The Entrepreneurial Journey - Make More Marbles PODCAST with Brad Hart & Travis Steffen

Welcome to Make More Marbles Podcast, in this episode Brad Hart interviews Travis Steffen ( Bestselling Author, Mentor & Serial Entrepreneur). Travis Stefan is an entrepreneur who has had eight exits as a founder, co-founder, or CEO. He believes that an exit can be a way to gain money back, gain a good reputation, or have the freedom to choose what to do next. He is pursuing a DBA, which is similar to a super MBA, and believes the title of "doctor" holds significant power in society. He was the CEO and COO of GrowFlow, a B2B SaaS company that provided compliance, inventory management, point of sale, analytics, and sales tools for licensed cannabis companies in the US. Steffen’s experience with successful exits has led to opportunities to step in as CEO for established businesses seeking to be taken to exit. His fundraising strategy involves identifying 400-500 investment funds with a potential thesis fit, sending a brief blurb with impressive achievements, and following up with a deck and a call if they express interest. He has raised over $100 million for companies he has built or co-built. His acquisition strategies involve building relationships with potential acquirers, including CEOs, and consistently communicating with potential buyers and understanding their needs and goals. Effective business experiments should be based on observations and hypotheses, focusing on understanding customer behavior, and growth should be a core value of an organization. Post-Exit Ventures: After selling GrowFlow, Travis mentored at accelerators, helping founders build startups, and decided to build a business that would allow him to be his own angel investor for his next tech company. Travis Steffen’s career path has involved multiple exits from companies, often taking on co-founder roles but not always CEO positions. Steffen’s experience with successful exits has led to opportunities to step in as CEO for established businesses seeking to be taken to exit, even though it wasn’t his initial career intention. Fundraising Strategies: Travis Steffen has raised over \$100 million for companies he has built or co-built. Steffen’s fundraising strategy involves identifying 400-500 investment funds with a potential thesis fit, sending a brief blurb with impressive achievements, and following up with a deck and a call if they express interest. Venture capitalists are not typically investing their own money, but rather managing funds with specific investment criteria. Venture investors often avoid giving a definitive yes or no answer to investment proposals, preferring to wait for validation from other investors or more information. Many venture capitalists believe that fundraising should be challenging for founders, as it demonstrates their ability to solve difficult problems. Rapid Growth Strategies: When a product is successful, copycats will appear. This is often a sign that the product is in demand. Speed is one of the most important things for a startup. Market conditions are constantly changing, so it is important to strike while the iron is hot. When something is working well, it is important to go all in and get as much leverage as possible. The window of opportunity will eventually close. There are five factors that need to work together for a business to be primed for rapid growth: market, model, channel, product, and message. Visit Travis’s website: https://travissteffen.com/ You can grab my books here: http://8minutemastermind.com http://8minutemoneymanager.com If you want to schedule a call with us for help building your mastermind group or online business, go here: http://buildamastermind.com/schedule-now If you want to get help managing your money (7 figures plus net worth) grab my money manager book above and you will get a link to schedule a call. As always if you need anything just reach out to us at support@makemoremarbles.com and please feel free to follow us for more great content on Instagram, Facebo