Kevin Siskar 10/18/16 Kevin Siskar 10/18/16

Pioneering The Social Media Frontier With Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO of Nuzzel

The godfather of social media, Jonathan Abrams, joins us on this episode of Ambition Today. He is now the founder & CEO of Nuzzel, a new platform to discover the top news from your friends and influencers. Letting users cut through the muddle of content on social media to emphasize only their most relevant content. Previously, Jonathan has founded several other companies; Socializr, HotLinks, Founder's Den and most notably Friendster. He is also a top-rated mentor at The Founder Institute and has been extensively involved in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial community for over ten years.

After growing up in Canada and working for Nortel he became an employee at Netscape during it's prime. Abrams went on to found Friendster in 2002 before the wider adoption of, at the time newcomers; MySpace (2003), Hi5 (2003), Facebook (2004) and other social networking sites. Friendster was one of the first of these sites to attain over 1 million members. In 2012, Abrams recognized a fallacy in the market of social news readers, when the programs of the time weren’t what he was looking for: fast, easy-to-use, and social. Today Jonathan talks about his solution to this problem with his new company Nuzzel, his appearance on Chelsea on Netflix, and much more:

Navigating the seemingly minuscule Canadian computer science marketplace.
Being a first-time entrepreneur during the dot-com boom and bust.
How Friendster competed with Facebook in the developing market of social media.
Using social curation to launch Nuzzel.
Trying to reach a wide audience with relevant information.
The future of Nuzzel.
Why e-mail remains king in the world of social media.
Surviving in Silicon Valley by not getting ahead of yourself.
The future of the social landscape.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:

"What does Ambition mean to you and how do you satisfy your personal ambition each day?"

Links from this episode:

Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…

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Kevin Siskar 10/12/16 Kevin Siskar 10/12/16

Jesse Middleton Talks Building WeWork Labs And Investing With Flybridge Capital

Over the years WeWork has grown to become an $16 billion empire of co-working office spaces that are disrupting the traditional real estate markets all over the world. Our guest today, Jesse Middleton, joined the team as the founder of WeWork Labs, the company’s startup focused community. Since then he has helped the company grow into the giant it is today. Recently he has just joined the venture capital firm Flybridge as a General Partner.

Over the years WeWork has grown to become a $16 billion empire of co-working office spaces that are disrupting the traditional real estate markets all over the world. Our guest today, Jesse Middleton, joined the team as the founder of WeWork Labs, the company’s startup focused community. Since then he has helped the company grow into the giant it is today. Recently he has just joined the venture capital firm Flybridge as a General Partner.

Early on with entrepreneurial parents, Jesse learned that he did not have to take the traditional path in life and that he could forge his own future. He started to do just that, as he founded his first company before even going to college. Fast forward to Fast Company magazine once comparing Jesse to Jack Dorsey, then onto his time building WeWork Labs, and now his time as a VC at Flybridge. Jesse has a great story full of many lessons, such as:

Recognizing at an early age the ability to create your own path in life.
The importance of keeping a clear focus at the early stages of a new company.
How Jesse founded WeWork Labs.
Just get started and go.
The lessons from actively helping grow a $16 billion company.
Why long term vision is so important for the founders of companies.
What is next for WeWork Labs.
The intersection of community building and being an investor.
The future of Venture Capital.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:

“What does Ambition mean to you and how has it driven you?”

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Kevin Siskar 9/30/16 Kevin Siskar 9/30/16

It's Friday Night

It's Friday night... What are you doing tonight? What did you do this past week?

It's Friday night.

What are you doing tonight? What did you do this past week? Did you take action and enjoy your week? Or was it one of those weeks you just dreaded going through?

If you think this week could have been better then you should take the minute and forty seven seconds to watch the below video from Gary Vaynerchuk. I could say more, but I think Gary said it all for me. Enjoy!

Kevin Siskar 9/27/16 Kevin Siskar 9/27/16

Taking Action

September 27th is National Voter Registration Day in the United States. As such, I could list off a bunch of facts about the electoral college, the popular vote, democracy, or the current political system in order to convince you that the system is worth your time. But I'm not going to do that.

September 27th is National Voter Registration Day in the United States. As such, I could list off a bunch of information about the current political landscape, the Electoral College, or democracy in general just to convince you that the system is worth your time. But I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to even talk about the candidates. I just want to talk about taking action.

Yes, all the systems, processes, and entities above could be stronger. But something being broken doesn't mean it is hopeless.

I watch entrepreneurs beat the odds day after day to improve and fix the broken systems, industries, and entities in the world. They do so using only the scarce tools and resources provided to them. So, why is that they can do what others can't? It's simple. It's because they take action. They take action instinctively, again and again, day after day, without hesitation.

A handful of people who we call entrepreneurs take action and change the world over time. So imagine if everyone seized each day and took action without hesitation in their own lives. I am not going to ask you to register to vote. Nor am I here to tell you that need to vote on November 4th. Instead I am going to ask you to take action, in order to solve the problems in the world that you see. If there are tools at your disposal, don't squander opportunity and watch them waste away. Use the opportunities in your life to make the world better.

In other news, here are some tools I happened to find on the cyber; I mean Internet:

TurboVote: Sign up to receive election reminders, get registered to vote, & apply for your absentee ballot.
Vote.org: Everything you need to vote.
VotePlz: Get ready to vote.
And many more!

See what I did there? 😉. Hope it helps!

Kevin Siskar 8/25/16 Kevin Siskar 8/25/16

A Product Hunt Live Chat Interview With Me

The wonderful folks at Product Hunt have asked me to do a live chat with them on September 20th at 1:00pm EST. Product Hunt LIVE is a series of informal, Q&A style chats with entrepreneurs, authors, investors, entertainers and makers from all industries with the Product Hunt community.

The wonderful folks at Product Hunt have asked me to do a Product Hunt Live Chat on September 20th at 1:00pm EST (10:00am PST). You can click the link below to sign up a head of time or submit a question now! You will be reminded before the event starts if you sign up now. Then on September 20th be sure to join and ask me anything you'd like.

