Just Go Grind #133: Eric Martell, Founder of Pear Commerce, Venture Partner at Gener8tor and Co-Founder of EatStreet, on Fundraising, Growing a Company and Problem Solving
Eric Martell is a founder at Pear Commerce, which simplifies retail marketing by connecting CPG advertisements directly with retailers. Their mission is to provide complete transparency from the click of an ad to the purchase of a product.
Eric is also a Venture Partner at Gener8tor, and was Managing Director of Gener8tor Minnesota until September 2018. Gener8tor is a nationally ranked accelerator, with 76 investments to date. Before Gener8tor, he co-founded EatStreet, a startup that powers the online ordering for 15,000 restaurants nationwide and feeds millions of hungry people. Early in the company, he led product and engineering with Alex Wyler, and spent his last several years leading business intelligence, analytics, and metrics.
They have raised $40 million and their team has grown to 150 full time employees. Eric was named Ernst and Young "Entrepreneur of the Year" finalist in 2015 along with Matt Howard and Alex Wyler.
Connect with Eric Martell
- Pear Commerce
- eric@pearcommerce.com
Some of the Topics Covered by Eric Martell in this Episode
- What is Pear Commerce and how it got started
- Evolving an idea into a business
- The mistake of creating a business in a vacuum
- How to utilize "learning meetings"
- Falling in love with the problem instead of the solution
- How Eric got the idea for and started EatStreet
- Why they decided to target smaller markets with EatStreet
- The early growth of EatStreet and mistakes that became learning opportunities
- How they approached expanding into new markets with EatStreet
- Winning the University of Wisconsin student business plan competition
- Becoming Gener8tor's first investment and fundraising for EatStreet
- Eric's advice for fundraising
- Leaving EatStreet and starting with Gener8tor
- The challenge of raising 1.5M in investment capital for Gener8tor
- Fundraising for Pear Commerce
- What's next for Pear Commerce
- Eric's book recommendations
Links from the Episode