just like you are now. We got to know each other and I invested in her first startup, indinero. It aimed to take on Quickbooks, before pivoting to bookkeeping services. After watching her grow as an entrepreneur and pilot, we lost touch for years. We recently reconnected and I learned she’s now the founder of Mahway, which launches companies with moonshot ambitions. Jess Mah is the founder of indinero, the tax, financial and bookkeeping company, and of Mahway, a venture builder that aims to create innovative, industry-changing, billion-dollar businesses that improve the world. Sponsored by Gusto – The cloud-based payroll, benefits, and human resource management software Mixergy interviewees use. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

I read a plea from Kevin Natanzon on X: Spotify deleted our app. Why? Because of a simple bug. We have not monitored the app during the past week. You see, I’m a little bit busy burying friends. I invited Kevin to do an interview about what his startup has been going through since Hamas’ invasion, how his family is rebuilding their kibbutz, and how he’s been growing a startup in Israel, or as he kept referring to it, “Startup Nation.” Kevin Natanzon is the founder of CreatorKit, a platform for ecommerce businesses to create images and videos with AI. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Lloyed Lobo believes anyone could have founded Boast, a company designed to help businesses secure R&D tax credits. However, when asked about why he built it to tens of millions in revenue when others didn’t, he attributes it to community. Lloyed cultivated a network of entrepreneurs through local meetups and a significant annual conference, many of whom became Boast clients. He details his community-building journey in his book, “From Grassroots to Greatness,” and in our interview. Lloyed Lobo is the founder of Boast, which helps companies find and claim their R&D tax credits. And the author of From Grassroots To Greatness, the book that explains how he built Boast by building a community and teaches others how to create their own communities. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Today, SocialBee is a fully functional social media management tool. But at first, it was a guy secretly servicing his customers by using publicly available tools like Google Sheets and Zapier. That buy was Ovi Negrean. In this interview, he talks about how he did that, while his cofounder wrote their company’s software. And how the services part of his business turned out to be a revenue machine that turned into a business of its own, called ConciergeBee. Ovi Negrean is a co-founder of SocialBee, the social media management platform. Sponsored by Podflow – If you want to have the Mixergy team produce your podcast, us here. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Yaniv Makover didn’t intend to launch Anyword, the AI writing tool for marketers. He set out to help publishers like the New York Times buy social media ads so they could grow their readerships. At first, humans wrote those ads. Then, one day, he experimented with getting writing help from BERT, the tool Google released in 2018, long before OpenAI launched ChatGPT. It was clunky and flawed, but Yaniv was convinced this was the future. This is the story of how Yaniv’s company hustled, and defied death, to capture the opportunity to create AI writing software company. Yaniv Makover is the cofounder and CEO of Anyword, the AI performance writing platform for marketing results. Sponsored by Podflow – If you want to have the Mixergy team produce your podcast, us here. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Seven months ago, Bhanu Teja P saw his Twitter timeline fill with AI talk. He had an idea. What if web s could use a chat-like experience to talk with the content of their sites? He wasn’t sure it would go anywhere, but it would be a good way for him to learn about AI. So he spent a weekend building what became SiteGPT. It took off immediately. Bhanu Teja P is the founder of two sites: Feather, which turns Notion into a published blog, and SiteGPT, which enables web publishers to answer their visitors’ questions with a personalized chatbot trained on their website content. Sponsored by Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. Stop Asking Questions, by Andrew Warner (me) – The book that shows you how to lead high-impact interviews and learn anything from anyone. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

The change: cutting expenses. Wistia was on track to lose $3 million per year when the founders bought out their investors with borrowed money. Chris Savage & Brendan Schwartz told me that meant the Wistia team had to be maniacal about cutting costs. But why couldn’t they do it before? And cutting expenses isn’t enough to grow a business? What else did they do? Catch the interview and see. Chris Savage & Brendan Schwartz are cofounder of Wistia, the video marketing platform for businesses. Sponsored by Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Ritesh Agarwal was an entrepreneurial teen in India who loved to travel. So he created a travel search engine. One obstacle to growth was the subpar customer service provided by the local hotels. So he tried something novel: he helped hotels improve. He modernized their lightbulbs. Rewarded staff when customers gave high reviews. Etc. It worked. Hotel owners loved the new, higher occupancy. When Ritesh created a franchise option for them, they signed up. Today you can see his company’s name – OYO – on hotels all over the world, which led OYO to a multi-billion dollar valuation. Ritesh Agarwal is the founder of OYO, the multinational hospitality platform More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

I feel like Dave Liniger is a self-help made man. On the verge of quitting real estate, a transformative seminar reignited his determination and radically changed his business trajectory. When his wife was in a coma, he infused their hospital room with motivational tapes. The two of them left the hospital stronger than anyone could have expected. Liniger’s insights were instrumental making RE/MAX into a thriving, publicly-traded real estate juggernaut. Moreover, his entrepreneurial flair extends to diverse ventures including a sandwich chain and a golf course. Now, he’s ing his self-improvement message to others on his podcast, Ambition and Grit. Founder of RE/MAX, short for Real Estate Maximums, it is an international real estate company that operates through a franchise system. Sponsored by Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Yaro Starak had a problem we all experienced: too much email. It was important, but it also kept him from doing real work. So he hired an assistant to answer his email. It’s a bit scary to your inbox to someone else, but it worked. The weight was lifted. He was more productive. So he decided to try offering it as a service. This is the story of how that service went from idea to million dollar a year business called InboxDone. InboxDone is a service where virtual executive assistants can answer your email with the same tone and approach you would and get you to inbox zero. Sponsored by Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Before the recent AI craze, Dima Shvets and his cofounders invented Reface, the viral tool that lets people rip a face from a photo and replace it with theirs. He says it’s doing tens of millions in revenue and was ed by over 270 million people, but it only happened because of a huge failure. Dima Shvets is the cofounder of Reface, the AI video & photo generating company Sponsored by Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

