Just Go Grind

Kirsten Baumberger is the Co-Founder and Director of Partnerships at minisocial.io, a User Generated Content platform that facilitates the production of UGC on-demand and at scale. mini works with top D2C brands and agencies including DoorDash, Sanzo, Native, JAJA, Pattern brands, and Olipop to generate fully-licensed UGC via micro influencer activations on TikTok and Instagram. Kirsten has been featured in Forbes, AdWeek, The New York Times, Thrive Global, and Business Insider. In her journey of entrepreneurship, Kirsten has developed relationships with international brands and has been recognized as a young trailblazer within her industry. Beyond mini, Kirsten is passionate about helping young women and fellow entrepreneurs succeed. Topics Covered by Kirsten Baumberger in this Episode The origin story of minisocial From Bootstrapping for the first year to raising funds through VC How minisocial executed cold outreach Minisocial’s tools for brands Partnering brands with micro- and nano- influencers who are building quality content and community How minisocial is approaching growth through advertising partners today Leveraging newsletters and podcasts to expand their reach Focusing on D2C E-Commerce brands Growing minisocial’s team Hiring a technical team as non-technical founders Working with their advisor Emmett Shine Being a user-friendy “anti-platform” Deciding which VCs and angel investors to work with Lolita Taub’s newsletter How they’re using the capital raised with Hustle Fund to execute on their vision How Kirsten and her co-founder applied their learnings from running a small agency to building minisocial Managing clients’ expectations How Kirsten uses the pressure of investors’ expectations as motivation Kirsten’s advice for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital Finding investors who provide you with the right kind of pressure through aligned values What’s next for minisocial and their big vision   Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

JP Fatta is a serial entrepreneur with multiple startups including health, entertainment and Cannabis related businesses. He is currently the CEO of Kush Klubs, the first monthly Cannabis Network, Fintech & Subscription-Based Membership Club. Members gain access to a gram or more a day, every day of the month, up to 365 days a year. Kush Klubs works with dispensaries in their network to bring members below market rates while helping dispensaries grow their customer base. As a socially conscious brand, they see their role in the Cannabis space to negotiate for the people, empower local businesses, advocate for minority owners and lobby for decriminalization. If you’re interested in their mission, check out: https://wefunder.com/kushklubs Topics Covered by JP Fatta and Bryce Petty in this Episode How JP decided to start Kush Klubs How regulations within the cannabis industry affected the development of their idea through various iterations and how they found their entry point into the market How Bryce got involved in the cannabis industry and with Kush Klubs Overcoming the cultural taboo around cannabis use Deciding to crowdfund, the benefits of this method, and how they chose the WeFunder platform How they’ve approached growth and overcoming the challenges that come with the nature of their business Finding their dispensary partners and building trust with them Getting and keeping users Bryce’s view on the opportunities in the cannabis industry Creating brand loyalty and recognition through community building Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Caroline Casson is a Partner at Vitalize Venture Capital, where she spends her time sourcing potential investments, assisting portfolio companies, and managing the due diligence process for Vitalize. She also writes founder spotlights on her blog. Prior to joining Vitalize in 2018, Caroline worked for GE Ventures in San Francisco where she helped incubate and operate a startup in the drone space. Before transitioning into venture capital, Caroline worked in corporate finance for various GE businesses in Chicago, Atlanta, London, and San Francisco. Caroline received a BBA with honors in math and psychology from Boston College and a Master of Science in Management from the University of Notre Dame, where she was valedictorian of her class. Caroline is originally from Madison, Wisconsin and enjoys going home to spend time with her family whenever she can. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where she loves to bike, hike, sail, and play golf with her husband, Tom, and their dog, Sailor. Follow Caroline on Twitter: https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_ Follow Caroline on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/venturecaroline/ Topics Covered by Caroline Casson in this Episode How Caroline got her start in VC Caroline’s experience at GE Ventures and how she ended up at Vitalize Doing a cross-country bike ride with Bike & Build Caroline’s process for due diligence on a company The importance of excellent founding teams in early stage ventures How they filter through companies and decide which to invest in Where Caroline chooses to invest personally as an angel investor What makes a rock star founder Justin and Caroline’s perspective on Vitalize’s angel investor community What has helped Caroline learn and grow as an investor How she has developed her pattern recognition Caroline’s advice for founders and how to execute a successful cold outreach Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Annelise Hillmann is the co-founder of FRONTMAN, the Gen Z self-care brand for men creating a new grooming category. A story teller at heart, Annelise is an art director and designer focusing on brand identity and marketing strategy for early stage companies. She has a Harvard degree in economics and psychology and lives in Brooklyn. She co-founded FRONTMAN