You can ask me what my time as Managing Director of the Founder Institute New York helping and advising dozens of startups, teams and founders has been like. Why I started the Ambition Today podcast. Or ask me about the time in college I sent the worst e-mail of my life to one of the top VC's in the country, when I worked for Jason Calacanis, how I pitched Arianna Huffington, my degree in Cognitive Neuroscience, my time as an actual King, or anything else on your mind!

Product Hunt LIVE is a series of informal, Q&A style chats with entrepreneurs, authors, investors, entertainers and makers from all industries with the Product Hunt community. They are all an hour long and are open to anyone who signs up on Product Hunt. Sign up now!

Kevin Siskar 8/23/16 Kevin Siskar 8/23/16

Swallow The Frog 🐸

“If you know you have to swallow a frog, swallow it first thing in the morning. If there are two frogs, swallow the biggest one first.” -Mark Twain

"Swallow The Frog."

I heard that phrase recently. It wasn't the first time I heard it and apparently Mark Twain originally said it quite some time ago. His original Swallow The Frog quote was:

“If you know you have to swallow a frog, swallow it first thing in the morning. If there are two frogs, swallow the biggest one first.” -Mark Twain

As human's we are all guilty of procrastination. In fact, it is actually programmed in us to do so.

Tim Urban knows that procrastination doesn't make sense, but he's never been able to shake his habit of waiting until the last minute to get things done. In this hilarious and insightful talk, Urban takes us on a journey through YouTube binges, Wikipedia rabbit holes and bouts of staring out the window -- and encourages us to think harder about what we're really procrastinating on, before we run out of time.

Making sure you swallow a frog on your todo list each day is so important for progress in one's life and especially in entrepreneurship.

For some reason when Matt Rodak reminded me of the swallow the frog meaning in a recent conversation, it stuck with me. I woke up the next day, looked at my Todo list in ToDoist and starting swallowing some of the larger frogs on my list! I completed the items that I really hated doing normally and that had this stench of anxiety around completing. And I felt great afterword!

The best part about swallowing the frog earlier in the day is you don't spend the whole rest of the day thinking about it. It's done. It's gone. The progress is made and you can now use your brain power in other productive ways. And if you do the worst part of your day first thing in the morning then when bad things happen the rest of the day, they are quickly put in perspective as not that awful.

One little productivity hack I started to use that I think you might find useful is this. When I caught myself snoozing an item on my todo list or I found myself feeling anxiety around an item to work on, I started adding the frog emoji 🐸 in front of the task's name. That way the next time I looked at my todo list, I knew exactly which I item's I needed to accomplish first that day.

So tomorrow wake up and Swallow The Frog. Ensure you get the tasks you dread the most, done first each day! And if you have to swallow more then one frog each day (as most startups founders do) then make sure you swallow the ugliest and wart-iest first! And if you still need help, someone even wrote a swallow the frog book, which might be helpful.

Kevin Siskar 8/16/16 Kevin Siskar 8/16/16

Paul Polizzotto Transforms Advertising Into Real World Positive Social Change With CBS EcoMedia

Serial Social Entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto, who is one of the most passionate and dedicated entrepreneurs I know, joins us for episode 19. Paul is the founder and CEO of CBS EcoMedia, which harnesses the power of advertising and transforms it into a powerful engine for positive social change.

*Paul Polizzotto (Eric J. Smith / CBS EcoMedia)*

From the CBS EcoMedia office’s in New York City, Serial Social Entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto, who is one of the most passionate and dedicated entrepreneurs I know, joins us for episode 19. Paul is the founder and CEO of CBS EcoMedia, which harnesses the power of advertising and transforms it into a powerful engine for positive social change.

Paul’s personal philosophy and actions around social entrepreneurship over his lifetime have created an incredible story thus far. His journey started in California when he was younger and used to surf the then polluted waters of Santa Monica Bay. Paul noticed that the existing companies in the contract cleaning industry were improperly discharging contaminated water into the storm drains, which then drained into the bay that his friends and him surfed in. His first company Property Prep helped to improve those conditions through a solution that properly disposed of the contaminated water. He now works to improve the world through his most recent company CBS EcoMedia, which was acquired by CBS and funds the most effective non profit companies that are taking on the most urgent social issues of our time. In this episode we also discuss:

Seeing opportunity around you in the world everyday.
How surfing and risk taking has influenced Paul as an entrepreneur.
What happens at the intersection of art and engineering.
Difference between working hard FOR an idea and working hard ON an idea.
How to be receptive to the right ideas in your life.
Paul’s 4 criteria for knowing if an idea is worthwhile to pursue.
How Paul created the national Adopt-A-Waterway Program in the United States.
Using existing business models to transform other industries.
The partnership with CBS that led to EcoMedia being acquired.
If you get exactly what you want, will you have the courage to follow through with it to meet your goals.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:

How should a person take an idea they have and navigate it into reality?

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Kevin Siskar 8/2/16 Kevin Siskar 8/2/16

Amir Salihefendic Grew The Todoist App From Solo Project To Millions Of People

Ambition Today Amir Salihefendic Todoist Siskar.jpg

The most ambitious people “Get. Sh*t. Done.” and that is what today’s guest Amir Salihefendic specializes in. Joining us from Portugal, Amir is the founder of Doist, the company which makes the very popular Todoist app. With millions of users, Todoist is one of the top to-list apps in the Apple App Store & Google Play Store.

Amir grew up in an entrepreneurial family in Denmark after his family moved from Bosnia. Starting projects seems to have been in Amir’s blood from an early age. When he was fifteen he sold his first website and invested the money he made in a new Macbook in order to start a new business building and selling websites. Later he went on to build Plurk, and fast forward to today, Amir has built Todoist. The to-do list app started as a personal project for just himself, but when he released it on his personal blog to only 300 people, he saw there was immediate demand for it. Todoist has since grown to millions of users. Throughout this episode we discuss how Amir built his company with remote teams, scaled to several million dollars annually in revenue, and also:

How having entrepreneurial parents influenced Amir.
Why scaling too fast can hurt your company if you are not ready for it.
How to keep your life organized and efficient.
Why you should make powerful product features, simple.
The impact that mission, passion and culture can have on a company.
The best characteristics for employee's joining remote teams and where to find them.
How your employees are your biggest investments.
The importance of constantly investing in yourself across all the skill sets you need.
Focusing on high impact work and actively working to avoid distractions.
How to make the most of your To-do list and optimize it.
Why you need to "swallow the frog" at the start of every day.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:

How do you define success?

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Kevin Siskar 7/12/16 Kevin Siskar 7/12/16

The Night Pokemon Go Took Over The Suburbs & The Police Came

I started writing this at 1:40am on Friday night in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY. My brother and I were just pulled up on by State Troopers in a church parking lot for being there late. This was no ordinary parking lot though. This parking lot contained a Pokemon Go gym.

I started writing this at 1:40am on Friday night in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY. My brother and I were just pulled up on by State Troopers in a church parking lot for being there late. We stopped by this parking lot on our way home. This was no ordinary parking lot though. This parking lot contained a Pokemon gym. The officer came up to us and asked for identification. We gave him our driver's license and he ask what are you doing here this late. I replied: "Officer, do you know what Augmented Reality is?". He gave me a strange look and said "nope". Fast forward a few minutes later to after my brief lesson on Augmented Reality and the new game Pokemon Go, he told us to have a nice night and left.

Prior to this encounter with the law enforcement my brother and I were outside a local Chili's restaurant, another Pokemon Go gym, when three cars pulled up simultaneously. One guy got out and screamed, there is a Squirtle around here. While he began searching for the elusive rare Pokemon by walking around the parking lot, the others who were still in their cars, began attacking the "Big Red Chili Pepper" gym. Within two minutes the gym changed from Yellow to Red (two of the teams you can join in the game) as it was overtaken by a new champion. Five minutes later, they left. If your not on the move in Pokemon Go then your not really playing Pokemon Go.

Even earlier in the evening, down the street, a different car pulled into the United States Post Office to capture another Pokemon gym. They saw our phones out, we saw their phones out and so said we said Hello to each other. It turns out that they were actually some old friends of my brothers through a friend of a friend. They exchanged numbers and agreed to re-connect again soon. Pokemon Go re-connected old friends on a sidewalk outside a United States Post Office.

Now since Friday at 1:40am when I was explaining to a State Trooper what Augmented Reality is, I know similar stories have been told thousands of times as similar situations unfolded across the world. I am sure you have heard by now that Pokemon Go is a new augmented reality app that makes you and your phone (using it's built in GPS) the main character as you walk around the real world to find and capture Pokemon. It is not the first augmented reality game but it is certainly now the most popular.

It's truly amazing just how fast this game has gone viral considering not once inside the game is there a prompt to invite a friend or get some free game items for sharing. The virality of Pokemon Go has been almost all organically social and word of mouth.

Since the mid 2000's a new world of tablets, iPhones, improved gaming systems, and more have slowly been keeping us in our routines. I love that this game get's people back outside, connecting with others on the street, and exploring the parts of the world their normal daily routines ignore. Yes, Pokemon Go could improve the whole head down toward the ground like zombies staring at our phone thing, but we will get there soon enough with improved technology. I'm looking at you Oculus, Samsung Gear VR, and Microsoft HoloLens.

I wanted to share this story and experience as it felt truly unique to me. That night in the suburbs, people were out and about exploring the world instead of sitting inside somewhere. There was an energy in the air that night in the suburbs. An energy that you can easily take for granted living in a big city that never sleeps like New York. It was refreshing, light hearted, and fun. So before others try to ruin the fun, get out there and catch some Pokemon. If you can, catch them all, and while your at it remember to pick your head up from time to time to say Hi the other people around you.

Kevin Siskar 7/5/16 Kevin Siskar 7/5/16

What Does Patriotism Mean

Over the July 4th weekend we celebrated the 240th anniversary of America's independence and I visited the inaugural location where George Washington was sworn in as the first President.

George Washington's Inauguration Site, Federal Hall, NYC

I think it is important to take time to reflect when life gives us the opportunity to do so. Over the July 4th weekend we celebrated the 240th anniversary of America's independence and I visited the inaugural location where George Washington was sworn in as the first President. If you want to visit too, it is located at the Federal Hall on Wall Street here in NYC. Just across from the New York Stock Exchange.

I was thinking about what does it mean to be an average American. What did it mean then and what does it mean 240 years later, today. There has been a lot of heated controversy in the media about this recently, due to the upcoming election.

Then my brother text me a youtube video of that I NEEDED to watch in honor of the weekend. The video is of John Cena explaining what Patriotism means in today's world. I watched it on my brothers recommendation and to my amazement thought the words leaving the WWE Champion's mouth were so perfect I would share it with you here. I promise to get back to startups in my next post, but for now watch what John Cena had to say below. You will be pleasantly surprised I think.

Patriotism - devoted love, support, and defense of one's country.

Kevin Siskar 7/1/16 Kevin Siskar 7/1/16

Forget the Cronut, You Need To Try Mise En Place

Mise en place believes in bringing people back around the dinner table by designing a home cooking experience that is both convenient, and fulfilling. If you want to try Mise En Place use the code "siskarlovesmep" and you will get $15 off your first order!

It's time to bring people back around the dinner table, not back around the stove. Cooking dinner shouldn't require standing by the stove for the same amount of time as it takes to watch two episodes of Game of Thrones. Meticulously preparing, chopping, dicing, mixing, and cooking so you can eat for 20 minutes all before you have to clean up, is no longer ideal in todays fast paced world. I'm looking at you Grocery Stores, Fresh Direct, Blue Apron & Hello Fresh...

It's the prepping and the clean up that are the biggest time consumers when cooking a fresh dinner. The cook part of cooking, is the part I actually enjoy. I have tried many meal kit companies in the past year but there is one that shines above the rest.

Mise en place (mepNYC for short & those that don't speak French) believes in bringing people back around the dinner table by designing a home cooking experience that is both convenient, and fulfilling. They successfully address the "last mile of cooking", the prep, and are the next evolution of the current meal-kit industry. And by handling all the prep work earlier in the day, you use many less dishes when cooking the meal so you save on the clean up too.

