So, What's a "Pain Point in the Market"?

This is part of my ongoing series on Entrepreneurial Culture.

So what's this mythical pain point every startup needs to have that everyone's always referring to? The easy answer, (to quote Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart), is "you know it when you see it". Perhaps, but I think this concept might best be illustrated by the following short case-study of a company I backed called Updater. 

Let's begin with a few questions for you. Have you moved recently? What was that experience like? Take a few seconds to reflect on it. Are you frowning yet? I certainly am. Last year my family moved and, even though it was literally from one apartment to another *in the same building*, it was still massively disruptive and stressful- and I still haven't updated all the services, friends and companies in our lives with our correct new address. To compound this, whenever the regular mailman is away, most of our mail still goes to our old place. The previous tenant probably has thrown out more of our mail than he's handed over to the doorman. I know for certain he tossed my car registration- I have a few tickets to show for it. Painful indeed.

So let's take a very quick snapshot of the "moving" landscape:

- 40+ million people in the US move every year and have a change of address event - The average person moves ~12X in their lifetime - Moving is the third most stressful event in a person’s life, trumped only by death and divorce (according to a Employee Relocation Council survey)

I've moved many times in my life (as I am sure you have)- and everytime was a huge pain for multiple reasons. That's why when I first met the folks at Updater I already understood the profundity of the "pain in the market" deeply. I was delighted thus to learn that they could help with all of the following pain points:

• No need to wait in line at Post Office to get your mail forwarded to your new address (avg wait time in NY's POs are 2-3X that of all other POs in the US). 

• Forwarding mail does not mean the senders know you actually moved! This is a massive problem. How many dozens of hours would it take to update everyone and every company in your "network"? Updater provides an easy, online way to send updates of your new address to all your accounts and subscriptions such as:
  • magazines & newspapers
  • banks & credit cards
  • schools
  • catalogs
  • loyalty programs
  • charities & public service
  • professional organizations
  • political organizations
  • social organizations

• They also allow you to easily create a very cool interactive map of your move to notify friends and family via social-sharing and email. 

• Updater gets me access to tons of exclusive deals I can save money on. The average professional household move costs $12,230 (Worldwide ERC report)

Updater is just one example of a team that identified a huge pain in the market and is now delivering huge value to their customers. If you're testing the viability of a potential business, the best way to do this is to identify the customers in the market ahead of time(!) and talk to tons of them using a rigorous customer development approach. Keep in mind that you might have multi-sided markets- in other words there might be tons of businesses who you could partner with that help you acquire customers. You need to talk to them as well and continually refine your value proposition. 

My main point is this: if you're going to "go-for-it" as an entrepreneur, why not try to solve a huge, painful problem? So many folks are carelessly launching me-too businesses that are commoditized and "nice-t0-haves". Why not put in some heavy-duty customer development effort and emerge with a product that's a "must-have"?

Startup Genome Launches Global Mission

Our Startup Genome project got some excellent coverage recently in the Silicon Prarie News. I've appended the text below. It captures what we're trying to accomplish for entrepreneurs and others in the startup ecosystem worldwide.

We've got a burgeoning group of remarkable city and state curators all around the world and we're honored to have Brad Feld of Foundry Group and Startup Revolution join us recently as curator of Colorado. Exciting stuff for sure and more to come soon with new releases.

Feel free to check out Startup Genome to learn more about our mission.

Startup Genome takes local approach categorizing, visualizing ecosystems

OMAHA AUGUST 22, 2012 by SARAH BINDER

Dave Lerner created maps of the startup ecosystems of New York City (partially shown above, click for full) and Boston. Inspired, Shane Reiser reached out. Today, the two are working to take Startup Genome global. 

Ever wished you had a directory of all the startups in your city? All the investors who were interested in technology? Or just the right person to join your team?

Startup Genome, an effort by Shane Reiser of Omaha (far left) and Dave Lerner of New York (near left), aims to put all that information on a map, for every startup hub in the world.

Of course, this isn't a new idea. Startup enthusiasts around the globe have data tucked away in spreadsheets or mapped out on whiteboards. The best-known tools for organizing that sort of information include CrunchBase and AngelList.

Reiser, who also works full time with Kohort, noticed while traveling to different cities organizing Startup Weekend events that homegrown directories weren't easy to share, weren't interconnected, usually weren't up to date and were almost never very visual or interactive.

