Growth Everywhere | Entrepreneurial Stories | Business Lessons

Meet Brenton Hayden, one of the nation's largest landlords who "retired" at 28. Founder and Chairman of Renters Warehouse, Brenton saw a need for a more sophisticated professional landlord service that helps everyday homeowners and real estate investors manage their properties. To date, it's the second largest professional landlord service in the country. Brenton is also an angel investor in software companies and started franchising his Professional Landlord services and has amassed around $20 million form his various ventures. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re talking with Blossom Co-founder and CEO Thomas Schranz. With an unfinished computer science degree under his belt, Thomas started building web applications and high-traffic Facebook apps for the European market. Thomas saw a need for a better software project management platform and launched Blossom, attracting clients like Twitter and Doodle in the span of about 3 years. To date, Blossom serves 346 clients with no signs of slowing down. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, in today’s episode, I share the mic with Michael Sacca. Michael is the president of Crew, a website that connects people with writers or designers for hire. Listen as Michael delves into the reasons why relationships are key to building your startup, how starting a podcast (Rocketship.fm) helped him successfully grow his new business, how he grew Unsplash by 30% MoM, and the challenges of building a marketplace. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect With Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, in today’s episode, I share the mic with Shivani Siroya, CEO and founder of Tala, a mobile app that is revolutionizing the way that people access financial services. Shivani is also a TED speaker where she’s discussed the smart loans that people can take without having any credit history. Listen as Shivani walks us through how Tala analyzes desirable customers from the info on their mobile device in less than 2 minutes, why they've dispersed funds to 1 million global customers but not in the U.S., and the pros and cons of building an internationally remote team. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect With Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap

Hey everyone, in today's episode, I share the mic with André Siqueira, co-founder of RD Station, a digital marketing software company based in Brazil. Listen as André discusses how they were able to secure significant investments (the largest amount in Latin America) despite the political state of Brazil, their struggle with customer retention and their bold decision to do event marketing—something that is not very common in Brazil—and the fact that their biggest competitors in Brazil are businesses who don’t understand inbound marketing. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect With Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking to Lift Worldwide co-founder and CEO, Tony Stubblebine (relaunched as a coaching platform called Coach.me on January 1, 2015). With a brand messaging to "succeed at everything", Lift helps you achieve goals by coaching you to success through guidance, encouragement and optional reminders. Tony is a start-up junkie, previously serving as the CEO of CrowdVine Event Social Networks, part of the launch teams for companies like Wesabe, and Director of Engineering at Odeo.com and O’Reilly Media. Tony wanted to tap into the knowledge of personal coaching and package it into an app to help people become superhuman with the right support. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu:   Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn m

Tom Kulzer walks us through how he went from a wireless modem salesman and Olive Garden busboy to an accidental email marketing guru. Tom started AWeber during his Sophmore year of college after figuring out a way to automate his follow-up emails to his wireless modem customers. Today, AWeber has amassed 105 team members and over 120,000 paid customers around the world. Tom is a college drop-out whose 1-year off from college to focus on AWeber is still going 16 years later. Has gotten in trouble with his wife for saying weekends and weekdays are equally fun and inspiring. Click here for the show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Jonathan Abrams, founder and CEO of Nuzzel, which allows you to discover top news from friends and influencers. Jonathan was also previously the founder of Friendster, which was a forerunner to Facebook and had over 100 million members. Listen as Jonathan explains why you don’t need a social media account to engage with thought influencers and famous people, how word-of-mouth advertising and getting investors is easy when you've got something of value, what lessons he learned from founding Friendster, and how easy Nuzzel makes it to curate an email newsletter on your phone while standing in line for coffee! Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect With Eric Siu: Growth Every

Hear stories from the gritty frontline of entrepreneurship with Eloqua Co-founder and the CEO of Influitive, Mark Organ. A self-described serial entrepreneur, Influitive is Mark's 7th business. Mark dove into entrepreneurship head first after realizing he couldn't hold down a regular job. His first ventures gave him exposure to everything from bootstrapping a business to generating leads and managing a board of directors. Mark survived the struggles of getting Eloqua off the ground, later seeing it sell for nearly a billion dollars. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grab some kettleballs and climbing ropes and kickoff your entrepreneurial work-out with FringeSport founder Peter Keller. With an obsession for fitness and sports and a background in e-commerce as a VP at Living Direct, Peter launched FringeSport from the cozy confines of his garage. The company designs, manufactures and sells sports equipment catering to the CrossFit market. FringeSport raked in over $1 million in revenue in its second year, with a current projected earnings of $10 million for 2014. Peter also runs "The Mistake" podcast with Peter Shankman and blogs about getting sourcing physical products at ProductSimple.net. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choice