In my honest opinion the food is delicious. If you want to try Mise En Place use the code "siskarlovesmep" and you will get $15 off your first order! If you want to bring your family back around the dinner table, I highly recommend giving mise en place a try!

Try Mise En Place

Kevin Siskar 6/28/16 Kevin Siskar 6/28/16

10 Thousand Users In The First Month

Learn how to get 10,000 users with no budget your products first 4 weeks with this guide full of first hand experience from Manoj Khani, a Graduate of the Los Angeles Founder Institute and the founder of the photo management app PhotoPanda.

This post has been co-authored with the Founder Institute. I wanted to share it with you here, as there are some great insights and powerful tools you can start using right away.

Launching your first product is an exciting and stressful time for every startup, as the initial success of a company’s offering often determines how well the product will do in the long run. And with the large number of overnight success stories out there, the pressure to release a hot product right out of the gate is higher than ever.

Luckily, if you’re getting ready to launch your product and want to learn how to get the most from your release, this guide can help you get started as it is filled with insights from someone who managed to attract over ten thousand users in just four weeks of launching their product - WITHOUT a marketing plan or budget. That someone is Manoj Khani, a Graduate of the Los Angeles Founder Institute and the founder of the photo management app PhotoPanda.

Like most first time entrepreneurs, when we first started building PhotoPanda, I only had a rough idea of how we were going to get in front of users, but not a tested Go To Market plan. We were busy building the product with a small team that consisted of a Designer, Developer, and a Product Manager, but not a marketer. Also, our assumptions about who our best users were, haven’t been validated in any statically significant environments. Yet, despite a lack of early planning and our decision to not invest in paid acquisition until we found out user lifetime value data; we were able to acquire over 10,000 passionate users within the first 4 weeks of launch.

So how did we grow 100x from our first one hundred beta testers while only spending <$100 and what did we learn?

1. Promote Your Company on Product Hunt

We asked one of our mentors to submit us to Product Hunt. Product Hunt is great for spreading the word among early adopters, especially if you have a consumer product. Its users will not only try your product, but also give you valuable feedback. Various tech journalists also frequent the site daily looking for new products to write about.

Here are a few points to keep in mind when promoting your product on Product Hunt:

Apart from finding someone who has submission rights, you will need to make sure your product looks ready and delivers value. A rickety beta will cost you the opportunity inherent in the launch of a brand new product, as the site showcases new releases only.
Also, you will need to make sure that when your product does go live on the site, you are 100% available to respond to all comments and feedback from its users.
Being on time zone 12 hours ahead when PhotoPanda went live, my ability to not rapidly get back to the commenters limited the amount of upvotes we received.

2. Reach Out to Bloggers and Journalists

Product reviews by bloggers/journalists are a win-win, as it means they do the work for getting you in front of interested eyeballs and in return their users benefit from it. Getting a positive product review from a trusted author is far more effective than any sort of paid advertising to that user base. Bloggers know their readers and will write only when the product is relevant and useful to their readers.

Below are some tips to keep in mind to utilize bloggers and journalists to expand your user base:

Reach out to as many writers as possible. We submitted PhotoPanda to the App Store, and immediately started reaching out to tech journalists and mommy bloggers. We had put together a contact list of 100+ journalists and reached out individually to all of them. I followed them on Twitter and started engaging with their posts.
Don’t give up. Unless you have an existing relationship or the blogger wants to write about that space, the conversion is low here. So don’t get demoralized; it is still better than nothing! In the second week of doing this and leveraging the Product Hunt announcement, we got our first review published in AppAdvice. The online tech magazine has a significant audience and soon after, CultOfMac included us in their “Apps of the Week” section. These positive articles propelled us towards our first thousand users.

Go international. Seeing this traction domestically, we started reaching out to bloggers internationally in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Southeast Asia – places where we expected our core demography to be. After many translated emails (we used Gengo for professional translations), we received reviews in two major Japanese outlets techjo.jp, appps.jp, followed by stories in Indonesia and Hong Kong. This brought us our next several thousand users in a matter of days.

3. Submit to Product Review Sites

There are quite a few sites that will help you submit your new product to many technology websites at once. After trying a few, I ended up using StartupLister, which helped us submit to over 40 other websites like Mashable, The Verge etc., for $89 only. Not only did this save us valuable time in the race to get the word out, we also got accepted by many upcoming sites like BetaBound, Startup blink and Killer Startups, that we would not have otherwise known of.

A word of caution: Some sites will ask you to pay to publish your review faster. I would advise against this. The best reviews are ones in which the blogger/journalists loved your product or found it relevant and wanted to write about it to their users can benefit from it.

4. Boost Your Social Media Presence

Since PhotoPanda is in the photos space, Instagram was the obvious choice for social media. We were frustrated with the amount of effort it took to grow the audience, so we used an automation tool (Boostagram) to help us get up to a 1,000 new followers per month. This helped us gain a presence on social media and an early communication outlet for our users. However, converting social media to paying users is a separate challenge and the topic of another post.

In addition to Boostagram, check out the following tools to help you get the most out of your social media accounts:

EveryPost enables you to curate your company’s visual content, schedule customized posts, and share content to all major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr.
Bit.ly lets you shorten your url and tracks clicks to help you monitor how well your content is converting traffic to your website.
Hootsuite, a social media management tool that lets you schedule and analyze your social media marketing campaigns.
Crowd Booster optimizes your social media marketing decisions by automatically sending you analytics on a regular basis.

5. Promote Your Product on TV

The year prior to going completely digital, we had been on a Fox morning show on Cyber Monday. The audience of the morning show, airing in Santa Barbara, was not quite what we were targeting, so while it helped from a press perspective, it did not have any real impact on sales.

If you plan on promoting your product on a TV show, keep the following points in mind:

Remember that appearing on television won’t guarantee a sudden surge in users, so make sure you’re targeting the right audience.
The smaller and more localized the TV program, the smaller and more localized your audience will be.
If you are able to promote your product on television, plan a major social media campaign before, during, and after your appearance.
In the event that your TV show appearance does reach a wide audience, block off the next few days after the program airs to ensure you’re prepared for increased volume.