with Nick Bunn in 2018, and also does freelance for companies still in stealth and others post-IPO. Topics Covered by Annelise Hillmann in this Episode What FRONTMAN is and how Annelise and her co-founder Nick Bunn came up with the idea Developing the product itself and how they navigated contract manufacturing for cosmetics Using a product consultant Designing for behavior change and creating the brand for FRONTMAN Utilizing nostalgia to cultivate authenticity in brand building FRONTMAN’s go to market strategy, and what has and hasn’t worked to target Gen Z How they’ve kept their team small so far Raising a $150K pre-seed and working with Recharge Capital FRONTMAN’s fundraising journey and Annelise’s advice on raising capital How Annelise invests in her own health and wellbeing as a founder Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Joseph Heller, a true entrepreneur at heart, is the Founder and CEO of The/Studio, an on-demand manufacturing platform which is also now the parent company of Supplied, creating a network of empowered entrepreneurs through their wholesale platform for small businesses. While at UC Berkeley, Joseph raised a seed round for an e-commerce platform which sparked his early interest in technology. He believes life and entrepreneurship are a journey and that journey took him to China where he later founded a successful supply chain business. Joseph was absolutely obsessed with being part of the process of consumer products being produced, but agitated by the inefficiencies endemic in the manufacturing industry, which has changed very little in over a hundred years. As a result, Joseph founded The/Studio as a marriage between his passion for technology and manufacturing. They are creating an on-demand supply chain for the 21st Century which will democratize manufacturing, and allow their customers to manage the entire supply chain on the cloud. Topics Covered by Joseph Heller in this Episode Being a lifetime entrepreneur What Joseph’s companies The/Studio and Supplied do and how they tailor to different clients How they’re connecting small businesses with sourcing and manufacturing in China Bootstrapping to 100 employees Skipping angel and seed investing and going straight to raising a Series A Deciding to fundraise through VC and his advice on this method Initially trying to raise VC in China Why it took a challenging 18 months to raise an $11M Series A Why they decided not to participate in YCombinator after being accepted How Joseph would have fundraised differently in hindsight Early customer acquisition and growth and getting to 10M+ in revenue Joseph’s view on paid marketing and how it has shifted in recent years Utilizing social media for community building The business models for The/Studio and Supplied How their two-sided marketplace is solving the pain point of customizing products Overcoming the logistical challenges of working with factories in China Getting to profitability with The/Studio Growing Supplied 10X in 10 months How they’re prioritizing clients’ needs and deeply solving customers’ problems to create a successful B2B marketplace Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

David Perry is the CEO and Co-Founder of Carro, a new e-commerce partnership network that over 30K Shopify brands have joined, providing over 320M visitors a month. GetCarro.com helps brands gain attention, sales, and new customers by partnering with other brands in the network. Before Carro, Sony PlayStation acquired Perry's last company Gaikai to establish leadership in the future of streaming video games from the cloud. This service is called PlayStation Now. After 39 years in the business (with founding roles at companies such as Acclaim Entertainment and Shiny Entertainment, both of which were acquired by industry giants), Perry remains one of the best-known video game industry veterans, with multiple #1 hits and the Develop - Development Legend award. Topics Covered by David Perry in this Episode What Carro is now and how they’re helping companies optimize e-commerce by working together How David and his co-founder Jason Goldberg came up with the idea by leveraging the authentic relationship between influencers and brands and how that idea evolved into Carro How they overcame the challenge of getting brands onto the platform David’s insights regarding how to understand investors as a founder The obstacles they’ve confronted in building Carro Overcoming friction and the “zero click solution” David’s past companies and successful exits The importance of proving a pattern The future of merging e-commerce with social media How they’ve approached fundraising for Carro How Carro pairs brands Why Carro is focused on growing brands, not competing with them What sets Carro apart The community building element of Carro’s strategy Leveraging geography and thinking globally for growth in order to get a competitive advantage Going beyond being an entrepreneur to become an innovator How to level up in your industry How David is integrating his 30 years of gaming experience into building Carro Gamification through implementing skill, risk and strategy into your business Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Richard Mensah is the Co-Founder of EllisX, which is pioneering authentic marketing, a new market category that allows companies to increase brand awareness without hassle. Their infrastructure empowers creators and writers to connect with the best startup/tech stories. Originally from Ghana, Richard previously founded 3 startups in the Media, Adtech and HR industries, while studying for his college degree in Computer Science. His current company EllisX was selected as a finalist for the 2020 New England Innovation Awards, the oldest innovation competition in the Northeast. Richard was listed in BostInno’s 25 under 25 in 2019 and holds graduate degrees in international business and disruptive innovation. Topics