Execepreneur: From Executive to Entrepreneur

Launch & Lead
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Execepreneur: From Executive to Entrepreneur

What do you do if you’re a corporate executive in your 30s, 40s or beyond, have kids, a mortgage - and have this undeniable desire to start a company? Execepreneur covers the journey from successful corporate executive to entrepreneur. We navigate the transition from accomplished corporate leader to launching, building and growing your first business. We interview successful, high growth executives that have made the leap, like Matthew Lieber from Gimlet and Startup, Gary Swart from oDesk, and many others that have left McKinsey & Co., Boston Consulting Group, Microsoft, IBM, investment banking, hedge funds and more.

  1. 10/07/2015

    20: How to Use a Relationship Map to Create a $4 Million Company

    Tamara Nall founded The Leading Niche, a consulting firm to the federal government and larger firms.  She shares with us the secret of growing her company to $4M in revenue - the relationship map. For complete show notes: http://www.launchandlead.com/20

    25 min

  2. 09/30/2015

    19: A Customer Acquisition Strategy To Grow From 2 to 27 Employees

    Randy Reyess is co-founder of VenturePact, a technology services firm that matches companies with talented application development teams from around the globe.  He has also written in publications such as Forbes, Fast Company and Harvard Business Review.   In our conversation today, Randy describes in detail how to acquire customers through online advertising, including VenturePact's strategic use of dynamic landing pages.  He also describes his approach to growing the company from 2 to 27 people in 3 short years.   For more lessons about how to be an execepreneur, visit www.execepreneur.com.

    21 min

  3. 09/23/2015

    18: How To Systematize And Productize A Services Business

    Rachel Rodgers started the Rodgers Collective, a cool, innovative take on a law firm.  She has grown the company over the past 5 years or so, and has lot to share, including a great way to think about protection as an entrepreneur. Four questions for Rachel this week: How have you rocked Rodgers Collective while raising a couple of newborns at the same time? How did you systematize your business? How did you productize your legal services? What legal guidance do you have for Entrepreneurs?   For complete show notes, visit www.launchandlead.com.

    24 min

  4. 09/16/2015

    17: The Rand Fishkin Case Study on How to Build an Online Presence

    We continue our conversation with Rand Fishkin this week and dive into the details of how to build an online presence - even if you're starting from scratch. We started with search engine strategy and ended the conversation with a case study to bring it all home.   We asked Rand - if someone starting a new professional services firm (lawyers, accountants, consultants) came to you and said “I’m building a firm to last me a couple of decades, and I’m willing to commit 5 to 7K / month building out an online presence, how would you guide them?”   For show notes of today's episode, visit www.launchandlead.com/fishkin.

    20 min

  5. 09/09/2015

    16: Rand Fishkin on How to Focus Your Online Marketing Efforts (Part I)

    Rand is known as the Wizard of Moz - the godfather of SEO and all around highly respected online marketing thought leader.  He's the founder of Moz, a suite of popular tools to help build and manage your online presence. The episode covers the six different channels to market your business online, and talks about how to focus your activities on what's most relevant for your business. The Venn diagram Rand mentions is certainly a game-changer if you’ve been wading through tactics (vs. strategy) to build your online presence.   Show Notes: www.launchandlead.com/rand.

    23 min

  6. 09/02/2015

    15: How To Build a Business That Lands $700,000 on Shark Tank

    Brittany Hodak is co-founder of ZinePak, a company that creates custom, interactive publications for super-fans. They partner with top brands and entertainers (ahem... Taylor Swift) to elevate regular consumer promotions (e.g., CD in a store) into an interesting and memorable experience. Several months ago, they were invited by Shark Tank Producers to pitch their company, and walked away with an offer of $725,000 from Robert and Lori. We had 5 questions for Brittany this week: 1 – How’d you get the company off the ground? 2 - Tell us all about your Shark Tank Experience 3 - You’ve had fantastic growth - what’s been key to your customer acquisition strategy? 4 - What has been critical to growing the business well? 5 - Tell us about how your Shark Tank experience inspired you to start a charity? For complete show notes, visit www.launchandlead.com.

    27 min

  7. 08/26/2015

    14: How Did Engineers Create a New Fashion Category?

    Aman Advani co-founded Ministry of Supply while at business school at MIT. They have created the performance professional category - business professional attire that's actually comfortable. You can see from the way they run themselves that they’re engineers solving problems in  the fashion space. A Fast Company piece on them put it this way “its conception, its design process, and how it interacts with customers, Ministry of Supply arguably has more in common with the likes of Apple and Google than with J. Crew “ So that's why we wanted to Amam - to understand how they've applied that hypothesis driven testing approach to the fashion space, and how you can leverage testing to benefit your business. www.launchandlead.com/mos How have engineers created a new clothing category? "We think with our engineering hats on more than we do with our fashion opinions or ideas. It's a deeply rooted customer insight-based focus on how can we create a new category that is not just creating a slightly better pair of socks - but a truly rethought pair of socks or rethought undershirt" My questions this week? How did he wind up launching this particular business? How did he and his co-founders launch the then highest grossing kickstarter fashion campaign? How did they use their engineering background to create a new fashion category? Sign up for member-only content at www.launchandlead.com.

    24 min

  8. 08/19/2015

    13: The Path to 1 Million Users. Twice.

    Theban Ganesh has built and sold two different businesses that have attracted over 1 million users.  In today's conversation, we cover the rise and exit of his two startups, why he chose to go back to corporate after his first, how to choose a co-founder, and most importantly, his advice to companies that are struggling to gain traction with their products.   For our bonus question with Theban - the process he would follow to start his next company, please visit www.launchandlead.com/tgstart/   Our question for Theban this week: What's the most important part of building product?   Our four questions: 1 - What was your path to starting your first company? 2 - Describe how you built your first company and exited to Zoosk? 3 - Why did you go back to Corporate after you exited your first company, and why did you make the leap to starting another company after three years? 4 - What should a company struggling to gain traction with their product do?   For complete show notes, visit www.launchandlead.com/theban.

    29 min
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4.9
out of 5
56 Ratings

About

What do you do if you’re a corporate executive in your 30s, 40s or beyond, have kids, a mortgage - and have this undeniable desire to start a company? Execepreneur covers the journey from successful corporate executive to entrepreneur. We navigate the transition from accomplished corporate leader to launching, building and growing your first business. We interview successful, high growth executives that have made the leap, like Matthew Lieber from Gimlet and Startup, Gary Swart from oDesk, and many others that have left McKinsey & Co., Boston Consulting Group, Microsoft, IBM, investment banking, hedge funds and more.

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