When he saw that Lerner, an entrepreneur, investor and professor, was making maps of New York City andBoston, Reiser reached out.

The goal, Reiser said: "One place where entrepreneurs can find everything they're looking for in their local community."

Use of local curation is what sets Startup Genome (which is not to be confused with the unrelated Startup Compass tool, the Startup Genome Compass) apart from other databases. While anyone can add to Startup Genome, a team of local curators will monitor and edit the information for their community. For instance, the organizers of StartupIowa announced on Monday that they will curate the Iowa Startup and Entrepreneur Directory.

Reiser's belief in the need for local curation was reaffirmed as he edited Startup Genome data for Omaha. After importing data from CrunchBase, Reiser ended up deleting nearly 60 percent of it — including fake companies, dead companies, individuals who had moved on and companies and individuals who weren't really related to startups. Reiser said Startup Genome started with a list of nearly 150,000 companies nationwide, but that has since been edited down to about 80,000.

Reiser said it will be just as important to keep the wrong information out as it will to get the right information in. Initially, startups, founders, investors and resources will be featured while consultants and service providers will be stripped away. Reiser said those auxiliary services might be added back later.

While Reiser and Lerner started discussing the project months ago, Startup Genome has only been in development for eight weeks. Reiser said the site is currently a minimum viable product. The basics are there — including profiles for people and companies, the ability to search by location and filter results (left) — but a lot of functionality, including AngelList integration and a publicly-available API, is still in the works.

The Startup Genome team also hopes that adding visualizations can make the data more useful and aesthetically pleasing. The first will be a Google Maps layer. The second will be a mind map, which is a type of graph that shows the relationships between data points. For example, if you selected a company on the mind map, you might see employees on one side, investors and mentors on another, and all the companies those people are connected to beyond that. Once the API is available, users will be able to build their own visualizations, too.

Startup Genome is a bootstrapped side project for Reiser and Lerner. While the mission is global, they're keeping an eye on the local.

"We care a lot about the city-based startup community," Reiser said. "We want the city to really own their Startup Genome page, and do what they want with it."

Lerner explains Startup Genome in the video below. For more information, visit the blog. 

What Not To Do During A Serious Meeting

This is part of my Series on Entrepreneurial Culture

I was in a serious meeting recently. Some heavy-duty decisions were being made. Faces were grave, people were addressing each other in quiet and measured tones. The tension was palpable.

Suddenly, a loud crunching noise broke through the charged atmosphere. At first I had no idea what it was and I turned slightly toward the direction of this noise and to my amazement noted that it was the sound of a person chewing on a piece of celery.

He was oblivious and continued to chew loudly. This was not a lunch meeting, I assure you. Others shifted uncomfortably in their seats and exchanged eye-rolls and yet he persisted until he finished eating the vegetable. The conversation, which had slowed while he chewed, continued from there. 

People let it slide on the surface, but make no mistake- his behavior spoke volumes about his mindset, his character, his commitment and his attitude.

So whether it's checking your iPhone constantly while someone's talking, interrupting people while they're making a point, or chomping on a stick of celery- be cognizant of the impression this might leave on others.

Marty Odlin, CEO Bamboo Bike Studio: an anti-consumerist visionary

We sat down recently with Marty Odlin, CEO of Bamboo Bike Studio. Marty's company has locations sprouting all over the US, including his flagship studio right here in RedHook, Brooklyn.

Marty and his colleagues hold weekend-long workshops for anyone who wants to build their own bamboo bike with their help. At the end of the weekend, folks ride out on their own bicycles with an enormous sense of accomplishment. He's even developed bike-building kits for the more adventurous do-it-yourself types.

The movement he created is definitely spreading and he's taking this international, opening Bamboo Bike Studios in Canada and has lots of offers to open in Europe, and may even open a factory in Ecuador in the near future.

I learned that Bamboo Bikes are just one small extension of Marty's personality and anti-consumerist vision. Enjoy.

Veer Gidwaney, CEO Daily Feats: Finally Getting Some Credit for our Good Habits!

We spoke with Veer Gidwaney recently about the company his brother and he created to help motivate people to reach their personal goals. Users can actually get perks and/or cash via points they earn for making healthy choices in their lives. 

Veer is an entrepreneur with an incredible sense of mission and purpose.  He shared a great deal about the people who have inspired him and shaped him as a person.

 It's all part of our social entrepreneurship series. Enjoy.

