The Scott Barstow Show: Recent Episodes

Scott Barstow

Scott Barstow talks about the business of building technology products for the untechnical with guests from widely varying backgrounds, all with the aim of helping untechnical founders and product managers understand how to eliminate wasted time and money, as well as better communicate with the technologists around them.

My guests for this show are Monica Wood and DeDe Houston, co-founders of Myxx Recipes.

One of the biggest struggles for busy families is finding and making healthy meals at home. Myxx Recipes lets users shop for new, healthy recipes, create a shopping list from those recipes (including prices from the store where you shop), and then submit the shopping list to your grocery store for pickup. Myxx is sitting in the middle of the massive trend of buying groceries from in-person to online.

Monica and DeDe have a long history together and a truly great story about why they chose this idea to build a company around. We also talk a good bit about the early days of starting a company as two single moms, how they prioritized their lives both then and now, their role models, how they resolve conflict in their partnership and make key decisions, the importance of family meals, how the market is moving in their favor, what they look for in team members, how they create and manage their company culture, and much much more.

Listening to the two of them talk to and about each other made me jealous. They have a kinship that is remarkably rare, and the energy it creates oozes out of them.

Please enjoy my conversation with Monica Wood and DeDe Houston of Myxx Recipes.

Show Notes:

Myxx on Twitter
Monica on LinkedIn
DeDe on LinkedIn
Monica on Twitter

My guest for this show is Kristine Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Equine Exchange, a marketplace for buying and selling sport horses. If you're like me, you know nothing about buying or selling a horse, but it's actually a massive market with extremely high dollar transactions and fraught with fraud and bad actors.

Equine Exchange brings like-minded buyers and sellers together and provides questionnaires, agreements, and processes to facilitate transparency in the transaction. Kristine does a great job of explaining all that they do in the first 20 minutes of the show.

I've known Kristine for a couple years now and have always admired her tenacity and candor. You'll hear plenty of both in our conversation. We also talk about her relationship with her co-founder and why that's a huge advantage for her, how she deals with adversity, people she admires (and why), and much more.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Kristine Kelly of Equine Exchange. Thank you for listening.

My guest for this episode is Ursula Mead, CEO and co-founder of In Her Sight.

In Her Sight is an engagement platform for women to rate the companies they work for on issues specifically important to women. In Her Sight also provides tools for job seekers to match the issues most important to them with companies who excel in those areas in order to create a more productive, healthy working environment for women. Ursula and I have been trying to get together for this interview for at least three months and I’m thrilled that we finally made it happen.

In this interview, Ursula talks about her early days at Motley Fool and how she came to realize that the culture she was a part of was not available to all women, and how she decided to do something about it. We also talk about how fundraising is uniquely difficult for women, the mommy trap, having productive relationships with male investors and partners, and some of the new technology in addition to what In Her Sight is building that is helping to put women on equal footing in the workplace.

Of all the shows I’ve done, I don’t know that I’ve had a more important, timely guest.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ursula Mead of In Her Sight, and I hope you hear something in here that challenges you to take action. Thank you for listening.

My guest for this episode is Andrew Bagrin, CEO and founder of My Digital Shield. My Digital Shield is revolutionizing how small and medium businesses protect themselves from cyber threats. By deploying minimal infrastructure at the customer's location and utilizing the best of cloud technologies, My Digital Shield is bringing cyber security usually reserved for the Fortune 500 to businesses up and down the street for a low monthly subscription.

In this interview Andrew talks about how he got the idea to start the company, how he made the decision to leave a nice, cushy corporate job to start his own thing (alcohol was involved!), how he feels about investor money, mistakes he made getting distracted early in the company's history and much much more.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Andrew Bagrin of My Digital Shield, and as always, thank you for listening.

