How One of New York's Hottest Coworking Spaces Got Started

General Assembly is unique among coworking spaces. In addition to providing a meeting and working space for entrepreneurs, founders Brad Hargreaves, Adam Pritzker, Jake Schwartz and Matthew Brimer deliberately built the space using a campus model. Their goal was to provide a space that went beyond a meet and work place and offered a space for hackers and designers to hone their skills. Their unique, mixed-use building offers a classes in design and and software development in addition to private and open spaces for entrepreneurs to collaborate, work and learn.

In this interview with General Assembly co-founder Brad Hargreaves learn how the space got started, how they designed their curriculum and hear Hargreaves talk about his broader views on the current startup landscape.

You can view the video here on Venture Studio.

General Assembly

 

How a Startup is Revolutionizing the Outdoor Ad Space

When a client at his creative firm asked to buy outdoor ad space adjacent to locations of every Bed, Bath and Beyond store in New York City, John Laramie realized how inefficient the outdoor ad buying process was. In order to scout the locations for his client, he had to get on his bicycle and physically pedal to every store in the city. With his legs aching, and sensing that there had to be a smarter way to do it, he founded ADstruc, an online buying platform for outdoor advertising.

Laramie and his team built a viable platform and applied for admission at TechStars Boulder. They were admitted, moved to Colorado for three months and graduated with a term sheet in hand. Though the sheer amount of advice from mentors can be overwhelming, Laramie and his team agree that they are better off after going through the program.

Check out our interview with Laramie and learn about his tips for communicating with investors (hint: build a relationship before you’re ready to ask for financing), what investors look for in a company at the seed stage and how ADstruc educates potential buyers before selling to them.

Just click here to see the interview on Venture Studio.

Thanks to Mike Brown, Jr. for hosting our shoot at AOL Ventures.

 

 

Laramie - AdStruc

 

 

How a Professional Pain Point Led to a Disruptive Business Idea

Look books are the traditional, non-digital, paper catalogs that fashion designers use to show off their designs to magazine writers and editors. Fed up with the cumbersome process of having to look through every page to find the right item, Meggan Crum envisioned a website where she could just click on the items she needed via an online shopping-style web site, and have them delivered to her. She ran the idea by her colleague and good friend, Mandy Tang, who was getting her MBA at Columbia. The two then decided to found The Runthrough, a site that is shaking up the editorial side of the fashion industry.

Check out our interview on Venture Studio with Mandy and Meggan to learn how they launched using Lean Startup principles, the challenges of running a company with two co-founders and how they go their business off the ground. 

Runthrough

How a Niche Email Newsletter Grew to a Million Subscribers

CEO Geoff Bartakovics launched Tasting Table in 2008, to bring the world of niche and gourmet dining to discerning foodies. Four years, five cities and one million subscribers later, Tasting Table is becoming the de facto insider’s guide to adventurous dining.

Check out our interview with Bartakovics to find out how Tasting Table is distinguishing itself in the already-crowded online food recommendation market, what he’s learned (the hard way) about proper money management and what some of his most recent challenges have been (hint: the not-so-glamorous side of scaling a company).

You can the watch whole video on Venture Studio.

Tasting Table - Typepad
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How 4 Business Students Took on the Eyewear Industry

When four friends met in business school and discovered they shared a common problem — an aversion to paying hundreds of dollars for eyeglasses — they realized there was a business opportunity in it. The group founded Warby Parker, an innovative startup that aims to revolutionize how people buy eyeglasses. Warby sells directly to the public, via their website, allowing them to bypass retailers and sell their frames and lenses for $95.

  Check out the Venture Studio interview with Dave Gilboa, Warby Parker’s co-founder and co-CEO and learn how the company is disrupting the eyewear industry, similar to the way Netflix crashed the video rental market. Dave also talks about some of the company’s early growing pains, including having to put 20,000 customers on a waiting list and why Google shut down his company’s email servers.

You can watch the interview by clicking on the photo below.


Warby Parker - TypePad

How a Handful of Small Investors Built Silicon Valley

Venture capitalist Paul Holland isn’t just a general partner at Foundation Capital, he’s also a documentarian. He produced Something Ventured, a documentary that explores the origins of the tech startup economy in Silicon Valley. The movie was inspired by a conversation he had with Bill Edwards, a man who helped found the modern-day California venture capital business model. Something Ventured debuted at SXSW 2011 and should be available next year on Netflix, a company in which Holland is an investor.

Check out the interview to learn Holland’s view on investing in clean tech and what he’s focusing his investments on right now. He also has the greenest custom home in the U.S., which is net energy positive, meaning it creates more energy than it uses. A huge advocate for student entrepreneurship, Holland describes how student entrepreneurs should be thinking and talks about two students who he met and later funded, that went on to run a billion-dollar energy company.

Just click on the pic to watch the video on Venture Studio.