How a Harvard Dropout Raised $24 Million in a Recession

Since Alexa von Tobel dropped out of Harvard Business School to create LearnVest in late 2009, her personal finance startup has attracted more than 100,000 users and raised $24.5 million in funding.

Von Tobel stopped by Venture Studio to talk about her story, as well as shed light on LearnVest’s latest feature, Career Bootcamp, which teaches users how to negotiate a salary and to how to make sure they’re in the right job. She also spoke about her inspiration for LearnVest, why she dropped out of Harvard in the middle of a recession and what advice she’d give to those who are just starting their own businesses.

The whole interview is on Venture Studio, just click on the photo to check it out.

Venture Studio (25): Ari Rabban, CEO of Phone.com

I recently sat down with Ari Rabban, CEO of Phone.com, a company that offers cost-effective VOIP phone solutions and services to the SOHO market (small office/home office). Phone.com is a portfolio company of ff Venture Capital in New York City.

Ari is an experienced entrepreneur and it was great to get his take on what founders should look for in a partner and some advice he has for first-time entrepreneurs. Enjoy

00: 12      What is Phone.com

00:42      How the service works

01:39       How they got into the business

02:29       Ari talks about some of the things you need to get right as an                           entrepreneur

03:42       What he looks for in a partner 

For the full interview click on the image of Ari just below:

 

Venture Studio (24): Paul Gollash, CEO of Voxy

 

Hope you enjoy my recent interview with Paul Gollash, CEO of Voxy- a language learning company with a uniquely practical, mobile & real-world model. Paul recently closed on a Series A round of $2.8million from Seavest, Countour Ventures and FF Venture Capital- and he's hiring!

00:11   Paul describes what Voxy is

00:29  How does the service work?

00:58  Some examples/use-cases

01:48  Where they are in the fundraising process?

02:45   What are the big challenges for him as an entrepreneur?

03:52   What's next for Voxy? (They are hiring!)

For the full interview click on the image of Paul just below:

My Entrepreneurship Class at Barnard's Athena Center for Leadership Studies

I was asked recently if I would teach a class entitled "What You Need to Know When Starting a New Business" on Sept 27th at Barnard College. Having had a chance over the last year to get to know some of the great people at Barnard's Athena Center, I accepted with enthusiasm. I'm a big supporter of their mission.

The evening class is part of the many offerings Barnard College's Athena Center for Leadership Studies which is dedicated to the advancement of women leaders.

So if you're a woman who is starting her first business this may be of interest for you. Details are below. The class costs $199, all of which goes to support the great programs at Barnard- I do not accept compensation. So, if you are interested click on the link below where you'll be able to regoster and I'll see you soon.

ENT1. Starting Up: What You Need to Know When Starting a New Business

Launching a new business can be daunting. What are the steps you need to take to maximize your chances of success? What are the typical mistakes you need to avoid?  In this class we focus on getting fledgling entrepreneurs prepared to get through this difficult process with every advantage possible.

Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Location: 5th Floor, Diana Center, Barnard Hall

Venture Studio (22): Reece Pacheco, CEO of Shelby.tv

 

I recently met with the entrepreneur who's trying to transform the way we share, discover and enjoy web video. Reece Pacheco, CEO of Shelby.tv and his team can take all the videos you've been linking to on facebook and twitter and pull them all together into a custom channel for you. They're making discovery and sharing a lot easier, more personalized and of course- enjoyable.

Reece also has a really unique background having traveled the world and worked in Hollywood for a while after his Brown University years and also having been a professional lacrosse player before diving into tech entrepreneurship! He also founded TeamHomeField with Joe Yevoli before launching Shelby.tv which is still going strong. Reece founded Shelby with his good friend Dan Spinosa who he met while they were students at Brown.

Everyone who knows him knows that Reece is an entrepreneur who is all about teamwork, hustle and making it happen- hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Follow Reece on Twitter

00:11 - What is Shelby.tv and how does it get viral?

00:52 - How did it all come together?

2:05 - How Reece approached the investment community (great stuff here!)

3:53 - Reece describes the TechStars experience, the mentors, speakers, month-by-month process

4:45 - Cracking the big problem of sharing video on the web

6:01 - Walking off stage at TechStars demo day & being intro'd to investors

For the full interview click on the image of Reece just below:

Venture Studio (21): Stacy Spikes, CEO of MoviePass

Are you one of those people that actually loves going to the movies? Do you like to go with the family, a date, or solo? Whatever it is- has Stacy Spikes has got a deal for you! In this conversation learn what Stacy, CEO of MoviePass is up to. He's trying to change the way the whole movie-going experience works. Others are obviously big believers- he's backed to the tune of $1.5MM in seed money from the likes of AOL Ventures and True Ventures. You also have to listen to the story of what he's gone through as an entrepreneur to make MoviePass a reality. It's real-life stuff we entrepreneurs benefit from hearing about. Stacy came up in the business at Miramax and then deepened his experience in the space by founding urbanworld and growing it into the largest minority film festival in the world.

For the full interview click on the image of Stacy below:

Venture Studio (19): Lee Hoffman, CEO of Veri

A few weekends ago I sat down with Lee Hoffman, CEO of Veri at TechStarsNYC headquarters during a gathering they were having for the outgoing crop of TechStars companies. (That’s what all the noise is in the background). Many thanks to Dave Tisch and his terrific team for setting this all up and accommodating us.

Lee is a very talented guy who is a both a developer and designer and I jokingly like to say that he and Reece Pacheco are part of a burgeoning “Brown University Mafia” that has descended in NYC of late. I not only learned a lot about Lee’s trajectory as an entrepreneur and about his extraordinary vision for Veri but unwittingly he ended up giving us all a master class on entrepreneurship through the telling of various stories of startups he was involved with, mistakes that were made and many of the ups and downs he's encountered.

You'll find the whole interview here at: Venture Studio

So, You Think You Have to Deal With A**holes? Think Again

If this is your first visit you may wish to follow me on twitter here, my RSS feed here or subscribe via email here

Who hasn't dealt with the occasional a**hole at work? Every American knows it to be one of the unavoidable rights of passage for an employee. Think about it- you have voluntarily chosen to work in an environment created by others and staffed with people not of your choosing. If you didn't have the luxury of choosing carefully you are basically a victim waiting to be victimized.

In fact, I agree with Mark Suster, who often makes the point that getting away from a**holes is probably the single greatest motivator for entrepreneurship in the world.

One thing that frustrates me to no end however, is hearing people who work for a wage complain constantly about all the unpleasant people they have to work with. My view is simple- if you can't stand it, no one is forcing you to work there so why not get the hell out of there? Start bootstrapping a business, join a startup, find a better environment- do something- but by all means- stop whining about it.

So for everyone that thinks they have it tough, here's the true story of a buddy of mine who's going through some tough times right now dealing with some real a**holes- and I mean a lot of them!

This guy is actually an incredible salesman and entrepreneur and co-founded a venture-backed company for 3 years that ended up going sideways after a herculean effort on his part. He was recently getting set to be a part of yet another venture but his wife let him know that she'd prefer it if he took a steady job for a while as they had plans to start a family. It so happens that she has a great job that pays well and has been the family's primary source of income for the previous four years of their marriage. Being a good spouse, he obliged and began a job hunt in earnest...

I saw him recently and asked him where he ended up working. It turns out was able to land a sales position with a medical device company wherein a large part of the job involves him assisting surgeons with a procedure that utlizes this company's device. He makes approximately $1,000 per procedure- not bad, right?

There's a slight problem. The procedure, which he described in excruciating detail, involves people's a**holes- literally. Yes that's correct- you read it right.

Basically, he has to prep the patients (many of whom are elderly and not terribly hygeinic) using iodine and then pieces of tape to "set the stage" for the physician (I won't elaborate), talk to the patients before, during and after the procedure as they are only slightly sedated during these surgeries, and deal with a miasma so rancid that he is often suffering from nausea throughout his workday. (The surgical mask is apparently no match for these odors). There are multiple such procedures daily and he dutifully assists the surgeons as this is part of the excellent customer service he must provide.

I want to point out that the story he told me was so foul that at some point I actually asked him to stop. (Normally I am a pretty good listener). I was literally becoming sick after just a few minutes of hearing about what he has to actually do 5 days a week.

The crazy thing about this was that the guy wasn't complaining to me. He was just telling me about it and saying that he needs to hang in there for now as it pays well and they're going to start a family soon.

Here's someone who has one of the most disgusting jobs a person could ever imagine- and he's handling it somehow. It was profoundly humbling talking to him. Next year he'll be on to his next start-up no doubt- but for now he's taking care of business and making sacrifices for his family's well being.

