Podcasts about urbanspoon

As Scout's CEO and co-founder, Adam Bent leads the team toward bringing Scout's mission to life – to make deliciously crafted seafood that changes how consumers perceive and experience the category. Adam joined Scout in 2018 with a passion for sustainability, product innovation, and brand experience. Brand founder and acclaimed Chef Charlotte Langley tapped Adam to help transform Scout from her side hustle into the rapidly emerging omni-channel brand that it is today. Under Adam's leadership, Scout doubled its annual revenue from 2020 to 2021, expanded beyond its Canadian headquarters into the United States, and raised a total of $4 million USD to date. Previous to Scout, Adam was a technology entrepreneur building VC-backed businesses as the co-founder of thisopenspace (2016-2018) and Uppercase (2016-2018). No stranger to the food industry, Adam also served as the Vice President at Provender (2014-2015), a TechStars backed online marketplace that addressed inefficiencies in local food delivery to the wholesale industry. Adam was the Canadian manager for Urbanspoon (2012-2013) before its acquisition and is a partner at Prairie Boy Organic Bakery (2015 – present) in Toronto, Canada. The food-tech entrepreneur turned seafood expert is a founding member of the SeafoodCollab, an industry group of emerging seafood CPG brands that are committed to a regenerative ocean food system and increased consumer engagement within sustainable seafood. Adam also sits on the board of directors for the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a national historic site representing the historical significance of Canada's west coast fishing industry. Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada's economy. To support Canada's businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an inspiring conversation with Kara Nortman, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures. In this episode, Kara shares invaluable insight into her trailblazing career as a venture capitalist as well as how an incredible experience at the Women's World Cup Finals eventually let to her becoming a co-founder of Angel City Football Club.As Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, Kara leverages her own founder experience to help entrepreneurs build high-performing teams across software, consumer, and the future of work categories. She is also a founding member of All Raise, dedicated to diversity in founders and funders.Before joining Upfront in 2014, Kara co-founded Moonfrye, a children's e-commerce company. Prior to Moonfrye, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she was the SVP and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. Earlier Kara co-headed IAC's M&A group where she led some of their most successful acquisitions, notably Urbanspoon, Dictionary.com and Aston Hotels. She also served as a board member to Hatch Labs, IAC's mobile technology incubator, where she was the seed investor in Tinder. In earlier years, Kara spent time at Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Battery Ventures. She received her AB in Politics from Princeton University and her MBA from Stanford University.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate our show. To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

