TAGP525 Zahi Boussiba - How To Start A Startup Without Falling Into Financial Ruin

Zahi Boussiba CEO & Co-Founder at Appsee. Zahi walks us through his inspiring journey with Appsee. Over 5 years Appsee has gone from 2 guys in a garage coding to a well funded company with thousands of customers in wide range of industries.

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Zahi...

  • Starting a startup is HARD. Expect the journey to last 5 to 10 years
  • Start with a problem, build a prototype, get paying customers - only then seek funding
  • Understand the users journey through your app. Zahi discovered 70% of his users were not sharing their location when first asked, hence engagement was very low

TAGP523 Adam Barker : Guide To Fundraising For A New Startup

Adam Barker CEO & Co-Founder at MagnaPass. We talk about raising funds for an early stage startup, real life examples of going through a pre-seed Angel syndicate, aiming for a raise of £300,000 and tips for pitching to groups of investors. Listen out for the entertaining story of sleeping in the car during a snow storm to pitch to investors in the morning.

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Adam Barker...

  • work your own network in the early days. You may be surprised who invests in your startup

  • know your own business inside out when pitching to investors

  • explain the problem, your projections and vision during short pitches, but leave a lot of the 'meat and potatoes' for the inevitable questions at the end

TAGP522 Paul Kemp - 15 Big App Entrepreneurial And Life Lessons From 500 Episodes

Paul Kemp, host of The App Guy Podcast: Inspiring Founder Stories, Growth Hacking, Funding, Beta Testers, Big Data, Lifestyle, Startups. In this episode, I run through 15 Of The Biggest App Entrepreneurial + Life Lessons From The Last 500 Episodes

Here are 3 things I learned from creating this best of show:

  • Focus on your strengths, find the vehicle to share your gifts with the world and have a clear sense of the people you want to serve
  • Solve a real world problem, ensure enough people also think it's a problem, confirm people will pay for your solution before investing the time and money to build your product
  • Build an audience, listen to want they want then deliver a minimum viable product to test, validate and gain valuable feedback. Follow your data and pivot if necessary

TAGP521 Alex Quilici : How I Sold My Startup For $200 Million Just 18 Months After It Was Founded

Alex Quilici, the CEO of YouMail. YouMail is an intelligent call manager that stops robocalls with its highly accurate caller ID and smart blocking technology. They’ve developed a monthly robocall index that tracks the scale and scope of invasive robocalls nationwide that has been frequently cited in national media. YouMail was recently called a superior alternative to iOS 10’s Visual Voicemail and Google Voice in a PCMag software review. 

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Alex...

  • In the US, the entrepreneurial culture is massive with something like 28 million people having started some form of business

  • Sometimes, the entrepreneur doesn't choose the problem to focus on, but its the problem choosing the entrepreneur
  • Success can often mean working on a problem that lots of consumers agree is also a problem, having a good solution to the problem and having a great team focussed on the problem

TAGP520 David Kingsbury : How Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Trainer Changed My Life

David Kingsbury is a personal trainer working with A-List actors on films such as Assassins Creed, The Huntsman, The wolverine, X-Men Days Of Future Past and more.  Our mutual friend, Andreas Kambanis introduced us after learning that HEALTH is my theme for 2017. This introduction changed my life forever. I am the healthiest and the fittest I can remember being. I hope this episode inspires you to take all necessary steps toward your healthier future.

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Instagram /  Facebook

 

Here are the Results From 12 Weeks On David's Program

TAGP519 Dave Schools : I Am Fun Employed And Live In A Different City Every Three Months

Dave Schools, founder, writer and creator of the fun app called PartyQ's. Originally from New York, worked in NYC, Dave has been inspired by the Netflix movie called the Minimalists. He now lives in a different US city every three months.

 

Resources: Twitter  / Linkedin 

Mentioned: Write About My StartupParty Qs homepage (On Apple App Store / Google Play Store)

Here are the 3 things I learned from Dave... 

  • Phubbing is the new term for snubbing people with your phone
  • Headlines is the most important aspect when trying to get page views to your articles
  • The content marketing game is about volume, volume, volume

TAGP518 Josiah Humphrey : 19 Yr School Drop Out Builds Multi-Million Startup With $3,000

Josiah Humphrey Co-Founder and co-CEO at Appster started at the young age of 19. He's taken $3,000 and turned it into a global company with over 350 employees. Learn how Josiah built a sustainable business and pick up some genuine tips to succeed yourself.

 

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Josiah...

  • Your product is the marketing, so make an awesome app
  • Find a core problem
  • Seek feedback, validate by being smart, build a prototype and talk to clients

TAGP517 Rob Caraway : An Appreneur Making Apps That Actually Sell

Rob Caraway is an appreneur who makes apps that sell. He's an indie app developer, growth hacker, entrepreneur & product guy who's worked on over 20 app projects since 2011. Rob has built and sold an app portfolio of 725,000 downloads which has netted him over $240,000 in only 2 years. We can all learn something from Rob's app journey.

 

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Here are the 3 things I learned from Rob...

  • Start with other peoples problem first. In Rob’s case, he spoke to people in various online communities and discovered a massive frustration sharing GIF’s via smartphones

  • Want to sell an app? Rob Google’d people who buy apps and approached them directly. SIMPLE YET GENIUS!

  • If you get bored with the apps you’ve built and the communities they appeal to, sell your app portfolio and start creating new things you’re more passionate about

TAGP516 David James : Why I Quit Investment Banking And Built A #2 Grossing App

David James, Founder of https://TotalCarCheck.co.uk quit his career in Investment banking to build a #2 top grossing app in the utilities section of the iOS app charts. We talk about how David made technology choices, how he engages users, how he optimises for conversions and the psychology of persuading someone to buy an inApp purchase.

 

Resources: Website / Twitter  / Linkedin 

Mentioned: How To Be Creative Getting Real

Here are the 3 things I learned from David... 

  • Improve user onboarding by not forcing users to create an account
  • Entice users to perform a desired action by offering a reward (maybe offering additional useful data for an action taken within the app) 
  • Success can mean different things and not just the size of your bank balance