Startup Studio

Ariba and XOJet founder Paul Touw

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:28:08 +0000

“The more you can utilize a $20 million jet, the better” says XOJet founder Paul Touw who is my guest today. He shares with us how he has built successful companies by eliminating operational inefficiencies.

In 1996, Paul founded Ariba (ARBA) with the idea of eliminating procurement inefficiency through an online marketplace. Today, Ariba is the dominant business-to-business procurement platform used by 75 percent of the Fortune 500. The company went public in 1999 at a valuation of $115 million, and today has a market cap of $950MM.

Paul’s latest venture, XOJet, offers jet fractional ownership and is tackling the $35 Billion private aviation market. The company focuses on operational scale, technology innovation and customer service; it has the highest revenue-earning utilization of any retail aircraft operator and is the most economical way to own a jet. The company’s ownership model is about 40% less expensive than jet cards, 33% less expensive than fractional solutions and 20% less than traditional ownership

Listen in to hear how Paul has transformed existing markets and created enormous opportunities.

David Hornik of VentureBlog, VentureCast, August Capital, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Law School…..

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:39:21 +0000

David Hornik is a partner at August Capital and sits on the board of directors of DoneRight, Nomis Solutions, PayCycle, Six Apart, Splunk Technology and VideoEgg. He previously served on the board of Evite which was acquired by Ticketmaster and he was a board observer with Tickle, which was later acquired by Monster. He has taught business and law internationally and is a lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. But what he is most well known for is being the first venture capitalist to begin blogging about the industry. His blog, aptly called VentureBlog, has over 50,000 subscribers which is more than the seating capacity at Fenway Park. He also hosts a podcast called VentureCast and authors several personal blogs, including SaysMe, which had me laughing out loud. Listen in to hear his advice for entrepreneurs.

Hayden Hamilton, founder of GreenPrint, ProgressiveRx.com and Progressive Health Worldwide

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:50:27 +0000

If you filled up your car’s gas tank with printer ink instead of gas, it would cost $100,000. Hayden Hamilton knew the high cost of all the wasted printed pages that sat by the print station at his office. He searched for a solution and couldnâ€™t find one, so he founded GreenPrint. The company offers software to reduce the number of unwanted pages from printing. The average Fortune 500 company using GreenPrint saves $2 million and 4,000 trees annually.

GreenPrint is not Haydenâ€™s first socially conscious venture. In college, he was frustrated with the monopoly of the campus bookstore so he started a competing co-op to allow students to sell their used books for 85% of the sale price. After college, Hayden saw family members without health insurance struggle to pay for prescription medications, so he started ProgressiveRx.com, which sources drugs from overseas and offers a low cost alternative for Americans without prescription drug benefits. He also created Progressive Health Worldwide, a non-profit that provides free pediatric tuberculosis clinics for kids in India and medications for AIDS orphans in Tanzania. Listen in to hear Hayden’s story.

Spinner Networks, Grouper, and Brondell co-founder David Samuel

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:20:48 +0000

Today my guest is serial entrepreneur David Samuel, the co-founder of Spinner Networks, Grouper, and Brondell. In 1996, two years after graduating from MIT, David pioneered Internet radio with the creation of Spinner Networks. The company was acquired three years later by AOL (AOL) for $320 million. Davidâ€™s most recent venture, Grouper Networks, which specializes in Internet video sharing, was acquired last year by Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) for $65 million. But his most unique venture is Brondell, the first American-based company to develop high-tech toilet seats. Toilets have seen little innovation in the past century and Brondell is looking to change that by offering seats with remote controlled heat, warm water spray, and dryer. Listen in to hear David’s story and his advice for entrepreneurs.

Jon Gavenman of Heller Ehrman Venture Law Group

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:42:13 +0000

My guest is Jon Gavenman, shareholder at Heller Ehrman Venture Law Group, one of the premier emerging technology law firms in the country and a recognized leader in structuring and negotiating venture capital financings. Last Year, Heller Ehrman’s clients included 22 of Red Herring magazine’s top 100 private companies. The firm has strong relationships with leading venture capitalists and is known for taking an active role in bringing together entrepreneurs and investors. Listen in to hear how the company helps entrepreneurs succeed.

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Kiptronic founder Jonathan Cobb

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 25 May 2007 21:20:18 +0000

Today my guest is Jonathan Cobb, the founder and CEO of Kiptronic. The company helps online media publishers generate revenue by providing an easy-to-use ad insertion technology platform. Last year, ad spending totaled $80 million for podcasts and $1.5 billion for online video. By 2011, those numbers are expected to grow to $400 million and $6.2 billion respectively. Kiptronic is well positioned to take advantage of this emerging market. Download the mp3 to hear how they will.