I’ve been waiting for literally years to do this interview. I’ve known some inside information about this startup for a long time but because it involved Shopify–we couldn’t talk about it. Today Jordan Gal is here to talk about what happened. Jordan Gal is the founder of Rally, a headless checkout for modern brands. Sponsored by Origami – If you’ve heard about DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and you want to find out how to set one up for yourself, go to Origami.com. Even if you’re just interested in how these things work and want to learn more, the Origami blog is a great place to start. Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

I’m excited to talk to the entrepreneur I have here today. In a world of AI and VR and web3, there is room for simple, offline business that are still innovating in the physical world. That’s the story behind PODS and it’s newer incarnation Red River. Today I welcome Peter Warhurst, the founder of both of these companies. Peter Warhurst is the founder of PODS and Red Rover, moving and storage solutions that are more affordable and convenient than traditional options. Sponsored by Origami – If you’ve heard about DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and you want to find out how to set one up for yourself, go to Origami.com. Even if you’re just interested in how these things work and want to learn more, the Origami blog is a great place to start. Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Arnaud Castillo got $1.5 million in prepayments from customers who think he found a way to make accurate predictions about financial markets…the weather…venture capital…and anything. Arnaud created CrunchDAO, which holds online tournaments in which data analysts compete to see who can create the best predictive models. Skeptical? He might remind you of the Netflix Prize, the $1 million tournament in which a team of outsiders improved Netflix’s recommendation algorithm by 10.05%, or his entrepreneurial track of proving skeptics wrong. Arnaud Castillo is the founder of CrunchDAO, which is building the future of asset management. Sponsored by Origami – If you’ve heard about DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and you want to find out how to set one up for yourself, go to Origami.com. Even if you’re just interested in how these things work and want to learn more, the Origami blog is a great place to start. Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

ing me for a repeat visit is Derek Flanzraich. Last time I talked to him he was running the content site Greatest. Greatest was all about health and Derek became like a guru to my friends who were in the content space. He built it up, he sold it, and I kind of lost track of him. Today he’s launching a new credit card. It’s a big swing. It’s called Ness. It’s gonna give people all kinds of health benefits. We’re going to find out what happened with the Greatest exit and why he’s taking such a big risk with this next company. Derek Flanzraich is building Ness, a health-first credit card company. Sponsored by Origami – If you’ve heard about DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and you want to find out how to set one up for yourself, go to Origami.com. Even if you’re just interested in how these things work and want to learn more, the Origami blog is a great place to start. Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

ing me is a friend whose businesses I have grown to appreciate so much more over the years. He’s recently written about the experience of building a profitable businesses while prioritizing family. The book is The Family First Entrepreneur. I’ll ask him about that and his businesses in this interview. Steve Chou is an entrepreneur and author of The Family First Entrepreneur. Sponsored by Origami – If you’ve heard about DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and you want to find out how to set one up for yourself, go to Origami.com. Even if you’re just interested in how these things work and want to learn more, the Origami blog is a great place to start. Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

When I talk to entrepreneurs, they talk about how they use data but I think for a lot of people, looking at analytics is just not something they want to do. It’s much easier to focus on customer or new product features. That’s why I’m happy to have today’s guest on the podcast.  Amit Prakash is the co-founder of ThoughtSpot, an AI powered analytics company. They help s make the most of their data. Amit Prakash is the co-founder of ThoughtSpot, AI-Powered Analytics. Sponsored by Origami – If you’ve heard about DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and you want to find out how to set one up for yourself, go to Origami.com. Even if you’re just interested in how these things work and want to learn more, the Origami blog is a great place to start. Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

I was super excited to talk to today’s guest because he is the founder of Clearbit, a software that would magically take an email address and then tell you about the person behind the email address. I didn’t expect to talk about his new company but shocked to find out how powerful and big it’s gotten already. Alex MacCaw is the founder of Clearbit and Reflect, which helps s keep track of thoughts, books, and meetings. Alex MacCaw is the founder of Clearbit and Reflect, which helps s keep track of thoughts, books, and meetings. Sponsored by Origami – If you’ve heard about DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and you want to find out how to set one up for yourself, go to Origami.com. Even if you’re just interested in how these things work and want to learn more, the Origami blog is a great place to start. Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

ing me is somebody who has pivoted so freaking much that my notes were out of date just after a few months. I ire how he’s been able to adjust and pivot and keep growing his business and today he’s got a success. Shane Kovalsky is the founder of Glue. It is end-to-end employee engagement and connection platform for distributed teams. I don’t freaking know what that even means. We’ll find out in this interview. Shane Kovalsky is the founder of Glue, an end-to-end employee engagement and connection platform for distributed teams. Sponsored by Origami – If you’ve heard about DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and you want to find out how to set one up for yourself, go to Origami.com. Even if you’re just interested in how these things work and want to learn more, the Origami blog is a great place to start. Lemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren’t perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint