You seem like a winner to me are you a Winner or a loser I'm a winner Jason Okay winners know their value say it I Know my value say it again I know my Value right if anybody wants it for free What are you gonna tell him off yeah Tell him if let's try one more time yeah I want it for free I want it for free I Want it for free off Jason I know my Value you're GNA pay I love you now Now I'm in love with you this week in Startups is brought to you by Fidelity Private shares Fidelity private shares Manage your cap table and data room get Faster more accurate 409a valuation and Fully automate your next financing round Visit Fidelity privat shares.com mention Our podcast and receive 20% off your First year paid Subscription Google Cloud accelerate Your startup Journey with the Google for Startups Cloud program get up to 200k in Google Cloud credits or up to 350k for AI startups plus training and guidance Apply at startups.com Twist and Runway looking to level up Your financial planning Runway is the Modern and intuitive way to model plan And align your business for everyone on Your team sign up at runway.com twist to Get your first two months free All right everybody welcome back to this Week in startups I'm your host Jason Calanis with me is Kelly shrier she is a
Principal here at the launch fund that's My Venture fund we got 20 people at the Company and one of our um passions is Helping Founders figure out if they want To start a company and we meet them in Year zero at a little format we call Founder University you can visit Founder. University and this 12we Program has a bunch of modules about how To start a company we accept 200 50 Startups to each cohort and then uh Every week they check in with us and Kelly and the team and just tell us how They're doing we wind up investing in About 5 to 10% of the graduates of the Program sometimes we do it during the Program sometimes we do it when people Apply to the program we get super Impressed with the company sometimes we Do it after they graduate we give them Two offers hey do you want us to be your First check for but 25k so that you can Incorporate uh and sometimes we'll give Them the 125k check that's standard in Silicon Valley like uh techar Y Combinator and accelerator do and Kelly Brings me the best companies we feature Them here on this week in startup so you Can see what companies we're investing In because the greatest proxy Kelly of Where the technology industry is going And where entrepreneurs are going is Where the capital allocators Place their Bets so what you'll see here today is
Three of the top companies that Kelly Selected for me to meet and we'll find Out if I want to invest in them uh Kelly Did I miss anything with the program Maybe you can tell us when the next one Is absolutely our next cohort is going To be cohort 9 which kicks off on October 25th so we've got plenty of time Founders but don't wait go ahead and Apply at founder. University and Hopefully you'll get to come and join us For 12 weeks okay to have their best Chance of getting accepted what are the Top two or three things you hear me say Over and over again lead to success with A startup what are the factors we look For in founder University companies Absolutely a few of the things we look For are definitely Builder Founders so Developers designer uiux folks growth Hackers you know really people that can Bring the product to Market and get it Out there without having to spend a Whole bunch of money uh outside of that We really love product velocity even if You're very early and and you maybe Don't even have those customers on the Platform yet just seeing that you're out There getting the work done week over Week moving forward not just changing Your logo every every week or so which We do see from time to time but we Really want folks that are in it to win It and are willing to put in the work
And you know being a developer designer UI growth hacker is a a good start there And then just working really hard okay So we love product founder Builders we Like multiple teams if you're de if You're two or three developers man Chances of us funding you are very high If you're one developer one designer one Growth hacker it's pretty good if you're Three idea people A salesperson man you Can't build the product and you got to Ship a bunch of money to some Development agency we're not going to Fund you so there you have folks or Unlikely so let's get to work who's our First company we got two minutes on the Clock for them to present yeah yes we do All right first up we're going to have Eric at the public board all right Eric Welcome to the program you have 2 Minutes on the clock and remember most People are listening so if you're Listening right now and you want to see This deck and see the product go to YouTube Do a search or listen to us on Spotify where we have video incorporated Into this wean startups 3 two go thank You hi I'm Eric CEO and co-founder of The public board we're decentralizing Access to digital Billboards everywhere Our product aims to make it as easy as Sending a tweet to every digital Billboard in the country and Beyond this Is the construction company I used to
Own and when I had it I wanted to Display content on digital Billboards But I never did because I found the Process was just too slow and painful so After I sold that company I thought hm What an interesting pain point I could Resolve for other people the easiest way To test assumptions and get feedback was To bring digital Billboards to major Events and our model was to give one Free display spot to everyone and then Upset from there we did that for 6 days We had over 2700 pieces of content Uploaded by about 2200 free account Creations about 250 of which paid for Upgrades in our automated sales finel Generating us about $31,000 in revenue And our customers loved it they loved The photos they love sharing them all Over social media and that created an Incoming supply of new leads for our Sales funnel and that's exactly what our Competition doesn't do they're living in The past they're thinking too small We're opening up a new market and when We're successful people will no longer Refer to billboard advertising they'll Refer to public messaging we're a Marketplace for billboard owners our Beach head customer is the consumer Market it's the highest margin and the Maximum virality and it opens us up to Move into smbs and Enterprise in the Future we have a variable take rate
Based on performance the more Revenue we Generate for a board owner the more take Rate we end up getting in a summarized Simplistic sense if we look at a sample City of about 2 million people based on Our take rate we think we can generate About $5 million of Revenue in that type Of the city which means we need about 20 Cities in order to hit our 100 Mil ARR In the United States and that's before We go International my co-founder and I Are repeat Founders we're technical team We're really grateful to be here on the Twist podcast thank you Jason for your Time my name is Eric CEO and co-founder Of the public board okay this is a great Presentation public board uh their board Or it's a board for the public to use um I like your Vibes uh and and I like the Energy I like the making it really easy For people it's a Marketplace it's Software you know we like all those kind Of things uh how many co-founders are There in the company myself and my Co-founder Bara just two great where did You each work anywhere notable did you Work somewhere notable before this each Of you uh before this we were Founders Um you know we we exited our past Ventures uh uh we met through Linkedin And and I was looking for a co-founder We got along really well a few years ago So doing this together was a no-brainer So your startup Founders you had a
Previous company each different company Yeah uh how did those companies do did You sell for a profit you sell for break Even did you have an aqua hard did you Shut them down tell me yeah my my last Company the one that I sold brought it To about 6 mil ARR I built it from zero People up to 60 uh exited on a cash sale It was in construction so a little lower Margin more like an eida calculation not Tech valuations yeah it was and Co-founder barab same thing grew is to 20 million users on the tech side in the Fitness world and exited to battery Ventures uh so both of you are technical Uh writing the code or what what are the Skills here how do you break things up As co-founders barav is definitely the Co-founder that that does all the the Code writing I get really involved in The UI the ux understanding the customer Working directly with them that's my Passion and kind of my forte in the Relationship uh we're kind of like you Know TW PS in a pot here love it love it Um now you're not going to own the Billboards you're going to find Billboard owners and then convince them To give you some of their inventory all Of their inventory how's that going to Work do you think yeah we start with Some build that trust grow it up and When they can see that we generate more Revenue for them than they would on
Their own know we end up with the whole Thing okay so this is a great idea uh What about um you know these uh digital Signs I'll see you know when I'm at a Urinal or something or in a Cafe um you know I notice people are Kind of putting up these things in Alternative places um and I've been Pitched on dozens of startups over the Last 15 years that do the these kind of Things what do you think of those uh I'll call them micro Billboards yeah to Me it's you know the way of the future Is to have digital Billboards kind of Everywhere so there's no stopping that Evolution it's definitely not our beach Head customer however I would imagine in The future it's kind of inevitable that We would probably end up touching any Digital billboard in an elevator or or On an Uber car or wherever it happens to Be fantastic thank you so much for Sharing your vision it's very clever uh And I think it could work really well For an event by the way you know your Little popup there got me excited if I Put one of these Billboards up at the All-in summit let's say in the lobby or I put 10 of them up all around the event At the parties Etc and then we told the Sponsor because we do this for our Sponsors on our events we'll have their Logos in rotation now if we had the Logos in rotation and we told anybody at
The event you know put something up on The board for you know 10 minutes for a 100 bucks or whatever it is or 500 bucks That could be kind of powerful you know I me I mean I might not do it but I Could see Coachella doing it I could see You know uh any number of events doing At a volleyball tournament at the beach Putting up a couple of these or you know Whatever it happens to be so I I find it Kind of compelling to put these up in Different places I know there are mobile Billboards that people are using a whole Bunch you know like trucks that deliver Like one case of top chica but you know While they're on the way to deliver them They drive through really popular Neighborhoods uh so very cool uh Vision Thank you so Much okay Founders are you overwhelmed By cap table management and are you up To your neck in all of this due Diligence you have to do well shouldn't Managing your investors be easy that's Where Fidelity private shares can help Because dealing with Equity is confusing And fundraising shouldn't have to be Your full-time job and you got to have a Solution provider that you trust with Fidelity private shares you're going to Easily be able to manage your cap table In your data room you're going to get Faster and more accurate 409a valuations You're going to be able to do
Sophisticated scenario modeling which I'm telling you a lot of Founders don't Focus on and they should you want to Know what that pro forma cap table looks Like and you know do some scenarios hey If we get bought for 100 million a Billion what happens and you're going to Want to automate your next funding round You want it to go smoothly and you want To come across as professional all on One collaborative platform with awesome Support Fidelity even has an amazing Star Community for access to exclusive Events for Founders and BCS so Experience the difference that fidelity Make by visiting Fidelity privat Shares.com mention our podcast and you Will receive 20% off your first year Paid subscription all right wonderful Next up we have Matt at speed AI all Right mattye boy with an AI here we go I Wonder if you have speed ai. te maybe Get a te domain my favorite all right Here we go three two go hi my name is Matt and we are speed aai an app that Creates adaptive training plans coaching For runners from the day you decide to Register for a marathon to the moment You cross the finish line We Hold Your Hand every step of the way meet Tim he's A new Runner registered for the New York City marathon but doesn't know where to Start training Tim downloads the app and Answers this Dynamic questionnaire about
His Fitness history he connects his Wearables like Apple watch or whoop and Speeds algorithms incorporate all of This data to create a tailored training Plan for the New York City Marathon as Tim trains his whoop detects He didn't get much sleep speed's Assistant AI detects and suggests an Adjustment to the upcoming work for the Day soon after starting his plan Tim Then receives his monthly nutrition box Filled with energy gels and hydration Products speed's unique nutrition Training tells Tim exactly when to use The energy gels to maximize their Effectiveness our closed beta users like Tim are telling us that our training Approach incorporating nutrition is Helping them set new personal records With speed we're offering three product Tiers at $88.99 a month a training plan For $29.99 a month training and coaching And for $59.99 a month training coaching And a monthly subscription Box we have a closed beta with a small Group of users we're releasing our open Beta in 2 weeks time for September 1st In the meantime we've released the Nutrition box to our weight list and had A surprising amount of Engagement from Interested athletes influencers and even Some Brands asking if they can include Products at speed we have a love of Endurance Sports having competed at
Events like the Iron Man World Championships and numerous marathons my Brother sister and I are a family team Of software engineers with experience Working for startups government and Large tech companies like Twitter and Data do thank you okay we've done a lot Of coaching apps most of them have not Worked out so well um but I do think AI Brings something new to it how do you Make sure that the AI is actually giving Good advice and not hallucinating I was A marathon runner for many years for a Decade at 11 New York City marathons I Would have loved to have a coach I would Have loved to have an app I was writing Everything down in a in a in a journal Basically to keep track of my training And then maybe a spreadsheet um so you Know I do understand that marathon Runners have a unique need but isn't the AI like going to be bad and and how do You make sure that it gives good advice Yeah so the biggest thing for us that We've seen in our testing is really Making sure that the context that the a Has um is accurate and has a good Background uh one of the things that We've definitely seen is um for the Users who are using the app the guard Rails are definitely something that We're working on uh for sure Awesome but it's something we improve And then with these bars what's the
Point of getting the bars from you when I can buy them on Amazon I I'm curious For what the if that's like a major part Of the vision or it's a distraction tell Me your thinking so yeah so one of the Things that when we've talk been talking To users is the nutrition and how to Actually take those energy bars and gels During training is one of the things That's left out of most training Protocols and so that's one of the Things that's key to the training plans Themselves so if you're training for and You're going on your long run doing a Race simulation we say you know 15 Minutes in you need to be taking the gel That we've supplied to you and then 30 Minutes and then you can you your body Actually is able to acclimate to these Gels okay tell me about the founding Team so we're a brother sister team the Three of us we're all siblings three of Three siblings okay wow and we're all Software Engineers so uh we we're done Free software Engineers siblings love it You've worked together before on Projects I take it from building sand Castles to startups good enough for me Uh okay Kelly let's keep the trains Moving here give me my third company I'm Really excited I want to invest in one Of these I'm feeling frisky I want to Make a bet I love the first two if the Third one is good I'm gonna have a big
Problem here let's go next up is Joe at Pot engine hello all right I love pods Go perfect I'm Joe Co co-founder at pod Engine the podcast audio intelligence Platform meet Sarah Sarah's head of Marketing at a growth stage fintech she Needs to grow revenue and knows that Podcasting as a channel is a no-brainer To explore but she doesn't know where to Start she's found it impossible to do Herself existing tools and agency is a Timec consuming manual or really Expensive then she found pod engine she Creates an account and pod engine AI Enriches her profile and creates a Podcast strategy for her just like a Real Agency because pod engine transcribes And analyzes thousands of episodes every Single day she starts reing Opportunities immediately into her inbox Relevant podcast a guest on her sponsor And alerts for her brand and her Competitors after just two weeks she's Really impressed she's booked interviews Of four industry-leading podcasts as Well as uncovered which competitors is a Sponsoring podcasts and she's received Alerts when her brand has been compared To other Competitors this industry is really Surprised as it's built on manual and Labor intensive work and it's perfect to Streamline with AI as well as our
Initial plat form we're now iterating Super quickly we've got a guest book in Workflow medum monting solution and we Think the world's most powerful search Engine for podcasts our road map is Equally as exciting boled by custom Demand and inbound interest it's the Huge opportunity there over half a Million active podcast a rapidly growing Industry majority of podcasts take Guests or seek sponsorships however Podcasting as a growth medium is yet Untapped by most businesses we're the Team to do this we're serial Builder Founder friend entrepreneurs with Multiple exit under our belts and Despite being so early we have great Traction we've got five paying media Monitoring customers we're working Closely with 10 pilot agencies and API Customers and we have over 400 premium Users I'm Joe tanella see at pod Engine. AI okay well done you did a great job Joe um I know this need so uh having two Podcasts uh one of them is like uh you Really really big and the other ones This podcast we're on right now is Niche But makes a lot of money has been sold Out for I don't know 12 or 13 years Since we've had advertising the first Year we weren't even trying um and so I Did research manually I think I had Hired magic assistant and then I was
Using Athena wow.com assistants to go Through the top business podcasts and Add new sponsors to our Google sheet to Give to the partnership team and I just Said hey go to the top 50 podcasts look At the notes show notes it was very Manual but you know if we put somebody On it manually who costs you know 10 Bucks an hour 20 bucks an hour and they Can find I don't know but five new Sponsors a day an hour and they do it For 10 hours and we have 50 New Leads oh My Lord you know each of those leads is Worth to me 10 bucks so you know it's It's easy peasy lem and squeezy but you Have something else here which is people Want to be guests I get bombarded There's these podcast agencies now that Literally all they do is book people on Podcast authors business people Etc uh Influencers and uh I hate these Companies with all my heart and I I Block their domains using superhuman I Hit the shift exclamation key and I Literally not only block that person I Block at pod you know Bookers or Something like and then I have a little Thing where they try to get around me And hit me with the Gmail I reply to Them and say we do not take guest Suggestions and they're like okay well I Just have these three suggestions so how Do I get them to you and I'm like hey Dummy we don't take suggestions however
I do know that other podcasts do the one Concern I have is you're boiling the Ocean 500,000 podcasts way too many what You really want to do is tell this two Constituents these are the top podcasts These are their advertisers these are The new advertisers so hey here's the This weekend startups we just started Having Oracle as an example uh which has A really great Cloud offering and They're on the Pod so my competitors Would want to know hey Oracle started Doing this weekend startups are they Doing any other pod right so there's Like a very kind of interesting Nuance Here the long tail I don't think Actually matters that much so I'd rather See you focus not on the 500,000 Podcasts do the 5,000 that are notable Because 90% of the revenue is in the top 500 podcast probably is my guess and I Saw some some notes about that so um I Love the idea what is it cost what are You charging right now so at the moment Uh to be completely honest we're still Figuring out pricing just like we're Figuring out prod Market fit and what That looks like tell me what you think So between $50 and $300 a month Depending on kind of size we have a very Important piece of advice right now the Cheapest price is $500 a month anybody Who can't afford that is a mid loser you Don't want to talk to them yeah you want
To talk to the people who are serious if You're hiring a PR firm that's between 2 And $225,000 a month if you're looking For advertisers the typical ad buys Probably between1 and $100,000 on Average for an average podcast that Means $500 a month $6,000 a year I would Make people pay for the year upfront I Would make them sign a 2-year commitment Maybe and then you could fall back to Monthly if they want to try it I would Give no free zero free in order to use It you have to have a credit card please Trust me on this do not be a loser okay Yeah you seem like a winner to me are You a winner or a loser I'm a winner Jason okay winners know their value say It I know my value Say it again know my value right if Anybody wants it for free what are you Gonna tell him I'm gonna tell them they G pay yeah tell them if let's try one More time yeah I want it for free I want It for free I want it for free off Jason I know my value you're going to pay I Love you now now I'm in love with you Because I have so many Founders who say They have the greatest product ever but They don't want to charge are you a Chicken not a chicken or are you a man a Man you're a human okay you're a man Charge for the goddamn product okay and And charge a lot yeah charge a lot I Would make it $1,000 actually and then
Just have people beg you for a discount Say you know there's no reason to Discount that if you're serious you get One booking for your client it's worth $10,000 so you need to get one a year to Break even second one you're profitable You get one Advertiser jcal you're Profitable if you tell me that I'm all In great so this is a great idea you can Crush it most people are not going to Like this idea most investors are not Going to like it Savvy ones know that Data Systems data subscriptions are a Great business you could look at a lot Of different databases that charge Whether it's crunch Bas or there's a Bunch of advertising database people Love paying for this but they will not Respect you if it's less than $10 ,000 a Year so I would say it's $10,000 a year If you don't want to pay $10,000 a year It's $2,500 a month for one month you Can try for one month for 2500 or you Can pay 10,000 for the year it's a Yearly contract you got to give a you Know and that's it but be hardcore great Idea got it and uh tell me about your Team how many co-founders uh two Co-founders both Technical you write code I'm writing Code Luke my co-founder he's computer Science he's started and sort a Consulting business in software so he's The he's the hardcore one
To the website yeah all right well done Well done okay thank you great job all Right everybody you know being at a Startup is a team sport you're not going To get there alone man you got your Founders you got the early team members Of course investors most importantly That first couple of customers right and You all work together to get your Company off the ground and I have great News for you and your team Google for Startups Cloud program is now a partner Here at this weekend startup s and Listen you all just want to know the Number here's the number 200,000 350,000 these are the two numbers what Are these two numbers you're going to Get $200,000 in Google Cloud credits and If you're an AI startup you can get up To $350,000 Google is serious Google for Startups Cloud program is here on this Week in startups just letting you know They are serious about helping your Startup the number is the number okay And there's two great numbers here 90% Of generative AI unicorns choose Google Cloud we all know that they do a great Job so here's your call to action you Need to get these credits you need to Start building you're going to find out Everything about this amazing program Google startup Cloud program at Startups.com twist okay very simple hit
The rewind key bookmark this write it Down I want you to sign up right now Pause the podcast because these are Big Numbers folks they really want to Support you I don't know how long They're going to do this for so Startups.com twist all right let's get Back to this amazing program Kelly let's Have a Conversation give me your ranking of These three companies based on your You've been how many years uh working For me as a venture capitalist three Years three years okay based on your Three years rank one two and three in Terms of if we all if we invested in Each of them at the same valuation you Know and wound up owning a whatever Small percentage of the company for Supporting them and giving them cash Which one's going to give us the biggest Return second best return third best Return in your estimation and tell me Why absolutely so I'll I'll start with Who I I think we'll have the hardest Time getting there which is speed AI you Know running is a really big space Consumer can be a little bit hard I Think really talking to your customers Is is going to help you figure out Exactly what is needed in a crowded Market and and then just go as hard as You can on that with pot engine love us Ass business podcasting is huge I think
It will only get bigger and so if they Listen to that good advice about pricing I think they have a good chance of Returning our fund and and then even More if we were to invest okay and just To be clear it's not SAS because that's Software as a service this is a data Play right it's a data subscription so It is a subscription but let's just make Sure we're clear it's not sass it's data Keep going and your number one and what Cool my number one is public board you Know disrupting frankly a really boring Business and removing a lot of friction Just opens up a whole new world of Customers which is really interesting in The VC world the other thing I think is Really interesting is not just that it Would be the you know out of home Advertising but as you said there's Event applications here you know on the B Toc side you can celebrate life Milestones and graduations promposals Right people are willing to really do That thing for the wow moment and the Experience and so I can see how you know Especially with the the idea that you Can test it for cheaper free and then You get really addicted to it all of a Sudden it's gamified your friends are Pulling pranks on each other who knows What it looks like right okay your order Is almost perfect uh the correct order Is POD engine then the Billboards then
The marathon app the reason is pot Engine has the easiest chance of Returning a large amount of money those Data Business get bought for a lot the Marketplace going to be a little bit Harder but again it could get very big But it's going to have less odds in the Third one obviously consumer finicky low Odds if it does hit it's a niche market But not that small of a niche uh but all Three are great and all three have great Teams I'm joking with you you know Nobody knows but we'll have this on Record and hopefully uh you can pull This out in seven years when your order Was right mine was wrong or whatever We'll see that's why in our company I Force everybody to make hard decisions Um and uh this is an easy decision for Me I'd like you to invest in all three Companies can you do that for me Kelly Of course I can all right listen let's Bring everybody on for a second here uh It's not the Oscar you don't have to Give an Acceptance Speech but would it Be okay with you all if I just gave you Some a little bit of cheddar to kind of Get things moving here and invest in it And and you're all going to work hard Yeah all in you're all in I like it okay Great job everybody everybody splashy Cashy gets a little bit of an investment And um you know let's work hard here Startups aren't complicated folks you
Got to obsess about your customers build A product or service they love with good Product velocity and the way you have Good product velocity and you know what Your customers have is buying having a Kick-ass aggressive team that comes to Work every day and puts in the time the Way to win as a Founder is effort and Time and having that product velocity And obsessing about your customers if You obsess about your customers and you You know really have good product Velocity you know you're not afraid to Charge a good a good enough price uh Things can go well for you nothing's Guaranteed but you all have my respect These are great businesses and you all Came to founder University and had a Good time yeah absolutely it was great Yeah okay so I just want you each as we Close here to tell me what was the most Valuable part of founder University for You specifically you personally not your Co-founder not your team just you Personally what would you say you got The most out of it uh just so Kelly and I can hear and the other people can hear Because they want might want to go after They see this to founder. University and Apply with two or three of their friends To build a great great startup that Focuses on team product and customer uh Let's go we'll start with you Matt Matt What did you personally Matt get out of
From speedi what did you get out of the Program number one for me uh having an Engineering background learning all of The business side of of the of things so Related to the accounting how to Structure how to set up a company the uh Setting up the cap tabl all of that that Uh was extremely valuable so blocking And tackling a lot of the chores you Have to do as a Founder suck and then Having somebody who's invested in 400 Companies has seen it all help you with Little modules and and some bullet Points and some point you in the right Direction it's going to save you a lot Of time so that's great to hear that we Did our job uh okay Joe from pod engine You're up next what did Joe from pod Engine get out of the found University The thing I I like most found a University I think was the community um It's just so helpful to be around Like-minded Founders you know I jump in Do a discovery call with them and Likewise with me and some of them I Think are going to become customers in The future as well great okay and Eric Your turn Eric what did you get out of Founder University the biggest value That I got out of founder University was To really analyze and deep dive into my Taman my total addressable Market I Remember before founder University I was Doing random chat GPT searches on what
Is our market and coming up with a wild Array of answers but then when I was Watching and listened to Kelly do her Her bottomup Tam approach I really got To understand who is my beach head Customer who's my in my ideal customer Profile how does that relate to our goto Market strategy and how does that relate Into our long-term uh planning as well And I'd never really Dove that deep into It ever before or had anyone questioned Me on it no one questioned it but Kelly Did and I learned that from founder University I get to take that away Forever and that's a great value awesome So Kelly her job and uh Kelly it's good To hear you did an adequate job uh and Uh you know for you too Kelly you can Always work a little harder uh but You're doing a great job I mean I'm Starting to sound like Trump in my old Years tremendous founder University Great job Founders love it okay no it's Great to hear and you know what I love About these answers Kelly is that when We go around the horn like this Everybody gets something different out Of it you know some people already Understand Market size total addressable Market they were some wonky McKenzie Person You know they just grinded out and they Got it done other folks you know hey They don't know the blocking and
