Startup Fundraising Office Hours Free Monthly Livestream for Entrepreneurs [Replay]
MasterMinds Startup Fundraising Video Office Hours help early stage company founders raise money for their startups.
The fun, friendly live video Q&A sessions answer financing and strategy questions from entrepreneurs from all over the world with FREE expert startup advice.
Startup Founder Discussion Questions
This month Startup Council CEO Scott Fox took questions from startup founders live on camera and via YouTube chat, including:
Gabriel from Riverside, California - What to put on my new startup's website when we don't have a finished product or paying customers yet?
Reechik from Washington DC - How to break into new industries to market to enterprise software to customers in industry verticals where my team doesn't know anyone yet?
Leslie from Los Angeles - What is the best way to test market a new B2B service with limited budget?
Rishabh from Bangalore - How to determine valuation of a new startup that does not have revenues or product in market yet?
Gos from London, UK - Is it a good time to invest in developing a new mobile app idea?
Cliff from Chicago - How to brand multiple services that are from the same startup but offered to different target markets? Also, how best to get involved with social media marketing if you don't like Facebook or other social channels?
Loan from Sri Lanka - How to find angel investors interested in investing in my startup?
To watch this month’s Startup Office Hours replay click here.
And see a complete TRANSCRIPT BELOW.
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The Masterminds Startup Office Hours livestream is the 4th Tuesday of each month at 300pm ET / Noon PT. Questions and practice investor pitches are hosted LIVE by Scott Fox, CEO of the Startup Council/Angel Investor/Serial Founder/Author/Startup Expert.
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MasterMinds Startup Fundraising Office Hours are a free community service of the Startup Council.
MasterMinds Startup Fundraising Office Hours TRANSCRIPT for August 24, 2021:
00:00
well hello and welcome it's time for
00:02
mastermind startup fundraising office
00:05
hours again i'm scott fox i'm your host
00:07
here today to talk to you about startup
00:09
fundraising helping your startup get
00:11
going farther faster hopefully with some
00:13
more money the mission of this show is
00:15
to increase access to innovation and
00:18
investment capital so that you can join
00:20
the internet revolution
00:21
hopefully make some money and change the
00:23
world in a positive way at the same time
00:25
so if you're joining us today live on
00:27
youtube or facebook or blog talk radio
00:29
or maybe linkedin thanks for joining us
00:31
i'm going to spend an hour or so here
00:34
together depending on how many questions
00:35
you guys have this is a monthly program
00:37
where i open up my office here in
00:39
southern california to talk to you and
00:42
hopefully help you out with some of the
00:43
challenges that are facing your new
00:44
ventures so if you'd like to join us
00:46
live um for the chat please head over to
00:49
youtube or to linkedin the startup
00:52
council page there or the scott fox page
00:54
on youtube and enter the chat there
00:57
we'll get the chat room going and taking
00:59
questions and happy to have any of you
01:01
join us live who are registered in
01:03
advance or even we can put up the uh
01:06
the url if you'd like to
01:08
check in
01:10
and
01:11
join me on camera there it is you can
01:13
join me on camera there's a bitly link
01:15
there and if you have a good question
01:17
that you'd like to talk about or an
01:18
investor pitch sometimes we take pitches
01:20
people like to practice their quick
01:22
pitch no more than two minutes and they
01:24
put their pitch up um verbally here on
01:27
camera with me and if they do uh we're
01:29
happy to give them some helpful critique
01:31
because i'm an active angel investor
01:33
i've invested in 20 plus companies and
01:35
several different funds i've been at
01:36
this for a long time so if i can help
01:38
you with the strategy for your pitch we
01:40
can do that as well
01:41
um so let's talk a little bit about um
01:44
the show today what we're going to do
01:46
like i said we're going to take
01:47
questions so if you want to join me on
01:48
camera you can do that and you will
01:50
actually win a ticket to our next
01:52
masterminds workshop which is a monthly
01:54
program that i run also also mostly via
01:57
zoom these days although it's fun to do
01:59
them sometimes we used to do them all
02:00
the time face-to-face here in southern
02:02
california
02:04
but the masterminds workshops the next
02:05
one will be september 9th i believe
02:07
that's a thursday evening at least my
02:09
time pacific time and we'll have uh 20
02:12
30 40 entrepreneurs all together uh
02:15
bringing questions again as a workshop
02:17
we're working together to
02:18
solve problems uh and talk through
02:21
critiques for investor pitches as well
02:23
and those are um monthly like this but
02:27
they alternate this is just me talking
02:29
so if i can be of help to you please
02:30
join me live now and put something into
02:33
the chat room or we will
02:37
have some people coming on hopefully to
02:39
join me on camera as well so
02:41
this show is a combination of uh q a
02:44
expertise uh mostly for me so who am i
02:47
why why am i the guy with the microphone
02:48
well mostly because i did it right
02:50
i'm here i have the microphone but i
02:52
also have 25 years of experience in
02:55
internet startups i raised my first
02:56
venture around a long time ago after i
02:58
graduated from stanford for graduate
03:00
school and got in on the internet game
03:02
pretty early since then i've spent a lot
03:05
of time in a lot of different
03:06
startups from small very small that
03:09
you've never heard of to very very large
03:11
that you've definitely heard of and
03:13
made some money but also learned a lot
03:15
of things i've packaged that up into
03:17
several books as you can see behind me
03:19
here these are uh three three different
03:21
books the middle shelf there is the
03:23
english ones and the others are
03:24
translations so these are available all
03:26
over the world maybe in your native
03:28
language if you're joining us from
03:29
overseas and you're not an english
03:30
speaker check your version of amazon.com
03:33
or your local bookstore they're in lots
03:34
and lots of
03:36
places that you can
03:38
down you can download them on kindle or
03:40
read them you know on paperback whatever
03:42
you'd like so i'm the i'm an active
03:44
angel investor with tech coast angels
03:46
here in orange county california as well
03:48
as nationally i'm also the chairman of
03:50
the stanford angels and entrepreneurs
03:52
organization which is here in southern
03:53
california and orange county as well
03:56
and i'm here doing this as a community
03:57
service essentially to help you and your
03:59
friends get your startups going farther
04:01
and faster like i said so if you share
04:03
that mission i'm glad you're here and
04:05
today we're going to take some questions
04:06
and have some fun so
04:08
let me do a couple quick commercials and
04:10
i see we've got a couple folks coming in
04:12
here
04:13
on the chat room and uh in the uh on the
04:15
video excellent so we'll get going here
04:17
in a second let me just change my uh
04:19
caption here let me just point out to
04:21
everybody uh this session is being
04:22
recorded and we'll be sharing this
04:24
online because it's on youtube no
04:26
surprise right um if you'd like to
04:28
invite your friends please have them
04:29
head over and join us live the easiest
04:31
url to remember is that one youtube.com
04:34
scottfox uh if you're coming in the chat
04:36
room there i can see a bunch of you
04:37
great nice to see you
04:39
uh just go ahead and introduce
04:40
yourselves
04:41
might put into the chat room where
04:42
you're from uh and of course if you have
04:44
a question that's great too happy to
04:46
help you if i can and uh it's always
04:49
interesting to hear where we're reaching
04:50
around the world
04:51
so i see loan and leslie and sandy and
04:54
samir and ghost and richie and on looks
04:57
like he's ready to come on camera um
05:00
last disclaimer for the moment this is
05:01
not qualified legal or financial advice
05:04
you should consult your own professional
05:05
advisors please this is for
05:07
entertainment only as they say okay so
05:10
this is all just for fun and games and
05:12
uh if you take this advice please do
05:14
check with adults who are qualified to
05:17
advise on your particular situation i'm
05:19
doing my best to help your mileage may
05:21
vary all right so
05:23
let's get going uh it's nice to see you
05:25
guys here and uh we're gonna take some
05:27
questions and i guess there's no reason
05:29
not to just start here um let's see who
05:31
we've got to join us today we've got uh
05:34
let's see
05:35
oh there's gabriel and there is rachik
05:38
hi guys nice to meet both of you
05:41
likewise yeah so um well why don't you
05:45
why don't you who wants to go first do
05:46
you guys want to battle it out or should
05:47
i just pick one he can go first he can
05:50