Kong Company founder Joe Markham

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 18 May 2007 08:14:45 +0000

Joe Markham’s dog Fritz liked to chew rocks. That’s right — rocks. Out of desperation to saves his dog’s teeth, Joe created the Kong, one of the most unique, successful and useful dog toys of all time. But building the Kong Company wasnâ€™t easy. When he first pitched his idea to pet store owners, they told him not to quit his day job. Fortunately he disregarded their advice and since then, over 50 million Kongs have been sold. Thatâ€™s almost one for every dog in the US. Listen in to hear how Joe did it.

Grammar Girl’s founder Mignon Fogarty

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Thu, 10 May 2007 20:50:28 +0000

In July 2006 Mignon Fogarty launched “Grammar Girlâ€™s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing,” a podcast that highlights common grammar mistakes. Since then, in under ten months, sheâ€™s been a guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the topic of articles in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BusinessWeek and CNN.com. On iTunes, her podcast has been ranked as high as #2 and her audiobook topped their best-selling list ten days after it was released. Her show has been downloaded over five million times. Listen in to hear how grammar suddenly became hip.

blip.tv co-founder Dina Kaplan

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 04 May 2007 06:03:59 +0000

Blip.tv is the video sharing website that focuses on TV style shows that are broadcast in serialized episodes. In addition to being named in Business 2.0’s list of the 25 startups to watch, Walt Mossberg wrote that it is his favorite website for original content episodic TV shows online. “WallStrip“, “Alive in Baghdad“ and “the show with zefrank” are just some of the choices you can find on blip.tv. Funded by several high profile investors including Ron Conway and Peter Thiel, the company is in an excellent position to take advantage of the next generation of video entertainment. My guest today is Dina Kaplan, one of the companyâ€™s five co-founders. Download the podcast to hear the company’s story.

ZipRealty co-founder Scott Kucirek

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 20:54:37 +0000

Scott Kucirek is the co-founder of ZipRealty (ZIPR), the online real estate brokerage company founded in 1999. Scott and his partner Juan met on their first day of business school at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. The pair ended up starting four businesses together and although the first three failed, they all evolved into what became ZipRealty. Over the next five years the company weathered the dot com bomb, raised six rounds of financing and finally went public in 2004 in a deal that was 10 times oversubscribed. Download the mp3 to hear the story.

Meebo founder Seth Sternberg

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:09:35 +0000

Meebo is a web based platform that enables instant messaging from any computer. My guest today is Seth Sternberg, one of the three co-founders. Launched in 2005 with 10,000 users on day one, the company is off to an astonishing start. It’s popularity has surged in part because it is a convenient way to overcome the technical limitations on university and corporate networks that block downloading software typically required to IM. Funded by Sequoia Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the company has grown to support 90 million daily messages and 5.5 million monthly users. Earlier this month Business2.0 dubbed Meebo one of 25 startups to watch. Tune in to hear their story.

Aggregate Knowledge co-founder Chris Law

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:41:54 +0000

Serial entrepreneur Chris Law founded Indigo Technologies, Tribe.net and Aggregate Knowledge. Tribe was recently acquired by Cisco and Aggregate Knowledge just announced a $20 million series B round. Investors include Kleiner Perkins and Josh Kopelman. Aggregate Knowledge is a web service used by online media and retailers that combines the collective behavior of other users to anticipate and surface relevant suggestions for related products and content. Overstock.com uses the service and during the 2006 holiday season, over 20% of all products purchased at the site were discovered by consumers using the new “discovery window” powered by Aggregate Knowledge. My takeaways from the interview include the importance of listening to what the market is telling you, experimenting quickly and being willing to throw away ideas that donâ€™t work. Listen in to learn from Chris’ experience.

WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:06:24 +0000

Matt Mullenweg created WordPress, the popular open source platform on which almost one million blogs are written. The growth of blogs is astonishing. Today there are over 57 million blogs total, up from zero in 2003 withÂ 100,000 new blogs added daily. Matt is an accidental entrepreneur, tune in to hear how it happened.

