Just Go Grind

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

Andrew Gazdecki is the Founder and CEO of MicroAcquire, a founder-friendly startup acquisition marketplace. MicroAcquire aims to consolidate the fragmented acquisition market by giving founders and entrepreneurs a single convenient marketplace to meet, coordinate, and close acquisitions. MicroAcquire provides free and instant access to trusted and vetted buyers with total anonymity. They’re on a mission to turn founder journeys into success stories and foster the next generation of entrepreneurs. MicroAcquire has more than 100,000 registered buyers, more than 2,000 companies listed for sale, and has facilitated more than 500 deals with a combined value of more than $200 million. Andrew has been an entrepreneur for longer than he can remember. He likes to build stuff, mostly companies, and try to tell a story that goes beyond what the company does to how it’s changing markets. Prior to founding MicroAcquire, he started two companies, Bizness Apps and Altcoin.io, both acquired. He’s been featured in NYT, Forbes, WSJ, Inc.com, and Entrepreneur Magazine, as well as prominent industry blogs such as Mashable, TechCrunch and VentureBeat. Topics Covered by Andrew Gazdecki in this Episode Andrew’s background and MicroAcquire’s origin story The original vision for MicroAcquire and the tools it provides to founders and buyers MicroAcquire’s go to market strategy What has fueled MicroAcquire’s growth and Andrew’s advice for other founders Andrew’s approach to marketing Andrew’s journey from bootstrapping to fundraising Global expansion via partnership strategy How Andrew evaluates potential partners How Bootstrappers came about Andrew’s thoughts on media and brand building What’s next for MicroAcquire Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Sofiat Abdulrazaaq is the Co-Founder and CEO of Goodfynd, an on-demand marketplace for food trucks. Goodfynd enables pop-up retail and mobile vendors to connect with existing and new customers virtually by providing increased visibility and online ordering. Topics Covered by Sofiat Abdulrazaaq in this Episode How Goodfynd is supporting food truck owners and operators as a FinTech startup How the idea for Goodfynd was born out of the love of great food and wanting to find it again Shifting Goodfynd from a side hustle to her full-time job The traction they needed to transition from bootstrapping to getting Venture-backed How relationship-building fueled early growth The winding road of fundraising from accelerator to first noes to first check The process of choosing and participating in incubators and accelerators How VC funding enabled the growth and scaling of their FinTech products and services Goodfynd’s geographical expansion strategy Building the Goodfynd team with a culture-first focus The challenges and triumphs of being a first-time founder Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Eric Satz is the founder and CEO of Alto Solutions. Alto is the leading platform that empowers everyday investors to diversify their IRAs by investing in alternative assets such as private equity, venture capital, real estate, loans, and cryptocurrency. Offering traditional, Roth, SEP and Crypto IRAs, Alto is bringing alternative investments to the mainstream. Everyday investors can now easily and cost-effectively access their retirement savings to invest in assets once reserved solely for high-net-worth individuals. Investors can use their Alto IRA to invest in opportunities from their own private network or participate in deals offered by Bitwise, DiversyFund, Fundr, Masterworks, Republic, Vint, and numerous other investment platform partners. Launched in 2018 and growing fast, the Nashville-based firm is on a mission to empower people to own their financial futures by achieving true asset diversification in their retirement account portfolios. Prior to founding Alto, Eric worked in investment banking at DLJ/Credit Suisse and co-founded several companies, including: Currenex, an FX trading solution sold to State Street for more than $550M, Plumgood Food, and VC firm Tennessee Community Ventures. He served on the Board of Tennessee Valley Authority from August 2015 to January 2019. After years in New York City and San Francisco, Eric and family moved to his wife’s hometown of Nashville to raise their kids. Nowadays, his pastimes include skiing, soccer, yoga, and all too often hoping this will finally be the year for the ‘Canes and Dolphins. Topics Covered by Eric Satz in this Episode What Alto Solutions is Alto’s origin story and how Eric began to execute on the idea Why Eric decided this was a problem he had to solve Early unexpected hurdles and getting Alto off the ground The UX and investment process with Alto Partnering with Angel List Shifting their customer acquisition strategy How the evolution of different asset classes has affected Alto The importance of leveraging storytelling Lessons Eric has learned founding multiple companies How Eric evaluates investments Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212