Covered by Richard Mensah in this Episode How EllisX is pioneering authentic marketing   Richard’s entrepreneurial journey with 4 startups   How Richard met his co-founder Leia Ruseva and how EllisX got started   Customer discovery, the early stages of EllisX and how the concept has shifted to their current vision   Their launch on Product Hunt   EllisX’s current business model and how they developed their pricing   How they’re approaching growth through partnerships, referrals and content   How their strategy informs conversations with investors   Getting into Launch House   What the EllisX user experience is like   Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Matt Jung is an entrepreneur and generalist with over a decade of experience founding businesses and leading teams with a focus on business development, operations, marketing and brand strategy in both startup, incubator/accelerator, and corporate environments. Currently Matt is the CEO of Last Crumb, the world’s first ultra-premium luxury cookie brand. Their nostalgic flavors are upgraded with the world’s best ingredients, delivered through a premium direct-to-consumer membership with luxe packaging you can show off. Topics Covered by Matt Jung in this Episode How Matt and his team are building the world’s first ultra-premium luxury cookie brand with Last Crumb How Matt ended up as CEO of Last Crumb Developing their 12 cookie flavors Being intentional about developing a brand before going to market Creating a market and why that worked for their brand Why they chose not to test their product on consumers before launching Actively going against their investors’ advice Last Crumb’s go to market strategy and how they built an organic flywheel without any paid media Managing supply and demand for a waiting list of over 100,000 people Building an in-house cookie factory and 3PL while simultaneously creating a D2C brand Learning to scale at a feasible rate for their growth and demand while maintaining a very high quality and consistent product Growing from a mom and pop roadside bakery cart to an exclusive cookie factory Constantly improving quality to create an amazing customer experience Some ideas Matt has for the future of Last Crumb Avoiding the mistake of diversifying before scaling Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Alex Simon is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elude, a budget based travel company getting you out of your office and around the world. Alex previously worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, a career he left in 2018 to turn travel hacking into his full-time gig as an entrepreneur with his co-founder, Frankie Scerbo. Elude is a travel search engine & app that allows people to discover and book unique travel packages based only on your budget and date. Think "Where can you go next month for $700." They are internationally venture backed in LA and Singapore with angel investors throughout NY, SF, LA & UK. Topics Covered by Alex Simon in this Episode What Elude is and who it serves How the backend of the app functions How Alex and his co-founder Frankie’s personal experiences led to the founding of Elude The early days of Elude and getting their first users Jumping from two thousand to tens of thousands of customers via partnerships Transitioning out of an investment banking career into full time entrepreneurship How they approached fundraising by focusing on warm intros and direct leads Transitioning from fundraising from angel investors to raising a seed round from a fund How they allocated their seed round funding The challenges of innovating in a very established industry The consumer experience with the Elude app Organic versus paid growth and the value of partnerships Elude’s business model Building and growing a remote team Launching a travel industry startup during a global pandemic Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Rachel Sanders is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rootine, a wellness company working to optimize its users’ health and daily performance with precision nutrition. They enable individuals to leverage their personal health and nutrition data to improve how they look, feel and perform everyday with their test-take-track approach. Rachel has spent her career in high-stress roles that require her to maximize the time she has — first as an investment banker and now as a startup founder and first-time mom. Early on in her career she was suffering from burnout, fatigue, stress, and brain fog which hampered her ability to give her best every day. She turned to nutrition and fitness as a way to get more out of her day when sleep wasn’t always an option - constantly iterating on products, exercises, and ways to fuel her body to add performance gains throughout the day.   Topics Covered by Rachel Sanders in this Episode What Rootine is, what inspired Rachel to start the company and how she found her co-founder, Dr. Daniel Wallerstorfer How Rootine is empowering consumers to gain access to their health data and leverage it to improve how they feel and perform The importance of personalizing health solutions How Rootine launched and what their go to market strategy was Being a digitally native brand What differentiates Rootine amongst the competition in the 700 billion dollar global nutrition industry Their test-take-track approach Creating a strong brand The customer experience for new Rootine consumers Rootine’s business model and how they developed it How they approach expanding markets Rootine’s primary use cases Rachel’s first startup as a learning experience Rootine’s fundraising process and the importance of diversity in investors Hiring and building out the Rootine team and hiring for culture over expertise Being a values and results driven company Achieving the big mission and vision for Rootine Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212