The Unconventional Path: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Stories and Ideas.

Today's guest is Chris Hutchins, Co-founder and CEO of Grove. Chris is the founder and CEO of Grove, a company on a mission to make financial planning honest and accessible for everyone. Previously, he was a partner Google Ventures and a co-founder of Milk, a mobile app company acquired by Google. Chris began his career as an investment banker at Allen & Company and later as a management consultant at Monitor Group. For more info on Grove click this link https://hellogrove.com/ Check out Chris' LinkedIn page here https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishutchins/ We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your questions in a future episode. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike

Welcome to one of our "mini" sessions where we discuss a topic of general interest. In today's topic we discuss funding growth in your business. Now that your business is started, how will you fund growth? We discuss several ways of funding and the challenges and benefits of each. We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your questions in a future episode. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike

Rob Salafia started out his career as a street performer. Entertaining people as they walked by. He learned how to get people's attention and maintain their attention by keeping them entertained. Stage presence, storytelling and being able to deal with the unexpected are the transferable skills he developed. He now works with business leaders in helping them engage and deal with the unexpected. To learn more about Rob check out the below: Protagonist Consulting Group https://protagonistconsulting.com/ His book, "Leading from your best self" Amazon link: Leading from Your Best Self https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Your-Best-Self-Executive/dp/126013217X/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=mikewasserman-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=c567cb24ffde0842d692d02d2767de8f&creativeASIN=126013217X We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your questions in a future episode. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike

Jack Bosch came to the United States as a college student on a semester abroad program to improve his English speaking skills. He ended up finishing his degree here and got job offer from a large company. And as many entrepreneurs discover, working for a large company is not for them. While still working for the large company he started a side hustle dabbling in real estate. Well, as they say, the rest is history, as Jack and his wife, Michelle, have built a thriving real estate business with an interesting twist. To learn more about Jack and his technique check out the below: https://www.jackbosch.com/ https://landprofitgenerator.com/ https://www.jackbosch.com/the-land-profit-generator-program/ We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your questions in a future episode. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike

Helping startups grow their customer base - Nick Petros When Nick was in elementary school, a Legos Robotics project ignited his curiosity and gave him the confidence to try new things. Sailing competitively in school taught him how to adapt to the environment and deal with the unexpected. After a few startup experiences, Nick learn the importance of customer validation. Now Nick is working with early-stage companies to help them grow their customer base via his company PinchForth. Mike and Bela also discuss a email they received from long time listener Shawn. Shawn had some nice comments about the podcast and several excellent suggestions. Learn more about Nick and PinchForth at: https://pinchforth.com/ Nicks Linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickpetros/ We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your questions in a future episode. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike

What is 'data science' and should entrepreneurs be focusing on it? Listener Matt B. recently posed this question to us. In response to Matt's question, we invited Garett Howardson, Ph.D. to join us on this week's episode of The Unconventional Path. We follow Garett's interesting career path, from a tiny town in South Dakota to Washington DC, through fellowships, an academic job, a startup, and now as a Research Psychologist at the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences in Alexandria VA. Garett has carved out an interesting niche combining psychology and data science. Based on his entrepreneurial experiences, Garett shares his first hand observations about if entrepreneurs should be adopting 'big data' methods to help grow their business. His answers may surprise you and spur some interesting questions! Please join us and listen to Garett and his story. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike Learn more about Garett at https://www.linkedin.com/in/garett-howardson-39895b16/ Check out his research here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Garett_Howardson In this episode, we discuss the benefits of CEO peer groups. Here is a blog post about the concept: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/10/01/heres-why-professional-peer-groups-are-worth-the-investment/#5bb1b7a2a8bb Some general examples of these are (note: these aren't endorsements - we are fans of the concept, but not of any one organization - please do your own homework and explore if such a group might be a good fit for you): https://www.10xfactory.com/ceo-peer-groups https://ceoglobalnetwork.com/ https://incceoproject.com/ And many are industry specific, including: IT industry: http://www.msp-ignite.com/peer/IT%20Company/ Building/Construction: http://www.abcwestwa.org/Resources/Peer-Groups Auto retail: https://www.nada.org/20Group/ We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your questions in a future episode.

EP-34 Mini: Minimum Viable Product (MVP) One of the BIG mistakes I made in my first start-up was we did not test the market early. We got the product 80% "right" and were out of money and the customers were not buying. Lesson learned for sure! What are the key points of MVP? •Test your product concept EARLY using a prototype! Could be a bare-bones version, a mock-up, •Listen and learn...get out of your co-working space, garage, etc. and go to where your customers are. •Validate...you are not your customer...show that real customers find your product/service valuable by using your product. •Be agile...iterate quickly...use the feedback you get to improve your product. •Be nimble, be willing to experiment at high speed.What do you get by doing this... Lower your customer acquisition costs for early customers (you've already reached them!) You reduce the chances of making big mistakes with your product You generally actually reduce the time to market. You accelerate learning. You become better at adapting to future change...this is a mindset as well as a set of skills! We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com We will answer your questions in a future episode. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike This podcast is produced by Bizi Media, they can be found at www.bizimedia.co

As the economy becomes more and more digital, the percentage of the workforce working remotely keeps increasing. In this mini-episode we discuss the advantages and challenges in having remote Employees. This is a great way for entrepreneurs to hire the best talent, regardless of their location. It is also a way to reduce start-up costs and remain very flexible. Managing remote employees also have some additional challenges and will require some planning. So join us in this informative discussion. We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com We will answer your questions in a future episode. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike This podcast is produced by Bizi Media, they can be found at www.bizimedia.co

Can entrepreneurship be considered a career path for college students in the US? Will Miles tells his story, shares his lessons learned, and discusses his goals to become an entrepreneur in the world of financial services. Join us and listen to Will tell us about the ups and downs of balancing life as a young entrepreneur with being a full-time college student. It's a fascinating story that mixes snowstorms, venture capital, a change of scenery, and fishing, all in under 40 minutes! Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy this week's episode, Bela and Mike We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your questions in a future episode.

What happens when you find yourself in a situation where the stable, traditional business you are running is being disrupted? One such industry undergoing significant disruption is higher education. On paper, a small school in a small town in northern New York, should be in trouble. Dr. Anthony Collins, President of Clarkson University talks about being entrepreneurial within a university. Join us to hear Tony's story about immigrating from Australia and working through the professorial ranks at Clarkson to become one of its longest serving presidents. How is Tony transforming Clarkson to stay relevant, unique, and valuable in a changing market and how is he setting up Clarkson for the future? Please join us and listen to his story. Thanks for listening, Bela and Mike Learn more about what Tony has built at http://www.clarkson.edu We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at bela.and.mike@gmail.com - we will answer your questions in a future episode.