6. Hire a Growth Hacker

With the number of early stage startups ballooning, there is a surge of “growth” companies and growth hackers or social engineers. Most of these cost money and need several weeks or months before building any real traction. Prior to hiring such help, you will need to understand whether they specialize in the audience you are targeting and how exactly they will help.

In the Entrepreneur article, “The Entrepreneur's Guide to Hiring a Kickass Growth Hacker”, Neil Patel outlines several important tips to consider before bringing on a growth hacker. Here are a few of the highlights below:

Remember that growth hacking is more of a mindset than a set of methods or skills, as it requires more creative thinking than technical methods.
Look for a strategist rather than a technician. Growth hackers are less concerned with technical details than they are with the way in which the details work together.
Don’t hire a growth hacker; instead look for a content marketer with a growth hacker mindset. “Growth Hacker” isn’t an official title, so hire someone with a mix of old and new strategies.
Look for someone with experience, someone who has successfully hacked their way to growth at previous companies, as they will be better equipped to identify your needs.

Quick Takeaways

Plan your “go-to market” before starting to build the product. Test it during development, and have an audience that can benefit from your product, ready to try your beta/MVP.
Leverage third party tools to submit to as many early adopters sites as possible. Follow up at least a few times with the ones that are relevant to your product/vertical.
Figure out the best social media channel and use automation tools to build your following faster and more effectively.
Be hyperactive when interacting with early adopters and responding to their feedback, reviews, and comments to establish your credibility.
Try free channels to validate your core users and product assumptions first before investing significantly in paid channels or hiring outside companies.

A lot of effort goes into building a good product. Almost similar effort, if not more is needed to get it out in front of the audience that will benefit from it the most. Trying multiple routes to understand and acquire these users before investing in paid channels is a scrappy way for refining your product quickly. It will also grease the wheels of any inherent viral components, setting you up for more organic growth and accelerated learnings.

Kevin Siskar 6/21/16 Kevin Siskar 6/21/16

David S. Rose Explains How The New Startup Crowdfunding Rules Affect You & His New Book The Startup Checklist

On this episode of Ambition Today David S. Rose explains his new book The Startup Checklist, how the new startup crowdfunding rules affect you & angel investing 101.

On this episode of Ambition Today David S. Rose explains his new book The Startup Checklist, how the new startup crowdfunding rules affect you & angel investing 101. A third generation serial entrepreneur, David's new book The Startup Checklist which is now a New York Times Bestseller. David is also the author of the Angel Investing: The Gust Guide to Making Money and Having Fun Investing in Startups, as well as the Founder and CEO at Gust.

A man of many titles: Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, Mentor, and Author; David has had an incredible career starting several businesses. Crain's New York Business has called David "the father of angel investing in New York".

Today we learn about how he got started as a founder, became an angel investor, and where he is now as an Author and CEO. We cover the basics of how angel investing in startups works and unpack what the new SEC crowdfunding rules actually mean for startups, your friends, your family and you. We also learn about:

How an Urban Affairs degree enhanced David's views on business.
Why he started Angel Investing.
How NY Angels was created.
How do you set the foundation for a great startup company.
Angel Investing 101.
What is an Accredited Investor.
How Title 3 of the JOBS Act impacts startups and you.
What the new SEC crowdfunding rules mean if your income or net worth is below $100k.
What the new SEC crowdfunding rules mean if your income or net worth is above $100k.
If a founder decides to fundraise from non-accredited civilians, what do they need to know?
What platforms are enabling crowdfunding right now?
How can you invest in startups now.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:

Why does success matter in the first place? Why not just live a simple life in a fishing town?

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Founder Institute New York

Kevin Siskar 6/16/16 Kevin Siskar 6/16/16

FINY11 Graduates Founder Institute New York

Last week the Founder Institute New York graduated the Spring 2016 cohort with 12 promising new companies. The eleventh batch of the Founder Institute in New York includes companies from across several industries such as film, childhood education, real estate, fin-tech, retail, HR-tech, fashion and more. As always, I am very grateful for the incredible lessons, experience, and wisdom brought to each semester's graduates by our great mentors here in New York.

Founder Institute New York 11

Clapper - Streamlining communication and logistics for media productions.

GigSesh - Helping professionals make extra cash by connecting them to advice seekers.

Mindsprinkles - Sprinkling culture into your child’s screentime.

NvestN - Low cost robo-investing platform for the underserved market of investors.

PicketFencer - Find a hometown that fits.

Prix Fixed - Where planning is not the event.

Real Assembly - The future of real estate crowdfunding.

Skour - Mobile storefront for brick and mortar boutiques.

SquarePeg - Intelligent assessment based job matching for candidates and employers.

TeddyMozart - Let your memories transcend borders and time.

TellyVizion - Where artist's work and shows are compensated directly by the audience.

Ushu - Custom tailored shoes to your unique foot's shape.

Kevin Siskar 6/3/16 Kevin Siskar 6/3/16

Startup Of The Week: TeddyMozart

The Startup Of The Week I have selected for the week of May 30th is Teddy Mozart. The first smart toy dedicated to connecting families across the world to share love and inspire growth in young children through music.

I am starting a new blog segment called the "Startup Of The Week", or S.O.T.W.™ for short, where I plan to highlight some great startups. There are several startups working to make the world a better place and I want to tell you a little bit more about some of them.

The Startup Of The Week I have selected for the week of May 30th is TeddyMozart.

Company: TeddyMozart

Founder: Carlton Bennett, Founder & CEO

Headquarters: Brooklyn, New York Operating: Globally

One sentence pitch: The first smart toy dedicated to connecting families across the world to share love and inspire growth in young children through music.

In my words: The app technology and the plush bear that come together to make TeddyMozart, create a unique experience that allows a child and family member to feel connected in a fun, loving, engaging and playful way.

In their words: “Families can use the TeddyMozart app and easily record and store a family's traditional songs, lullabies and stories from anywhere and share it with young children from generation to generation, forever. Young children get to listen to these musical experiences through the comfort of a high quality TeddyMozart plush toy.”

Accomplishments:

Who is product for:

Family members who believe in preserving their voice through memories.
Parents who want to set the mood or inspire kids with a song.
Busy parents who like to set playlists of songs unique to their child's daily routine.
Family members wanting to provide a unique and memorable gift experience.
Parents who want to provide a great companion for their kids.

How It Works:

Be sure you check out and support the Kickstarter campaign for TeddyMozart!

If you want to learn more about the company or team behind this week's Startup Of The Week you can contact me here.

Kevin Siskar 5/31/16 Kevin Siskar 5/31/16

How Jeff Stewart Helps Loan Money To Strangers All Over The World With Lenddo

Lend an ear as we interview how NY Serial Entrepreneur Jeff Stewart founded numerous companies, including his most recent business, Lenddo.

Jeff Stewart Lenddo Ambition Today Kevin Siskar .jpg

Lend an ear as we interview how NY Serial Entrepreneur Jeff Stewart founded numerous companies, including his most recent business, Lenddo.

Jeff was a pioneer in the early days of the internet. He started Square Earth in the mid 90's and it eventually got acquired. His second company Mimeo was started in 1998 and is still operating today. Now he is the Founder and Chairman of Lenddo, which uses non-traditional data such as your social media profiles to provide credit scoring and verification to economically empower the emerging middle class around the world. To hear about the rest of Jeff's business ventures and life lessons be sure to check out the whole episode, including:

How Dale Carnegie's writing influenced Jeff's early years.
The advantages of understanding the technology within your products.
How Jeff watched the internet double in size in one day.
Jeff's experience guiding Mimeo through the financial dot com crash.
The parallels between the dot com crash and the 2015-2016 "tech bubble".
What is an Entrepreneur in Residence?
The power of having customers before you have a company.
The pains of being too early to market within an industry.
How do you verify a person's identity?
The importance of having the right team.
How to find the a great advisor!

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:

How important is being the right location to achieving one’s goals?

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Founder Institute New York

Kevin Siskar 5/30/16 Kevin Siskar 5/30/16

Remembering Today

Memorial Day Weekend has always held a special place in my heart. As a Volunteer Fireman in my hometown, for eight years I marched in the local Memorial Day Parade. At the end of the parade everyone would congregate for a Memorial Day service. We would pay tribute with a gun salute from the local Veterans Organization and a few words in memory of those in the service who have passed before us.

And while Memorial Day itself was always a Monday the weekend around it was always more then that for me. The 30th of May was my Dad's birthday. Shortly after his, my brother's birthday followed. Memorial Day Weekend as long as I can remember meant spending time with my family as well as my brother's in Fire Department. I was always surrounded by family this weekend.

And so on this day I remember and thank those who served this country. And on his birthday I remember my Dad, who we also lost too soon. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that has had to show resilience over the years and overcome the tragedy of losing a loved one. God Bless You & God Bless America.

Kevin Siskar 5/10/16 Kevin Siskar 5/10/16

Patrick McGinnis Tells You How To Be A 10% Entrepreneur And How He Coined The Meme F.O.M.O.

You are not going to want to miss out on this episode! Patrick McGinnis, Author of the 10% Entrepreneur joins Ambition Today for episode fifteen. We talk about the unique ways in which people can engage in entrepreneurship on the side, how to travel the world, and how Patrick coined the term F.O.M.O. (Fear of Missing Out) on the internet. Patrick went from growing up in the small blue collar town of Sanford in Maine to visiting over 70 countries, investing in several companies with AIG Capital, co-founding his company Real Influence, and now publishing his book.

Leaving Maine, Patrick went to Georgetown for International Economics which eventually lead to an entire year being paid for to live in Argentina. After his time abroad he came back to work in Latin American investment banking on Wall Street in New York City. When his position was dissolved he then re-evaluated his role in finance and went on to Harvard Business School before joining AIG Capital. At AIG Capital Patrick focused on investing in early stage startup companies. He later founded, Real Influence, a company which enabled branded video partnerships for early Youtube stars. That experience taught Patrick the lessons he shares now in the 10% Entrepreneur. From Patrick’s life we also explore:

Overcoming the local hometown mentality when leaving your hometown.
The value of traveling the world and living abroad.
What to do when you find yourself in a life threatening situation.
How Patrick went from Wall Street analyst to Venture Capitalist.
The impact being at AIG during the 2008 financial crisis had on Patrick’s life.
What stress can do to the body long term when you let it build up.
Overcoming Turrets syndrome and what other people think.
Making the leap from investor to founder.
Selling something for the first time.
What does it mean to be a 10% Entrepreneur.
How partnering with people can expand yourself outside your comfort zone.
How do you get a book deal.
Coining the word term F.O.M.O. (Fear of Missing Out) on the internet.
Learning resilience at an early age.

Ambition Today Question of the Day:

What was the gold standard “norm of jobs” when you were growing up that your friends and family accepted as a good job to have, but you didn’t?

Links from this episode:

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Kevin Siskar 5/4/16 Kevin Siskar 5/4/16

FounderX Brings 42 Global Companies To Silicon Valley

This week is the Founder Institute's inaugural 'FounderX' event in Silicon Valley. 42 top up-and-coming FI Graduates from across the globe were invited to participate. Attending from Founder Institute New York are DADA, Easy Aerial, Mise en place and Ward eSports.

FounderX was reserved for FI Graduates on the cusp of significant growth, providing them with valuable office hours and strategic assistance from Adeo Ressi (CEO of the Founder Institute) and other top startup mentors, access to the exclusive FounderX event, and a VC roadshow to visit top Silicon Valley investors; such as Sequoia Capital, FLOODGATE, Venrock, Shasta Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Mohr Davidow, True Ventures, Founders Fund, Altos Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and 500 Startups.

FounderX is a private gathering of the FI Network in Silicon Valley that will bring together some of the biggest industry leaders from around the world. This 3-day long event from May 4 - 6, 2016 will feature a series of networking events, workshops, and formal dinners for top members from FI’s global network, including startup CEOs, technology executives, and Directors.

