About this episode My guest this week is David Sellinger, founder of Deep Sentinel. David’s startup resume is remarkable and includes such highlights as: Being an early employee at Amazon working directly under Jeff Bezos and co-inventing Amazon Advertising which now generates BILLIONS of dollars in revenue Co-founding the real estate brokerage RedFin (now a multi-billion company) Revolutionizing the shopping experiences for major brands like Macy’s and Office Depot with his RichRelevance startup. Inventing the next HUGE advancement in home security with Deep Sentinel. Deep Sentinel brings artificial intelligence to the home protection industry. With the Deep Sentinel the technology can identify threats in real time and once a threat is identified a live guard is engaged to notify and warn off the threat. The Deep Sentinel hardware is not just a camera but a sleek yet incredibly intimidating piece of technology that allows the Live Guards to engage while police are on their way. In this episode, you'll hear: How being raised by two immigrant parents shaped his ambition and value of opportunities His learnings about organizational culture from the founding brothers of Dutch Bros. coffee. Lessons learned from Jeff Bezos as it relates to data-informed decision making About the next evolution in home security How important it is to speak honestly about your mental health Resources from this episode FREE Access to Grindology: https://www.grindologymagazine.com/ ExpressVPN: Get 3 Months Free → https://www.expressvpn.com/startupstory Get Emails: https://app.getemails.com/referrals/newaccount?ref=R18HWW5 The Startup Story on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestartupstory The Startup Story is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmckinney The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory Deep Sentinel Website: https://www.deepsentinel.com/ Deep Sentinel “STOPPED” YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPrVzjHFY6Acoy54iYvo21RW5xjpWNf8m Share the podcast The Startup Story community has been so incredible in sharing our podcast with others, and we thank you! We do have more stories to tell and more people to reach. So please keep sharing!
About this episode My guest this week is Clay Alexander, the inventor and founder of Ember. Ember is a temperature control brand that seeks to disrupt how the world eats, drinks and lives. Their very first product was a Travel Mug and was launched in 100 Starbucks locations. Since their launch they have expanded to other product lines. Clay has an incredible founder story that I hope more people discover because I think it brings encouragement and inspiration to so many. Let me be clear, when I say "encouragement" I am not talking about the type of fuzzy-feelings you get when you receive a Hallmark card. I'm talking about the actual meaning of the word "encourage", to place courage inside of. That is what Clay's story will deliver to you, courage to keep moving forward despite the obstacles or challenges you might be up against. See Clay grew up incredibly poor, in fact to use his words "dirt poor." Aside from his economic challenges he was diagnosed with ADD and dyslexia, and he still is. Yet despite all these challenges he has founded two amazing companies and invented numerous patented products, that I'm sure when the story is over will deliver well beyond $1-billion in revenue. I know this episode will quickly become one of your favorites but like all other founder episodes we need to start at the very beginning. In this episode, you'll hear How Clay's upbringing was not one where entrepreneurship was an inevitable journey for him. In fact, everything about his upbringing would have pointed towards obtaining a steady 9-5 job to help simply put food on the table. About how his creative and inventive mind was at work from a young age and how he even replicated the famous Inspector Gadget bicycle, including switches for smoke screens The journey through college helped set the stage for him to refine his lighting expertise and led to his inventing the brightest LED bulb in the world The steps he took to negotiate a licensing deal with GE for that very bulb he invented How cold scrambled eggs became the catalyst for the first temperature controlled coffee mug on the planet The reason why the Ember mug, iPhone, Macbook Pro, and Apple iPad all look so good together Why any inventor or entrepreneur should never accept the answer of "No" as final and complete Clay unpack the future of Ember and the various industries that will benefit from his many temperature control solution ideas Resources from this episode Join Grindology: https://grindologymagazine.com/ ExpressVPN: Get 3 Months Free → https://www.expressvpn.com/startupstory Get Emails: https://app.getemails.com/referrals/newaccount?ref=R18HWW5 The Startup Story Inner Circle: https://www.thestartupstory.co/vip The Startup Story on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestartupstory The Startup Story is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmckinney The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory Ember website: https://ember.com/ Share the podcast The Startup Story community has been so incredible in sharing our podcast with others, and we thank you! We do have more stories to tell and more people to reach. So please keep sharing!