go first all right fair enough gabriel's
05:51
been here before so we'll have gabriel
05:53
um
05:55
uh check in here gabriel nice to see you
05:57
likewise so what's going on and what can
05:59
we help you with here today hello
06:01
everybody in the chat room go ahead and
06:02
put your i'll catch up on the questions
06:04
in the chat room when i can the folks
06:05
that are on camera a good preference of
06:06
course because it makes it more
06:07
interesting to watch right so if you do
06:09
want to join me on camera sorry gabriel
06:11
one second let me put up that no problem
06:13
so that people can there you go if you
06:15
want to join us on camera be brave like
06:17
gabriel and ritchie
06:18
and you'll win tickets to the next
06:20
masterminds workshop by the way okay so
06:22
gabriel nice to see you what's going on
06:24
likewise scott so um
06:27
being a very early stage uh startup
06:30
um and not a lot of stuff to a report
06:32
what should we put on our website
06:34
oh that's a good one okay now as i
06:37
recall you have
06:38
robotics or ai or both something like
06:41
that
06:42
right so we are building a service robot
06:45
with artificial
06:46
intelligence right
06:47
and basically what we want to do is we
06:49
want to make these service robots
06:51
interact just like you would interact
06:52
with humans so you could say robot give
06:55
me this robot get me that and also
06:57
having the robot use the ai to respond
06:59
to dynamic scenarios in a dynamic world
07:02
that we live in
07:03
so that's basically what we're trying to
07:05
do
07:06
wow okay well um you're obviously a very
07:09
smart guy
07:11
it's
07:11
beyond my technical capabilities but it
07:13
surely sounds cool but uh we can talk
07:15
about the marketing and the positioning
07:16
for investors for sure that's more my
07:18
expertise as you know um
07:20
okay so uh first of all anybody in the
07:23
chat room that has suggestions please
07:24
chime those in go ahead and type them in
07:26
that's a really good question right what
07:28
does an early stage company put on their
07:29
website
07:31
so this is the sort of thing by the way
07:32
that we talk about a lot in our
07:33
masterminds group we go more in depth so
07:35
if that does the thing to you
07:37
masterminds workshops like i said are
07:39
once a month the next one is on
07:40
september 9th
07:42
okay so so what should gabriel put on
07:44
his website so please add your comments
07:45
in there as well um my answer would be
07:48
uh well what have you got
07:50
right i mean um you've got a name you
07:52
probably have maybe a logo um you
07:55
probably have the team
07:57
and then what you really have is a
07:58
vision so i think probably the vision is
08:00
where i would start but the question
08:02
back to you is how um
08:05
what like i said what do you have but
08:07
also how stealthy do you want to be can
08:09
you give us a little more background
08:12
um
08:13
so
08:15
um we're we're behind the scenes we're
08:16
working on the obviously the ai
08:18
algorithms uh
08:20
we've been talking to a med tech
08:23
incubator
08:24
nothing official um we did get a letter
08:27
of support from a customer
08:29
uh which is really good and we also
08:30
received an invite from the nsf to
08:32
submit a full proposal
08:34
um so we're you know we're working on a
08:36
lot of stuff behind the scenes
08:38
um you know nothing like we can say hey
08:41
we've uh you know we've got this grant
08:43
or we've signed up with this you know a
08:45
lot a lot of stuff behind the scenes
08:47
right right well that's um you can you
08:50
can't really put letters of intent up
08:52
there yet right
08:53
yeah that's that's a huge achievement so
08:55
congratulations you got to start
08:56
somewhere that's a great that's a great
08:58
start
08:59
i'd see a really good idea here in the
09:01
um
09:02
in the chat room a couple people both
09:03
sandy and brandon two smart guys both
09:05
said what problem are you solving and
09:06
that's a great way to to position
09:08
yourself right that's good more about
09:10
the problem uh
09:12
that naturally leads to your solution um
09:14
i kind of had
09:16
mushed that into vision right but that's
09:19
unpack a little more that's exactly
09:20
right i think good good good ideas guys
09:23
right so we just thought like a few
09:24
basic things you know like news um team
09:28
like division like about us
09:31
just just those few simple things but i
09:33
think
09:34
yeah we should uh talk about the problem
09:36
and how we want to solve that i think
09:37
that's a great idea for a website
09:39
yeah they're they're i think that's the
09:41
right right target what you want to do
09:43
is it's essentially like the first
09:45
meeting you have um with an investor
09:47
like if you meet somebody not not a real
09:49
meeting but like you meet somebody in an
09:51
elevator pitch sort of situation right
09:52
you want to give them enough to confirm
09:54
that you're credible and then make them
09:56
want to ask you for more right so you
09:58
don't need to spell out the whole thing
09:59
don't post the whole business plan et
10:01
cetera et cetera obviously right right
10:02
competition reasons but but also just
10:04
because at this point you don't really
10:06
have enough to close the deal anyway but
10:08
what you want is them to be interested
10:10
and i know i know of at least one
10:11
startup um actually that was that's
10:13
brandon actually he's in the chat room
10:15
um
10:16
he posted some things online and did it
10:18
apparently just right
10:20
and got things going that actually
10:22
customers started calling him right
10:24
because he had identified a niche with a
10:26
real problem so um if you put up the
10:28
problem and then your the hint of your
10:31
solution uh and then make sure the
10:33
contact form works because i can't tell
10:34
you the number of websites i see uh that
10:37
don't have effective contact information
10:39
right they like
10:40
it it doesn't sound real right it sounds
10:43
like some scammy thing so a lot of it is
10:45
about credibility and and the problem
10:47
you're solving i think that's a good
10:48
place to go
10:50
uh and there's a bunch more
10:51
uh
10:53
comments in the chat room here let's
10:54
just see if we can give you some more i
10:55
don't know if can you see those gabriel
10:56
what where yeah somebody said
10:58
nothing nothing okay don't get a website
11:02
it's a distract oh that's interesting
11:03
loan okay so that's well that's not a
11:05
bad point right not i disagree i think
11:07
you should have something but
11:10
the distraction factor is huge that's
11:12
your number one asset as an early stage
11:14
entrepreneur is you and your time and
11:17
your your like brain space right if if
11:20
you get distracted with not that you
11:21
would but i'm talking more generally
11:23
theoretically here right people get
11:24
consumed with like redesigning their
11:26
logo or something like really small you
11:29
know you miss the opportunity and
11:31
there's only so much
11:32
life that any of us has to give to a new
11:34
venture right and if you spend your time
11:37
on you know website design or or filing
11:39
all the proper business licenses and
11:41
incorporating and setting up your
11:43
bookkeeping a lot of people like to
11:45
it's like fake work fake progress right
11:47
like okay i'm incorporated now
11:50
okay but what have you built have you
11:51
talked to any customers right you know
11:53
it's like you gotta you gotta use your
11:54
resources wisely and your number one
11:56
resources is you so i think that point
11:58
is well taken loan maybe this website is
12:01
simply
12:02
problem statement contact information
12:04
done right you could have that done like
12:06
by the time this call is over
12:08
right sure maybe that's enough you know
12:10
i think it's a fair point
12:11
um diana says is the website for regular
12:14
people to see or investors or both uh
12:16
kind of both probably right at this
12:18
point um so that's interesting but it's
12:20
a good point to think about who your
12:22
target is you really want to think about
12:24
what you're trying to accomplish and
12:26
then work backwards from that right are
12:27
you trying to um you know put
12:29
competitors on notice that you exist are
12:31
you trying to attract investors to call
12:33
you or trying to attract customers to
12:35
call you are you just trying to show
12:36
your mom that you're not wasting your
12:38
time in the basement right i mean
12:40
you know those are all
12:42
legitimate objectives right so um i
12:44
would work backwards from that and talk
12:46
to your partners um so that you use your
12:47
time effectively on that
12:49
okay great thanks you bet nice to see
12:52
you good luck thank you scott yeah
12:54
thanks for joining us all right moving
12:56
along here got several other folks here
12:59
let's see we've got uh let's see cliff
13:02
and
13:03
gabriel and leslie hey leslie nice to
13:05
see you too awesome so i think uh
13:07
ritchie was next uh does that sound good
13:10
you're gonna come on yeah that's perfect
13:12
so thanks
13:13
for taking my question um can you hear
13:15
me okay i can hang on let me take hi
13:18
leslie and hi hi cliff we'll get back to
13:20
you in a moment
13:22
okay great thanks uh so my name is mitch
13:26
yeah where are you from i'm from
13:28
washington dc and uh yeah thanks for
13:30
taking the time to speak with me today
13:32
and speak with all of us um
13:34
so the name of our company is called
13:36
blinkly
13:37
and the fundamental we're a software
13:39
company and the fundamental problems
13:41
that we're solving is that we don't
13:43
think it's okay that google and
13:45
microsoft can read your data
13:47
from their search and their email and
13:49
then create a psychometric profile of
13:51
you and then sell that profile to sort
13:53
of a shadowy economy of third-party data
13:55
brokers and i'm with you
13:57
yeah we also don't think that it's okay
13:59
that our near-peer adversaries are
14:03
getting access to our data and using it
14:05
for nefarious purposes i think colonial
14:07
pipeline uh the ransomware attacks that
14:10
are happening in the university of
14:12
california system education system for
14:14
example
14:15
so the vision for our company is to
14:17
build a quantum resistant end-to-end
14:20
encrypted version of office 365 or the
14:24
google g suite to solve these problems
14:26
and for the last couple of years we've
14:28
been singularly focused on the
14:30
development of one application which is
14:32
a quantum resistant end-to-end encrypted
14:35
email service to solve the problems i
14:37
just mentioned
14:38
and a couple of months ago about two and
14:41
a half months ago
14:42
we pushed our product to production
14:45
and we've been very fortunate to be able
14:48
to hit six figures in revenue already
14:50
which is really exciting
14:51
and we're actually not looking to
14:54
fundraise at this point but um my my
14:57
question to you is that where we've
14:59
gotten the most traction so far has been
15:01
with the u.s government and broadly you
15:04
know sort of the five eyes nations if
15:05
you're familiar you know uk canada that
15:07
kind of thing and uh australia new
15:09
zealand and my my question is that um
15:13
our product is sort of um
15:15
our product is capable of being sold to
15:17
a multiple different verticals like
15:19
healthcare and real estate and my
15:21
question is that our go-to-market
15:23
strategy is that we obviously you know
15:25
we want to sell the same widget across
15:27
all of these different areas and we
15:29
think that the widget that the
15:30
application that we built to this point
15:32
could resonate really well in real
15:34
estate and law enforcement the challenge
15:36
is that our team doesn't personally have
15:38
those relationships
15:40
and the met the sort of tactics that
15:42
we've used have been um have been email
15:46
and they've been uh linkedin and just
15:48
trying to leverage personal networks and
15:50
to be honest it hasn't been effective
15:52
and we don't think it's because there's
15:54
not a need but because we just don't
15:56
have enough relationships to kind of
15:58
open that door and we're bootstrapping
16:00
the company uh so with that in mind i
16:02
was wondering if there were specific
16:03
tactics that you might recommend we
16:05
could consider
16:07
yeah okay um well first of all
16:09
congratulations i mean that is
16:11
really real progress for a big hairy
16:13
audacious goal that's what i used to
16:15
call it the stanford business school bee
16:16
hag right big hairy oh you're gonna take
16:18
on microsoft
16:20
go for it that's awesome um so that's
16:22
that's exciting and it isn't just a
16:24
dream you've actually realized revenue
16:26
real revenue six figure revenue from
16:28
this this is that's very impressive
16:30
yeah that that that's right and for for
16:31
what it's worth just to clarify just a
16:33
little bit um we are competing with
16:35
microsoft and google but in the sense
16:37
that they're not even in the same class
16:39
because they're not secure at all right
16:41
now so it's more like protonmail two to
16:43
note uh hush male 6 data motion
16:46
um those are closest those are companies
16:48
are closer to our competitors but yeah
16:50
you're absolutely right though okay yeah
16:51
well still i i admire ambition right
16:53
that's why we do this this is that's
16:55
you're literally the kind of person i do
16:57
this show for because that ambition and
16:59
optimism
17:00
is the most positive thing in our world
17:02
right now the world's a freaking mess
17:04
right
17:05
but entrepreneurs are out there again
17:06
we're going to make it happen anyway so
17:08
right on okay so okay so everybody in
17:10
the chat room let's let's offer ritchie
17:12
some help here they've got a product
17:13
that's in market and they're trying to
17:15
figure out how to hit
17:17
their target verticals but without
17:19
really knowing anybody there is that a
17:20
fair assessment
17:22
that's right
17:23
okay so
17:24
not an easy answer right you're
17:25
obviously a smart guy so i don't have a
17:27
silver bullet for you unfortunately um
17:30
and you've tried the linkedin and email
17:32
stuff which is the obvious place to
17:33
start yeah it's like a one percent yield
17:36
something like that yeah so okay so
17:40
well
17:41
there's a lot you're talking about
17:42
business development now rather than
17:43
sale the sense of like developing
17:45
relationships is a long-term
17:47
consultative sell um it means you have
17:49
to think a little or orthogonally you
17:51
know like come at it from a different
17:53
angle so the obvious place for most the
17:55
folks on this call with tech businesses
17:57
especially a sas type business is to um
18:00
invest in paid growth right like like
18:03
ads basically right yeah and there are
18:05
people that really specialize in that
18:07
stuff um you know facebook linkedin
18:10
instagram you know you're you have very
18:11
much a business to business market it
18:13
sounds like so maybe it's not instagram
18:15
but maybe it is right um you want to be
18:17
where your competitors are not
18:18
unfortunately that takes money um and i
18:21
have other ideas but just unpack that
18:22
one a little are you guys funded or how
18:24
what's your financial situation um we're
18:26
so we're just bootstrapping the company
18:28
um the reason is that um we just we're
18:30
trying not to take outside venture for
18:32
as long as we can
18:34
okay good for you and there might be a
18:35
point where we would take it but we're
18:37
just not interested at this time yeah
18:38
okay but i that's that's awesome i guess
18:41
i'm digging for do you have a budget at
18:43
all could you do any paid do you have
18:45
five yeah i mean yeah yeah we certainly
18:47
could but we certainly could i mean we
18:48
could do it you know in the tens of
18:50
thousands i would say if we really if we
18:51
i mean look at the end of the day if it
18:53
provides if it's if there's utility
18:54
above our spend it's always worth it
18:56
right okay well that's great awesome a
18:58
lot of uh bootstrapped entrepreneurs
19:00
don't have the spend right so you gotta
19:03
check um okay so
19:05
the best resource i have in that
19:06
direction and this is not my favorite
19:08
approach for you but just to get it on
19:10
the table and to help other people um
19:12
there's a startup called growth u uh
19:15
growth university and they're a spin-off
19:17
from the launch funds jason calacanis is
19:19
a well-known angel investor
19:21
and the launch
19:23
company
19:24
incubator created this company as a
19:26
spin-off that's what they used to train
19:27
their own companies in growth tactics
19:29
and these are primarily customer
19:31
acquisition online you know paid paid
19:34
acquisition sorts of tools as far as i
19:36
understand it uh craig craig zingerline
19:39
is the ceo and founder uh and uh he is
19:42
based in dc actually oh great so that
19:45
might work out um if that's the avenue
19:47
you want to go and i should fully
19:48
disclose i'm an investor in that company
19:50
right so i i think they're cool
19:52
but they're also the the reason i
19:54
invested is because
19:55
they are the only ones i know that are
19:57
trying to productize this problem for
20:00
startups right
20:02
big companies don't have a very
20:04
different perspective on growth right
20:05
but they are specifically targeting
20:07
early stage startup founders who need to
20:10
grow online so check out growthvue and i
20:12
think there's probably some discount you
20:14
get if you mention my name or something
20:16
i can put you in touch if you can't
20:18
figure it out
20:19
and that applies to everybody actually
20:20
at the growth university if anybody
20:21
wants to put that um
20:23
google that and put it in the chat room
20:24
other people would probably find it cool
20:26
there's i know there's a free couple
20:28
lessons anyway and it's kind of a
20:29
membership thing like a class cohort
20:31
anyway you can figure out okay so the
20:34
other the the more strategic approach is
20:36
is to do something other people aren't
20:38
um so knocking on doors is hard um and
20:42
if you have a little money in the bank
20:44
it sounds like you guys can you have a
20:45
little bit of elbow room here maybe you
20:47
could head more towards content
20:48
marketing um have you done much of that
20:51
like publishing articles okay so maybe
20:54
there's an angle for you to create a
20:57
really good i hate to say this
20:58