Employease founder Michael Seckler

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:54:02 +0000

In 1995, at the age of 22, Mike Seckler co-founded Employease, the first company to offer software-as-a-service over the internet. With only $26,000 between them, Mike and his partner quit their jobs and began building what has become the leading HR outsourcing platform that serves over one million users daily. In October of last year, after 35 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, 50% year over year growth, and estimated annual revenues of $60 million, the company was acquired by ADP. Tune in to hear how Mike and his partner did it.

Embrace Pet Insurance founder Laura Bennett

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 04:00:09 +0000

In the US, more money is spent each year on cats and dogs than on babies. My guest is Laura Bennett, the co-founder of Embrace Pet Insurance, a company that is partnering with Lloyds of London to offer health insurance for pets. The market is enormous. In the US alone, there are 73 million dogs and 90 million cats and projected annual growth of insurance premiums is 45%. Embrace Pet Insurance was launched in 2003 after Laura and her partner won the annual Wharton Business Plan Competition, beating out dozens of Internet and technology ventures. Despite this strong start, it took over three years before the company could sell their first policy. Tune in to hear how Laura persevered and made her dream a reality.

FeedBurner co-founder Matt Shobe

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:53:33 +0000

Matt Shobe is one of the co-founders of FeedBurner. Founded in 2003, FeedBurner is the leading provider of media distribution services for blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts, among other things, it enables online publishers to notify subscribers whenever new content is posted. According to Neilson/Net Ratings, FeedBurner is growing faster than MySpace and Digg with 385% traffic growth year over year. They deliver 50 million daily subscriptions to 190 countries and serve 600,000 different feeds for 350,000 publishers including Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Newsweek. This is the fourth company the four co-founders have started together. Tune in to hear how they met, and how they got to where they are today.

The Bulb Hunter aka Chris Wiesinger, founder of The Southern Bulb Company

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:17:08 +0000

The New York Times dubbed Chris Wiesinger The Bulb Hunter for his dogged commitment to uncovering lost treasures. His mission is to bring the magic of flower bulbs to the masses by searching out, rescuing and reintroducing rare and heirloom varietals long out of fashion that are resilient and easier to care for than conventional flowers. Chris is the founder and president of The Southern Bulb Company. He took his love and passion for flower bulbs and turned it into a flourishing online business. Tune in to hear he did it.

Eventbrite founder Kevin Hartz

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:00:35 +0000

Eventbrite founder Kevin Hartz is the quintessential serial entrepreneur. His most recent venture is a company that has created an online platform where users can sell tickets to events like reunions, fundraisers and classes. The small event ticket market is estimated to be in the billions with only 2% currently collected online. Other companies kevin previously founded include Connect Group which in the mid 90’s wired hotel rooms for internet access and Xoom an international online money remittance service funded by Sequoia Capital. Kevin had the insight to be an early investor in PayPal and saw firsthand how PayPal beat out dozens of competitors to emerge as the clear market leader. He is now applying the lessons learned from PayPal and his previous successful ventures to Eventbrite. Listen in to hear how Kevin and the Eventbrite team are tackling this enormous opportunity.

Ravenswood Winery founder Joel Peterson

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:00:58 +0000

Ravenswood Winery founder Joel Peterson began wine tasting at the age of 11 and had a dream to create wines in California that would rival the greatest of Europe. He turned his dream into reality in 1976 with his first vintage that won a prestigious San Francisco tasting. Even so, he kept his day job as a microbiologist for 15 years while he grew Ravenswood Winery into one of the most well known and well respected names in the industry.

Because of Ravenswood’s strong brand, Bill Hambrecht of WR Hambrecht thought it was the perfect candidate to test out his new idea for taking a company public via Dutch auction. Bill approached Ravenswood and in 1999 the company made history by becoming the first company to sell their IPO shares via auction over the internet. Two years later, the company was bought by Constellation Brands (STZ), the largest wine company in the world, for 3 times the initial IPO market cap. Tune in to hear the full story behind Ravenswood and how Joel built such a strong brand.

MerchantCircle founder Wayne Yamamoto

feedback@startupstudio.com (Betsy Flanagan) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:00:41 +0000

MerchantCircle co-founder Wayne Yamamoto started an internet media company that helps small businesses use the internet as an effective marketing channel to drive more customers and more revenue through their physical storefronts. They offer blogging and other tools to help business owners interact with, better understand and target customers. By current estimates, there are 14-25 million small businesses in the US and less than 3% are online. MerchantCircle aims to compete against the Yellow Pages for a slice of the estimated $97 Billion dollar local advertising market. Stay tuned for a glimpse into this exciting emerging market.