Startup Stories - Mixergy

Brent Underwood had a business idea: buy an abandoned town and turn it into a tourist destination. It didn’t work. Mostly because he tried running it remotely. Then he moved in. He started looking around, diving into old mines, and finding old treasures. He shot video of what he saw and of his renovations. That got hugely popular on social media, helped him raise money and allowed him to fund his project. It’s all in his book, Ghost Town Living, and in this interview. Brent Underwood is the founder of Cerro Gordo, an ambitious project aimed at reviving a historic ghost town into a tourist attraction and real estate opportunity. Outside of his entrepreneurial endeavors, Brent has a passion for history, hospitality, and the unique storytelling of the American West, all of which play a central role in his current venture. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Ryan Deiss’s business was too chaotic to grow beyond a few team members. So he tried creating SOP’s, you know those how-to docs that every business is told to create, but few people end up using. He figured there had to be a better way. Through experiments with he came up with “an operating system for companies.” He says this approach helped him grow to over a dozen different companies which last year did revenue in excess of $200 million. He explained his process in his book Get Scalable: How to Create an Operating System for Your Business, and in this interview. Ryan Deiss is the founder of DigitalMarketer and The Scalable Company. His most recent book is “Get Scalable: How to Create an Operating System for Your Business.” Despite the fact that he built a massive online community and offline event business, he’s so shy that we rarely see him at events here in Austin. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

He built Art.com through the early days of the internet, despite the dotcom bust, and through heavy competition….After all that work, the company sold to a much bigger company….And that’s when the lawsuit came. You’ll hear how Joshua Chodniewicz built that business and how his latest business, Fundify, is changing startup investing by making it super-simple. Joshua Chodniewicz is the founder of Art.com, a pioneering online platform for art and wall décor. He is deeply passionate about entrepreneurship and enjoys discussing business strategies and ideas with his sons. Currently, Joshua is leading Fundify, focusing on democratizing startup investments. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Allbirds were the sustainable shoes known to be worn by Marissa Mayer, Jennifer Garner, and every dude I knew when I lived in San Francisco. How did the company get so big and where is it now? I invited the founders Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger to talk about it. Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger are the founders of Allbirds. Previously, Tim was a footballer and business student. And Joey specialized in biotech and renewable materials. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

This founder found a niche that Airbnb didn’t reach and rode it to $6 million in revenue. Steve Satoru Naito’s Anyplace, accommodations come with big monitors, high-speed internet, an office setup, ergonomic chairs, webcams, and key lights, all tailored to create an optimal environment for remote work and zoom calls. In this interview, you’ll hear Steve’s entrepreneurial journey from Japan to Silicon Valley, the unique business model that sets Anyplace apart, and strategies for customer acquisition and retention in the competitive accommodation sector. Steve Satoru Naito is the founder of Anyplace, which offers monthly, furnished accommodations designed for remote work. Originally from Japan, he moved to San Francisco to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, and he has a background as a tech reporter for TechCrunch Japan. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

My vision for this interview was to hear Noah Kagan’s process for launching companies, like the $80+ million / year AppSumo – the process he wrote about in his book, Million Dollar Weekend. We did that. You’ll hear his step-by-step business launch process. But, when I asked him how he was proving his process, he told me he was creating an alternative to Docusign and started asking me about the problems I have with it. I got so angry listing my problems that I told him I’d fork up whatever money he wanted to buy his alternative. Noah Kagan is the founder of AppSumo, which provides entrepreneurs deals on software and other tools. He’s also a popular YouTuber whose channel just broke 1 million subscribers and the author of “Million Dollar Weekend.” Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Video Husky started with a challenge. Justin Tan challenged himself to get 10 customers in 90 days for his new venture. The company grew to over $1 million in annual sales by providing flat fee remote video editing services. In this interview, we explored how he found his initial customers, how he pivoted to more profitable customers, and the inner-workings or running a subscription-based service business. Justin Tan, the founder of Video Husky, has navigated the intricacies of growing a video production company from a simple 90-day challenge to over a million in revenue. Outside of his entrepreneurial ventures, Justin enjoys competitive gaming, having reached the top 20 percent of players worldwide in Age of Empires. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

When I interviewed founders of online courses and asked about their communities, they often said they host them on Facebook. “That’s where everyone is” was the answer. Sometimes they’d use Slack, but FB was dominant. So how did Circle break through? That’s what founder Andrew Guttormsen & I breakdown. Andrew Guttormsen is the Co-Founder of Circle.so, a modern community platform for creators. Prior to founding Circle, he spent nearly five years at Teachable, where he joined as the seventh employee and led a 15-person growth and marketing team, helping to grow the company’s monthly recurring revenue from $10K to over $25MM in annual recurring revenue. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

They used TikTok to promote their podcast, but podcasting is painful. There’s no discovery. It’s hard to grow. And there’s little audience feedback. Meanwhile, their short videos took off. This is the story of how the Our Future creators grew their short video business, generated revenue and sold it to Morning Brew. Michael Sikand and Simran Sandhu are the founders of Our Future, a media company dedicated to inspiring young entrepreneurs. Michael, with a background in finance and a passion for storytelling, has played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s strategic vision. Simran, bringing expertise in digital media and content creation, has been instrumental in driving the brand’s innovative approach and expansive growth. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

The clearest line to a business success is solving big pain. That’s what Benny Rubin did. Senders.co, optimizes email deliverability for businesses. You’ll hear how he came up with his business idea, how he got clients, why he left the business and why he’s back. And Benny will give you some suggestions for getting better results from your email campaigns. Benny Rubin is the founder of Senders.co, which specializes in email deliverability solutions, focusing on technical service and scalable business growth. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

How did Ali Abdaal reach over 5 million YouTube subscribers? How did he build his business? what insights can he offer to aspiring content creators? You’ll hear about that and about his new book, Feel-Good Productivity. Ali Abdaal is an ex-doctor turned YouTuber, Podcaster, entrepreneur and author. His book is called Feel-Good Productivity. Sponsored by Gusto – The easy payroll and benefits software the Mixergy interviewees love. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

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

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

I read a plea from Kevin Natanzon on X: Hi @harleyf, PLEASE HELP. I live in Israel ?? And I woke up to MORE BAD NEWS. Can it get any worse? Yes. The main source of our revenue was cut. @ShopifyDevs delisted our app. Why? Because of a simple bug. We have not monitored the app during the past week. You see, I’m a little bit busy burying friends and helping other friends and family go through this fucking hell. Yes, you read that right. Want to help the people in Israel? Expedite this ASAP, the team has already resolved it. I invited Kevin to do an interview about what his startup has been going through since Hamas’ invasion, how his family is rebuilding their kibbutz, and how he’s been growing a startup in Israel, or as he kept referring to it, “Startup Nation.” Kevin Natanzon is the founder of CreatorKit, a platform for ecommerce businesses to create images and videos with AI. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

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

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

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

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

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

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