Stay ConnectedStartup exits are the most sought after events in Silicon Valley, but very few people get to experience them. On the Startup Exits Podcast we chat with founders that started, ran and sold a tech company to learn about how it all went down.
This podcast is hosted by Andrew Vasylyk and produced by StartupSoft – visit www.startupsoft.com for more info and other great content.
Will is a tech entrepreneur with multiple exits. In late 2000s he founded Kixeye, a game studio that pioneered the free-to-play genre and dominated Facebook gaming with hit titles like War Commander, VEGA Conflict, Backyard Monsters and Battle Pirates. Will led the company to millions of users, hundreds of employees and a $120 million acquisition by Stillfront Group in 2019.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Will about:
• Launching a gaming company
• Casual vs hardcore gaming
• Dangers of relying on a single platform (Facebook)
• Monetization strategies for games
• Are gaming companies startups?
• Strategy: one hit game or multiple smaller ones?
• Future of the gaming industry
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Brett is a Silicon Valley OG and one the leading figures in the world of product design. Having founded a design studio in the 90s, Brett helped Fortune 500 companies make iconic tech products, such as the Xbox 360 and Nike's Triax watches. He then went on to start Astro Gaming, the DTC maker of what is arguably the most popular gaming headset in the world, which was acquired by Skullcandy and then by Logitech for $85 million.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Brett about:
• Why did the world need another design shop?
• Relationship with Jony Ive
• Design for startups vs big companies
• Offering a service for equity
• Moving fast vs being perfect
• How much design is copied?
• The future of AR
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
After moving to Silicon Valley, Andrew experienced the costly and painful process of fixing things around his condo. But why fix, when you can prevent? So he founded Sheltr, a "physical for your home" preventative maintenance startup that grew to become a leader in major US cities and was acquired by Hippo Insurance – all in less than a year.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Andrew about:
• Going from a personal pain point to validating the market need
• Educating your customers
• B2B and B2C strategies
• Support from being an early employee at Instacart
• The future of home maintenance
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Few people know what procurement is. But this didn't stop Chris Crane, who saw opportunity in the very outdated and incredibly inefficient world of sourcing and procurement, from trying to disrupt it. Turns out that his efforts were worth it – 5 years and hundreds of thousands users later, Scout RFP was acquired by Workday for $540 million.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Chris about:
• What is procurement and how does it work?
• Taking advantage of inefficiencies in big companies
• How to sell to huge enterprises
• Switching roles from engineering to product
• Acquisition vs IPO
• Workday – going from an investor and client to acquirer
• The future of procurement
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Launched on the day the App Store opened, Urbanspoon was one of the most iconic apps created in the early iPhone era. Having been through a few exits already, Patrick co-founded and helped to grow Urbanspoon to millions of users and a successful acquisition by IAC and Zomato.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Patrick about:
• Early days of Urbanspoon
• Startups & family: work-life balance
• How Urbanspoon was featured in Apple’s commercial
• Innovative UX or gimmick?
• Scaling a product in a paradigm shift
• Acquisition transition: founder vs employee experience
• Patrick’s new company, FreshChalk
• How do you productize personal recommendations?
• The future of word-of-mouth
Patrick is currently taking on Yelp with his new friend recommendation startup, Fresh Chalk.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Ben is a fascinating founder. Over his 15-year career as an entrepreneur, he started and sold 2 companies – Yodle to Web.com for $350 million, Opcity to Realtor.com for $200 million – and hired over 2,000 people. If you do the math, that's about $35 million in value creation and 130 new jobs per year. Crazy!
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Ben about:
• Disrupting Yellow Pages
• How to be good at sales
• How to build a 1000-person sales team
• Ben’s first exit – Web.com acquires Yodle
• Do founders need industry expertise?
• Ben’s second exit – Realtor.com acquires Opcity
• Can you buy a home without humans involved?
• Future of local advertising
Ben is currently on the executive team of Realtor.com and is an advisor to several startups.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
After finishing his MBA in South Africa and moving to China in 2006, Grant was interested in selling to the Chinese, not buying from them. He started Naked Group, a luxury brand of resorts, and Naked Hub, a community and design focused coworking company that was acquired by WeWork for $400 million after 3 years of being on the Chinese market.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Grant about:
• Startup environment in China
• Startups in US vs China
• Future of the modern office
• WeWork acquisition
• Brand building
• Disrupting education
Grant is currently focused on disrupting education and making the lives of teachers better.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
After finishing his MBA at Harvard, Josh Hix and co-founder Nick Taranto combined their passion for health and nutrition with a business opportunity and started Plated, a meal kit service company. Plated grew rapidly, became a dominant player in the industry and was acquired by Albertsons for $300 million.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Josh about:
• Do you need a business degree to start your own company?
• Should founders be passionate about the problem they’re solving?
• Is it good for a startup to have competitors?
• Startup financing: credit card debt and raising from angels
• Shark Tank experience for startup founders
• The right network and good timing can lead to an acquisition
• The future of food tech
Josh is currently laying low and exploring new startup ideas. You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Mark Volchek is an entrepreneur turned VC. While a student at Yale, Mark set out to disrupt academia by making student payments electronic. Higher One grew to a thousand employees and hundreds of millions in revenue, went public on the NYSE with a valuation of $600 million, then went back private as 3 entities that were all sold for hundreds of millions each. What a ride!
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Mark about:
• The power of connections in B2B enterprise sales
• How to measure product/market fit for a B2B company
• Distributed workforce at scale: hundreds of employees in many locations
• What’s needed for a startup to IPO?
• Running a public company vs a private company
• Going back private after being a public company
• Fundraising advice from a founder turned VC
• Finding great startups in non-obvious places
• How to approach investors as a startup founder
Mark now invests in “extraordinary people who are building the future in non-obvious places” via Las Olas, an early-stage VC firm.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Armando Biondi and Massimo Chieruzzi are Italian entrepreneurs that got tired of managing Facebook ads for their clients and decided to automate and optimize them via a SaaS product – AdEspresso. They grew AdEspresso to become world’s #1 Facebook ad tool and led the company to an acquisition by Hootsuite in 2017.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Massimo and Armando about:
• Going through 500 Startups the second time around.
• Silicon Valley vs Italy: how different are things for founders?
• What makes Silicon Valley the mecca for startups.
• What to offshore and what not to.
• The future of digital advertising: AI & automation.
• Marketing mistakes that founders make.
• Startup M&A: a step-by-step breakdown.
• Startups vs big corporations: a founder’s perspective.
Armando and Massimo now advise and invest in startups, as well as further contribute to the community via content and their involvement in 500 Startups
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
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