Below were the "up-and-coming" FI Graduate companies selected to the program.

Aomm.tv & Founder Maria Cebrian (Madrid Founder Institute): Aomm.tv is the leading Spanish-speaking yoga and pilates online platform, offering a growing catalog of 500+ customizable classes shot in HD video and taught by top teachers from all over the world. The company already has 6,000+ active subscribers.
Asegurate Facil & Founder Juan Ayala (Bogota Founder Institute): Asegurate Facile is an online insurance broker for Spanish-speaking markets, with products spanning auto, travel, and more. The company also has over 5,000 customers.
Ask PAM & Founder Pamela Alfred (Montreal Founder Institute): Ask PAM is a web-based productivity & management tool for the modern-day Concierge. The company is already working with several five-star hotels, and top tourism and event organizations in their limited trial.
Auto Force & Founder Ben Lin (Silicon Valley Founder Institute): Auto Force is used-car marketplace that has already facilitated several hundred car sales, and is generating signficant revenue.
Azestfor & Founder Siobhan Oldham (Los Angeles Founder Institute): Azestfor produces canine nutritional supplements, with the ultimate mission of helping dogs lead longer and healthier lives. The company's online sales are growing very quickly, and it also have several high-end pet boutiques as customers.
Bandwagon & Founders Harold Hughes & Susan Donkers (Greenville Founder Institute): Bandwagon is an online fan community and ticket marketplace that helps fans optimize their game day experience. The company is securing inventory and growing sales significantly.
DADA & Founder Beatriz Ramos (New York Founder Institute): DADA is a 'Facebook for Artists' - a social platform where people speak to each other through drawings. The company already has nearly 150,000 users.
Daylighted & Founder Alex Cammarano (San Francisco Founder Institute): Daylighted brings art to places where people go through interactive art galleries. The company works with top hotel chains like Sofitel and Joie de Vivre, and has been posting triple digit QoQ growth.
Easy Aerial & Founder Ivan Stamatovski (New York Founder Institute): Easy Aerial provides infrastructure inspection services to utility companies using drone deployment technology, saving customers time and money. The company has raised funding and received top media.
Energyly (Vidabest) & Founder Dayal Nathan (Bangalore Founder Institute): Energyly is developing a blended hardware-software energy analytics product to help small and medium-sized businesses reduce their energy consumption. The company has already signed on 20+ B2B customers to date.
Find Bob & Founder Roland Chan (Toronto Founder Institute): The Find Bob platform makes it easy to internally transition financial practices so firms can protect & grow their most precious asset: their Book of Business. The company has already signed on 500+ customers, including the largest general agent in Canada.
Flystro & Founder Bassam Rhou (Montreal Founder Institute): Flystro is an online marketplace connecting drone pilots to clients needing drone filming services. The company has already recruited a significant number of top drone pilots, and starting to generate revenue through bookings.
Genial.ly & Founder Juan Rubio Lopez (Cordoba, Spain Founder Institute): Genial.ly is an interactive content creation software to create images, presentations, infographics and more with interactive effects and animation. The company already has 85,000+ users from 150+ countries.
Hava.io & Founder James Martelletti (Melbourne Founder Institute): Hava is a platform that creates automated cloud diagrams with two clicks, helping to reduce waste in cloud IT systems. The company has 1000+ users and recently secured a $500,000 seed round.
Indigo Drones & Founder Sergio Ballester (San Jose, Costa Rica Founder Institute): Indigo Drones is a company that utilizes aerial drones for imagery, remote data monitoring, and management of crops. The company has already signed three contracts with pineapple, banana and coffee producers.
KangarooHealth & Founder Xiaoxu Kang (San Francisco Founder Institute): KangarooHealth creates cloud software platforms for orthopedic physicians to track patients' outcomes and improve their bottom line. The company already has paying customers and was selected as a top digital health start-up by the Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Innovation Program.
Kangarootime & Founder Scott Wayman (Los Angeles Founder Institute): Kangarootime automates the child care business, the class room and connecting childcare professionals with the families they serve. The company already has secured many customers and is booking six figure monthly recurring revenues.
MakerBloks & Founder Francois Poirier (Montreal Founder Institute): MakerBloks are electronic building blocks that teach kids basic STEM concepts, complemented by an app that links the blocks to interactive stories. The company has won several competitions, has signed LOIs with top retailers, and is about to surpass $100,000 in pre-sales.
Maven & Founder Alissa Cronau (Sydney Founder Institute): Maven is an app to help artists promote their music on streaming services, through building a curator network that will offer artists targeted databases and allow fans to receive more music to suit their taste. The company is bootstrapping and growing very quickly.
Mise en place & Founder Vicente DyReyes (New York Founder Institute): Mise en place brings people back around the dinner table through fully prepped recipes and same-day delivery. The company has already raised funding and established on-brand partnerships with Athleta, Sir Kensington's, lululemon and Martha Stewart's American Made.
NUKERN & Founder Philippe Rivard (Montreal Founder Institute): Nukern is a full software solution that helps customers set their web hosting business on autopilot. The company recently launched a very popular open beta, and is growing very quickly.
deLaGuayaba & Founder Eric de La Goublaye de Menorval (Costa Rica Founder Institute): deLaGuayaba offers a Predictive Project Management Software as a Service to reduce operation costs and cycle time. After completing a successful pilot program, new companies are joining OASIS platform at an impressive rate.
OnContracting & Founder Pradeep Chauhan (Seattle Founder Institute): OnContracting is the top global platform for finding vetted local professionals for onsite contract jobs at major corporations. The company is nearing $1MM in billing for for contractors placed at top companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple.
Partfiniti & Founder Geoff Laycock (Washington DC Founder Institute): Partfiniti makes the process of creating and pricing a bill of materials not suck. The company already has thousands of users and is booking six figure revenues.
Peerfunder & Founder Jonathan Lam (Toronto Founder Institute): Peerfunder is a peer-to-peer revenue-based lending marketplace focused exclusively on helping main street businesses finance their growth and expansion. The company has secured significant funding, and has also secured over $300,000 in committed capital to fund Peerfunder loans.
ProfHire & Founder Lesa Hammond (Silicon Valley Founder Institute): ProfHire is a web platform that connects colleges and universities with vetted scholars and industry professionals for part-time faculty positions. The company is already working with 8 top universities across California, with thousands of professionals on the platform.
RentHunt & Founder Pierre Sabbagh (Montreal Founder Institute): RentHunt is a matching platform that helps landlords find their perfect tenant. The company is growing quickly, and recently secured a partnership to facilitate the management of over 45,000 rental units.
Rever & Founder Errette Dunn (Silicon Valley Founder Institute): Rever is a Frontline Innovation platform that helps companies engage their non-office workers in daily improvement through mobile technology and Machine Learning. The company has secured funding and is currently engaged in a pilot with Tesla.
RushTix & Founder Jill Bourque (Silicon Valley Founder Institute): RushTix is the first unlimited pass to local arts and culture. The company was accepted to the LAUNCH Incubator, and has already signed up large companies like Salesforce for their perks program.
Shapetrace & Founder Ernest Yap (Toronto Founder Institute): Shapetrace develops AR/VR software for construction teams that enables same-day error detection and reduce re-work costs. The company already has active pilot projects with two of Canada's largest transportation projects, and more.
Skinnyprice & Founder Daniel McGuire (Silicon Valley Founder Institute): Skinnyprice makes marketing technology for retailers that improves engagement by taking the traditional sale and turning it into a game for discounts. Skinnyprice recently landed a deal with a $200 million dollar per year furniture retailer to power their sales platform.
Stample & Founder Edward Silhol (Paris Founder Institute): Stample creates technology to facilitate knowledge curation for teams, allowing you collect, capitalizee and publish collaboratively. The company's is already showing 3 figure month over month growth rates.
Swaple & Founder Bridget Farmer (Sydney Founder Institute): Swaple is a new payment platform for the sharing economy that lets Entrepreneurs swap services with each other instead of using cash. The company is quickly signing up users for their paid subscription service.
tForm & Founder Benjamin Moore (Greenville Founder Institute): tForm has developed quick responding custom thermoformed packaging to help manufacturing companies solve the problems of poor quality, slow delivery, and high prices. The company has already quoted over $2MM of product with a win rate of 10%.
theTravelPorter & Founder Katia Mavrikou (Athens Founder Institute): theTravelPorter is a marketplace for extraordinary tours and activities. The company is already generating sales, and is signing key partnerships in the travel industry.
Touch'd & Founder Mohammad Mansoor (Islamabad Founder Institute): Touch'd is a personal relationship manager that learns from your interactions over calls, text, WhatsApp, Email, social meda, and gives timely touch-base reminders. Their successful beta launch is helping them generate 100% MoM growth.
Upfluence & Founder Kevin Creusy (Silicon Valley Founder Institute): Upfluence develops algorithms and software to scale influencer marketing. The company booked seven figures in 2015, and is growing at a rate of over 650% QoQ.
Ward eSports & Founder Jose Lincuna (New York Founder Institute): Ward eSports is a mobile app connecting global eSports fans with their local gaming communities. The company has already secured key partnerships with over 20 major event organizers, and there are 60 tournaments already live on the platform.
WealthTab & Founder Mike Blicker (Montreal Founder Institute): WealthTab is an integrated, white-labeled platform for financial professionals and their clients. The company is currently in private beta and is signing up financial professionals at an impressive rate.
Whizmeal & Founder Droston Tang (Singapore Founder Institute): Whizmeal is an app helping parents pre-order better, affordable school meals to help curb childhood obesity. The company received an official letter of support from Health Promotion Center, the Ministry of Health, and Brunei Darussalam to have the app implemented in private schools.
XBand Sports & Founder Jose Doval (San Diego Founder Institute): XBand Sports creates intuitive, easy to use training aides that are designed to give coaches and athletes deeper insight into their form through shareable, automated video clips and data. The company is already generating sales and acquiring significant strategic endorsements.
Yo Viajo & Founder Dagoberto Medina (Costa Rica Founder Institute): Yo Viajo is an app that provides accurate and intelligent information to users of public transportation in Costa Rica. The company is currently cultivating a close relationship with Costa Rica's goverment.