Anyway- there's some motivation for you next time you're dealing with some a**holes at work or are finding it challenging to bootstrap your next venture.  :)

For Part 31 in in this Series, click here

Venture Studio (17): Kevin Prentiss, CEO RedRover

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Kevin Prentiss, CEO of Red Rover, at Tech Stars NYC headquarters. Here’s another entrepreneur who “put it all on red” at one critical point in his company’s lifecycle. He’s got a great story- is on his fourth startup, and is an alumnus of TechStars NYC’s inaugural crop of companies. He also has the great distinction of being the only person I’ve spoken to who consciously teed-up his fourth startup by launching his third. That’s some high-level chess. Intrigued? I was too… Enjoy.

You'll find the full interview here at Venture Studio

Venture Studio (16): Nick Seguin, Kauffman Foundation

I recently sat down with Nick Seguin, (@nickseguin), Manager of Entrepreneurship for the venerable Kauffman Foundation. If you’ve heard about Kauffman before but really don’t know their story and what they’re mission is, you’ll definitely want to listen to Nick describe it. I can see why they brought him on to manage entrepreneurship- the guy is a terrific communicator and evangelist for them. I particularly loved hearing the story of Mr. Kauffman himself- it is epic and inspiring. Nick is an entrepreneur and community organizer in his own right- having founded Dynamit during his college years and having served as an organizer for another terrific organization- Startup Weekend.  Enjoy.

You'll find the full interview here at VentureStudio

@nickseguin

Venture Studio (15): Brad Hargreaves, Co-Founder of General Assembly

   

Welcome to this week's conversation with Brad Hargreaves, entrepreneur, blogger and co-founder of General Assembly.

You'll find the full interview here at VentureStudio

Venture Studio (14): Bo Peabody: Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Author, Restaurateur

This is Episode (14) of Venture Studio

Welcome to this week's conversation with the multi-talented Bo Peabody, founder or co-founder of Tripod (acq. by Lycos/Terra), Everyday Health, VoodooVox, HealthGuru, UplayMe, Village Ventures, (a NYC-based $135m venture fund focused on both the media and financial services sectors), author of the book, Lucky or Smart, and owner of the hospitality company Mezze, Inc. which operates three award-winning restaurants he started. (Yes- I can personally confirm that Mezze Bistro up in Williamstown, MA is a great spot if you're ever in the area for the summer theater festival or just passing through).

We caught up with Bo in NYC recently, and in the interest of time focused our conversation on his against-the-grain habit of founding and investing in content companies- which he has been doing for years with great success.

It's no surprise- he's been an iconoclast since I met him some some seventeen years ago when he was a college student launching Tripod in the very early days of the web. Hardly any one knew or understood what the heck he was doing back then- but he did. Enjoy.

:40  -  Why does Bo invest in content when most everyone else runs from it? 

1:41 -  Learn about Everyday Health (largest health property on the web)

4:10 - We discuss portfolio companies: Health Guru, Tech Media Network, Babble, Daily Makeover, Travel Ad Network, Trefis

6:57 - Who is Bo syndicating with these days?

8:20 - What's the right deal pace for a venture fund?

9:00 - We discuss Lucky or Smart and the recent Business Insider series

11:53 - Bo's take on the Village Ventures and their expansion

                  

               

Venture Studio (13): Jeff Clavier, Founder SoftTech VC (or, "A Well-Tempered Clavier")

This is Episode (13) of Venture Studio

I sat down recently to speak with with angel investor turned MicroVC, Jeff Clavier, @jeff, founder of SoftTechVC I, II & III on a recent visit of his to NYC. (My thanks to the great people at Polaris Ventures' DogPatch Labs down in Greenwhich Village for hosting our talk.)

Jeff is a fascinating guy who saw a special opportunity in 2004 to invest in capital-efficient Web 2.0-type companies and got into angel investing in a big way, investing his own money in 20+ companies. He turned out to be enormously gifted at it. Hearkening back to my recent Series on Angel Investing, he most certainly skipped the "Mug" phase that Mark Suster and I have joked about. 

He then had the opportunity to raise a small fund and thus became what the press like to call a "Super-Angel"- but what really is more aptly-named, a MicroVC. After 65 investments in this Fund (SoftTech VC II), he has now launched SoftTechVC III, (aka "the real-deal"as he jokingly called it) which will still be a "small" fund, but certainly considerably larger than II.