Today we're talking with Sphero Founder and and Chief Software Architect Adam Wilson. Adam grew up with a healthy obsession for robots, but with a software focus. After getting involved with a NASA project working with Internet controlled robotics, Sphero Co-founder Ian Bernstein got in touch and he and Adam got rolling with TechStars to pursue their passion. Sick of huge robotic consoles, Ian and Adam had an epiphany to control robots from your cell phone. Click here for show notes and transcription. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Jacobo Lumbreras, co-founder of Yoi Corp, a SaaS company that leverages advanced analytics to significantly accelerate an employee’s ramp to productivity. Listen as Jacobo takes us through his unexpected journey of founding Yoi, the importance cultivating authentic relationships, how his connections linked him to Keith Ferrazzi, and why mindset is the most crucial element in business and personal outcomes.   Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, an app that makes design simple for everyone. Listen as Melanie shares how she grew Canva to 10 million users in 3 years with just word of mouth marketing, why being rejected by so many investors was a good thing, how taking up kite surfing (one of the most dangerous sports in the world) allowed Melanie to raise capital for Canva, and how she found the members of her awesome tech team. Click here for show notes and transcript.  Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking with Mailbird CEO Andrea Loubier. Known in the email world as the Sparrow for Windows, Mailbird launched in April, 2013 and to date has over 7,000 users. Andrea's background doesn't come from the start-up, or even from the technology world. Instead, she decided she wanted to live in Bali and started Googling for a job, ultimately landing a job as the CEO of Mailbird. Her job perks include gathering in a co-working space with like-minded entrepreneurs on the oceanfront in Bali. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu:   Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join me as I talk with Bitly.com CEO Mark Josephson. Mark has a 20-year history working with start-ups and new media. He launched his career at an agency with exposure to an eclectic mix of clients before following the skyrocketing growth of new media. Bitly exploded with the rise of Twitter when the business saw a need for shortened links. But Bitly took link shortening leaps and bounds further with tools to help marketers and brands study their customers' online habits in-depth.  To date, Bitly shortens 500 million links with up to 7 billion clicks every month. 40,000 of web's most important brands use Bitly to help manage its online presence. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more a

Join us as we talk to Paul May from BuzzStream, online software helping marketers promote their products, services and content to build links, buzz, and brands. Paul has been entrenched in the start-up world his entire career spanning across 20-years. His original co-founder, Jeremy Bencken, came fresh from ApartmentListings.com where he focused on long-tail search and drove traffic through SEO PR and relationship building. They saw a need to organize their links and relationships with influencers and publishers in one place. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Ethan Denney, co-founder of ConvertFlow, a new SaaS company that helps business owners convert their website visitors into customers. Listen as Ethan shares how ConvertFlow converts better than any other conversion tool out there by showing website visitors personalized calls to action (and not the same message over and over), how they acquired their first hundred customers after winning a battle of the apps competition at InfusionSoft's annual user conference, and how their customers are driving 30-80% conversions on the second conversion. Click here for show notes and transcription. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad

Join me as I talk with serial entrepreneur, Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), internationally syndicated columnist, and the host of Founders Forum on Inc.com and author of ”Never Get a “Real” Job". Scott's invite-only organization attracts some of the world's most successful young entrepreneurs in the world under 40 who generate at least $1 million in sales or financing. His group includes founders and leaders of Hootsuite, Thrillist, Threadless and Kissmetrics among others. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join me as I talk with Silktide founder Oliver Emberton. Oliver started his company on the cusp of graduating from University at 21-years old with £14,000 in debt and no clue what he was doing with his life. He spent nearly a decade building up the largest design business in his city only to switch gears at the peak of his success and turn it into a software agency instead. Oliver is also prolific blogger with over 6 million visits, and accomplished writer whose novel-in-progress was launched off a Quora question he answered on a whim. Click here for show notes. Leave some feedback: Who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, in today's episode I share the mic with Andrew Thomas, co-founder of SkyBell, which is a startup pioneering a Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbell that allows people to monitor and open the door with their smartphone. In this interview we talk about the future of innovation, how SkyBell went from a company that nobody wanted to back to a earning a 9-figure valuation, why you can’t go after the decision-maker right off the bat, and why a video is one of the most powerful things you can do to market your product. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices