From Start to Scale: Recent Episodes
Alex Newmann
Hear from successful CEOs, founders, and the best GTM leaders about how they built their companies and scaled from starting and finding product-market fit to scale. Hear how they transitioned out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales organization. Hear the strategies and tactics used to grow their businesses to millions in revenue and beyond.
Your host and successful entrepreneur, Alex Newmann takes you along the business's journey from first figuring out there was a real business to overcoming the hurdles in scaling the business. From selling to hiring to strategic business decisions, learn from the best how they scaled their companies.
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Jeff Ellman, Co-Founder of UrbanBound & Hireology. Jeff has a unique perspective on building and scaling companies and how to navigate tough times. We discuss his journeys through building two companies: UrbanBound and Hireology and how he has overcome the challenges encountered (and succeeded). Jeff drops nuggets about hiring the right people, adapting to the changing economy and selling through it, metrics, retention models, and more. And he wraps up with some key advice at the end. Enjoy!
Jeff’s bio:
Since 1999, the companies that Jeff Ellman co-founded have assisted over 1,500 professionals find employment, 15,000 residents find housing, 8,000 businesses develop a structured hiring process and 50,000 people relocate across the globe. Jeff has dedicated his 20-year career to helping people through life's transitions. The businesses he co-founded include Humatal-a recruiting and consulting firm, Homescout,-a residential real estate company, sold to Coldwell Banker in 2016, and Hireology-a technology platform that helps companies make better hiring decisions, which was recently ranked #94 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing companies. Jeff's latest company, Urbanbound is a web-based application built to simplify one of life's biggest transitions, moving to a new city.
Originally from Michigan, Jeff resides in Chicago with his wife Elyse, sons Brody, Connor, Brooks and dog Harvey. He enjoys reading business books, traveling, playing golf, basketball, pickleball, and rooting for his beloved Spartans, Tigers, and Pistons. A troubled Detroit Lions fan, Jeff can often be found dreaming of that elusive Super Bowl championship.
You can find out more about Jeff in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-ellman-%E2%9C%94%EF%B8%8F-9a8189/
Twitter (X): @jeff_ellman
Podcast: UB on the Move
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features John Barrows, CEO of JB Sales. We get into some impactful topics right away - hiring early sales reps, how to leverage AI in sales, and what you can do to improve as a sales leader and coach your team. John shares high level strategies and deeper level tactics in this episode so that anyone can walk away with value. Come along with me for a high energy, fun conversation.
Here’s a 20% discount on the individual membership for JB Sales. https://go.jbarrows.com/enroll/1958448?price_id=2665148&coupon=FSTS010824
John’s bio:
John is the CEO of JB Sales, a sales training organization focused on elevating the people and profession of Sales. He has trained and consulted with some of the world’s fastest growing sales teams like Salesforce.com, Zoom, Amazon, LinkedIn, and many others. He’s an active seller who still does his own prospecting and manages all his own deals because he believes that you can’t teach Sales unless you live it, especially with how fast everything is evolving in the space right now.
John has over 380k followers on Linkedin and has been recognized as one of their “Top Voices” in Sales for multiple years along with being invited to their [I]nsider Group to help shape their product strategy. He is a Top Sales Influencer for Salesforce.com and a leader in their SalesBlazer community. Fobes has recognized him as one of the Top 30 Social Sellers in the World. JB Sales is also recognized as one of the top 3 Sales Training organizations according to G2.
Lastly, he is the proud author of an Amazon bestselling children’s book called “I want to be in Sales when I grow up” that he wrote with his daughter to help introduce Sales to the younger generation with 100% of the profits going to charity.
You can find out more about Jim in the links below:
Website: https://www.jbarrows.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnmbarrows/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnmbarrows
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JBarrowsSalesTraining
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Mike Dwyer, co-founder at Prompt Therapy Solutions. From undergrad to successful entrepreneur, Mike and I dive through his journey of building Prompt to what it is today. Hear how Prompt started with 2 best friends growing up to over 70 employees and hitting profitability. We dive into intentional bets made into customer success early on, how they generate over 50% of their business from inbound, and how the sales team was built. If you are an introverted founder or salesperson, this one is for you!