This is the last week Marketing BS will be 100% free. Starting Monday if you want the full Marketing BS experience you will need to subscribe. You can do that here. Subscribers get a weekly essay, weekly briefing and a two-part podcast interview (and more). Free subscribers receive one piece of content from the week every Friday. Subscriptions are half price until Friday.Adam was the co-founder of UrbanSpoon, Dwelable and now FreshChalk. He comes from an engineering background, but he has done some incredible marketing to grow his businesses. This is a dive into some of those strategies and tactics he used at FreshChalk. Some highlights:* How FreshChalk solves the problems of Yelp/AngiesList/HomeAdvisor* How Adam thinks about building two-sided marketplaces* How SEO has changed, and how he does it now* How to engage small businesses (who usually don't have time for “marketing services”)Subscribe to the podcast: Apple, Sticher, TuneIn, Overcast , Spotify. Private Feed.TranscriptEdward: This is part two of my interview with Adam Doppelt. Today, we're going to dive into his experience as founder of Fresh Chalk.Adam, could you start by explaining what Fresh Chalk is?Adam: To start up the Genesis story is always interesting. That's always the interesting part to me.For one of my prior companies, I had to move to Austin and it was one of those weird situations that probably nobody ever goes through, except for a couple of lucky or unlucky individuals. I had to move to Austin with a couple of weeks' notice, including my family, my wife, and my three kids, and my dog. One of those kids was actually a six-month-old at the time. It's very traumatic to have to move to a new place like that. We were settled in Seattle, we'd been here for a long time. It's great that we sold the company, but we were not super excited about moving to Austin.Our opinion changed once we've been there for a while, but the idea of packing up and leaving Seattle was very difficult for us. We arrived in Austin and we immediately bought a house right away within a couple of weeks, and I got a car and we moved in. We had to acquire a bunch of furniture on no notice. I had an intense need for professionals. I needed a house cleaner and a babysitter and an arborist to look after the trees. It wasn't a particularly nice house, but you're in Austin, there are trees everywhere. I also needed people in specialties that I had never even dealt with before. I needed a termite person and I needed a garage door guy. We needed all kinds of things.I worked quite closely with this team at HomeAway and I started asking them for recommendations. Does anybody have a good termite person? Does anyone have a realtor? Does anybody know a good arborist, a plumber, an electrician, a handy person? The list kind of went on and on and on and I amassed pretty quickly this little spreadsheet of recommendations of what I thought were the best people that have been recommended to me by my new co-workers at HomeAway.A funny thing happened, when I had that spreadsheet as part of the acquisition, a handful of people had moved down to Austin as part of the deal, and they started asking me if they could look at it. They said oh Adam, I know you care about these things. You built up this spreadsheet of these professionals. I need that stuff, too. I just moved here. I need a cleaning person. I need a babysitter. I need a handyman. Can I just look at your spreadsheet? At the time, I was very focused on vacation rentals. I didn't think much about it. But then when I was trying to figure out what to do next, I remembered that experience. I thought, there's probably something here after years of looking on Yelp and Angie's list and Googling for the best electrician in Seattle.That is a very annoying and difficult and unreliable process, I might say. I'd much rather have recommendations from friends. That simple idea turned into Fresh Chalk, which is recommendations for local professionals from your friends. I was very focused on home improvement. I thought home improvement is where it's at. That's the sweet spot for me. But as we talked to potential users of our products—consumers—we quickly realized that there were equal opportunities in beauty and wellness, and health, and healthcare, financial services.All of these things turned out to be really fruitful. As much as I needed a plumber, if you need your eyebrows waxed, your needs are just as intense. We built this product we're making. I would say great progress with it and people love it.Edward: Talk more about how it's different from Yelp. Because can't I go on Yelp and see how people recommend hairdressers and eyebrow cleaners and plumbers, and can't I even see if my friends recommended those things on Yelp?.Adam: To some extent, you can do that. You can look at Yelp and you can get recommendations. They're not going to be from your friends. I've never seen a friend's recommendation on Yelp. The reason is because there's no social experience on Yelp. It's a lot of strangers recommending things. I can say from my experience at Urbanspoon and after that at Dwelable, a lot of those reviews are fake.The best way to get great reviews for your business is to ask your friends and family to write great reviews of your business. A lot of those reviews are really not to be trusted. I think that's a problem with Yelp. That's a problem on Google My Business, which is what you see when you're Googling for businesses. I think to a lesser extent on Angie's list because Angie's list had a lot more validation of their reviews. But reviews, whether they're from strangers—trusted or not—are not going to be as good as reviews from friends.When you want a real recommendation, what do you do? You pick up your phone and you text your buddy. If you're considering a remodel, you want to talk to your friend who just went through a remodel. That's always the best place to get that information. The other thing I've learned is that I have a real love for the story. I think maybe even you and I have talked about this before. When you told me about your house, I wanted to hear all about it. I wanted to hear about how you found it and the work you did on it, who did that work, and what they did right, what they did wrong, what you learned. With my maximizer philosophy, it's just I'm intellectually curious. I want to hear about those things. It turns out that you can share those stories pretty broadly.And a lot of people find that stuff fascinating. Not just about home improvement, or doctors, or pregnancy or whatever, but like maybe even about products or travel. There's a human need to share these stories from friend to friend. I think that's where Fresh Chalk can really shine.Edward: Is Fresh Chalk a two-sided marketplace?Adam: Yeah, it definitely is. Like the other ones I've done, we have local businesses or small businesses on one side and consumers on the other. There is a marketplace. There's no transaction per se, so it's hard