Tackling and you know like Matt maybe I Don't I've never set up a cap table how Do I do that you you can make a lot of Mistakes with your cap table and if if You avoid those mistakes Man that could save a company and you Know just just great job Everybody are you looking to level up Your financial planning well there's an Amazing company called Runway and They've completely changed the way Businesses handle their finances I Recently did a tour of product with one Of our Founders and with the company and It is mindblowing finances are hard we All know that right but Runway makes it Simple and even fun how do they do this Well they use plain English formulas That you can understand that integrate Into more than 650 tools pulling in all Your accounting data your HR data even Your CRM and that gives you a complete Picture of how everything in your Business fits together Runway also makes Head count planning and scenario Analysis is super easy you can just drag Timelines to adjust your plans and all Of your metrics will automatically Update this is stuff that startups need To be doing you really need to get Finance dialed in in order to scale your Company and Runway is the way for you to Do that you can add real-time charts Text even video to investor reports and
Runway will help you make better Decisions by making the impact on your Business crystal clear to everyone and If you want a personalized demo head Over to runway.com SL twist and sign up To get your first two months free and There are a ton of companies using Runway a number of them are in my Portfolio like two of my favorite Companies superu and that I use all day Long and eight sleep which I use every Night to get that sleep score up so once Again go to runway.com twist it's an Amazing product I got time for one Question any any question for Kelly or I Uh from the three of you just you know Now that you're funded and you're going Forward any question that you might have Raise your hand and go ahead and ask Sure yeah okay good thank you imagine Six months from now we're talking again I'm really curious in your mind what Would be the number one thing you would Want to see like there's so many Versions of traction there's so many Things to look at what would be your Number one we get together boom is that There or Not you know if you understand your Customers really well um and those Customers are over the moon we don't Need a lot of them we just need to know That these five customers think that This is the greatest solution ever and
Then when our uh team does due diligence And they say hey if this C if this Product didn't exist how would you solve The problem and they Panic what it's Going away are they going out of Business because I I this is critical For my business and you know Paul Graham Refers to that as like hair on fire Problem like my hair's on fire I need a Bucket of water um so you know I think We would really the nature of that Relationship with your customers I'd Rather see five people who you are Essential for than 50 people who are Dabbling right then I will also say that A lighthouse customer somebody notable Uh you know so in your case if you know I'm going to pick a brand that is you Know if there's like somehow you got you Know Starbucks you know to to promote The app and their new lemonade summer Beverages that my daughters love on Their things and they thought it was Killer you know okay wow how did he get Starbucks like whoa you or for pod Engine you know if you got I don't know Uh Joe Rogan or Tim Ferris to pay you And you were like hey yeah Joe Rogan's Using it Tim Ferris is using it their ad Teams are using it look boom so yeah we Love That thank you thank you that's a great Answer I appreciate it no problem okay Take one more if you got one Matt Joe
Any questions from you too yeah go ahead Joe hey thanks so you mentioned data Play I love that idea what do you think Marketing and go to market strategy Looks like for a data play and how is it Different to S uh you know what you're Going to find is when you send a report And you send a couple screenshots to the Right person they immediately respond so You find my three account Executives and You say hey I've got this new product Pod engine we've analyzed all the Sponsors we know this is a list of Sponsors on this week in startups based On our data did we get it right because We also have it on these 25 other people And we can get you the 25 people that You don't and their advertisers and we Can tell you who you have and who you Don't have so that list where you say to You know I don't know some New York Times technology podcast or you know Yahoo finance has some Tech podcast and You tell them this is jal's advertisers These are your advertisers these are the Ones jel has that you don't have vice Versa that's super powerful but you got To find the right person and you email Them and then they lose their mind it's Really that simple but it's your job to Figure out who's that title that you Find on LinkedIn or using lead IQ or in Crunch base or whatever it is you know Maybe you just email the sales at you