"I would rather fail at greatness than succeed at mediocrity" - Tim Sinclair

My guest for this episode is Tim Sinclair, CEO and founder of RINGR. RINGR is an audio recording application used by thousands of podcasters and journalists to record high quality audio interviews. RINGR has developed some unique, patented intellectual property that makes recording great interviews possible over a normal voice call. Tim has been in radio broadcasting for years, and is the in-arena voice of the University of Illinois Fighting Illini, as well as the Chicago Fire soccer club. RINGR was started, as many great companies are, because Tim was trying to solve a problem he had every day in his work. In this interview, Tim talks about all of the hard lessons he’s learned building his first tech company, where he says radio and podcasting headed in the future, why he decided to make the jump from radio to tech entrepreneur, the difference between being entrepreneurial and being and entrepreneur and much much more. I recorded this interview using the RINGR app, and as you’ll hear the sound is amazing. They’re on to something big, and I can’t wait to see where it all goes. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and listen in on my conversation with Tim Sinclair of RINGR.

My guest for this episode is Stephen Kane, CEO and founder of ArbiClaims. ArbiClaims is a platform that brings parties together to resolve small disputes using trained arbitrators without having to go to court.

Stephen is a start up and small business attorney by background, Stephen has over 10 years of sales and business development experience including with other legal tech companies. He also chairs GRID110, an economic development organization committed to growing the start up ecosystem in downtown LA.

In this episode, Stephen shares:

How his family background helped shape who he is and what he's doing today
The genesis of the idea behind ArbiClaims
Why he thinks now is a unique time in this particular market
How he got bit by the entrepreneurial bug while at Stanford
and much more

I think you’ll really enjoy hearing Stephen’s story. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and listen in on my conversation with Stephen Kane of ArbiClaims.

My guest for this show is Jake Loosararian, CEO and co-founder of Gecko Robotics. Gecko Robotics make robots that do unassisted inspections of power plant boilers. These robots have sensors that measure things like temperature, wall thickness and other system failure indicators, as well as a mounted camera that records the entire trip around the boiler. Their technology saves lives and cuts the cost and time of inspection dramatically. Jake and Gecko are graduates of Y-Combinator (Winter 2016).

In this episode, Jake talks about his personal back story, including living abroad in England and being home schooled, and then we dig into Gecko in detail:

How he came up with the idea for Gecko while still in college
How he knew on his first day at a "real job" out of college that he would never last
How he dealt with having to part company with his first co-founder
The importance of having a great founding team, and what makes a great founding team
What it's like to be in a room with people who are affected directly by robots doing the work of humans
The future of robotics and where Jake thinks the industry should be focusing, as well as his take on robots replacing the human workforce
and a whole lot more

You don't want to miss any of this interview. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and a notebook and listen in on my conversation with Jake Loosararian of Gecko Robotics.

My guest for this show is Brant Elliot. Brant is the CTO and Co-Founder of Stealz, a mobile app that rewards customers for being brand ambassadors for businesses they frequent. He has over 20 years’ experience building technology and tinkering with electronics. His early days in the tech space were spent hacking/exploring systems during the technology rush of the early 2000s.

Normally on this show we talk with CEOs, but I thought it would be good to have a conversation with a founding CTO about the view of things from the technical side of the fence. Brant and I covered a multitude of topics in this episode, including:

Why he left corporate America to join a startup
What makes a good early-stage developers, and how to hire them
How they built their MVP using a contract shop and then moved it in-house
How they started with a very high-touch, services-based approach to the problem and then built the product
The importance of the tech team being involved in sales and support in the early going
The importance of non-developer CEOs and founders understanding the product development process
and much more (of course)

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, a notebook and listen in on my conversation with Brant Elliot of Stealz.

My guest for this show is Mark Easley. Mark is a startup advisor and angel investor in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. Previously Mark had a 20+ year technology career in engineering, marketing, sales, and executive management in the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley. Mark has been on the executive board of a Raleigh/Durham area angel investor group and is a member of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development.

Mark provides mentoring to startups and potential entrepreneurs in the areas of investment crowdfunding, lean startup methods, marketing strategies, investor presentations, and management skills.

Mark has previously held engineering, sales, marketing, and executive VP management positions in the semiconductor industry at PLX Technology, Adaptec, Intel, and HP.

In this show, Mark and I talk about the early days of Silicon Valley and what it was like to work for giants such as HP and Intel. We talk about how the landscape of startup investing has evolved and where it's headed, particularly as it relates to angel investing and crowdfunding. I also quiz Mark on what makes a business investable as an angel, and who he looks up to in the investing world.