to really put the word “market” in there. We don't have a transaction yet might be a better way to phrase that. But it's definitely a marketplace and we have to keep both sides happy.Edward: Where do you focus then? Do you focus on the merchants or the users? How do you weigh those two?Adam: It is so hard. This has been a struggle with all the companies in this band that I've participated in. My philosophy, and I can't say whether this is right or wrong, but my philosophy is that I really want to focus on the consumer side of things. That's what I like to do.I think that if you don't have consumer interest in your product, then the merchants are not going to show up. Why would they show up to use Fresh Chalk? Why would restaurants be on Urbanspoon if there are no diners on Urbanspoon? They're just not interested. My purpose has always been to get consumers interested first. Once you have consumers, the businesses are always going to show up. If you don't have consumers, it's very difficult to get businesses to show up. But especially with something like at Fresh Chalk, a lot of what we're doing is social. It's friend recommendations.You can bootstrap just by having people coming out of the recommendations and then sharing it with their friends. That will create a distribution for your product, even without having a lot of businesses on the platform.Edward: So how do you get users? What have you found that's successful getting users onto your platform and using it?Adam: Fresh Chalk is interesting because it's a combination of—there's a social network component, so it's people creating and sharing in a similar way as they would do on Facebook, or Nextdoor, or places like that. I guess Nextdoor isn't particularly social, but there is a lot of sharing.And then there's a ton of SEO. We have landing pages for a lot of the businesses in the cities that we cover, especially places where we've gone deep like Seattle, we might have every business. We also have the categories. There's a ton of SEO traffic coming in. If you start Googling for businesses in Seattle, you're probably going to see Fresh Chalk showing up in the top 10. So there's an SEO component, there's a social or viral component, and especially in the beginning where you're tinkering with the product, there's a lot of manual outreach. You've got to reach out to users and say hey, can you, can you kick the tires? Just give it a shot.Some of these social networks, they really jump start with these massive marketing efforts. That's never been my way of doing things, especially I'm not into raising all this money to experiment. I'd rather experiment with small amounts of money, and then when you feel like you have a good story, then you can put some money on marketing to really expand your reach.Edward: Talk to me more about the SEO. What are you doing on SEO? You can build a directory and Google obviously likes directories, but a directory without any traction is not going to get very far on Google. Why are you ranking?Adam: There's something to be said for breadth. We have this great directory. The last few companies that are built, there's been a crawling aspect to them. Fresh Chalk aggregates reviews from other sites, and so we can actually build even without anybody.If you were to look at Fresh Chalk Atlanta or some arbitrary city like that, we probably already have a decent ranking for small businesses because we're aggregating reviews from other third party sources, and we can put stars on those pages and maybe even attract some links with our badge program. We reach out to small businesses and we say, hey, you're one of the best businesses in Atlanta, you should put this badge on your page. And it's true. They are one of the best businesses in Atlanta because we calculated it. We're pretty certain about it.It's not like it rings false and we've got this good looking badge, and a lot of these companies are very happy to put on their site that creates links for us and increases people's knowledge of Fresh Chalk. I think that SEO is always the long game. The way I talk about it is that it's like a garden and we have planted some seeds and the seeds are growing. I can tell you that yesterday was our best traffic day ever, and most of that is just organic SEO. We've been to the garden, we are watering the garden and some things are sprouting.Edward: Let's talk a little bit more about those merchants. How are you getting merchants to sign up?Adam: The easiest way to get them to sign up is there are some very simple pitches you can give them. I've always had good luck with really honest pitches. In fact, that's the only pitch that I can do.Edward: Adam, when you say pitches, is this like an email you're sending them or it's like you calling them up and talking to them?Adam: Direct outreach either through email or in some cases, phone. The things you say to these small businesses are honest. What you say to them are things like hey, we built this great page for you on Fresh Chalk and people are leaving reviews on Fresh Chalk. Would you like to be notified when you get a review on your page? People say yeah, of course I want to be notified. Then we go and collect an email address and they're on the platform. They're considered a verified merchant on the platform.The obvious backdrop to this whole conversation is COVID and lockdown and how that has affected small businesses in the US which is not good, in case anybody's been living under a rock. But if you put that aside, Fresh Chalk has had pretty good success with getting businesses to sign up on Fresh Chalk.Edward: Doing that way, doing the direct outreach, is that one of those things that don't scale, or do you think this outreach strategy is scalable?Adam: I've always had good luck with doing them in ways that don't scale in the beginning. So you try things. We may hire somebody, you just have to make a thousand phone calls. That's fine. If we measure the response rate, the commercial management, we may try a few different pitches. Maybe we hire somebody and have them send 1000 emails, handcrafted, and we measure the response rate. If it seems like it's working, we can always hire 10 people to do that. That's a playbook that has worked for me really well in the past.I have a high sensitivity to spam and people's time, and these small businesses are playing in an environment where all these small businesses really, really, really hate Yelp. I can't even tell you the anger that small businesses feel towards Yelp. They despise Yelp with the heat of 1000 suns. They really can't stand Yelp.In a way, Fresh Chalk through—I'd say some planning and a lot of luck—is the anti-Yelp. We don't have negative reviews. It's just recommendations. You can recommend a business. If you want to take a dump on a business and say I hated this place, you have to accumulate a certain amount of karma points on Fresh Chalk before you can even access that feature.If some electrician comes to your house