old-fashioned word blog you know or
21:00
newsletter um or publishing things on
21:03
linkedin instead of just out uh pushing
21:05
people um
21:07
and pushing people you know like him
21:09
knocking on the door but to actually try
21:12
to attract them in right because that
21:13
way they're kind of pre-sold and it's
21:15
much longer fuse right doesn't happen
21:18
real quickly um but
21:20
that's an angle to take and i'll tell
21:22
you something that's worked really well
21:23
for me in the past and you guys might
21:24
try as if you have the skill set um is
21:27
to actually do either an interview
21:29
series on the blog
21:31
or a podcast or a video series right so
21:34
something where you have an excuse to
21:36
call the influencers that you want to
21:38
reach and build a relationship that
21:40
isn't just a sales call right so it's
21:42
one thing to call some big shot and say
21:44
hi i'd like to you know tell you about
21:46
my product won't you buy it it's a
21:48
totally different conversation when you
21:49
call and say hey i'd like to have you on
21:52
my show and interview you because you're
21:54
so smart and you could share your
21:55
expertise with our audience that's a
21:57
totally different conversation and the
21:58
hit rate goes way up um and that can
22:01
work
22:02
in any industry really
22:04
and again as kind of a long fuse for for
22:07
the sales but
22:09
but might get you into some of the
22:10
conversations that you want to have in a
22:12
way that positions you it positions you
22:14
from the start as opposed to just a cold
22:16
call
22:17
how's that is that beautiful yeah that's
22:19
really helpful no thank you thank you i
22:21
really appreciate it and thanks for your
22:22
time okay awesome nice to meet you keep
22:24
us posted if you're if you are looking
22:26
for funding let us know
22:28
all right nice to meet you
22:30
okay
22:31
let's look at uh okay thank you for
22:34
joining us for cheek from dc okay so um
22:37
let's look in the chat room here leslie
22:38
thank you for that uh that
22:41
url there
22:43
um you know that's funny i don't think i
22:45
can post in the chat can you post that
22:47
in the public chat i i don't know how to
22:49
do that i'm i'm afraid i'll lose you
22:51
guys but it looks like it's growth dash
22:53
u dot com growth dash u dot com
22:57
thank you leslie uh we'll have leslie on
22:59
here in a minute um oh okay she can't
23:02
either because she's in waiting to come
23:03
on camera okay uh before i get there
23:05
leslie let me just check the chat room
23:07
folks and uh if you want to come on
23:10
camera with me as well there's that link
23:12
again okay so sandy says who can you
23:14
partner with okay that's a great point
23:16
sandy thank you so rachik before you
23:17
leave that we we totally i don't have
23:20
enough time to unpack the whole book
23:21
right but sandy is right
23:23
partnerships are the other way to go
23:24
find people that are already selling to
23:26
the people that you want to sell to and
23:28
do some kind of partnership with them
23:30
not competitors i mean somebody adjacent
23:33
right so you're selling say a secure
23:34
email service find who their cyber
23:36
security providers are or you know
23:39
somebody in in that vein that has a cell
23:41
cycle and a
23:43
to the same sort of person
23:44
as you're doing and figure out if you
23:46
can cross sell or even cut them in on
23:48
the on the give him a commission or
23:50
something right at least to get going um
23:53
and then uh that's a really good one um
23:55
that's actually a more established way
23:57
of doing things than the podcast angle i
23:59
was suggesting but that's a super way to
24:01
do things that's why i used to do things
24:02
back before podcasts existed when i was
24:04
a biz dev guy um
24:06
and then we didn't talk about trade
24:08
shows either right or conferences
24:10
speaking at conferences is a really good
24:11
angle
24:12
because it gets you visibility et cetera
24:14
et cetera i mean we could go on all day
24:16
about this but hopefully that's some
24:17
good one waleed says reselling is
24:19
another way you get others selling for
24:21
you tech consulting is a great way to
24:22
start yep thank you ali exactly right
24:25
sandy chimes in that's a win-win
24:27
situation exactly
24:29
and diana says there's a growth capital
24:31
conference for people who already have a
24:33
running business it's free that's
24:35
interesting diana maybe you could put a
24:36
url for that into the chat room
24:39
um let me back up the chat here to see
24:41
um
24:42
what i've missed here so uh guys put in
24:44
where you're from in the chat room i
24:46
that's just a kick for me because i i
24:47
don't do any marketing for this show
24:49
other than a few emails so it's always
24:51
uh entertaining and interesting for me
24:54
to see what we're reaching
24:55
okay so loan says okay angel investors
24:58
okay we'll try that in a minute uh
25:01
ghosts mobile apps okay bihan from sri
25:04
lanka great nice to meet you that's a
25:06
long way from home um
25:08
okay leslie's ready to come on
25:11
uh sandy the uh on camera link is on the
25:14
screen right now
25:15
uh
25:17
rashab i don't know i know it's a very
25:19
case specific
25:22
what fact okay this is a fairly quick
25:24
one rishabh java asks i know this is
25:26
very case specific but on average for a
25:29
new tech startup that's just launched by
25:31
what factor would you multiply their
25:33
revenue to get their valuation so good
25:35
question michelle i think i can do that
25:36
one fairly quickly uh
25:39
valuation is a is a is black magic right
25:41
there's no right answer
25:44
but the righteous answer there is
25:46
is that you look at your competitors
25:48
right that's basically the best you can
25:51
do because that's what everybody else is
25:52
doing right valuation is not something
25:54
that is
25:55
there's not a formula for it
25:57
i mean there are there are lots of
25:58
formulas that will justify the number
26:00
you get but the fact is that any
26:02
investor
26:03
or partner or anybody even employees who
26:06
are valuing their stock options are
26:07
going to look at the valuation of the
26:09
company based on what this company's
26:11
peers are doing in the market so that's
26:14
where i would start
26:15
and then
26:16
the other question is whether you factor
26:18
on revenue and by the way
26:19
congratulations if you have revenue
26:21
already and you're looking for
26:22
evaluation based on revenue that's good
26:25
but some companies value on revenue some
26:27
value on ebitda some you know there's
26:29
lots of different ways to
26:31
what what is it you're multiplying right
26:33
there's a there's a uh
26:35
what do you call that two factors in the
26:36
equation i guess right so i would look
26:39
at your competitors all right um
26:42
sorry guys just trying to catch up on
26:43
the
26:44
chat uh yeah brandon diana yes gus yes
26:50
okay okay ghost has another good this is
26:53
back to
26:54
gabriel if you're still here gabriel
26:55
your question ghost did you see that in
26:57
the chat room where gabriel said is that
26:59
this is about your website gabriel is
27:00
there enough interest to sell it as a
27:02
product from my quick look i couldn't
27:04
find much demand for robots to automate
27:07
tasks for you that much so that's
27:10
i don't know that's true or not i
27:12
suspect there is demand but that's your
27:14
challenge gabriel is to express the
27:16
problem you're solving so that people
27:18
like ghosts go ah i get it right you
27:22
can't presume that people agree with you
27:24
that there is a problem right so you
27:25
need to position that in a good way
27:27
um okay muhammad samir
27:30
uh
27:31
okay
27:32
sandy okay reselling wow okay a lot of
27:36
folks here today
27:37
okay ghost is near london okay all right
27:40
thanks for staying up with us in the
27:41
evening and dallas well eat okay okay
27:44
now let's go back to the on cameras here
27:46
um
27:47
let's see i think leslie was next
27:49
let's see
27:51
that's not leslie sorry hang on
27:54
sorry hey there leslie you guys are
27:57
uh
27:59
let me sorry this thing is a little
28:01
complicated is that it nope that's not
28:03
it either
28:05
there's leslie okay
28:07
okay hey leslie nice to see you
28:10
can you
28:11
yeah hey scott good to see you too okay
28:14
there we go
28:15
all right so what's going on in
28:17
leslieville today
28:19
yeah so uh came came here a while ago to
28:23
the other venue um
28:25
which was on zoom and told you about my
28:27
company
28:28
um and we've made a ton of changes in
28:31
progress since then
28:32
as you may remember
28:35
we are ed tech so we take um
28:39
we allow educators to create stories
28:41
that are animated based on kids voice so
28:45
kids get to talk to the creatures and
28:47
the the teachers can create lessons
28:50
based on the kid interacting with the
28:52
with the computer very cool um yeah
28:56
so uh we think it's cool um but there's
28:58
a couple things happening right now as
29:00
you know kids are going back to school
29:02
um and there's a big debate about masks
29:05
so what we are going to do
29:07
and we're doing this for market research
29:09
to get our name out there to figure out
29:11
who's interested who's not is we're
29:13