Kevin Siskar 4/16/16 Kevin Siskar 4/16/16

Live Video + NYC = Geoff Golberg

Yesterday I caught up with Geoff Golberg, NYC's live video expert. If you have been following me for more than a year now you know I love how live video is changing the world. Geoff loves it too.

Yesterday I caught up with Geoff Golberg, NYC's live video expert. If you have been following me for more than a year now you know I love how live video is changing the world. Geoff loves it too. So much so that his work with live video over the last year got him nominated as Periscoper of the Year at the Shorty Awards right alongside other popular Scopers such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Tom Green and more.

So yesterday after some coffee and lunch we hit the streets of New York City armed with our smartphones and some live streaming apps in search of some great content to stream live. After all;

"Content Is King" - Bill Gates

And content is also now fleeting. Both Periscope and Snapchat disappear after 24 hours. So before it is gone, go right now and quickly watch what we were up too around New York City. Here are the links to our profiles on the following social networks:

Geoff's:

Kevin's:

I wanted to share some of the insightful takeaways from hanging our afternoon of live video streaming. First off as mentioned, content is actually king. Unlike other forms of media, with live video streaming the content has to be happening right now for you to film it and broadcast it simultaneously. You can't record it and edit later. Luckily living in NYC means that finding live content is not much of an issue. Second, a strong cell signal and wifi are a must! Before going live, it was important to take a moment and ensure that you had a strong data connection. If you don't then your audience quickly loses interest and leaves your pixilated low quality stream. Without strong data you mine as well go home. Lastly, you need to post a lot! Posting once and awhile is not enough to build an actual audience.

I was impressed to see the community that Geoff had build and how engaged his followers were once he went live on Periscope or he Snapchatted to his story. I can't wait to see how the evolution of live video continues in 2016 or how Geoff further explores it with his audiences.