and they blow your fuse and charge you $800, which by the way, has happened to me, and I want to leave a negative review, I can do that because I've been on Fresh Chalk and I've accumulated all this karma and I have access to the negative review feature. But you can't get these drive by negative reviews. These rants where people trash businesses, we don't have that feature. We didn't design it that way. It's supposed to be positive. We want to step away from all the negativity on the internet and get great recommendations from your friends. Sure, maybe your friends want to steer you away from businesses. But mostly, they just want to point you at the right electrician, not rant about the wrong one.When we talk to these small businesses, anybody who bothers to listen to us for more than about 30 seconds, they start to understand the Fresh Chalk is the anti-Yelp. It's social. It's positive. We want their business to succeed. It's free. It's a pretty good pitch. The trick is just getting past—if you can get them to pick up the phone and listen for a few seconds, you probably can get them to sign up. Edward: Right now, there's no monitor. As you said, it's free for users, it's free for merchants. Where is your monetization going to come from?Adam: I've had good luck with these businesses. Until you really know they've got some product-market fit and some usage and people are interested in what you built—if you built something compelling—that's always a good time to start layering on monetization, the kinds of products that I build. I'm very wary of trying to monetize too early. Obviously, if you build a platform where consumers are coming in to get recommendations for services, or products, or restaurants, or travel, the advertising revenue is obvious there. There's a very obvious play for businesses that just want to get more traffic. That's something that, if we had real traffic, I think we'd be looking into, once we get there.The other place that really stands out to me is referral programs. A lot of these businesses are already tracking referrals. If you use a particular service, they want to know how did you hear about us? Was it one of our existing customers? And then they kick them a $25 gift certificate or a free cleaning is something that dentists do sometimes. All of these businesses are looking for ways to increase their own businesses, and we're very receptive to that. Fresh Chalk, as a social platform for sharing recommendations, is really well suited to slide right into those referral programs and maybe take them over and start tracking them and doing rewards, and I could see that being a great way to monetize as well. But that's all down the road. Right now, we just got to make something that's fun, and then we can monetize it later. Edward: Transitioning from fun, you mentioned earlier that COVID has affected your business. You talk a little bit about how you guys responded to COVID.Adam: Obviously this has been a horrible time for everybody, particularly in the US, and if you're running a small business, it is so, so, so hard right now. We can tell that many small businesses are struggling or closing. The cities that have been hit the hardest and have locked down the best are the ones that are having the most trouble keeping their small businesses alive. The restaurant business is basically dead. Travel is toast. A lot of the services that people love on Fresh Chalk are really struggling.Our most popular category six months ago was probably nail salons, and people are not really going to nail salons at the moment, or if they are it's 1 out of 10 if they're going before. These businesses are on life support, Fresh Chalk is really well-positioned to, in some ways, be the voice of those communities. If you have something to say to your customers about what you're doing to be safe with COVID, Fresh Chalk is a great place to get the word out. We have a COVID status thing where any small business can say we're doing curbside pickup and we're all masked up. We do a very thorough cleaning each night with XYZ products. Fresh Chalk is a great place to say that to your audience.We've also advocated for a lot of these communities. We stepped in and we worked with some of these small business alliances to run surveys, to find out how small businesses are feeling about things. I have to say, it's heartbreaking. It's very sad. I didn't know this, but I am a lover of small businesses. I frequent a lot of small businesses in my neighborhood and around Seattle.I had a guy come to my house and his specialty was working on gas fireplaces. That's pretty much all he did and mine was broken and he fixed it, and then he spent half an hour rearranging the little fake embers so that it looks more aesthetically pleasing, which I didn't even know that I needed. But he was practically in there with toothpicks moving things around.When I meet somebody like that, it really makes a strong impression on me. Somebody who loves their work and it's not in technology and it is important and they're getting paid for it and they are enjoying it. I'm getting a lot of value out of it. I love businesses like that, and I want those businesses to survive COVID. A lot of them won't. I think it's incredibly sad. But Fresh Chalk is here to help some of them survive. We're doing our best.Edward: Adam, thank you. This has been fantastic. I like to end these interviews by asking you about quake books. But in your case, it's more of a quake genre. Is that right?Adam: Be more specific. What would you like to hear?Edward: I think you mentioned that science fiction has dramatically changed your life and how you think about things.Adam: I have read a lot of books that made strong impressions on me. Sometimes you read books, it takes you a long time to really internalize what they mean. Some of the books that I read as a kid, I think, are still resonating with me. Sidhartha made a really strong impression on me as a kid. I still remember very clearly, and more recently things like The Three-Body Problem which is a science fiction book.Occasionally, you read a book and you're just desperate for it not to end, and then once it's over, you close it and you think, I wish they had written another one, and they've been dead for 100 years. That's what a lot of my reading is like.I was reading a book the other day by Jack Vance who, I think, was a largely forgotten fantasy, science fiction guy. I was laughing so hard. I'm lying in bed, reading it on my phone. Shannon's asleep next to me, and I'm chuckling and the bed is shaking. It's the middle of the night and I'm cracking up. How often do you read a book like that? It's like my whole philosophy of life. I'm always going deep and looking for these hidden gems, and you know what? Sometimes you find them.Edward: We're going to end with that. Thank you, Adam. This has been fantastic.Adam: Thanks Ed. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marketingbs.substack.com