Know this weekend startups or Partners At this weeken startups.com and you get It and and you all figure that out over Time and um you know you're just solving A simple problem from them do you want More leads do you know I noticed that You've appeared on these four podcasts We could tell you 40 other podcasts that Would probably want you as a guest would You pay for that or not I'm just curious And how much would you pay it seems like Each of these podcast appearance must be Worth $1 $220,000 for you our service is Only 12,000 a year I think you should Buy our service and get on another five Podcasts amazing I love it so I'm Quantifying the value for people and I'm Putting it at what I think is realistic You know yeah if you're a venture Capitals and you get on another podcast You know VC's probably think that's Worth5 10 $20,000 if you are a book Author maybe you think it's worth $12 $3,000 and that's what you have to learn Is what's the value they put on that a PR firm you know might by one account And they might be in it all day and you See they're using six different IP Addresses you say Hey listen I know You're using six different people are Using it we see the searches you really Should buying a five pack how do you Feel about that right um so the land and Expanding so just watch the abuse and
You want to see abuse abuse means Consumption and engagement so you know Let them abuse it tell them in month six You know or month four I noticed that Like you got six different IP address Using this all the time it's obviously Got multiple people using it can we talk About a multi-seat thing because I see You getting so much value all right we Wrap here Matt you have a Question I was going to ask if youve Seen any successful growth strategies For Consumer apps sure we have fitbod is One uh we have steezy we have com.com Making an app that is uh essential for People's lives that they get a lot of Value from and they tell their friends About is the highest form of product Market fit because then that means You're not doing the marketing other People are and that's called net Promoter score and so I think you hiring People for your who have the skill set You Need and our marathoners who love the Product is critical you know stey if They hire somebody who's into dance and They're good at marketing fitbot only Hires people who are into CrossFit and Fitness so when you look at their Retreat it's like this looks like a Rugby team like they're all in great Shape and uh you know they do a retreat Every year and I think it's you know one
Of the lakes here in Austin and they Have a great time and I see them all at Their Retreat I'm like wow these people Are are buff they look great and they Told me we only hire for those two types So if you hire and you understand the Marathon or mindset and the person of Skill set I really encourage you to do That so you have two full-time people on This or I'm sorry you said three all Three of us yeah yeah and all three of You uh run or no yeah we all run y Perfect so when you hire your fourth Hire a marathon runner with the skill Hire a runner who understands the Product and then your product Market Fits going to be tighter I've hired People to work for me who aren't Passionate about startups but are great At their job and they they become good Contributors they could be okay or solid Contributor they rarely become Extraordinary contributors but when I Hire somebody like Kelly who's Passionate about startups or Jackie Who's passionate about technology Startups and Entrepreneurship and they Have the skills boom you know you get That like really great so if you make an XY access you don't want to hire people Who don't have the skill so then it's a Matter of you're only hiring with the Skill and with the passion for the Vertical that's my best advice to you
Because they're going to help you Get that product Market fit better They'll understand the customers also um Virality in the product is another big Unlock unlock so you have net promoter Score which is they go off on their own And tell people about it when they're Training for the marathon the next piece Is they add their friends who they're Running with to their account and they Share their training with them and then They ask them so do you have multiplayer Mode and virality built in yet that's What we we we're working on that okay Yeah so I mean listen if I add five People like when I order from Uber Eats Um you know or I'm at an offsite with Our team and somebody door dashes Something they share the link and say Here Order door Dash you know put your Order in yourself person's forced to go To the website create an account open an App and then all of a sudden We're Off To the Races so that that's like one of The big hacks is if you can have Multiplayer mode because then everybody Who you pay to sign up like let's say You start paying people 100 bucks to Sign up and you lose $50 on them well if They invite two friends and one of them Join now you made $50 right I'm just Saying like if it's $100 to acquire a Customer and each customer is worth1 50 You know you hire you let's say it's
$150 to get a customer and you make a 100 off a customer okay you lost $50 Getting them they invite two friends and One comes you made another $100 now You're instead of net negative 50 you're Plus 50 right but this is very simple You don't need to overthink it two Things one people won't shut up about Your product not saying nice things About it they in the 910 category for Not net motor score which means they Tell their friends and then two you have Virality another amazing episode of this Weekend startups go to founder. University come to founder fridays. Tech And meet other Founders and if you want To apply for funding from our firm and You're not quite in the founder University Place uh you go to launch. Capp that's our common application for Everything and uh you will meet with one Of our team members if you've got a Halfway decent idea and a good team all Right everybody we'll see you next time Bye-bye