creating stories that we're going to
29:14
publish
29:16
that have the kid interacting with the
29:17
with the bear who's going back to school
29:20
so they get to tell bear they get to
29:21
encourage bear about going back to
29:23
school and what it'll be like
29:25
um
29:26
so we have one like that and we're gonna
29:27
have another one with wearing masks and
29:29
we'll ask the kids in different
29:31
scenarios should you wear a mask here
29:32
should you wear a mask here and if they
29:34
choose the mask and bear doesn't dance
29:36
if they don't then he doesn't you know
29:39
so it's interactive with voice
29:41
so my question
29:43
is
29:44
um how do we take advantage of this how
29:46
so this is market research for us so how
29:49
do we mine
29:51
who's interested how do we figure out
29:53
who to send it to in the first place how
29:54
do we mind who's interested and get the
29:56
best bang for our buck
29:59
okay
30:00
so let me spit that back to you to see
30:02
if i got it got it
30:04
so
30:05
the children's educational company and
30:08
the example you gave of the bear in the
30:09
mask is just an example right you the
30:12
the software you can create lots of
30:14
stuff right right this doctor can create
30:16
lots of stuff but we specifically are
30:17
creating those stories as a pilot to
30:19
show yeah
30:20
okay okay so um
30:24
and who's the target customer here who
30:26
do you think you want to reach
30:28
educators and um
30:31
therapists
30:32
therapists
30:33
we've also gotten some interest in
30:35
medical communities that are interested
30:37
in educating kids on say diabetes
30:40
they've just been diagnosed
30:42
that kind of thing
30:43
right okay
30:45
okay so this is a specific that what
30:47
concerns me here is that you're talking
30:49
about back to school and my kids have
30:50
been back to school for three weeks
30:52
already like we went back really early
30:54
so you have very limited fuse on this
30:56
right i mean in the next week or so is
30:58
that what yeah it'll be pretty soon it
31:00
also depends on where you live in the
31:02
country i think california's merely
31:05
right right okay um okay so how would
31:08
you get to the educators and therapists
31:10
and the medical community in a short
31:12
amount of time okay so that's the
31:13
question for the audience if anybody
31:15
wants to
31:16
uh contribute in the chat room there and
31:19
let me give a quick plug by the way if
31:20
you're watching uh you can watch us on
31:22
on linkedin or youtube there are chat
31:24
rooms there and you can comment and it
31:26
will show up here uh and we'll be happy
31:28
to help you out if uh if we can
31:30
okay so okay well given the specific
31:32
target you have and a fairly short time
31:34
frame um i think that probably the most
31:36
efficient way is to back to what i was
31:38
talking a minute ago about growth
31:39
university like targeted paid
31:41
advertising um either on a test basis or
31:44
on a on a larger basis
31:46
um i think the the test
31:49
here's the trick um there is a way to
31:52
get to exactly who you want to get every
31:54
time and it's called advertising right
31:56
and they pay but it's expensive right
31:59
especially on a specific um target a
32:01
high value target potentially like in
32:04
the medical community right they're
32:05
going to be more expensive than uh you
32:07
know teenagers who are hanging out
32:08
playing fortnite or whatever
32:11
so
32:12
i don't know how much money you guys are
32:15
you funded i forget do you have no it's
32:16
being funded okay so so you're you want
32:19
to be careful with this right um but i
32:21
think at a minimum you could run some
32:22
tests and figure out what your roi might
32:25
be right so if you could find uh
32:28
probably more than a hundred dollars but
32:29
maybe 500 or something you know and more
32:31
is better of course uh and go i would
32:34
think maybe uh maybe linkedin um and uh
32:37
try to hit those specific folks um with
32:41
a very customized ad but just do them in
32:43
small bytes or maybe on google because
32:45
google here's here's something
32:46
interesting um
32:48
that may be obvious to folks but if it's
32:49
not hopefully it's helpful
32:51
linkedin is kind of like a conference
32:54
right so you put up ads it's kind of
32:56
like a trade show you're hoping you're
32:57
going to hit people that are at the
32:58
right trade show for your industry and
33:00
they're going to walk by and see your
33:01
banner and maybe click on it
33:03
which is great because it's very
33:04
targeted
33:06
google is the reverse people only go to
33:08
google with intent they are looking for
33:10
something specific right
33:12
so if you put an ad on google you only
33:14
pay when they click on it it's because
33:16
they were looking for that the ad is
33:17
only even displayed based on the
33:19
keywords and the text that you put in
33:20
the ad so if you put
33:22
i'm not sure what your keywords would be
33:24
but just roughly you know a children's
33:26
covid uh training tool or help or
33:29
something like that you know it will
33:30
only be displayed when somebody's
33:32
looking for that so that could be very
33:33
useful as opposed to say facebook where
33:35
people are really just there kind of
33:36
hanging out it's like you know kind of
33:38
like you're at a starbucks in a in a
33:40
truck with a billboard drives by right
33:42
you're not really paying attention
33:43
necessarily so you want to use your
33:46
money in the environment that will have
33:48
the most impact for you so my point is
33:51
that to me sounds like linkedin because
33:53
you've it's professional environment
33:55
already people talk about professional
33:57
things which might include these
33:59
business needs which are serving the
34:01
children in their communities to reduce
34:03
their covet apprehension or google where
34:06
people are actually looking for that
34:08
solution to that specific problem
34:10
already so those two sound like the
34:11
places i would go maybe let's pick a
34:14
number 500 bucks if you could spend 200
34:16
on each of those
34:18
and then see what worked and then you've
34:20
got an extra hundred dollars to confirm
34:22
your thesis that oh yeah it's google
34:24
when i do this or it's linkedin when i
34:26
do this um i think you would know a lot
34:29
more uh
34:30
probably you know by the end of the week
34:32
um
34:33
who you're reaching and what they're
34:35
responding to
34:36
that might be helpful is that useful
34:40
yes yes
34:41
um
34:43
okay
34:44
let's see um let's see what the chat
34:45
room has to add to that um sandy says
34:48
yeah you need use cases with videos
34:50
showing them an action well that would
34:52
be great that's probably on the website
34:53
so that's a good question like what if
34:55
they click on your ad what do they get
34:57
right so you need a landing page that
34:59
that confirms i clicked on the right
35:01
thing yes this this was a good move i
35:04
didn't go to some scammy you know scary
35:06
hacker site oh and look there's kids
35:08
doing this kind of thing yes that
35:10
matches my interest so that's a good
35:11
good point get the product market fit
35:14
yeah facebook groups that's right tandy
35:15
that's the other angle here facebook
35:16
groups are a little less professional
35:18
obviously than linkedin uh but there are
35:20
groups in facebook and if there is a
35:22
children's therapist group you know
35:25
or something like that that might be a
35:27
good place to do as well because
35:28
facebook does at least as far as i know
35:30
still have the
35:31
pretty much the best targeting like you
35:33
can pick exactly the stuff that uh that
35:36
ritchie was was complaining about
35:38
earlier and that i agree where people
35:39
take all your data and they target you
35:40
well facebook's really damn good at that
35:43
so that would be effective in another
35:44
way because they can target the best
35:47
um
35:48
okay
35:49
so there i i that's what i got for now
35:51
is that useful
35:52
yeah i think that's a good start and uh
35:55
i will take it and run with it yeah so
35:58
good great thanks you're welcome nice to
36:00
see you um yeah the other venue leslie
36:03
was referring to was the masterminds
36:04
workshop um
36:06
so that next one of those is on
36:07
september 9th like i said so i'll
36:09
probably see her there and maybe you
36:11
guys do all right thanks leslie thanks
36:14
all right let's hop over here to cliff
36:17
cliff has been very patient
36:21
hi nice to meet you
36:22
you too you too in a very at the moment
36:25
hot chicago
36:27
okay all right so
36:29
i'm kind of the definitive
36:32
on your own entrepreneur i am a 30-year
36:35
i.t consultant in the payment space
36:38
which pays the bills and funds
36:41
at least two
36:43
separate businesses so i have a
36:47
less it's a mobile
36:49
payments tool kit that is
36:52
dangerously close to production ready
36:55
um and i have a
36:59
this would be a product for the merchant
37:01
risk
37:02
market that is i'm in very early
37:06
in the very beginnings of building it i
37:08
have one sort of partner but i'm
37:11
pretty much on my own
37:13
so my kind of question is
37:16
and a lot of what i do as a consultant
37:17
right is they don't know what they don't
37:18
know and that's where i'm coming from