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, pull up a chair and listen to my conversation with Mark Easley.

Josh Manley, CEO and founder of Reply Buy. ReplyBuy is a real-time e-commerce platform that lets you buy tickets to major sporting events from the comfort of your smartphone’s text messaging app. ReplyBuy is addressing the ever-expanding market for last-minute purchases of unsold inventory, much like Hotels Tonight does for hotel rooms. Josh started several companies in the e-commerce space prior to ReplyBuy, and was a catcher in the Arizona Diamondbacks system before hanging up his cleats to start his first company. ReplyBuy is based in Phoenix, AZ, and has over 100 professional and major college sports teams on their platform as of this recording.

How do you build an audience, how is YouTube relevant for your startup, and how do you decide what projects are worth pursuing? I covered these questions and more with my guest for this episode, Josh Taylor.

Josh is a video creator, podcaster, and entrepreneur from Nashville, TN. He is most well-known for the video series called Blimey Cow which he started with his siblings in 2005. In the last decade, the comedy videos have accrued over 400,000 subscribers and 70 million total video views on YouTube. Josh also hosts a weekly podcast called The Inner Tube, designed to help beginners take their first steps into the world of content creation.

Josh and I also talk about the future of video, alternative education, and what it's like to work with your family in business.

My guest for this show is Anthony Pompliano, one of the founding partners of Full Tilt Capital. Full Tilt is a venture capital firm who specializes in moving quickly, with decisions on investments in as little as 48 hours.

Pomp, as everyone calls him, has also spent time at Facebook and SnapChat, has started and sold a couple of companies, and served in the US Army in Iraq.

Pomp and I cover a lot of ground in this show, including:

Why he started Full Tilt Capital and the mission they're on to change venture capital to be more founder-friendly
What he learned from his time in the military and being deployed in a war zone
His time at Facebook and SnapChat and his learnings from each
How he thinks about the current issues regarding race and the police (unique perspective that you should hear)
How Full Tilt evaluates companies
and more

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, a notebook, and listen in on my conversation with Anthony Pompliano of Full Tilt.

If you like this show, please head on over to iTunes and give us a review. We'd really appreciate it!

If you like this show, please head on over to iTunes and give us a review. We'd really appreciate it!

My guest for this show is Jon Spinney, CEO and founder of Malartu Funds. Malartu brings individual investors, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists on the same platform to help entrepreneurs tell their story better and to help investors find companies doing great things. It's a big idea and they're starting to see some really great traction.

Jon's got a unique perspective on building a tech company as he wanted to be a chef for a long time, and then started building a company to support restaurant back office. When he and Sean Steigerwald, his co-founder, hatched the idea for Malartu it was largely out of the frustration of the struggle to raise money for prior ventures.

Like Brian Dally and Groundfloor, Malartu is battling entrenched regulations that are outdated and in flux. You'll hear Jon talk about all of the struggles they've endured as they waited for legislation to pass in their favor, how they planned for different scenarios, how his food service background helps him to run the company today, and a whole lot more.

If you like this show, please head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It helps other people find the show and makes me feel warm and tingly.

My guest for this show is Fred Stutzman, CEO and founder of Freedom. Freedom is a platform that gives you back your life by eliminating unnecessary interruptions when you're trying to get work done.

Fred's got a lot of great stuff to say about building a successful product company. The highlights include:

Product pricing and how they tested to find the right price - 11:30
Going from early traction to mainstream, and growth channels - 21:00
Partnerships - 24:00
The real value of one-time marketing events or chasing celebrity endorsements - 29:00
Getting your users to sell your product for you - 32:00
Hiring - 46:00

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy my conversation with Fred Stutzman

Eric Boggs is the CEO and founder of RevBoss, a sales pipeline automation company based in Durham, NC.

My conversation with Eric was pretty wide-ranging as usual, but we also explored some things that I've not yet talked about with any other guest. Eric talks openly about his prior company, Argyle Social, and what it was like to go straight up and then go over the cliff.

