Just Go Grind

Chelsey Roney is the Co-Founder and COO of Proxi, the geospatial powerhouse behind transformative, human-centered interactions with the real world making mapping and crowdsourcing geographic data accessible to everyone. Their no-code platform allows users to create, customize and embed highly interactive maps into social media accounts, websites, and apps. Enabling and hosting this curated content will power future tech-enabled, location-based experiences for both brands and individuals in the creator economy. Chelsey is a serial entrepreneur, a passionate business builder, and a marketing expert. After graduating from Texas A&M, Chelsey joined Boeing where she worked in financial planning and analysis and Microsoft where she worked in a demand center that focused on B2B omnichannel marketing. She grew and sold two businesses: a SaaS business in the University space, and a local services business. Chelsey is also an active member of her community, dedicated parent, and passionate supporter of women and business. Her persistence, attention to detail, and deep knowledge of finance and marketing have helped Proxi grow more than 100% month over month. Topics Covered by Chelsey Roney in this Episode What Proxi is and how the idea was born from the first pandemic Halloween in 2020 The evolution of Proxi’s crowdsourced mapping tool Deciding to raise VC and applying to Techstars Going full-time with Proxi The experience of going through Techstars and the value it provided Techstars’ Mentor Madness Raising a $1.2M VC round and the different expectations between being VC-backed, debt-backed, and bootstrapping Deciding to work with Leslie Feinzaig of Graham & Walker The big vision for Proxi and their pitch to investors Taking on Yelp and Google Maps The challenge of customer acquisition and narrowing down their ideal customer profile with such a large range of use cases Evolution and flexibility in Proxi’s business model Prioritizing hiring and marketing with the VC funds they raised Where they’ve focused their marketing allocations and navigating different strategies How they’re approaching product-led growth How they prioritize feedback about which new features to build and why they’re incorporating accounts into their product Why Chelsea loves entrepreneurship and how she finds balance and implements boundaries A special announcement about what’s next for Proxi Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Analisa Goodin is the founder and CEO of Catch+Release, a venture-backed startup that supports brands in building authentic, award-winning ad campaigns, while ensuring the creators are being compensated for their work. Catch+Release is a collaborative creative platform that helps storytellers curate and license Found Content from anywhere on the internet, solving a specific problem that touches almost every creative, producer and content creator in the production industry today: making it easy to discover the best content from the open web, and making it available for licensing to agencies and brands worldwide. Analisa took a unique path to get to where she is today and admirably stayed true to herself and her passions. While many business leaders have their MBA, Analisa is passionate about the arts and holds her Masters of the Arts. She spent several years in the creative ad world focused on image research. During her time in the agency world (at firms like Goodby, Silverstein & Partners) and as the leader of her own agency, she was able to understand the key pain points - that she would eventually go on to solve - firsthand. She has raised more than $26M from top venture capitalists at leading firms like Accel for her revolutionary technology that for the first time gives brands a way to leverage found content, meaning content that already exists on the internet today, uploaded by creators, including directors, photographers, producers, entrepreneurs, and everyday people. Over the years she has grown the company to include an amazing team of curators, licensing experts, engineers, product designers, and project managers. They relieve headaches for the best agencies and buyers around, including Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Anomaly, Goodby, Silverstein&Partners, Weiden+Kennedy, and more. Topics Covered by Analisa Goodin in this Episode What Catch+Release is and how they’re licensing the internet Catch+Release’s orgin story and where Analisa came up with the company’s name The evolution of Catch+Release’s product and vision as the creator economy has exploded The importance of early conversations with stakeholders The timeline from bootstrapping to seed round funding How Analisa approached fundraising and network building with minimal context as a first-time founder Company growth after raising a seed round and navigating the difference between Founder and CEO roles How and why Analisa incorporated improv as a key element in team-building What has fueled Catch+Release’s growth and how that has shifted over the years How they’re approaching expanding their customer base today Catch+Release’s re-launch and re-brand Analisa’s journey from creative to tech startup founder Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Herb Coakley is the Founder and CEO of Courial, a last-mile courier service that’s empowering gig workers nationwide with their people-first approach to technology. Created by gig-workers for gig-workers, their state of the art technology has modernized the courier industry by allowing any business or person to seamlessly connect with their community of on-demand couriers to deliver anything. They’re on a mission to change the on-demand gig economy paradigm. Better pay, true partnership, live dispatch support, paid PTO, transparency and a seat at the table, while reducing CO2 emissions in their communities. Herb is a serial entrepreneur, former physicist and film producer, with degrees from Howard University, UCLA and Columbia University. He’s also a self-taught developer, designer and former gig-economy driver with over 20,000 gigs. At his previous start-up, he created technology that allowed seamless app switching for gig drivers, enabling them to earn much more money while drastically reducing distracted driving. He is now considered an evangelist in the on-demand, gig economy sector, a distinction that has earned the admiration and trust of gig drivers nationwide. Topics Covered by Herb Coakley in this Episode How Courial is empowering frontline communities and gig workers Herb’s journey from physicist to filmmaker to entrepreneur Courial’s origin story and getting investors & the connection into Y Combinator while driving for Uber From stealth mode to launching their MVP and participating in climate tech incubator Elemental Courial's core concept, pivoting from B2C to B2B, and serving a variety of stakeholders Doing good while doing well What Herb learned from his first business as an inexperienced founder and going through Y Combinator How Herb taught himself to code How Herb has leveraged inexperienced talent How they’re diversifying investors Launching in new markets Herb’s unorthodox approach to being a people-first tech company Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Josh Dorkin is the Founder, former CEO (2004 - 2018), former podcast host, and current board member of BiggerPockets, a complete resource for learning and succeeding in real estate investing, bringing education, support, and tools together in one place. Aspiring and experienced investors alike can tap into the knowledge of more than 2 million members, and learn from content spanning across podcasts, blog, webinars, videos, virtual bootcamps, and more. BiggerPockets’ mission is to help people find personal freedom and financial flexibility through real estate investing. Josh created the platform in 2004 to create a place where investors could learn, network, market and make deals in a safe online environment. Growing, bootstrapping, and exiting BiggerPockets after 14 years taught him innumerable lessons. He overcame the countless challenges and learned how to build a nationally recognized brand, launch products, build teams, create partnerships, remain profitable (every year since launch), fail fast and pivot, challenge the status quo, and much more, ultimately helping to transform how real estate investors connect, collaborate, partner, and learn via best in class web, mobile, audio, and video content. Topics Covered by Josh Dorkin in this Episode Josh’s background and why he originally started BiggerPockets in 2004 The journey from almost quitting to growing and scaling to a successful exit Why Josh waited 8 years to hire his first employees and his advice for other founders Hiring his first employee directly from the BiggerPockets community The evolution of creating engaging content and expansion into different media platforms The “chicken or the egg” challenge of building a thriving community and being selective about partnerships What drove Josh to persevere throughout a decade of challenges even when he wanted to quit The tipping point Josh came to once he hired middle management and began to establish infrastructure within the company What Josh attributes BiggerPockets’ success to Josh’s thoughts on investing in the current real estate market Josh’s perspective on defining success How and why Josh got involved in startup investing Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Linda Lian is the CEO and Co-Founder of Common Room, the first and only intelligent community growth platform that gathers community engagement, product usage, and customer data into a single place. They use intelligence to surface insights from across your entire community and provide tools to act on those insights directly from the app. This allows teams to discover what’s most important, nurture key personas, measure the impact of their programs, and collaborate across their organization. They’ve raised over $50 million from top-tier investors including Greylock, Index, and Madrona to build the community platform for modern SaaS companies. They’re also backed by 25+ operators from community-first organizations such as Stripe, Airtable, Slack, Notion, Loom, and more. Topics Covered by Linda Lian in this Episode Common Room as an intelligent community growth platform serving modern software companies Common Room’s origin story and building a product to enable this new engagement model Idea evolution on the path to product market fit and getting feedback from early stakeholders before building anything Navigating foundational pivots How the pandemic and the current market correction have fueled Common Room’s growth The 3 main buckets of Common Room’s ideal users and their primary use-cases Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Ryan Buick is the Co-Founder of Canvas, a collaborative data exploration tool for business teams to automate manual reporting, build dashboards, and answer ad-hoc questions without SQL. Growing up in San Francisco, Ryan watched the technology industry explode in his hometown and always wanted to be a part of it. He started out his career as a Marketplace PM helping SaaS vendors distribute their products through third-party channels at AppDirect. Then he joined Flexport as one of their first PMs to help digitize the world of trade. It was there that he saw how spreadsheets could be used as an interface for anyone, regardless of technical ability, to access data. This led him to start Canvas, a data exploration tool for business teams to make decisions without SQL. Topics Covered by Ryan Buick in this Episode What Canvas does for operators The pain point Canvas is solving and their origin story Getting the first customers for Canvas The early product and the challenges they faced in its evolution Simultaneously fundraising and building an MVP Implementing feedback from early adopters Canvas’ business model and determining pricing Leveraging unique market positioning Fueling growth and content creation’s value accruement How Canvas serves existing data teams and enables early-stage startups to get data-driven Transitioning from product management to founding a startup Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Harry Campbell is the Founder & CEO of The Rideshare Guy: a blog, YouTube channel, podcast, course, and book for Uber and Lyft drivers and others in the gig economy, dedicated to empowering them and helping