Mike’s bio:
Michael's lengthy history as a physical therapy patient led to the founding of Prompt. With a background in finance, he noticed that there were many inefficiencies within physical therapy practices that could be corrected using the technology available to us today. He partnered with lifelong best friend Adam Baliatico to build a modern and truly all-in-one system for therapy practices that enables them to operate more efficiently, profitably, and improve the patient experience. Mike leads the sales side of the business at Prompt.
You can find out more about Mike in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-dwyer-1936377b/
Website: promptemr.com
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org. Book time to learn more today
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Alex White, Samir Rayani and David Hoffman, founders of Next Big Sound who sold their company to Pandora. Their story is amazing from start to finish and we dive into details that made NBS what it was. The founders share descriptive stories of how they created demand using a PLG strategy (before the term was coined) to how they sold Sony as their first big enterprise deal. We discuss things that worked and things that didn’t in a company story filled with tips and nuggets you can learn from.
Bios:
Alex (CEO), David (Product) and Samir (CTO) co-founded Next Big Sound in 2008. The company was acquired by Pandora (NYSE: P) in 2015.
Today, Alex leads Subcity, democratizing access to capital for America’s small businesses by first leveraging their dataset to pair advanced manufacturing entrepreneurs with the billions of dollars in economic development incentives and tax credits that are already allocated to support this strategic industry.
David and Samir are building Beam, shoppable mood boards for DTC brands.
You can find out more about them in the links below:
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderswhite/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrdavidhoffman/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samirrayani/
Twitter:
@mralexwhite
@dodeca
@samirrayani
Websites:
https://subcity.com/
https://heybeam.com/
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Scott Schnaars, Vice President of Americas at Cloudinary. This episode has PLG -> enterprise selling structure, motion, strategy and hiring all over it. From making sure you hire the best reps with a straightforward hiring framework to prospecting and qualification in enterprise selling through a PLG motion, this episode is filled with nuggets. Enjoy!
Scott’s bio:
Scott Schnaars is Vice President of Americas at Cloudinary. Cloudinary provides a rich platform to enable developers, marketers, and creative professionals at companies of all sizes to manage their image, video, and other digital assets. They have 1,000,000 developers on the platform and over 10,000 enterprise customers worldwide.
Prior to Cloudinary, Scott was SVP of Worldwide Sales at Dynamic Signal and VP of Sales and Marketing at Retention Science
You can find out more about Scott in the links below:
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschnaars/
Twitter: @schnaars
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Coco Meers, CEO and co-founder at Equilibria. We talk about building and selling her 1st company Pretty Quick which was a marketplace and eventually sold to Groupon. We dive into the trials and tribulations of building a marketplace company and what it takes to make a successful one. Then we transition to Coco’s current company Equilibria which has seen incredible success and the pros of the business were so attractive to entice her to start it. There is a ton of her ‘why’ baked in throughout the entire show. Enjoy
Coco’s bio:
Coco Meers, CEO and co-founder at Equilibria, a women’s wellness company. Prior to Equilibria, Coco was Founder and CEO at Pretty Quick which was sold to Groupon. She was general manager and ran the internal, Pretty Quick business for several years. She is an active angel investor and advisor through Rebelle Collective.
You can find out more about Coco at:
Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cocomeers/
Website: https://myeq.com/
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Afif Khoury, Founder and CEO of SOCi, Inc. Afif and I get right to it talking about how he figured out he had product market fit to having to make difficult decisions and deprecating an entire inside sales team. Afif talks about the growth of the company and building different revenue streams with different customers to derisk the business. From recruiting and hiring to mistakes he made that he wish he could take back, this episode is jam packed with info any founder or GTM leader would benefit from.
Afif’s bio:
Afif Khoury, Founder and CEO of SOCi, Inc., has been at the forefront of technology for 20 years. From his early contribution to the Human Genome Project, a career as a high tech M&A attorney, a manager of two successful Venture Capital funds and Founder & CEO of two successful startups, Afif has made a career out of following the data.
You can find out more about Afif in the links below:
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/afifkhoury/
Website: https://www.meetsoci.com/
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Christian Duffus, founder and CEO at Fonbnk. Chris already has 3 fintech exits under his belt and now onto his 4th company. One of his specialties is creating viral loops when it comes to go-to-market and customer acquisition. Chris reflects on his past companies in how they were successful and ultimately exited + what he has done to make Fonbnk the success it is today. This one is jam packed with takeaways - you are sure to learn something new.
Christian’s bio:
Christian Duffus is founder and CEO at Fonbnk. Fonbnk is a new distributed finance company enabling a frictionless, financial onramp for emerging markets. They has raised over $5M in seed funding and have already sold over a half a million in revenue. Christian has founded and sold 3 companies including Vite.money that was acquired by RoundlyX and Leaf College Savings that was acquired by SOFI.
You can find out more about Chris in the links below:
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-duffus/
Twitter: @cduffus
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
Season 2 start - welcome back!
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Vince Panozzo, SVP of client partnerships at Hunt Club. Vince has been through 3 exits, and a career long go-to-market leader with incredible success and experience leading revenue teams. We dive through scaling a growth startup to figuring out how to find product market fit. He shares his personal plan on how he manages his time and gets through top priorities to make meaningful impact on the business. He is passionate, smart, and knows his stuff. Come along for this one.
Vince’s bio:
Vince Panozzo joined the leadership at Hunt Club in 2021 and currently serves as Senior Vice President, Client Partnerships, reporting to Hunt Club's CEO. Vince is responsible for go-to-market strategy including net new customer acquisition and growth of existing customers. He leads a team focused on Sales, Customer Success, Channel Partnerships and Sales Enablement.
Vince is a serial go-to-market leader for startup and growth stage companies with 3 exits over the course of his career. Prior to joining Hunt Club and transitioning to the talent space, Vince helped build and grow several health technology companies over nearly 2 decades, including roles as Chief Revenue Officer of Strata Decision Technology (acquired by Roper Technologies) and VP of Revenue at SwipeSense (acquired by SC Johnson).
You can find out more about Vince in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vince-panozzo-4783657/
Twitter: @vincentmpanozzo
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
It is a wrap. Season 1 is in the books. Thank you all for listening and being a part of this amazing journey. I love receiving all the emails and DMs about episodes that resonated or you learned something in. Keep them coming
Thank you to my guests:
Jim Franklin
Rami Essaid
Jen Henderson
Kyle York
Jen Saxton
Adam Burrows
Carrie Kerpen
Peter Cowen
Sam Ettus
Gabe Cooper
David Cohen
Tom Coburn
Cody Barbo
David Furth
Elizabeth Andrew
Kathryn Minshew
Shadi Bakour
Shaun Savage
Adam Harris
Liz Giorgi
Brad van Leeuwen
Nick Cromydas
This is only the beginning. Season 2 is coming out in the fall. Catch up on any episodes you missed and please leave a review
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Nick Cromydas co-founder and CEO of Hunt Club. Nick has grown Hunt Club from a lifestyle business into a recruiting behemoth with $54M in funding, over 1,000 companies, and even more searches -> matches. We dive through the growth of Hunt Club, and how he transitioned from leading sales to scaling to a GTM team of 20 and only starting marketing 1.5 years ago. Nick drops tips and stories we can all learn from through the conversation. Enjoy this one.
Nick’s bio:
Nick Cromydas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hunt Club, a tech-enabled talent and recruitment company placing leadership roles across the fastest growing companies in the tech sector. Hunt Club has helped over 1,000 high-growth companies land incredible leaders, helping many of them scale their business from seed funding to unicorn status in a matter of years.
Prior to Hunt Club, Nick founded New Coast Ventures, a Venture studio that started or invested in over 40+ early-stage startups (4 unicorns) with material exits to companies like goPuff, Compass, and more. Nick is a Forbes 30 Under 30 award winner, multiple Inc 5000 lists recipient, and deeply passionate about starting and growing new companies.
You can find out more about Nick in the links below:
Email: nick@huntclub.com
Website: huntclub.com
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Transition out of founder-led sales and into a scalable sales org
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Brad van Leeuwen, co-founder and COO at Cledara. Brad talks about how he initially built the company and scaled sales from the wee early days. His approach to hiring sales reps, especially early on is insightful. Then he goes on to hire a ‘been there, done that’ sales leader and talks through the areas of investment to improve efficiencies throughout the team and benefits they have seen. We talk about a million things in between. This is a fun one - enjoy!
Brad’s bio:
Brad van Leeuwen is the co-founder and COO at Cledara. Cledara's mission is to make SaaS scalable for the companies and people that use it. It’s one place to manage all your software subscriptions and save a ton of money. Prior to Cledara, Brad has been in the startup space as both an operator and investor. You can find out more about Brad in the links below
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradvanleeuwen/
Twitter: @BradvanL
Website: cledara.com
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and uncover how to accelerate revenue and scale the team
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Liz Giorgi, cofounder and CEO of Soona. Liz and I dive through the scaling of soona from initial product market fit and her knowing she found it to growing to thousands and thousands of customers & generating partnerships with Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and more. With over $50M in funding and amazing growth, Liz shares bets she made that worked and didn’t that influence the growth of soona. She drops tip after tip throughout the entire conversation. Enjoy
Liz’s bio:
Liz Giorgi is the cofounder and CEO of soona. soona is a same-day photo and video studio designed to help brands get professional content for less than the price of stock. She has raised over $50M in funding, has over 190 employees and thousands of customers. Prior to soona, she founded Mighteor which Standard acquired in October 2020.
You can find out more about Liz in the links below:
Twitter: @lizgiorgi
Website: soona.co
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and uncover how to accelerate revenue and scale the team
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Kathryn Minshew, Founder and CEO of The Muse. With $40M in funding, helping 70 million people and an acquisition, Kathryn shares the story how she scaled The Muse. From bets she made that worked to bets she wish she made or made sooner, Kathryn and I dive into what helped make The Muse what it is today and how she got here. Come along for an incredible ride
Kathryn bio:
Kathryn Minshew is the Founder and CEO of The Muse, a job search and career development platform that helps candidates discover and land jobs that fit their skills. For companies, we help them tell a more authentic, data-driven employer story, and showcase the unique employee experiences and values that make them special. Ultimately, the goal is to help both sides find the right fit. She wrote "The New Rules of Work," which was published by Crown Business / Penguin Random House in April 2017 and quickly became a Wall Street Journal National Bestseller.
You can find out more about Kathryn in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-minshew/
Twitter: @kmin
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and uncover the bottlenecks you don’t see and the blindspots you didn’t know existed
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Elizabeth Andrew, a SaaS sales executive. Elizabeth is a 3x VP of Sales and shares her learnings in those experiences. We talk about remote sales environments, navigating complex enterprise sales deals, building a sales team and more. Learn some of the dos and don’t to build a high performing sales organization. Enjoy the show!
Elizabeth bio:
Elizabeth Andrew is a SaaS sales executive with an incredible background in building & leading sales teams, accelerating revenue, and crushing quotas. Most recently she was VP of Sales at Netomi. Prior to that, she was VP of sales at Pluma which was acquired by Skillsoft. She was an early employee at Dropbox/Hellosign as well. She now focuses on consulting and investing.
You can find out more about Elizabeth in the link below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethaandrew/
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and uncover how to accelerate revenue and scale the team
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Adam Harris, co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds. Adam shares strategies and tactics with specific examples of bets he made that worked and things he wishes he could take back. We dive into how the company has scaled + plays he runs at multiple stages of the company to maintain accelerated growth. With millions and millions in sales + 700+ employees around the world, this conversation is filled with incredible takeaways and insights for entrepreneurs, sales leaders, and all those in GTM departments.
Adam’s bio:
Adam Harris is the co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds, the hospitality management platform powering more reservations and happier guests for lodging businesses worldwide. His people-centered leadership, alongside a fully-remote, distributed workforce of 700+ people in more than 40+ countries, has grown Cloudbeds into a company that generates billions of dollars in revenue for tens of thousands of properties globally. Together with his co-founder, RichardCastle, they have amassed awards for culture, product, and innovation, including Forbes’ America’s Best Startup Employers, Inc’s Best Workplaces, and EY Entrepreneur of the Year.
You can find out more about Adam in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambharris/
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Diagnosing gaps and bottlenecks in your sales process and how to fix them & sell more
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Shaun Savage, CEO & Founder of GoShare. We dive into moving from a B2C focus to a B2B focus and using a self-service sign-up to get enterprise customers. Shaun shares his learnings from how he scaled customer acquisition without breaking the bank and selling to over 100,000 customers. Some of his leadership team started as interns, yes, interns. The growth has been incredible. Come along for the journey on this one as Shaun tells the GoShare story and key learnings along the way.