37:21
now i don't know where i don't know
37:23
i'm facebook
37:24
averse
37:26
i just don't do
37:28
um
37:30
the other you know no real social media
37:32
i have a big um
37:35
linkedin site
37:36
but that's it as far as social media so
37:39
kind of two layered questions one is
37:43
i don't even know where to begin with
37:44
social media i would like to grow my
37:46
social media presence for my consultancy
37:50
but i also wonder
37:52
like right now my two other ventures are
37:54
completely separate like if you know me
37:56
in the business you might know what i'm
37:58
up to with these products
38:01
but i'm
38:02
wondering do is there a reason to kind
38:06
of mix them together is there a reason
38:08
to keep them apart
38:10
um that's especially kind of i don't
38:12
know what i don't know like am i missing
38:14
something there
38:15
yeah yeah
38:17
okay well let's take the second one
38:18
first um and the short answer there is i
38:21
don't know because there's a lot of
38:23
specifics about who you are and who
38:25
you're marketing to and um right stuff
38:28
like that it branding is a delicate and
38:31
difficult thing i mean um you can i
38:34
don't know how well you know me but i
38:35
have 14 different brands like
38:36
masterminds and startup council and
38:38
startup office hours i got three
38:40
different books i got this this thing
38:42
over here and i'm not i
38:44
it's hard because if you're an
38:45
entrepreneurial person you come up with
38:46
new ideas and they need new names
38:48
it's like my kid you know they each have
38:50
a different of course they do they have
38:51
different names right
38:54
so yeah i got like five others that are
38:56
all like approaching okay i'm actually
38:58
going to commit some time to these right
39:00
right so i think the the the answer i do
39:04
would share is you need to work backward
39:06
from the customer's perception right
39:08
so if the customer is the same
39:10
then you probably want to have at least
39:13
some overarching brand names so they
39:14
don't get confused but if they're
39:16
different customers then the marketing
39:18
is different and they don't not going to
39:20
cross over anyway so that's probably
39:23
um
39:24
i would look at it from the customer's
39:25
point of view the thing not to do is
39:27
something i've been digging a hole i've
39:28
been thinking myself out of literally
39:29
this week is if you're doing billing
39:32
make sure that the
39:33
billing name like on a credit card or
39:35
bank account matches the product or
39:39
business name because i in one case i
39:41
literally i'm doing this this week
39:42
i built a thing online and it's making
39:44
money but i i was lazy and i used the
39:46
account from another one so now when
39:48
every anybody pays for it they get the
39:50
charge and like what's this charge who's
39:52
this oh yeah right
39:54
dynamic descriptors um right i'm
39:56
painfully aware about that
39:59
sounds like you're an expert right so
40:01
that's what i need some dynamic
40:02
descriptors because it's a mess
40:04
all right right all right so i hear yeah
40:06
um okay so the other question i maybe
40:09
have a little more uh to to talk about
40:11
is social media so social media is it's
40:14
a hard one if you don't do it if you
40:16
don't love it it's such a chore and um
40:20
and it only gets bigger right like i
40:23
wrote my my second book um this one
40:27
this is this is written in 2009 um and
40:30
it's uh next generation marketing
40:32
strategies right um and uh in this book
40:36
i covered all of social media
40:38
because there were only like three of
40:40
them back then right and i was a i was
40:42
like a black belt i knew i really did i
40:44
knew all about twitter i knew everything
40:46
about not everything but you know i was
40:47
i was qualified to write a book of how
40:49
many over 100 pages i mean this is a
40:51
serious book right like all my books um
40:54
because it was small as twitter and
40:56
facebook youtube was newish and i don't
40:58
know uh whatever you know another one or
41:00
two and the recommendation back in these
41:03
days was that you get really good at all
41:05
of them and you could just be everywhere
41:07
but that just doesn't work anymore
41:09
there's just no
41:11
um you kill yourself and and you won't
41:13
make any impact so my my advice to you
41:16
is i think you're actually okay you have
41:19
a problem that you don't want to do it
41:20
necessarily but linkedin
41:23
place to be if you can go and be the
41:24
king of linkedin or even the prince you
41:27
know in your
41:29
genre vertical um
41:31
that's legit right i mean there are a
41:33
lot of companies that would die for that
41:34
so if you're comfortable these days my
41:36
advice on social media is more about
41:38
like
41:39
what are you what are you comfortable
41:41
with
41:42
and what do you
41:43
at least not hate and maybe even like
41:45
enough that you'll actually do it
41:47
because social media requires that
41:50
social piece and it's like going to a
41:51
party where you don't know anybody or
41:53
you don't like the people like who wants
41:54
to go to that party why would you do
41:56
that right you need to pick it's like i
41:57
was talking about earlier with um
41:59
with gabriel you only have so much brain
42:02
space and energy for this and you
42:05
why not put it in the channel that you
42:07
like right like if i said cliff you have
42:09
to go and do twitter but you hate
42:11
twitter what of course it's not gonna
42:12
work right right
42:14
would you like linkedin so maybe that's
42:16
your thing man that's perfectly okay
42:18
there's enough people on linkedin now
42:20
and you already have a base i would just
42:21
beat the hell out of linkedin and be the
42:23
you know own that do some publish some
42:25
articles or you know whatever you
42:27
haven't done yet double down on that um
42:30
and and you have to be careful about
42:31
your other question which is the
42:32
branding right like which brand are you
42:34
using when you do that um but i think
42:36
that's a totally legit way to go um
42:39
because and you know that that that
42:41
helps tremendously confirms because yeah
42:43
i mean what i do it's a pretty
42:45
narrow
42:47
kind of market there's not a lot of
42:48
people who do what we do and but
42:51
linkedin you know
42:52
most of the ones i know are on linkedin
42:54
so right maybe it's time for me to
42:56
finally just go professional with her
42:58
you know the paid and really
43:01
right maybe probably pull up some
43:02
articles okay
43:04
yeah i mean that could be you you could
43:05
be the linkedin guy and man you could do
43:07
a lot worse right i mean absolutely yeah
43:10
yeah it's a great i mean payments right
43:12
now is the business to be in and it
43:14
keeps me very busy yeah
43:16
yeah that's right good congratulations
43:18
yeah fintech is yeah it's a good place
43:19
to be oh yeah
43:21
all right well enjoy your chicago
43:24
thank you thank you very much yeah nice
43:26
to meet you
43:27
all right so there we go that was cliff
43:29
from chicago
43:31
uh nice midwestern guy like myself
43:34
um okay so who else is still here we got
43:36
a bunch of you in the chat room let me
43:38
see if i can catch up with the chat if
43:39
you haven't yet uh join us uh in the
43:42
chat room and um
43:44
sorry i'm trying to see into the chat
43:46
here um
43:48
catch up on the chat here go ahead and
43:49
type in over on youtube i think is the
43:51
easiest place although i see yeah most
43:53
of you look like you're chatting from
43:54
the youtube channel
43:56
i thought you could do that on linkedin
43:58
as well but it doesn't look like any of
44:00
you yeah okay so i guess just youtube
44:02
chat okay so let's see um
44:06
brandon could you use your
44:08
mobile payment system for transactions
44:10
okay that's interesting brandon's
44:12
suggesting that you uh that's for cliff
44:14
i think um you maybe there's some
44:16
overlap there for you uh two birds with
44:18
one stone sort of thing uh brandon why
44:20
don't you come on camera i'm curious how
44:22
uh how you've done since last time i
44:24
made some introductions for you i think
44:25
right i'm curious how that went if
44:27
you're somewhere where you can turn on a
44:28
camera let me know be good to see you uh
44:31
sandy sandy happy birthday to you that's
44:33
fun sandy's a local here in southern
44:36
california comes to my in-person
44:37
masterminds
44:39
events when when we can have those which
44:41
has not been lately unfortunately um
44:44
waleed uh yeah good point about natural
44:47
language translation sandy says
44:50
transfers
44:51
target things by
44:52
disease okay so now i'm um
44:56
i was trying to go back here to loan so
44:58
alone if you're still here
45:00
um
45:02
but the best place to find angel
45:03
investors okay that's where i'm gonna go
45:06
and then uh ghosts will talk about
45:08
mobile apps um
45:10
well let me do the mobile apps first
45:12
because that's
45:13
that's a uh
45:15
i think i can handle that one quick more
45:16
quickly so um goes from ghosts i guess
45:20
that's your name from outside london
45:21
says do you think mobile apps are still
45:23
worth it as a new investment so um
45:27
this is an interesting question because
45:28
it's almost philosophical right
45:30
what is worth the new investment
45:33
um
45:35
investors don't know
45:37
you know you're the entrepreneur and
45:39
that's the beauty of what we do as
45:41
entrepreneurs if you see an opportunity
45:44
then you're right
45:47
right um it's like i think henry ford
45:49
said you know you can if uh
45:52
if you believe
45:54
you can do a thing you can or something
45:56
like that anyway you get the idea like
45:58
if you see something in mobile apps
46:00
i don't know i don't build mobile apps i
46:02
never have i mean i've been involved in
46:04
some of them but but that's not my thing
46:06
right so um
46:08
that's your job as the entrepreneur
46:10
which is why it's so exciting is to find
46:12
these niches now if you're you know
46:14
there's a number of ways to you know if
46:16
you want to come on camera we could talk
46:18
about it more but but the um i'm just
46:20
reading into your one line here
46:22
if you're asking are mobile apps over
46:24
well maybe you know things are not apps
46:27
are a little the marketplace is
46:28
certainly different than it was when
46:29
apps were so discreet and separate from
46:31
the web and you know before that there
46:33
were uh um what those old ones called
46:36
wap devices uh
46:38
apps whatever you know it's it's
46:39
evolving right so so i'm not sure which
46:42
part of your question you're hitting
46:44
there um are mobile apps
46:46
worth investment i don't know it depends
46:48
on the metrics right what have you built
46:50
have you shown that there's some
46:51
customer demand uh if you have and
46:54
people are paying you for it then yeah
46:55
double down right um but then of course
46:58
once you get to that point you got to
46:59
look at the competition right is this
47:00
something that other people are doing
47:02
and the fact that you have revenue means
47:04
that you know a bunch of other people
47:05
are going to flood in or do you have a
47:07
defensible position
47:09
either through you know patents or
47:11
trade secrets or through market
47:13
penetration first mover advantage or
47:15
even just branding or partnerships you
47:17
know
47:17
what is there about this business so um
47:20
you need to kind of look at it
47:21
holistically and this is true for
47:22
everybody look at every opportunity and
47:24
think you know what is it about this
47:26
that is a business and this is probably
47:28
the number one piece of advice i have
47:30
for all of you um
47:32
uh
47:33
hold on brandon ask for that camera
47:35
thing let me put that back up in case
47:36
anybody else wants to join us there we
47:38
go um
47:40
my number one thing for all of you is
47:42
that
47:43
there's every entrepreneur is split it's
47:45
like the yin yang thing right you have
47:48
to be dedicated and so excited about the
47:50
product and the problem you're solving
47:52
and the way that you're delivering that
47:54
to customers that is a hundred percent
47:55
your job to focus on the product
47:58
solution you know the market fit thing
48:00
right
48:01
the problem is you have another job that
48:03
is a hundred percent your job at the
48:04
same time which is expressing that as a
48:08
business because investors aren't
48:09
looking at your product like we don't
48:12
really honestly care that much about the
48:13
product i might i might have sympathy
48:15
for the vertical you're in you know like
48:17
if you're helping kids with covid go
48:20
back to school or you have more secure
48:21
email you know or you have payment new
48:24
payment fintech infrastructure
48:26
those are all completely legitimate
48:28
exciting things that it's your job these
48:30
are examples obviously from today from
48:32
leslie and cliff and ritchie you know
48:34
it's your job to be excited about that
48:36
stuff
48:36
but it's my job to look at all three of
48:38
those they have nothing to do with each
48:40
other right we couldn't have picked
48:41
thank you guys we couldn't have picked
48:42
three much more disparate examples right
48:44
and and you know an investor has to look
48:47
at all those and compare them so we
48:48
can't be as invested in the product we
48:50
have to be invested in the business so
48:52
that's your job you know our mobile
48:54
app's a good place to invest
48:55
i have no idea you have to tell me what
48:58
it is about mobile apps that are going
49:00
to make this a business that i want to
49:02
invest in and that's the other 100 of
49:05
your job to wear both of those hats you
49:07
know the left side and the right side of
49:09
your brain
49:10
and hopefully that will help you
49:11
evaluate but i would um really just
49:14
encourage you to decide right you're the
49:16
entrepreneur and that's the beauty of
49:17
what we do as founders is figuring that
49:20
out for ourselves
49:21
um
49:22
okay so
49:23
we'll talk about angel investors in a
49:25
second okay well here's
49:26
let's see here's brandon excellent nice
49:28
to see you uh hold on there we go hey
49:31
would you guys mind if we took a group
49:33
shot here these are really helpful to me
49:34
i'm going to put you all on camera hey
49:36
brandon i'm going to put you all on
49:37
camera at the same time because then it
49:39
looks like this is a really big and
49:40
popular show and
49:42
there we go nope oh hold on yeah there
49:45
we go that's one
49:47
and then let's see this way i'm just
49:48
showing off now right there we go that's
49:51
good
49:51
and how else helps it look like people
49:53
show up to these because they do right
49:55
and that's useful thank you okay so
49:57
thank you leslie and cliff and ritchie
50:00
um sorry gabriel i didn't see you come
50:02
on there but we're gonna get there he is
50:03
there's gabriel
50:04
okay thank you and richie awesome guys
50:08
um this is back to that social media
50:09
thing okay so brandon hey how are you
50:12
what's going on
50:15
yeah so i connected with uh scott broski
50:17
excellent i'm actually supposed to meet
50:18
with them tomorrow oh okay yeah so we're
50:21
gonna have like an hour mentoring
50:23
session deal to see how he can help me
50:27
but yeah i
50:28
don't really have too much to update you
50:30
on i've gotten a few more people
50:32
interested in it and i did kind of a
50:34
little trick um
50:36
because it's a it's currently the
50:38
physical game right and so i'm working
50:40
on the digital version but um what what
50:43
i did was i basically said um you know
50:46
that the game isn't available yet
50:47
because i've noticed that when i got
50:49
most of my sales at the beginning it was
50:51
like before it was available it was
50:53
pre-order and so that's when people were
50:55
like wait i can't get it yet i will now
50:57
i definitely want it
50:58
interesting it's like a weird sales
51:00
trick and i haven't gotten sales since
51:02
then and so i just said okay well it's
51:04
not available yet um just let me know if
51:07
you're interested and people seem to
51:08
like that
51:09
okay so i just made a little sales trick
51:12
this is for gabriel um and anybody else
51:15
that's interested in their website
51:16
brandon's the guy i was talking about he
51:17
put up a website and he didn't even have
51:19
anything to sell yet and people started
51:22
pinging him asking to buy it
51:24
so that's part of the secret it sounds
51:25
like
51:26
yeah
51:27
definitely
51:28
okay well that's a good tip um and then
51:30
the other thing brandon he's talking
51:32
about i made an introduction for him to
51:34
the sbdc and this is true for everybody
51:36
here at least in the united states the
51:38
small business development centers are a
51:40
service of the us government part of the
51:42
small business administration and the
51:44
sbdc's i don't know how many of them
51:46
there are but there have to be dozens
51:48
maybe hundreds across the u.s and the
51:50
introduction that he's talking about the
51:51
meeting with tomorrow is the small
51:52
business development center in in
51:54
riverside right aren't you
51:56
well yeah i'm near riverside like 15
51:58
minutes away yeah okay so he's gonna go
52:00
meet with them and the sbdc's are
52:02
charged it's your tax money fellow
52:04
americans it's our tax money paying for
52:07
consulting to early stage companies so
52:09
this is a great resource for all of us
52:11
and i know the director over there
52:13
obviously so i connected them because
52:14
they're near each other geographically
52:16
so awesome all right well good good to
52:18
see you thanks for your your comments in
52:20
the chat room too helpful stuff uh and
52:22
yeah keep me posted that's exciting well
52:24
dude thanks scott right on nice to see
52:26
you
52:28
okay so that's good updates people
52:30
making progress that's a good thing i'd
52:31
like to hear about the progress
52:33
okay so i was going to go back to talk
52:35
about angel investors here we got a five
52:38
minutes left or so
52:39
let me just see if anything else came in
52:41
here while i was
52:42
talking i keep getting these new
52:43
messages
52:45
uh okay
52:47
okay so let's talk about
52:49
sorry just reading here
52:51
yep yep yep okay so
52:53
lone said the best place to find angel
52:55
investors
52:56
okay so the best place to find angel
52:58
investors um
53:00
that's a big topic right
53:03
i keep thinking about writing another
53:04