Paul Holland - Typepad
  

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

How a First-Time Entrepreneur Built a Top-Grossing Ipad App

Comics by Comixology has become the de facto tablet reading platform for comic books. That only happened because Comixology CEO David Steinberger spent time learning the business of comics before figuring out how to digitize it. “We took the time to understand where the market was and that you couldn’t just plow digital into it,” said Steinberger.

Watch the interview with Steinberger to learn how failing at a business plan competition helped him refine the business for success, how he positioned the company to quickly cut deals with the giants of the space and learn why he created two distinct business plans for his company prior to launching his app.

Just click on the photo to watch the video.

Steinberger - Comixology Typepad

Can You Teach Entrepreneurship?

Can you teach entrepreneurship? Bestselling author Eric Ries thinks so. He also thinks that entrepreneurship must be taught to more people if the American economy is to successfully pivot to a post-manufacturing world. According to Ries, we’ve gotten so efficient at manufacturing that even though we’re making more stuff than ever before, there are less jobs available to do it. That’s why economic survival lies in our ability to better teach the business of creativity and entrepreneurship.

Ries’ new book, The Lean Startup, has climbed to #2 on the NY Times Bestseller List, in the “Advice and Misc.” category. In the book, Ries talks about his strategies for running a successful startup, which are based on the “lean manufacturing” process that originated with Toyota.

Check out our interview with Ries for his advice on the metrics that entrepreneurs should really be paying attention to, why he thinks job titles are irrelevant in the startup world and how the lean startup model helped Instagram pivot to its present business model.

Just click on the pic to see the whole interview at Venture Studio.

Eric Ries - 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 

Crowdsourced Kitchen: How Two Journalists Made Cooking Social Again

Food journalists, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, met while working together on the New York Times Cookbook. As they wrote the book, the noticed a shift in the online foodie community from content consumption to creation and hatched an idea for a crowdsourced site that would act as a filter for all that content. That idea led to the launch of Food 52, an online community for food enthusiasts.

Watch the interview to learn about how their site takes advantage of crowdsourcing, partnered with Whole Foods and the importance of communicating an idea to investors.

Click on the picture to see the full video!

  Food-52-TypePad


Startup Revenue: From Zero to $1 Million in a Year

When Shane Snow co-founded Contently a year ago he had just 48 cents in his bank account. Fast forward to the end of 2011 and the startup is on track to clear over $1 million in revenue.

Watch Shane’s interview to hear about his experience going through the TechStars mentorship program, raising money and how his experience of losing a big sale helped him better understand Contently’s business model.

Click on the photo to watch the whole interview on Venture Studio!

Shane-Snow-Typepad


The Remarkable Story of How Klout Got Started

While recuperating after having his jaw wired shut, Joe Fernandez had to rely on Twitter and Facebook to communicate. Unable to speak to anyone, he noticed how online communication influenced his personal network and set out to create a website that could measure word of mouth and how it scaled.

That website is what we know today as Klout, where Fernandez is CEO. In the video above, Fernandez shares his story with Venture Studio.

Click on the photo to watch the whole interview at Venture Studio!

  Klout-Founder-Typepad

 

 

How a Harvard Dropout Raised $24 Million in a Recession

 

Since Alexa von Tobel dropped out of Harvard Business School to create LearnVest in late 2009, her personal finance startup has attracted more than 100,000 users and raised $24.5 million in funding.

Von Tobel stopped by Venture Studio to talk about her story, as well as shed light on LearnVest’s latest feature, Career Bootcamp, which teaches users how to negotiate a salary and to how to make sure they’re in the right job. She also spoke about her inspiration for LearnVest, why she dropped out of Harvard in the middle of a recession and what advice she’d give to those who are just starting their own businesses.

The whole interview is on Venture Studio, just click on the photo to check it out.

Alexa-Von-Tobel-Typepad

 

Venture Studio (27): Sachin Kamdar, CEO Parse.ly

Parsely

I met with Sachin Kamdar recently, CEO of Parse.ly. In essence the company allows online publishers to optimize their existing content through personalization. Users get to visit their favorite news sites, but with Parse.ly those sites now understand the tastes of their readers and can deliver more relevant content to them. Their products have already driven millions of clickthroughs for their customers and their newest product, Dash, now tracks over 500 million pageviews a month and is growing rapidly. 

Sachin and his co-founder Andrew Montalenti have a great story- and they way they've stuck together through thick and thin, their inventiveness, willingness to adapt to the needs of the market is simply awesome.

My favorite line was: "... get product market fit, gain the domain expertise, be persistent and eventually you get there..."

Enjoy

00:10 What is Parse.ly?