them earn more money by working smarter, not harder. His content reaches hundreds of thousands of drivers per month, with over 80,000 e-mail subscribers. Harry also works with start-ups and F500 companies on marketing, consulting, advising and more. He’s the only person to have driven for Uber and also interviewed their CEO. Over the past 5+ years, he has talked to over 50,000 drivers. Harry started driving for Uber and Lyft all the way back in 2014 and after a year of part-time driving, left his job as an aerospace engineer to cover the industry full-time through his blog The Rideshare Guy. Topics Covered by Harry Campbell in this Episode What The Rideshare Guy is Why Harry loves working online in content and media Making his first dollar online  Harry’s business model and approach to value creation and capture How Harry ended up in online marketing The journey to becoming a full-time entrepreneur and the early days of The Rideshare Guy Strategies Harry has used to grow The Rideshare Guy and knowing when to scale Harry’s hacks to finding high-quality, reliable content contributors Balancing high-performing versus long-lasting content on different channels Reaching sustainable revenue, hacking the referral system, and diversifying revenue streams The Rideshare Guy’s business model Navigating the world of SEO Building a lifestyle business and Harry’s approach to entrepreneurship Harry’s journey investing in startups Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Yassamine Ebadat is the Co-Founder and CEO of Vityl, an employee engagement SaaS solution designed to foster a foundational culture of belonging and drive stronger business performance. Vityl leverages machine learning to connect survey data to automated goals and nudges that inspire greater feelings of acceptance, recognition and connection in the workplace. Vityl was founded by a team of human capital consultants with an acute understanding of their users' pain points. With experience guiding landmark companies through organizational transformations, they saw an opportunity to deliver a simple solution to complex culture challenges. Prior to Vityl, Yassamine brought HR leadership experience and strong communication skills to her advisory work with clients as a Partner at Greater Human Capital. Previously, she served as the Director of People and Culture at Echo Energy in Oklahoma City, where she led the HR department; optimized recruiting, onboarding, and performance management processes; and served as a strategic advisor to the C-suite. She has also worked in employee engagement, social impact, and communications at JPMorgan Chase, Macmillan Publishers, and Publicis Groupe. Yassamine earned her Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, with a concentration in Social Enterprise Administration. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from The George Washington University. Topics Covered by Yassamine Ebadat in this Episode How Vityl is transforming how people build culture together while growing individually Vityl’s origin story and Yassamine’s journey to becoming a founder Developing Vityl’s big vision Product development for Vityl’s platform Getting their first users and launching beta testing Yassamine’s first experience fundraising Yassamine’s advice on fundraising for other founders Navigating the advice of others while trusting your gut Growing Vityl’s team, hiring technical talent as a non-technical founder, and being deliberate about culture-building Vityl’s evolving business model and pricing Vityl’s GTM strategy Their community-based organic approach to sales Leading with persona vs. product What’s on the horizon for Vityl Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Justine Palefsky and Tas Amina, Co-Founders of Kindred, share insights on their intentional partnership, lessons from early failures, organic growth, pricing strategy, fundraising tips, navigating an unpredictable market, and future plans for their home swapping network.

Adam Nash is the Co-Founder and CEO of Daffy, a not-for-profit organization with the simple idea that everyone should put something aside for those less fortunate than themselves. The Daffy community is built around a new, modern platform for giving, one built around the commitment to give, not the amount you give. It empowers people to be more generous, more often through a seamless mobile experience that helps members set money aside, watch it grow tax-free, and donate to more than 1.5 million charities. Adam is a proven advocate for development of products that go beyond utility to delight customers. At Dropbox, he led the teams responsible for growth, product strategy, product management & product analytics for a platform with over 600 million registered users with responsibility for all of Dropbox self-service revenue (~90% of all company revenue in 2019). Before Dropbox, Adam served as the President & CEO of Wealthfront, where for four years he championed the creation of a new category of automated investment services. Prior to joining Wealthfront, Adam was Vice President of Product Management at LinkedIn. Adam led LinkedIn’s Platform & Mobile products, including the launch of LinkedIn’s open developer platform and their highly successful native applications and mobile web experiences. Prior to joining LinkedIn, Adam held a number of leadership roles at eBay, including Director of eBay Express, an innovative new site focused on new, fixed-price products. Previously, Adam also held strategic and technical roles at Atlas Venture, Preview Systems and Apple. Topics Covered by Adam Nash in this Episode Daffy’s founding story and Adam’s background in FinTech Why Adam decided to pursue entrepreneurship The pros and cons of building in stealth mode Daffy’s disruptive business model The challenge of onboarding investors given Daffy’s disruptive and mission-vision model The generosity gap and how research around giving and personal finance has influenced Daffy How they’ve approached growing Daffy Adam’s view on the lack of personal finance & giving education in the U.S. and potential solutions Recently added features to Daffy and what’s next for the company Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212