It was great to hear Jeff's perspective on early-stage investing, the market segments that interest him these days and how he has evolved over the years as an investor. Enjoy.

:26  -  A little background on @jeff & how he first got into angel investing

1:19 -  Raising his first micro-fund in 2004, which was $15M in size

1:43 - The pioneers in the MicroVC space, including Josh Kopelman

2:23 - On making 65 investments in SoftTechVC II w/10 exits already(!)

3:05 - Launching SoftTechVC III & venture partner Charles Hudson

4:14 - What types of companies/sectors will III be investing in? (See Matrix)  Listen carefully here about Jeff's approach to various sectors

6:02 - After 99 investments & reaching this level- what changes in your approach?

7:21 - Epic Line: "In our business there's no pride- we basically do whatever it takes to help our companies"

7:31 - Jeff's perspective on acquisitions (of which he's had 17!) and how he works w/his portfolio company entrepreneurs in this regard

9:01 -  Has he noticed network effects amongst his portfolio companies?

9:55 - Jeff invests in a bunch of NYC companies- what are his thoughts on NYC?

11:11 - What are the biggest challenges for him?

12:47 - What's an average day like for Jeff?

SOFTTECH VC III (so far)

                  

               

Venture Studio (10): Ben Lerer, CEO of Thrillist

This is Episode (10) of Venture Studio

Welcome to this week's conversation with Ben Lerer, CEO of Thrillist, which he started five years ago in NYC as a daily email/city guide chock full of product and experiential recommendations for a very underserved market- urban-dwelling guys.  Since then, Ben and his team have scaled the company to over three million subcribers, 90+ employees and into approximately 20 cities around the country. They have also just made their first acquisition: JackThreads and have launched a Rewards program.

I would say that "evolution" was definitely one of the major themes of our talk. Ben talks not only about the evolution of his business but also of his own from a "do everything kind of entrepreneur" to a guy who now oversees a large and growing business with talented people in important roles. It's a transition that any startup entrepreneur should aspire to make one day.

We also discuss Lerer Ventures, (the seed investment fund he and his father operate). Here too we talk about his evolution as a seed investor.  Enjoy.

:20  -  What is the story of Thrillist and how it got started?

2:10 -  On getting funded by AOL veteran Bob Pittman of the Pilot Group

3:34 -  What's an average day like for Ben lately?

4:04 - "Thrillist is definitely hiring!"

4:35 - How has Ben's role at Thrillist evolved as the company has scaled?

5:13 - What's with the Bowie Knife? (ok, ok, it's plastic....) 

8:19 - Biggest lessons learned... (it's that focus thing again!)

10:04 - All about the JackThreads acquisition

11:40 -  Lerer Ventures & their evolution as seed-stage investors

14:24 - What are they looking for in terms of entrepreneurs they back?

15:02 - What is the Rewards Program and what's next for Thrillist?

Click Here for Venture Studio (11) w/ Jonathan Glick from Sulia

                  

               

Venture Studio (7): Jordy Leiser, CEO and co-founder STELLAService

This is Episode (7) of Venture Studio

Welcome to this week's conversation with Jordy Leiser, CEO of STELLAService- one of the most intriguing and sought-after venture-backed startups in NYC. STELLAService rates the customer service performance of online stores and was recently featured in AdAge (here) and on TechCrunch (here). 

Below is a short table of contents (with corresponding minutes) of our conversation:

00:27     Jordy's background & how it led to the founding of STELLAService

01:30     Who invested, how the deal came together 

02:50     Who is this new player in town, Consiglieri?

4:39       The size of their angel and venture rounds

05:25     Who's the team behind STELLAService? 

06:30    Why'd they choose to set-up shop in NYC?

07:15     How a high school internship framed Jordy's perception of branding

07:34     Jordy's previous work w/ IMG and his experience in sports licensing

08:12     The business model

09:45     The STELLAService Seal and what it means for a company to carry it

10:25     Who are some of the companies displaying the seal?

12:02     How are brands picked and evaluated?

13:25     What's the company doing with all the data it's accumulating?

14:13     How many brands are displaying the seal?

16:00    What's Jordy learning about running a company?

16:30    What's currently happening at STELLAService?

17:08     Are they hiring?

Click for Venture Studio (8) w/ Josh Wienstein of YouAre.TV