00:23 Their new analytics system: Parse.ly Dash (capturing >300 million page views per month)

00:56 The origins of the company, how the cofounders literally worked nightly to figure out what they should do (while holding down day jobs), and eventually got into DreamIT Ventures accelerator

2:23:  Their funding story (Blumberg Capital, ff Ventures, Scott Becker and other angels)

3:25:  The challenges they encountered prior to receiving funding, ie. doing consulting on the side to help bootstrap the company, etc! What qualities Sachin thinks it takes to succeed

 

Screen shot 2011-11-16 at 8.47.45 AM (2)

Venture Studio (26): John Frankel, Founding Partner, ff Venture Capital

Ff

I recently had the pleasure of visiting with John Frankel, founding partner of ff Venture Capital, at their beautiful new NYC headquarters.

Originally from England and with 21 years at Goldman Sachs under his belt John brings an unconventional background to the table as a venture capitalist. Yet his approach is not what one might expect upon hearing this singular detail.  I learned, for example, that he's been actively investing in early stage startups (such as Quigo (sold to AOL) and Cornerstone onDemand (now CSOD on NASDAQ) for well over a decade before finally deciding to leave GS and starting his own fund full-time. I also learned that he has a unique (and refreshing) sense of the notion of "risk" in the realm of early-stage investing. Lastly, I learned that he's immensely thoughtful about the macro trends and forces at play in and around the tech space- not surprising from a guy who studied philosophy at Oxford.

Anyway- my favorite line was when he said in a tongue & cheek way that during all those years at the bank he was asking himself what he wanted to do "when he grew up". Looking at ff's formidable portfolio and the amount of fun he's having working with great entrepreneurs who want to change the world- it seems that he's found his calling.

Enjoy!


00:05    Coming to VC from  a so-called non-traditional background

01:32     Transitioning from angel investing to full-time venture investing

02:23     John's great and original take on the notion of early-stage investing being "risky"!

03:21     What motivates him as an investor? (Some great stuff here) "A better education than he received at Oxford"... "Working with great entrepreneurs who   want to change the world"

04:19     John's take on where things are going and all the "bubble talk" these days

05:50    "We continue to see an unbelievable number of amazing companies"

06:22     On getting in touch with @ffventure  (warm intros please!)

 

For the full interview click on the image of John just below: 

Screen shot 2011-10-25 at 9.05.44 AM

 

Venture Studio (25): Ari Rabban, CEO of Phone.com

Phonedotcom

I recently sat down with Ari Rabban, CEO of Phone.com, a company that offers cost-effective VOIP phone solutions and services to the SOHO market (small office/home office). Phone.com is a portfolio company of ff Venture Capital in New York City.

Ari is an experienced entrepreneur and it was great to get his take on what founders should look for in a partner and some advice he has for first-time entrepreneurs. Enjoy

00: 12      What is Phone.com

00:42      How the service works

01:39       How they got into the business

02:29       Ari talks about some of the things you need to get right as an                           entrepreneur

03:42       What he looks for in a partner 

For the full interview click on the image of Ari just below:

  Ari

 

 

Venture Studio (24): Paul Gollash, CEO of Voxy

  Logo_voxy

 

Hope you enjoy my recent interview with Paul Gollash, CEO of Voxy- a language learning company with a uniquely practical, mobile & real-world model. Paul recently closed on a Series A round of $2.8million from Seavest, Countour Ventures and FF Venture Capital- and he's hiring!

00:11   Paul describes what Voxy is

00:29  How does the service work?

00:58  Some examples/use-cases

01:48  Where they are in the fundraising process?

02:45   What are the big challenges for him as an entrepreneur?

03:52   What's next for Voxy? (They are hiring!)

 

For the full interview click on the image of Paul just below:

Screen shot 2011-10-03 at 9.23.43 PM

Venture Studio (23): Neil Capel, CEO of Sailthru

Sailthru

I sat down recently with Neil Capel, CEO of SailThru, a company that was born out of a need for a higher standard of email delivery. We met at his offices @ AOL Ventures.

In our conversation Neil describes how he went from consultant at Morgan Stanley just a few years ago to founding a company that will soon be expanding globally. He takes us through his experience of first bootstrapping his company and building a team, to raising a seed round last year, to their $8 million Series A round.

He also gives specific advice to folks like himself who have the entrepreneurial drive- but who are working in large company environments.

Enjoy.

00:06 – What is Sailthru and how does it work?

01:14 – How Neil started out

01:36 – The story of Sailthru's scrappy beginnings, bootstrapping, credit cards, moonlighting, etc.

03:03 – Their first round: all NYC investors: AOL Ventures, RRE, Metaphorphic, Thrive, Lehrer Ventures, DFJ Gotham

03:21 – The big secret in building a team!

03:54 – Something about their customers

04:03 - What's next for Sailthru

04:45 - Neil's awesome advice for entrepreneurs that are just starting out! (Going full force!)

For the full interview click on the image of Neil just below:

 

Screen shot 2011-09-23 at 2.21.38 PM