Shaun’s bio:
Shaun Savage is the CEO and Founder of GoShare. GoShare is digitizing the last mile and middle mile of the supply chain to optimize the utilization of the world’s trucks & create a more sustainable economy. He is passionate about economic empowerment and creating software to improve the supply chain. He is an advocate for small businesses via the leadership committee and technology committee of the National Small Business Association. His prior experience in sales, business development and marketing helped build the foundation for GoShare. Shaun loves spending time with family & friends, bike riding, fast cars, martial arts and closing deals.
You can find out more about Shaun in the links below:
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunsavage/
Twitter: @goshare
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Improve your sales team's efficiency while forecasting revenue accurately
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Shadi Bakour, CEO and Co-Founder of PATH (the water bottle company). Shadi walks us through the amazing growth story of selling his product one 7-Eleven at a time and having negative $400 in his bank account to being in thousands and thousands of stores around the country, having celebrity investors like Travis Scott and Kevin Hart, and the key plays that led to Path’s growth to millions and millions in revenue. Learn how Shadi and his team got initial traction, pivoted, & expanded into the B2B space with Salesforce as a customer and many more names you have heard of. This episode is packed with takeaways and learnings.
Shadi’s bio:
Shadi Bakour is the CEO and Co-Founder of PATH, a sustainability-focused bottled water brand that forged the path in the refillable packaging revolution with their 100% refillable BPA-free aluminum water bottles made in the USA. Bakour is on a journey to bring the plastic crisis to the forefront, teaching others to protect the environment and provide options to reduce and reuse.
Prior to founding PATH, Shadi was the CEO and Co-Founder of Exumme, a tech hardware startup that was acquired in 2014, and before that he worked in consulting and private equity at Booz Allen Hamilton and Abraaj Capital.
You can find out more about Shadi in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shadibakour/
Twitter: @shadi_bakour
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and uncover how to accelerate revenue and scale the team
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features David Furth, president and CEO of DataBlend. David shares how he leveraged his background and experience in channel sales with value-added resellers + software publishers to wrap his solution with theirs to create awareness and scale the business. We talk about hiring and how to hire the right people for this speed of growth + structuring the team for the future to reduce mis-hires. This is an excellent story from the early days to the beginning days of scaling. Enjoy
Bio:
David Furth is the president and CEO at Datablend. Prior to Datablend, he built Leap the Pond one of the leading resellers of Sage Intacct, the cloud-based accounting software. He sold it to AcctTwo, who was then sold to Baker Tilly. He’s been in the software industry for 25 years with experience across every functional area of the business. Having served on executive team of six companies, he has seen astronomical growth in company after company.
You can find out more about David in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/furthdavids/
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and uncover how to accelerate revenue and scale the team
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Kyle York, co-founder, CEO and managing partner at York IE. We walk through his journey of building Dyn from $3m to $100m in ARR and selling it to Oracle. He shares story after story about what he did to grow Dyn and how the GTM strategy worked and was executed. From initial strategy to org structure and strategies to winning deals with big fortune 500 companies, this conversation is loaded with learnings. Listen and grab some takeaways that you can implement into your company today.
Kyle's bio:
Kyle is the co-founder, CEO and managing partner at York IE, a strategic growth and investment firm for technology companies. Previously he was CRO of Dyn, led the company to $100 million ARR and a $600 million acquisition by Oracle, where he was a general manager and vice president of product strategy for the cloud infrastructure business
He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, New York Times, TechCrunch, USA Today and Wired, and on broadcasts such as NPR’s All Tech Considered, NBC’s Today Show and PBS’s Frontline.
You can find out more about Kyle in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyork20/
Twitter: @kyork20
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and identify how to help your sales team sell more & be more efficient
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Jen Henderson, founder and CEO of Tilt. Jen built Tilt from personal frustrating experiences and has grown it into the powerhouse it is today. She has raised over $17M in funding and grown the team to over 100 people. We discuss how Tilt's customer acquisition system got started and how it has scaled today. Jen shares what has changed along the way and the bets she made that have paid off. We dive into turning sales into a math game, hires she wishes she had made earlier, and nailing down the language of your buyers. Learn how Jen has scaled Tilt and gain some valuable learnings and insights along the way.
About Tilt:
Leave is hella complex- there are > 900 permutations of leave in the US- we’re here to help people navigate that in companies of any size. Check out: https://hellotilt.com/
Jen's bio:
Jennifer Henderson is the founder and CEO of Tilt, a company revolutionizing employee leave in the workplace. Tilt’s SaaS platform creates a human experience through technology to support every aspect of a leave of absence. She spent 15 years in corporate America prior to founding Tilt in a variety of operational roles. She graduated from CSU with a BA in Speech Communications, lives in the Fort Collins area with her husband, 2 kids, several animals, and loves being outdoors.
You can find out more about Jen in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferhendersonjctcjcdc/
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
NCG | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and identify how to make your sales team more efficient & profitable
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Cody Barbo, Founder & CEO of Trust & Will. Cody talks about how they had to educate their audience before they could sell to them. Moving an offline heavy paperwork process to the digital world and creating trust is a big challenge. We dive into go-to-market, brand, key hires, and moving to a metrics-driven approach to scale. Cody shares the Trust & Will story to date and all his learnings along the way. Make sure you have something to take notes with. Enjoy this one.
Cody bio:
Cody Barbo is an entrepreneur and two-time founder from Dallas, TX. Cody currently serves as Founder/CEO of Trust & Will, a modern estate planning software startup. As a volunteer, Cody serves on the San Diego State University Alumni Board of Advisors, and Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity’s National Foundation Board. And at home, Cody is married, a father to a daughter, dog dad, and loves to cook, workout, and mentor other entrepreneurs in his spare time.
You can find out more about Cody in the links below:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/codybarbo/
Twitter: @codybarbo
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and identify how to make your sales team more efficient & profitable
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Tom Coburn, Co-founder/CEO of Jebbit. Tom first dropped out of Boston College to pursue the initial version of Jebbit. He and his co-founders took the company through Techstars, raised a good-sized round and had great momentum. 12 years later, Tom shares the war stories, ups, and downs, the do it agains vs the never do agains. He shares so many amazing things in this episode that it is surely one you will have to listen to multiple times. Today, Jebbit is a different company in many aspects, but not in culture. Tom and his co-founders proactively focus on culture and it has shown with the team that has stayed with them. Vista Equity invested $70M in them and now they are off and flying. Come learn about the journey.
Tom's bio:
Tom Coburn, is the co-founder and CEO of Jebbit. He first built Jebbit in undergraduate school at Boston College, later dropped out, and has been building the company for the past 12 years and running. Over 100 employees, $90m+ raised, and tons of customers you would know. He’s done investing and advising but mainly created one of the best companies in Boston.
You can find out more about Tom in the links below:
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/tomcoburn
Twitter: @tomcoburn1
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and identify how to make your sales team more efficient & profitable
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features David Cohen, founder and Chairman at Techstars. Techstars has accelerated some of the most well-known and successful companies you have ever heard of. We walk through the early days of how David came up with the idea, got Brad Feld onboard and initially gained traction. Then we dive into attracting & investing in some of the most successful companies + scaling into multiple countries and building a network of thousands of entrepreneurs. Learn how David built one of the most recognizable and desirable accelerators & investment companies in tech today.
David's bio:
David is the founder and chairman of Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. First round investor in 20+ unicorns like Uber, Twilio, DigitalOcean +more.
You can find out more about David in the links below:
Website: davidgcohen.com
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/davidgcohen/
Twitter: @davidcohen
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and identify what is needed to accelerate your revenue
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Samantha Ettus, Founder and CEO at Park Place Payments. Sam shares her story from the early days finding product-market fit to scaling to thousands of freelance sales reps around the country. From launching in specific cities to figuring out how to recruit thousands from the freelance workforce - come learn how Park Place is putting a new spin on the multi-level marketing industry and making a huge impact in the lives of thousands... while building one heck of a company.
Sam's bio:
Samantha Ettus is the Founder and CEO of Park Place Payments, a future of work fintech. Sam has devoted her career to supporting women in the pursuit of financial independence. Hundreds of thousands of women from C-level leaders to administrative assistants have benefitted from her unique guidance.
Sam is a best-selling author of five books, a renowned speaker and co-host of iHeart’s leading women in business podcast What’s Her Story With Sam & Amy. Sam spent eight years as a Contributor to Forbes and now writes a popular weekly work/life newsletter. Sam hosted 75 episodes of leading Internet talk show Obsessed TV, which she created and produced with Gary Vaynerchuk.
She makes regular appearances on shows including the TODAY Show, Access Hollywood, NBC News, Dr. Phil, The Doctors, and Good Morning America. She has been featured and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Inc., Entrepreneur and Fast Company. She has spoken on hundreds of stages across the country from TEDx to Fortune 500 companies.
