#153: Amanda Greenberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Balloon, an Anonymous Collaboration Platform, on Creating a New Category, Transitioning from Bootstrapping to VC, and Being a Female Founder

Aug 25, 2020

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Amanda Greenberg is the co-founder and CEO of Balloon, which she founded with her partner Noah in 2015. Balloon is the world's first insight mobility platform. Balloon brings behavioral science and technology expertise together to unlock the true value of collaboration by removing cognitive bias, group dynamics, and fears. Organizations are able to share and vote on input anonymously, which eliminates costly biases, increases thought diversity, and amplifies the strongest insights from their teams.

The platform functions through a quick, phased process that also streamlines workflows, leading to fewer meetings and great results, faster. Over 80 percent of the information shared on Balloon is brand new, and the streamlined workflow reduced meeting time by 70 percent. Balloon ensures that more voices are heard and included, with an average of 78 percent of people collaborating and evaluating regardless of group size.

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Some of the Topics Covered by Amanda Greenberg in this Episode

What is Balloon and why Amanda changed careers to found it
How Amanda and her husband and co-founder Noah Bornstein started Balloon
Choosing an accelerator
Creating a new category and the re-programming of work during COVID
Customer discovery and networking to get their first customers
Balloon's business model and creating accessible pricing
Use cases for Balloon and how it works
Marketing Balloon and their "flight plans"
From bootstrapping to VC funding
Why they chose to live and grow Balloon in the Bay Area
How going through an accelerator helped with fundraising and raising a $2.1M seed round
The bootstrapping phase
Growing Balloon post-fundraising
Amanda's advice for fundraising
Customer acquisition for Balloon
The challenges of creating a new category
Building out the team for Balloon
Creating company culture
The co-founder/partner relationship
Amanda's view on work-life balance
Expectations versus reality in entrepreneurship
What has been most helpful for Amanda on her entrepreneurial journey
Amanda's book and podcast recommendations
A typical day for Amanda
Being a female founder
Amanda's advice for founders

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