About this episode My guest this week is Michael Werner, founder and CEO of HomeX. Until 2003, Michael served as President and Vice Chariman for his family's 100 year old business, Werner Ladders. The Werner Company continues on today and is now a $1 billion dollar global brand…but Michael has moved on and launched a technology startup within a $500 billion market. HomeX is the first of its kind home services platform for both homeowners and service providers that is radically improving the complex and fragmented home services industry. One of the many things that peaked my curiosity about having Michael on the show was that I am just not a handy individual. Despite the fact that I could watch a YouTube video of how to change my garbage disposal I would much rather have an expert walk me through the process, or just do it for me. Well, that is one of the consumer solutions that HomeX is bringing to the marketplace, direct access to industry experts to guide you through the solution or enable you to hire the expert to come and take care of it for you. HomeX is truly changing the game for homeowners and service providers. And having just come off a $90 million dollar capital raise, things are about to get very interesting for Michael and the HomeX team. In this episode, you'll hear: The importance of reiventing an industry. The nuance of leading a legacy brand. Why global manufacturing is critical to business success. The importance that small business plays to our economy and communities. Resources from this episode Grindology: https://www.grindologymagazine.com/ ExpressVPN: Get 3 Months Free → ExpressVPN.com/StartupStory Get Emails: https://app.getemails.com/referrals/newaccount?ref=R18HWW5 The Startup Story on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestartupstory The Startup Story is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmckinney The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory HomeX for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.homex.lightning&utm_source=web&utm_medium=cta&utm_campaign=newcta HomeX for iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/app/homex-we-got-this/id1505761821?utm_source=web&utm_medium=cta&utm_campaign=newcta Use the code "STARTUPSTORY25" to receive 25% off your first Remote Assist session. Share the podcast The Startup Story community has been so incredible in sharing our podcast with others, and we thank you! We do have more stories to tell and more people to reach. So please keep sharing!
About this episode Whenever I’m asked which episode of The Startup Story has been my favorite, I truly can’t give an answer. I enjoy every single episode because of how much value every entrepreneur brings to the table and how much I learn from them. However, if I were to be asked which episode stands out the most in my mind, it would have to be one of my earliest episodes: my interview with Brandon “Monk” Muñoz from Monkwood Studios. Out of all of the interviews I’ve held, I’ve only hosted two founders who were woodworkers. Brandon is one of them. His episode stands out because of how incredibly eclectic his entrepreneurial journey has been. Brandon was both extremely transparent and vulnerable about his story and amazing at telling it. He explains how both he and his startup, Monkwood Studios, got to where they are today. If you want to learn from a talented and hilarious entrepreneur, tune into this conversation with Brandon “Monk” Muñoz. In this episode, you'll hear: How Brandon got into woodworking as a kid. The mentor and friend that taught him how to build furniture. Why he was inspired to go out on his own. How much he failed and learned from his mistakes at the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey. Why how you make something is more important than what you make. Brandon’s experience doing ministry in London and building the unique startup of a church. Why he became an entrepreneur by need, not by choice. How he finally niched his business down and began specializing in wooden desks. The connection he feels with the people who purchase his desks. The risk all creative entrepreneurs have to take. Resources from this episode Grindology: https://www.grindologymagazine.com/ ExpressVPN: Get 3 Months Free → ExpressVPN.com/StartupStory Get Emails: https://app.getemails.com/referrals/newaccount?ref=R18HWW5 The Startup Story Inner Circle: https://www.thestartupstory.co/vip The Startup Story on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestartupstory The Startup Story is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmckinney The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory Brandon in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monkwood_/ Monkwood Studios: https://monkwoodstudio.com/ Share the podcast The Startup Story community has been so incredible in sharing our podcast with others, and we thank you! We do have more stories to tell and more people to reach. So please keep sharing!
About this episode This week we are featuring Randi Zuckerberg, founder of Zuckerberg Media. If her last name sounds familiar, it should. It’s also the last name of her little brother who had a startup about a book of faces or Facebook or something like that. Randi Zuckerberg is an entrepreneur, investor, best selling author, and Emmy-nominated tech media personality. She is the founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media, with the mission of supporting current and future entrepreneurs through investment, mentorship, and media. Growing up she wanted to be a Broadway actress, yet while in college she had to pivot from that dream to pursue a career in advertising. But what I love about the stories of many of the founders this show highlights, is that we always find our way back to our passion, in one form or another. Like every Startup Story founder, we need to go back to the early days to find out what life was like for Randi before Facebook LIVE, before two best-selling books, and before r...
About this episode As a pioneer, there is not a single roadmap to work from. There’s no way to model your success off of another because there is no other--you’re it. You’re the front runner. There must be an internal competition established within your brain to be constantly improving. Richard Garriot has experienced all of this throughout his time in the gaming sector. Richard is an investor and private astronaut as well as a pioneer and legend. What drew me to him was his role within privatizing space travel as well as his experience as a video game entrepreneur. However, I had no idea how rich his background in the gaming sector was. Tune into this episode to hear how iconic he truly is and how he reached this level of success. In this episode, you'll hear How entering science fairs prepared Richard to be a great independent competitor. How he published his first product. His experience as a freelance game creator looking for publishers. What caused him to start a company wit...
About this episode My guest this week is Matt Meeker, Co-founder of Bark, and while the Bark’s name itself might not cause your ears to perk up in excitement for what's to come in this episode. Bark’s various product lines are household names. Their flagship product being BarkBox, with over 1.7 million active BarkBox subscribers, BarkBox is the Premier subscription dog toy and treat service. In addition to BarkBox, Bark has various product lines that can be found in over 23,000 retail outlets. Matts entire episode is chock full of value because his journey and his experiences are so extensive. To start with Matt was one of the digital advertising pioneers, and we discuss what digital advertising was like long before the days of Facebook ads. Matt was also a Co-founder of Meetup, which eventually sold the WeWork for $156 million in 2017. And now in 2021, Matt and the Bark leadership team are navigating the SPAC landscape to bring Bark to the public markets. As I said, Matts episode...
About this episode My guest this week is Ryan Serhant, star of Bravo’s hit series Million Dollar Listing New York, Best Selling Author, and founder of Serhant. How do the crossroads of reality television and entrepreneurship ever cross? Well, this episode will answer that question very clearly for you. My guest has been the star of Bravo’s hit show, Million Dollar Listing New York for the last 10 seasons as well as launching one of the fastest growing Real Estate brands in the nation. Ryan is an absolute branding genius and he shares his expertise on that very topic, as well as his take on how resilience plays into the startup journey. In this episode, you'll hear: Childhood lessons that shaped his entire life’s journey How hand modeling helped stabilize his income while building his empire The power of action-taking and not action-thinking How Real Estate is just like improvisational acting Why you should plan out what “future you” looks like How the hardest moments in our lif...
About this episode My guest this week is Sean Cannell, founder of Think Media. His episode was originally released on February 11th of last year. Just 45 days before everything started to unravel from COVID. Sean is an incredible human being and entrepreneur as well as a best selling author, YouTuber, speaker, and absolute digital marketing mogul that has centered his mission on helping entrepreneurs and creatives build their influence with online video. Sean’s various YouTube channels have over two million subscribers, his videos have been viewed over 50 million times and he has been featured as one of the “20 Must Watch YouTube Channels That Will Change Your Business” by Forbes. The stats I just read are incredibly impressive, but what is really impressive is that Sean, and the Think Media team are on a mission to help 10,000 people create a living, doing what they love to do, utilizing online video. That is what I love about Sean’s story, is that it is grounded in helping oth...
About this episode My guest this week is none other than Evan Goldberg, Founder & EVP of Oracle NetSuite. The startup story of NetSuite is amazing because Evan and Larry Ellison spent 5 minutes on the phone discussing the idea of selling software from the cloud (which wasn’t called the cloud back in 1999) and then one year later they were selling to customers. NetSuite is the market leader in small business cloud-based ERP solutions and have over 27,000 customers across the globe. Within my full interview we discuss how he handled the failure of his first software startup, what it was like to build a startup and navigate an IPO as well as a corporate acquisition. We even discuss the fact that Evan had to lead NetSuite through not one financial crisis, but two. The dot com bust of 2000 and the 2008 market crash…and then a third with the COVID pandemic just last year…but we don’t spend any time talking about that because there just wasn’t enough time! I’m telling you…you are go...