Start-Ups

Why Good Entrepreneurs Borrow, Great Ones Steal

Fabrice Grinda is the CEO of OLX, one of the largest classified websites in the world, and he’s very excited about the emerging digital markets Russia and Brazil. His company, which he describes as Craiglist 2.0 for the rest of the world, is rapidly expanding there, and as a tech investor he’s putting money into startups from those countries, as well.

“These are two of the hottest Internet markets in the world right now,” said Grinda, who notes that GDP growth is fueling similar growth in the digital sector in these emerging markets.

In additional to his views on Brazil and Russia, watch our interview with Grinda to hear his thoughts on why he considers himself an entrepreneurial thief, what he considers when deciding to fund a company, what the “secret sauce” is for running a successful consumer Internet company and tell the story of how he went from being broke in 2001, to being a successful startup founder and prolific investor just a decade later.

Just click on the pic below to watch the whole interview!

Fabrice Grinda - Typepad

Turning Social Data Into Real Life Connections

Social media has made the world smaller — thanks to sites like Facebook, we’re all a couple degrees closer to each other. But are those new connections extending beyond the virtual space? An ambitious mobile app called Sonar aims to use the vast amounts of social data we’ve put on the web to connect people offline through location, mutual friends or mutual interests.

Check out our interview with Sonar founder Brett Martin to learn how he wants to democratize the meeting space, the perks he offers to entice new hires, some of the challenges he faces as an entrepreneur and how growing up in the popular vacation community of Ocean City, MD and making friends with complete strangers inspired him to pursue the creation of an app that helps you realize your online connections in the “real world.” 

Click on the picture to see the whole video at Venture Studio! 

 

Brett Martin TypePad