He also talks about the importance of delayed gratification as a founder, loving your people well, and how he deals with the "hindbrain."

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Eric, and as always, thanks for listening!

Find links to Eric at scottbarstow.com/podcast

Aaron Cleary is a world-class white-hat (mostly) hacker and cyber security expert. He works for a large multinational insurance company in Germany and gets paid fly around the world, break into systems, and then tell companies how to plug the holes. Not a bad gig, eh?

Aaron and I go deep (as deep as you can go in an hour or so) into his background, how he got interested in this area, how you prevent and protect yourself from attack, how you handle a breach, and even get into some macro-level discussions on the moral dilemma of Wikileaks and Anonymous.

This is an interview I've been wanting to do since I started this podcast. Jed Carlson is the CEO of Adwerx and co-founder of Reverb Nation.

Jed is one of the best thinkers and communicators about business I've ever met. He has the gift of being able to take complex principles, distill them down to their component parts and then implement them in a way that few other people can.

You'll hear evidence of this over and over again in our conversation.

Jed and I talk about:

The value of an MBA (you might be surprised by his answer)
How Jed sold junk mail in a briefcase door to door when he was 5
The start of Reverb Nation and Adwerx
How he thinks about successful partnerships (so much great stuff here!)
How he picks ideas and tests them before going all in
The difference between positions and interests with your customers - Fantastic!
The value of doing the early, hard work yourself as founders
and much more

Grab your notebook and listen in on my conversation with Jed Carlson.

Justin Schneider is the CEO of an up and coming fashion tech company called Wolf & Shepherd.

Justin was a decathlete at Notre Dame and after getting out of school he realized that men's dress shoes suck. He set out to fix it by using the best materials and latest technology in footwear.

The result is a product that his customers love, so much so that one of them ran a half-marathon in Atlanta recently.

Justin and I talk about:

The founding story
The importance of brand
How his first manufacturing run was ruined in customs and what he learned from it
The importance of energy and hustle in starting your own company
How he deals with adversity and stress
and much much more

Grab your notebook and listen in on my conversation with Justin Schneider of Wolf & Shepherd.

Links to Justin can be found at scottbarstow.com/podcast

Tatiana Birgisson is the founder and CEO of MATI Energy, an all-natural energy drink that goes toe to toe with the likes of Red Bull. I wanted to have her on the show to talk about what it's like to go from starting a company in your dorm room to the Inc 30 Under 30 list a few years later.

The truth is I had no idea how remarkable she is. You're going to hear from Tatiana about what it's like to start something that you care deeply about, something that matters. We talk about

Her unique upbringing and flying around the world with her sister at the age of 5
What she learned from her parents about new beginnings
How she learned entrepreneurship from her grandparents while driving tourists around on jetskis
How she got up 700 days in a row and renewed her commitment to see MATI through
How she hustled her way into her partnership with Whole Foods
What she looked for in her early hires
Starting her own factory and learning how to ask for help
and much much more

If you're not motivated to go do something amazing after listening to Tatiana, you need to check your pulse.

Links to Tatiana and MATI Energy can be found at scottbarstow.com/podcast.

Grab your notebook ans listen in on my conversation with Tatiana Birgisson of MATI Energy

Brian Dally is the CEO of Groundfloor, a crowdfunding real estate finance company based in Atlanta, GA. I first met Brian back when he was building Republic Wireless as an intrapraneur at Bandwidth and have watched him build Groundfloor for the past few years.

Brian is a different breed. He doesn't do small ideas. As you'll hear in this interview, Groundfloor invented a new kind of security. Who does that? He only goes after ideas that are worth 7-10 years of his life. Groundfloor has raised over $7 million in capital and operates in nine states.

I wanted to find out from Brian

Why he takes on these kinds of challenges?
How does he stay sane and healthy during periods of unbelievable stress?
What kind of people he looks for in early employees, and how transparent he is with his employees?
How he and his co-founder Nick got together, and what got him to "yes" on partnering with Nick?
What he looks for in investors
and much more

Brian is incredibly insightful and motivating to listen to. There's nuggets of wisdom throughout this interview that you can use regardless of your company's stage.