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.

Stephen is a total klutz, Matt can't remember who Jerry Lewis is, and David is dealing with a wicked case of the sads. Also, comics are jukeboxes, a politician said no-no words, and how many dollar signs on UrbanSpoon indicate a restaurant is too good for us.

As a Partner at Upfront Ventures, Kara Nortman focuses on the human element of venture capital. In conversation with host Ben Perreau, Kara explains what she looks for in founders, and how she is helping to increase female representation in the venture capital industry through All Raise, an initiative to accelerate the success of female funders and founders. Kara maintains a portfolio of companies including Qordoba, Parachute, Stem, and Fleetsmith. Before joining Upfront Ventures, Kara co-founded Moonfrye, a children’s e-commerce company. Prior to Moonfrye, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she acted as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. She was also a seed investor and advisor to Tinder.

Check out our list of the best product review websites for B2B and B2C companies. Keep in mind that every industry has niche sites, too. For instance, those in the restaurant industry may want to be on UrbanSpoon or OpenTable. This podcast won't get into sites that are specific to one industry, but it will provide review sites that apply to businesses in almost any industry.Support the show (https://cxchronicles.com/)

My guest for Episode 8 of The Startup Playbook Hustle is Matt Jones, the Co-founder of beauty and wellness platform Honee. Matt started his career at ANZ before leaving to start his own startup. Unfortunately things didn't go to plan with this idea, but instead of heading back into the corporate space, Matt joined DeliveryHero, which at that time was at an early stage in their penetration into the Australian market, taking them to 4400 restaurants before getting poached by Groupon. He was then sent to Singapore to lead Quandoo's expansion into the APAC market, soon overtaking the major local competitors before coming back to Australia to join Zomato after the UrbanSpoon acquisition, where he scaled the business to over 100 people, 7 verticals and over $1M in revenue. Matt was then able to take all of these experiences and come full circle to launch Honee, a beauty and wellness online platform. Since launching in early 2016, Honee has signed up over 10,000 venues across Sydney and Melbourne offering more than 200,000 services. They have also recently graduated from the Startmate Accelerator program and closed a $1.8M seed round from Blackbird Ventures as well as a number of Angel Investors. In this episode we talk about: The need to fail quickly How to ask for feedback Deciding when to pivot How to train sales teams   Video recording of the Podcast (now on Youtube) PLAYBOOK MEDIA – Growth through Data-Driven Storytelling THE E-COMMERCE PLAYBOOK ACCELEPRISE AUSTRALIA STARTUP PLAYBOOK HUSTLE APPLICATION    Show notes - Delivery Hero - Quandoo - Zomato - Zomato's Urbanspoon acquisition - Deepinder Goyal - Pankaj Chaddah - Honee - Sean Qian - Collective Campus - Nick Chang - Nicole So - Startup Victoria - James Cameron - Airtree - Blackbird - Startmate - Nick Crocker - Matt Jones (email) Feedback/ connect/ say hello:  Rohit@startupplaybook.co @playbookstartup (Twitter) @rohitbhargava7 (Twitter – Rohit) Rohit Bhargava (LinkedIn) Credits: Intro music credit to Bensound Other channels: Don't have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Stitcher & Soundcloud The post Hustle Ep008 – Matt Jones (Co-founder – Honee) on selling effectively appeared first on Startup Playbook.

This week we discuss the future of food and why it seems that all roads lead to milkshakes. Secret to a perfect omelet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baJ8LDmYP8o Macrobiotic diet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrobiotic_diet Impossible Burger https://www.impossiblefoods.com/burger/ Kajitsu http://www.kajitsunyc.com/ Ceviche http://allrecipes.com/recipe/12819/ceviche/ Soylent https://www.soylent.com/ Zuckerberg personal automation video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvimBPJ3XGQ Ritual app https://toronto.ritual.co/ Chopt http://choptsalad.com/ Google Cafeteria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnRu66k1brA Ludo Bird chicken https://www.ludolefebvre.com/restaurants/ludobird Lee Kitchen at Toronto Airport https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g154996-d10041709-Reviews-Lee_Kitchen-Mississauga_Ontario.html * commercial break * http://mitchellfchan.com/ Steve Jobs was a fruitarian http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/29/steve-jobs-fruitarian-diet-lands-ashton-kutcher-in-the-hospital/ Snowpiercer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX5PwfEMBM0 Bizarre eating contests http://thechive.com/2015/09/21/arguably-the-most-bizarre-eating-contests-that-exist-today-24-photos/ MLE (Major League Eating) http://www.majorleagueeating.com/contests.php @RRfood https://twitter.com/RRfood Food scanner https://www.consumerreports.org/video/view/healthy-living/fitness/4687170699001/new-diet-app-helps-you-scan-food-count-calories/ Ancient Greek’s patented culinary dishes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_patent_law How Yelp scores make or break a restaurant https://gizmodo.com/5940032/how-yelp-scores-make-or-break-restaurants Soup Nazi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2lfZg-apSA Alphabet Dinner Club http://blog.opentable.com/2011/meet-the-abc-dinner-group-dining-their-way-through-atlanta-one-letter-at-a-time/ UrbanSpoon, random restaurant app (no longer does the random thing) https://www.popsugar.com/tech/Urban-Spoon-iPhone-App-Randomly-Finding-Restaurants-Near-You-1870419 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejr9KBQzQPM Warhol Eating a Hamburger Clayton Christensen on milkshakes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfGtw2C95Ms

In Episode 48 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, my guest is Dave Scheine, an angel investor, startup advisor and global expansion expert. Dave can be considered one of the leading experts when it comes to global expansion. He helped expand Google's offices and launch products such as G Suite in countries like India, Ireland and Poland, before moving on to join Yelp as their first International hire and helped them expand into 30 different countries during his role there as the Director of European Operations and the Director for the Asia Pacific region. He's now based in Melbourne where he advises and sits on the board of several startups, angel invests in the companies and is actively helping to grow the Australian startup ecosystem. In the episode we chat about the metrics Dave looked at when deciding where and how to expand, what makes a good mentor/ mentee relationship and why teams are the most important things that investors look for. Send your questions for Episode 50 to -  rohit@startupplaybook.co Show notes: - Harvard - Standford - G Suite - Yelp - Jeremy Stoppelman - Rhonda Kallman - ANZ - Telstra - Sheryl Sandberg - Startmate - Daimler Chrysler - Honee - Matt Jones - Zomato - UrbanSpoon - Dave Scheine Feedback/ connect/ say hello:  Rohit@startupplaybook.co @playbookstartup (Twitter) @rohitbhargava7 (Twitter – Rohit) Rohit Bhargava (LinkedIn) Credits: Intro music credit to Bensound The post Ep048 – Dave Scheine (Angel Investor) on winning globally appeared first on Startup Playbook.

