Just Go Grind #195: Ruben Schultz, Co-Founder of Swoop, a Group Transportation Platform, on Raising a $3.2M Seed Round, Leaving Facebook to Become a Founder, and Keeping Perspective While Building a Startup
Ruben is the Co-Founder at Swoop, where he is responsible for operations, marketing, people & hiring, and fundraising efforts. Prior to joining Swoop, he spent four years working for Google and Facebook, helping scale new programs such as Workplace by Facebook globally and Google’s Agency Landscape in Europe. Ruben was born in Germany, spending his childhood years there, prior to moving to the US. He holds a BSc in Finance from Maastricht University and graduated as Valedictorian from the Rotterdam School of Management.
About Our Partners
This episode is brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models.
Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country's fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work", 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI.
Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba.
Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast.
This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.
Connect with Ruben Schultz and Swoop
Some of the Topics Covered by Ruben Schultz in this Episode
- What Swoop is, what the industry looks like today, and the problem Ruben and his team is solving
- How Ruben got people on the Swoop platform initially
- The challenge Ruben and his team are focused on right now
- How Ruben prioritizes product development
- Why Ruben decided to leave Facebook to start a company
- The conversation with Ruben and his parents when he wanted to leave Facebook
- How Swoop was funded initially
- Choosing a career path based not just on the short-term money you'll make, but the connections and upside you'll have in the future
- The thinking Ruben and his co-founders had around splitting equity
- Moving from tier 3 to tier 2 to tier 1 investors when fundraising
- The business models behind Swoop
- How COVID impacted Swoop and how they shifted to moving goods as well as people
- How Ruben and his team are evaluating which markets to get into
- Roles and responsibilities with Ruben and his co-founders
- What the big vision is for Swoop
- Why Swoop is so obsessed with their customers
- The biggest challenge Ruben faces as a first-time founder
- How Ruben manages the stress of running a startup
Links from the Episode