book and that will definitely be a part
53:06
of it
53:07
but the best place to find angel
53:09
investors it depends it's funny because
53:11
angel investors are there's kind of
53:12
levels of angel investor now uh
53:15
traditionally an angel investor was kind
53:17
of like your uncle
53:18
or your your you know your cousin's
53:21
friend who was a dentist and had some
53:22
extra cash and they put in 50 grand
53:25
because you were a good kid from the
53:27
neighborhood that kind of idea uh but
53:29
it's really grown up and there are now
53:31
you know semi-pro and even i guess
53:33
professional angels i i guess i might
53:35
even fall in that category i spend most
53:36
of my time these days uh when i'm not
53:38
talking to you guys as an investor
53:42
and that just means that we invest our
53:43
own money as opposed to a venture
53:45
capital firm which invests uh much
53:47
larger amounts of money usually from
53:49
other investors people invest in the
53:51
firm and then they invest in you sort of
53:52
thing so where do you find angel
53:54
investors well there's a couple ways to
53:56
think about that
53:57
geographically is the traditional way
54:00
which is in your neighborhood right so
54:02
if you're in a target rich environment
54:04
like the bay area
54:05
or any big city chicago la new york
54:08
whatever
54:10
london there are people around for sure
54:13
if you're not there luckily uh one of
54:16
the few benefits of the pandemic has
54:18
been that we're all much more online and
54:20
accessible via zoom and conferences that
54:23
are virtual these days
54:24
so any of you that are looking for angel
54:25
investors i would look in a couple
54:27
places one is there are conferences
54:29
there are conferences all the time um
54:31
different organizations uh to uh well
54:34
let me let me do those separately so the
54:36
conferences and events are online so
54:38
look on eventbrite um look on uh
54:42
and just search and google right um but
54:44
i would encourage you all to do some
54:46
targeting here not just any angel you
54:49
want to probably put like angel investor
54:52
artificial intelligence or angel
54:53
investor
54:55
natural language software startup or
54:57
whatever you know your keywords are
54:58
because you don't want to just spray and
55:00
pray that's
55:02
waste your time and you won't get much
55:03
response either the more targeted you
55:04
can be the better so i would look for
55:06
events
55:07
there's all kinds of them online these
55:09
days i get invited to a couple every day
55:12
so i think a quick google or two would
55:14
probably point you in a lot of right
55:16
directions second there are a lot of
55:17
organizations i belong to tech coast
55:20
angels which is the largest angel
55:21
investor group in the united states
55:24
we have five chapters across southern
55:26
california but there are many many other
55:28
angel groups in pretty much every city
55:30
now certainly the big cities have like
55:32
new york has a bunch of them but even in
55:34
the smaller cities uh i would bet you
55:36
that there's probably uh you know one in
55:39
columbus ohio in fresno california and
55:41
um shreveport louisiana right these days
55:44
angel investors seem to be everywhere um
55:47
and if they're uh and even if they
55:49
aren't in your town
55:50
you can probably connect with them
55:52
online because of the zoom
55:54
the zoom epidemic that we're having
55:56
and the trick with this is really to
56:00
uh and there are a couple directories
56:01
online as well um that you could
56:03
google um
56:05
and oh sorry and linkedin as well uh of
56:07
course um you find people like me like i
56:09
have angel investor it's kind of blacked
56:11
out in my linkedin title speaking of
56:13
that let me put in my linkedin in case
56:15
anybody wants to connect
56:18
there's linkedin happy to hear from you
56:20
guys
56:21
if you do want to
56:22
link in i'd be happy to connect i don't
56:25
use that linkedin messenger though if
56:26
you want to contact me please do the
56:29
contact form through scottfox.com
56:31
because i'm an email guy not a messaging
56:33
guy
56:34
anyway
56:36
linkedin has lots of groups although
56:37
some of us hide our affiliation as
56:39
investors because we just get inundated
56:42
with random pitches
56:44
but what i was going to say before we
56:45
wrap up today is that
56:47
angel investing is in vc2 but especially
56:50
with angels it's really about the
56:52
relationship
56:53
so you want to go into the relationship
56:56
with some targeting you don't just every
56:58
person you meet pitch them right you
57:00
want to figure out if you can um what
57:03
other things that they invested in how
57:05
much do they invest are they still
57:06
investing you know um
57:08
what do they like what do they not like
57:10
and of course if you have personal
57:12
connection right you are from the same
57:13
town or you went to the same school or
57:15
you're related somehow like all those
57:17
little touch points are all about
57:19
building trust and credibility because
57:21
nobody's going to write you a check just
57:22
based on
57:24
a presentation deck and a smile right
57:26
that i know the media loves to make it
57:27
sound easy but it's not and uh
57:30
it's ba it's a sales process and you
57:32
need to be a likable trustworthy person
57:34
before anybody is going to write you a
57:36
check and that starts with
57:38
being respectful in the sense of
57:40
figuring out that they might even be
57:42
interested right if i only invest in uh
57:46
late stage hardware startups then
57:49
and that's no well-known thing and it's
57:51
not always well known about angels what
57:53
they do it's kind of private market
57:54
right but but if i'm known as a
57:55
late-stage hardware investor and you bug
57:57
me to invest in your early stage uh you
58:00
know biotech startup then
58:02
that's that's disrespectful honestly i
58:04
don't you know of course i'm not gonna
58:05
help you i'm busy right
58:07
i got plenty of people pitching me late
58:09
stage hardware startups right so it's
58:11
incumbent on you as founders to to do
58:13
enough research to
58:15
uh to do a targeted pitch and then try
58:18
to get the warm introduction
58:19
and the best way to do that is they
58:22
always say if you ask for money you get
58:23
advice but if you ask for advice you
58:26
might get money so just be friendly and
58:28
ask for advice and most people are in a
58:30
position to be an angel investor
58:33
are happy to give advice to the extent
58:35
that they have time and by giving advice
58:37
you start to build a relationship and
58:39
that might lead
58:40
certainly to better advice or
58:42
introductions and maybe even to some
58:45
money or at least introductions to money
58:47
so that's what i would do to look for
58:49
angel investors
58:50
okay well there we go so
58:52
i hope that was useful that was a solid
58:55
hour there great questions
58:57
let me give you a couple
58:59
notes here um
59:01
we've got some upcoming events
59:04
uh what am i looking at oh okay so yeah
59:06
so if you could would you like and share
59:09
and comment and follow all that stuff
59:11
right i spent a lot of time doing this
59:13
but i don't spend time marketing it so i
59:15
need your help
59:16
if you would just tell your friends
59:18
invite your friends and like and comment
59:19
and share those drive all those
59:21
algorithms that drive cliff and me crazy
59:23
that social media nonsense right um but
59:25
that's how this works right i even i
59:28
even click like on my own comments right
59:30
because then i've seen it it helps right
59:32
so the more you guys can click that
59:34
would really be helpful to me and if
59:35
you're listening to the podcast version
59:37
of this and could leave a review on
59:38
itunes or whatever podcast platform you
59:40
use that would be great too etc etc etc
59:43
okay so this is free that's the only
59:45
cost if you don't mind and of course
59:46
you're all welcome to connect with each
59:47
other and make some new friends
59:49
through the chat rooms as well
59:51
and connect with me on linkedin if you'd
59:52
like there's a hundred other episodes of
59:54
scott fox radio podcasts on
59:57
blogtalkradio.com and my youtube channel
59:59
is 100 plus videos and be happy to see
60:01
all of you on september 9th which is our
60:03
next monthly masterminds startup
60:05
accelerator workshop and that's
60:08
a group like the nice people you saw on
60:09
camera here today all uh 30 or 40 of us
60:12
all together and we do a bunch of
60:13
networking and questions and answers and
60:15
those run two two and a half hours lots
60:17
of fun very educational lots of repeat
60:19
guests because it's a great service and
60:22
lots of fun and last let me just remind
60:24
you if you haven't already please come
60:26
and join our email lists
60:28
and then you'll hear from us again uh
60:31
about next time and that's all i've got
60:33
i think
60:34
yeah okay so i appreciate you thank you
60:37
for your help
60:38
the mission here is to encourage access
60:40
to innovation and investment capital and
60:43
with your help we're doing that a little
60:44
more every time so thank you for being
60:46
here please tell your friends and i hope
60:47
to see you next time
60:49
that's all for now