You can find out more about Sam in the links below:
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/samanthaettus/
Twitter: @samanthaettus
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit and uncover how to accelerate revenue and scale the team
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Gabe Cooper, Founder and CEO of Virtuous. Virtuous is in a space many of us don't think about when building a big business: non-profits. Gabe and I talk in-depth about his scaling journey from first finding product-market fit to scaling millions in revenue & building multiple sales teams (smb, mid-market & enterprise). Hear how he structures and supports the different teams and how they have evolved as Virtuous grew. Learn about the key hires Gabe wishes he hired earlier along the way. Gabe has built an incredibly successful business and has made a massive impact while doing it. Enjoy the show
Gabe's bio:
Gabe Cooper is the Founder and CEO of Virtuous, a Responsive Nonprofit CRM & Marketing Platform helping nonprofits build lasting relationships with their donors. He is also the author of the top selling book Responsive Fundraising. After serving in a leadership role at a large nonprofit, Gabe went on to help build a series of successful software products in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. His team's products have been featured in Wired, USA Today, NY Times, and Apple's WWDC. His drive stems from a passion to create market-defining software and help charities reimagine generosity.
You can find out more about Gabe in the links below:
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/gabecooper/
Twitter: @virtuousgabe
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group | newmannconsulting.com
Get a sales audit done and pinpoint what to do to sell more
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Peter Cowen, Managing Director of Sutton Capital Partners. Peter has seen the ups and downs of high-growth startups and he shares many of his learnings with us. From hiring and setting up the team, to business models, to attracting advisory & board members, Peter shares incredible lessons from being an entrepreneur himself and all his investment experience.
If you are a SaaS company, check out:
7th Annual Recurring Revenue Conference 4/27 at Culver City Hilton (www.recurringrevenueconference.com) focused on SaaS and retention strategies from industry thought leaders.
Peter's bio:
Peter Cowen is founder and Managing Director of Sutton Capital Partners, a technology investment bank focused on SaaS and fintech. Peter has advised dozens of companies on selling their company, raising debt and equity and strategic planning,
He co-founded one of the largest Southern California tech conferences, the Recurring Revenue Conference which is focused on retention strategies with the top entrepreneurs, investors and advisors in the community.
Previously, Peter co-founded 3 tech companies, one in computer networks, another in logistics optimization and the third in biometrics security. Two were sold to public companies and the other to a Bain-backed venture.
He has also been an active angel investor with over 100 early stage investments and an LP in over a dozen seed VC funds. He has sat on 12 boards of directors of institutionally backed ventures.
Peter is Senior Faculty Advisor at UCLA Anderson School of Management overseeing the Masters Thesis program on entrepreneurship for the fully employed MBA students.
You can find out more about Peter in the links below:
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/peter-cowen-3ba262/
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Carrie Kerpen, CEO and co-founder of Likeable Media, a 10 Pearls company. Carrie built a service-based business from scratch and scaled it through to exit. Learn how she productized her offerings, hired the right people, scaled operations, and had multiple children while doing it. She is incredibly talented and highly articulate. So many of us want to sell our service-based business but have no idea how. Learn how Carrie did it.
Carrie's bio:
Carrie Kerpen is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, speaker, & global champion for women. She is the co-founder and Managing Director of Likeable Media, a women-led digital agency that she sold to 1200-employee 10Pearls in 2021. She is the author of WORK IT: Secrets for Success from the Boldest Women in Business and a columnist for INC and Forbes. Carrie has been featured in the New York Times, ABC World News Tonight, FOX News, & CNBC. She has keynoted conferences in London, Las Vegas, Mexico City, & NYC.
You can find out more about Carrie in the links below:
LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/carriekerpen
Twitter: @carriekerpen
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Pinpoint why your sales team isn't selling and how to scale your revenue
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Adam Burrows former Chief Business officer at Guild Education, SVP at Home Advisor, and currently co-founder and managing partner at Range Ventures. We talk about he he build and scaled a sales team and could not pay them commission. From recruiting to scaling, we dive into Adam's journey of building Guild Education.