Kara Nortman is a Partner @ Upfront Ventures, one of LA's leading venture funds. Kara is also co-founder of Seedling where she currently serves as Chairman. Prior to starting Seedling, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she acted as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. Prior to Urbanspoon/Citysearch, Kara co-headed the M&A group at IAC where she lead some of their most successful acquisitions, notably Urbanspoon, Dictionary.com and Aston Hotels. While at IAC, Kara also served as a board member to Hatch Labs, IAC’s mobile technology incubator, where she recruited and advised Tinder. Kara also spent time at Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Battery Ventures.   In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Kara made her way into the wonderful world of VC? 2.) Question from Greg Betinelli and Jenny Lefcourt: What is the most surprising thing about moving from an operator to a VC? What does Kara prefer more about being a VC? 3.) Having been an entrepreneur with a board, what does a good board member look like to Kara? How does Kara allocate her time amongst her portfolio? 4.) How does Kara assess founder psychology? How does Kara look to get to know the founder both post and pre-investment? What are some signs and tells for Kara of the truly successful operators? 5.) How does Kara view diversity in the VC landscape? What are prime examples of where it is going wrong? What can be done to change this? What are Kara's hopes and concerns for the future? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Kara’s Fave Blog: Both Sides of The Table Kara’s Fave Book: Grit by Angela Duckworth Kara's Most Recent Investment: Stem As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kara on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Pearl believes the latest automotive technology should be available to every driver – whether it's time for you to buy a new car or not. RearVision is our first step in driving this commitment forward. Pearl RearVision is the only wireless backup camera and alert system that installs in minutes and updates throughout its lifetime. Pearl literally takes less than 10minutes to install and is completely wireless because it's solar powered. Since RearVision is software based, we're able to push updates and new features over the Pearl App in the exact same way you receive updates for other apps on your phone. Pearl RearVision is perfect for anyone who wants to upgrade their car in minutes. Pearl RearVision is $499.99 and available at PearlAuto.com. It's also available on Amazon and through Crutchfield. Xero is beautiful, easy-to- use online accounting software for small businesses. With Xero, you can easily manage your accounting anytime, anywhere from your computer or mobile device.When you add Xero to your small business you are able to: Send online invoices and get paid faster. Get an instant view of your cash flow. Track your payroll and keep tabs on your inventory. Partner with your accountant and bookkeeper in real time whenever you like. You can also customize your Xero experience with over five hundred business apps, including advanced solutions for point-of- sale, time tracking, ecommerce and more. Sign up for a free thirty-day trial at xero.com/20vc

in this episode we discuss: the importance of self discipline, setting goals, and living intentially; the impact of cutting drugs and alcohol out of your life. how rewarding it can be to provide opportunity for your people. why its so important to get a proven track recording before opening a restaurant.  developing and providing opportunity to those in your restaurant in order to retain those in your restaurant.  Executive Chef Eric Donnelly is a Seattle native and local chef favorite. He's been working in and running kitchen for over 22 years. His first, personally owned restaurant, RockCreek Seafood & Spirits opened in Fremont to rave reviews in July 2013. This year Eric was a James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef Northwest, and was referenced as one of “Seattle's Best Chefs” by The Seattle Times. RockCreek was named one of 2013's Best New Restaurants by Seattle Magazine and one of the Top 20 US Restaurants by UrbanSpoon. Seattle Metropolitan Magazine included his Wild Mexican Prawns with Anson Mills Heirloom Grits as one of the top 50 dishes of the year.

The internet and social media have given people a virtual soapbox to stand-up and rant, review and critique restaurants with sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Urbanspoon. The reviews are every public – and lead to mixed results and responses from businesses. BlurtBox is the next generation of reviewing platforms, where diners use an app to send businesses anonymous feedback. In-studio guest, BlurtBox founder Julien Meyer talks about aggregating customer feedback into valuable data. This program was brought to you by Edwards. “As a paid service you have a barrier regardless of the business, by making it free restaurants understood the concept quicker.” [26:00] “Just by talking to people we can learn so much more than we did by sitting behind a computer screen.” [28:00] — Julien Meyer on Tech Bites

Robi Ganguly is the co-founder and CEO of Apptentive, a SaaS platform that provides tools for mobile app makers to engage with customers for positive ratings, feedback and customer research. Apptentive's customers include UrbanSpoon, Overstock, and RealNetworks. The company was founded in 2011 and to date has raised $6.5M in funding.Links, Resources & People MentionedApptentiveYahooAppleMicrosoftWebexGreystripeNordstromSky KelseyAndrew WoosterMike SaffitzRobi Ganguly - @rgangulyOmer Khan - @omerkhanEnjoyed this episode?Subscribe to the podcastLeave a rating and reviewFollow Omer on TwitterNeed help with your SaaS?Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support.Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue.Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Robi Ganguly is the co-founder and CEO of Apptentive, a SaaS platform that provides tools for mobile app makers to engage with customers for positive ratings, feedback and customer research. Apptentive's customers include UrbanSpoon, Overstock, and RealNetworks. The company was founded in 2011 and to date has raised $6.5M in funding. Links, Resources & People Mentioned Apptentive Yahoo Apple Microsoft Webex Greystripe Nordstrom Sky Kelsey Andrew Wooster Mike Saffitz Robi Ganguly - @rganguly Omer Khan - @omerkhan Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the podcast Leave a rating and review Follow Omer on Twitter Need help with your SaaS? Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support. Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue. Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Andre Kay - CEO and Founder of SociallyBuzz Andre Kay is CEO and Founder of Sociallybuzz that was created to help businesses grow using social media. He bootstrapped Sociallybuzz from a small social media "do it for you" company to one of the top ten social media agency and software company in the U.S. He grew the company from $0 to over $2 million in less than 5 years with no investment or debt. He was nominated for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 African-American Achievers Award, selected as a South Florida 2012 Mover and Shaker Honoree and was named one of the top ten black tech innovators blazing a trail in South Florida by the Miami Herald. As an expert in social media, he is a sought-after speaker for franchise, restaurant and nightlife events and expos. His philanthropic efforts extend to giving back to families in need, donating his time teaching children the fundamentals of soccer as a coach and sponsoring a number of non-profit related events in the community. Check out this great article on the Sociallybuzz Blog: 7 Tips to Create a Successful Social Media Plan for 2015 The Sociallybuzz Culture is Based on Customer Service to Provide the Following Services: Social Media App: Easily manage Yelp, Google Places, Facebook and Urbanspoon in one place. Business owners and managers don't have the time to log in to multiple social channels to see what customers are saying about their business. The Sociallybuzz App provides an easy and convenient way to manage and moderate all your channels from one mobile dashboard anytime, anywhere on the go! Social Media Management: SOCIAL MEDIA AND REPUTATION MANAGEMENT - We believe in taking a hands on approach when it comes to managing social media, but more importantly building relationships with real people (fans, followers, consumers, etc.) who interact with brands online. Our social media management services consist of a "real live account manager" who manages social media in real time. We assign dedicated and experienced social media account managers responsible for moderating social media conversations, publishing comments, and monitoring questions across all relevant social media networks. The account manager also works closely with our client(s) so he/she will be educated on the appropriate brand, products, and policies. This real time effectiveness provides consistent customer service for fans, followers and consumers. Social Media Services for Franchises: We help locally owned franchises connect to customers and communities that matter most for the growth of their businesses by harnessing the power of social media. The Sociallybuzz Philosophy: Our philosophy is simple. It's not about how many fans, followers, or friends our clients have on their social networks. It's about turning those people into customers, seat fillers, and brand lovers. It's not about the tools, the CRM, SRM, social mark up language, or whatever fancy name they have for it. It's about effectively utilizing the right social networks, geo location applications and/or consumer-to-business communication mediums to meaningfully connect customers to brands that they can feel great about. Businesses or brands must reach their consumers at a level that connects them to something they value and we at Sociallybuzz get it! We don't deliver one-time quick marketing fixes. We will consistently and effectively Build, Engage and Grow your business and brand. Andre is an incredible entrepreneur. After getting a job working for a bank, it took him only five years to become the vice president. This experience was instrumental in his entrepreneurial career as he took what he learned in banking and finance and incorporated that into the Sociallybuzz business. This provided Andre with the necessary tools take his app business from ZERO to over $2 million in revenues in just over 5 years. As you read in the first paragraph, he did all this will no debt or investment... it's worth saying again.

One app you must get NOW, Facebook Paper, UrbanSpoon app, Around Me app, Cycloramic App, Florida, Candy Crush, Gas Prices, Apple Maps, Google Maps, Oranges, and a whole lot more. You’re a Kid In A Digital World.Thanks for making Kid Friday the number one technology show for kids.We talk tech but always end up somewhere else.Kid Friday is hosted by 12 year-old Zoe, 15 year-old Hannah, Dave, and Winston from PoochCam.comSubscribe.iTunes: http://goo.gl/huabxYouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/KidFridayWrite To Us at http://kidfriday.com/contactKid Friday Is Brought to you by: StoryCub – It’s Storytime, Anytime.  http://StoryCub.orgCopyright 2014 KidFriday.com. For personal use only. Any encoding, rebroadcast, retransmission, reproduction or distribution is strictly prohibited and protected by U.S. and international laws.________________________________