Adam's bio:
Adam is a venture investor and former C-level leader who is passionate about building and supporting the technology ecosystem in Colorado. To support that mission, He co-founded Range Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on funding and supporting the best technology entrepreneurs in the Denver area. They are backed by the top founders, CEOs, and tech execs in Colorado who are all aligned to support their portfolio companies and help build the next generation of industry-changing firms. Prior to Range, he was part of the exec teams at HomeAdvisor/Angi (2017 IPO) and Guild Education.
You can find out more about Adam in the links below:
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/burrowsadam/
Twitter: @burrowsa
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Sales audits -> creating and scaling b2b sales playbooks
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Jen Saxton, Founder and CEO of TotSquad. Jen sold Tot Squad once, kept the name and is building the next version as a tech company. Hear her journey and how she has grown TotSquad into the amazing company it is today. From personally cleaning baby car seats to opening locations across the country to creating partnerships with some of the largest big box stores in the world - Jen's story is one you don't want to miss.
Jen's bio:
Jen Saxton is the founder and CEO of Tot Squad. Jennifer received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, her BS in Math at Duke. She is the mom of two little girls Charlotte 4 and Sophie 2. She started her journey 15 years ago becoming a certified car seat safety expert and grew Tot Squad into becoming an expert in car seat and baby gear installation, cleaning and safety services at locations across the US. Jen knew in order to grow her business she would need to figure out how to pivot. So, she looked across the market and aligned Tot Squad’s mission to help make parents’ lives easier by connecting them with the experts they need virtually and in-person. Since making the pivot, Tot Squad has raised close to $2MM with the aspiration to transform the baby world. Jen has been features in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Entrepreneur Magazine, INC Magazine, Fast Company, Bloomberg Business Week, and Forbes, among others.
You can find out more about Jen in the links below:
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jenbsaxton/
Twitter: @thetotsquad
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Sales audits -> creating and scaling b2b sales playbooks
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Rami Essaid, former founder/CEO of Distil Networks & founder/CEO of Finmark. Rami has sold Distil Networks for over $100m and recently sold Finmark in Nov 2022. Rami shares his story from building Distil Networks through transitioning out of founder led sales and to exit. He created a category from scratch and had no competitors in the early days. Learn how he built the category, designed the team, generated incredible scale and hear a few things he could change if he had the chance.
Rami's bio:
Rami Essaid, two-time startup founder and passionate entrepreneur, has been building companies for over a decade. He was the founder and CEO of Distil Networks, acquired by Imperva in 2019, before starting his latest venture Finmark, financial modeling software for startups. At Distil Networks, he saw firsthand how difficult and time-consuming financial modeling can be, and built Finmark, so that anyone, not just finance pros, can easily make and update a financial model without having to spend weeks laboring over complicated spreadsheets. Finmark was recently acquired by BILL in late 2022.
You can find out more about Rami in the links below:
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/ramiessaid/
Twitter: @ramiessaid
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Sales audits -> creating and scaling b2b sales playbooks
This episode of the From Start to Scale podcast features Jim Franklin, former CEO of Sendgrid. Sendgrid experienced rocket growth in a relatively short period of time through its way to IPO. Jim shares his journey along the way from when he first started and Amazon came out with a competing product to how he led the ship creating playbooks, hiring, empowering his team and more. Learn about Jim’s approach to hiring senior talent early, why you should do direct before channel, and why he think you should go to Enterprise when your customers take you there.
Jim’s bio:
Jim Franklin is an active limited partner, board member and advisor to the startup community. Jim was most recently the CEO of SendGrid, Inc., a cloud developer infrastructure services company. Prior to his tenure with SendGrid, Jim was the Vice President of Enterprise Performance Management and the General Manager of the Crystal Ball Global Business Unit of Oracle Corporation. The Crystal Ball Global Business Unit was formed in 2007 as a part of the acquisition of Hyperion Solutions. At Hyperion, Jim served as VP and General Manager.
Jim has been a board member at Wurk, Yonomi, Fluorofinder, Cloud Elements, TapInfluence, Parkifi, aWhere, SlamData and Section.io. Jim has also been a mentor for Techstars, Boomtown, Mergelane and was the number 1 globally ranked mentor for Founder Institute.
You can find out more about Jim in the links below:
Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/JimFranklin08
Twitter: @jimfranklin
From Start to Scale is sponsored by our proud partner:
Newmann Consulting Group LLC | newmannconsulting.com
Sales audits -> creating and scaling b2b sales playbooks