As we wrap up our series on IFBC 2013, Food Blog Radio interviews two food bloggers, Chef Heidi Fink and Colleen Fields, about their first time experience at IFBC 2013.   Chef Heidi Fink Heidi Fink is a chef, food writer, and award-winning culinary instructor, specializing in local foods and ethnic cuisines. Previously the Executive Chef of the renowned Canadian restaurant, ReBar Modern Food, Chef Heidi now shares her cooking expertise and enthusiasm through her classes, food articles, and culinary tours. Her goal is to inspire people in the kitchen and bring excitement to the everyday work of cooking and eating well. Heidi lives, cooks, and eats on beautiful Southern Vancouver Island with her husband and two young sons.   Chef Heidi Fink discusses: First impressions of IFBC Improv and the Amazon store sessions she attended. Great food from "Taste of Seattle" and the Urbanspoon Dinner at "Marjorie on Capital Hill" Why you need an agenda Takeaways Newbie tips for food blog conferences You can find Chef Heidi at chefheidifink.com   Colleen Fields Colleen Fields is a lifelong food enthusiast and healthy lifestyle convert who has lost more than 100 pounds and gone from a size 26w to a size 12 by marrying these two passions. As a single, working mother of two, Colleen struggled with her weight for years and tried every diet out there without success. Always enjoying cooking and good food, she found herself a constant companion at her mother’s side in the kitchen as a young child. Beginning her weight loss journey, she realized that her cooking style needed to change. Frustrated to find the only “healthy” cookbooks and television shows available focused on deprivational diets rather than behavioral changes she began experimenting and creating her own healthy dishes and sharing her triumphs and newly developed scrumptious dishes through her online networks. Today, she maintains her healthy weight and offers her recipes for success through her food blog, www.colleens-kitchen.com, videos, and cookbooks. Colleen hopes to serve as inspiration, offering simple, sustainable tools, obtainable healthy and weight loss goals and, a clear message for those struggling with the same issues she faced most of her adult life. Colleen discusses: First impressions of IFBC 2013 Food and Wine Excursion to Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville Andrew Scrivani photography class Improv sessions she attended Food sampling, "Taste of Seattle" and Urbanspoon dinner at "Gastro Pub" Being a raffle prize winner Takeaways Newbie tips for food blog conferences You can find Colleen at Colleens-Kitchen.com   Food Blog Radio is helping Foodie's build Food Blogs around the world!

Food Blog Radio interviews two food bloggers about their first time experience at IFBC 2013   Alice Mizer Alice Mizer is a food blogger and mother to two adorable girls and one mischievous shar-pei "puppy." Her blog, "A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen" was established in 2011 while living in England to share all her kitchen adventures with friends and family. Teaching her young children to cook good, healthy food and bake on their own has allowed their family to grow closer together and enjoy each yummy bite! They are hopelessly addicted to singing songs, playing and painting together when they aren't busy filling up on something yummy or making a sugary, floury mess in the kitchen and enjoying life, wherever they are in the world! They hope to inspire everyone to make time to cook or bake together and share the joys that have come from the kitchen with everyone.Alice discusses: Dorie Greenspan and her "Doristas French Fridays" group First impressions of IFBC Sessions she attended Great food from "Taste of Seattle" and the Urbanspoon Dinner at "Republic Seattle" Networking Goals Takeaways Newbie tips for food blog conferences You can find Alice at: http://acookingmizer.wordpress.com/ Sara De Leuuw I love cooking and sharing recipes, from every-day delights to gourmet style desserts. When I’m not in my kitchen, I’m out taking classes or going to demos and learning the latest dishes. I enjoy trying different cuisines, exploring everything about the food industry and meeting people who share my passion! I love music, reading, traveling, coffee and cookies! You will often find me taking pictures with my iPhone 4s (though I recently upgraded to a gorgeous red Nikon D3100! SQUEEE!) The flavors of my life are both sweet and savory. There are success’ and imperfections. So, grab a cup of coffee and come sit at the table with me. Let’s talk about recipes, celebrate great food and possibly solve the problems of the world with homemade cookies!! Who’s hungry? Sara discusses: First impressions of IFBC 2013 Meeting fellow food bloggers Expectations attending IFBC Sessions she attended Food sampling, "Taste of Seattle" and Urbanspoon dinner at "Luc Chef in the Hat Restaurant" Networking tips Takeaways Newbie tips for food blog conferences Why you need to attend IFBC 2014! You can find Sara at: http://www.myimperfectkitchen.com/   Register for IFBC 2014

The committee has convened in Brisbane this week with Josh's favourite funny man, Tim Ferguson, and Molk's favourite up and coming author and singer, Katie Wallis. Are butt wipes (one wipe charlies) a thing? Are audiobooks a thing? Are topless barbers a thing? Is variety television a thing? Are apps becoming real life games a thing? The committee decides these and more. Coming up: For the next few months you'll be enjoying the Thing Committee from Melbourne thanks to the Hotel Windsor and Virginia Plain. Please tweet, Facebook, Yelp or Urbanspoon those guys some love for looking after us!

What are people saying about you online? What if the comments are negative? How can you protect your good name? In an environment where online reviews are common, Legal Toolkit host Jared Correia, Law Practice Advisor with Mass. LOMAP,, and Conrad Saam, Vice President of Marketing at Urbanspoon, discuss online reputation management for lawyers. Conrad and Jared cover the importance of tracking online mentions, and the methods for doing so. They also address the rising vitality of local search and the usefulness in dominating vanity search.