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and a notebook and listen in to my conversation with Brian Dally of Groundfloor.

Brent Boekestein is the CEO of a brand new startup in the Bay area called Vintra.io. I wanted to have Brent on because I worked alongside him for a few weeks as he took his latest venture from concept to customer discovery and now into fundraising and early customers.

His process for testing new ideas, getting those critical early customer discovery meetings, identifying real opportunities vs. rabbit trails for the product and establishing early sales processes and discipline are top shelf.

Whether you're at idea stage or further down the path with your company, you're going to learn a lot from Brent.

Derick Thompson is the CEO and founder of Startup Runner, a virtual accelerator based in Austin, TX that helps identify repeatable, scalable customer channels that lead to sustainable, profitable growth.

Derick's one of the best minds in the startup community and a great friend. We have a shared mission of ridding the world of the excessive waste that dooms so many startups to the dustbin of history.

In this episode we talk through his methodology for building profitable businesses through disciplined customer discovery, acquisition and sales and marketing. You won't find a better resource on how to find and target your customers.

I hope you enjoy this episode, and as always, thanks for listening!

Chris Heivly was the founder of MapQuest, the company that brought mapping into the modern era in the 1990s. He's the co-founder of a startup incubator in Raleigh-Durham, NC called The Startup Factory, and he's the author of the book Build the Fort, which explores the journey of building a startup through the lens of how we built forts as kids.

In this episode Chris and I cover:

The founding of MapQuest and how they built the company using Lean Startup stuff before that was a thing
What it's like to start a company inside another company
How to take and sift advice from others
How to network your way into a community (invaluable advice here)
What makes a good investor
The top reasons startup fail
How you as a founder prepare for the startup journey mentally, financially and physically
and much more

Chris has great things to say and is a great story teller. I think you'll get a lot from this episode.

Aidan Cunniffe is the CEO of Dropsource. Imagine if you could design and configure your application, generate all of the required code for iOS and Android, as well as the backend services, and have it all working in less than a minute. Sounds too good to be true, right? This is the power of Dropsource.

In this episode, Aidan and I talk about

The big idea behind Dropsource and how they got started
The future of software development
What makes a great developer
The difference between a tech company and a company that uses technology
Artificial intelligence and deep learning
Complexity
and Aidan's advice for new entrepreneur's just starting out

This show is packed with insights and great stuff from Aidan.

You'll find links to both Aidan and Dropsource in the show notes at scottbarstow.com/podcast.

Thanks for listening, as always, and enjoy my chat with Aidan Cunniffe

My guest for this episode is Ben Wiant, Business Development Manager for Kelaca. Ben's day job is recruiting for his clients, but to call Ben a recruiter doesn't really do him justice. Ben studied cultural anthropology and instructional design in college and has an extensive background in designing an implementing systems to maximize organizational performance.

In short, he gets how humans think and what makes a person a good fit for an organization. He thinks more holistically about humans and organizations than anyone I've met.

Ben talks about:

How to assess cultural fit
How to interview and how to ask great interview questions
How to find and recruit people who aren't obviously looking for another job
When and why to use a recruiter
How to fire
What culture is and what it's not
How much influence the leadership has on an organization's culture

I wanted to talk to Ben because he's got great insights into the recruiting process, which we all have to deal with regardless of our roles in startups.

I hope you enjoy the show, and as always thanks for listening.

Jessica Mitsch is the Executive Director of Code Schools for The Iron Yard, one of the most successful programming boot camps in the world. She's been with The Iron Yard nearly since the beginning and has been responsible for launching some of their largest and most successful campuses.

We talk about

The history and why of The Iron Yard
How they serve tech startups in the markets where they have campuses
Their commitment to diversity in tech, as well as working with K-12 students to raise up the next generation of developers
Their most recent launch in Detroit and what's going on there as the city tries to rebuild
and much more

I wanted to have Jessica on the show because I've had a bias against code schools as a way to put a dent in the developer shortage. However, after meeting a number of their graduates and seeing first-hand how they've been able to slot in to fast growing startups, I wanted to know more about them and how they work.

I hope you enjoy this episode, and as always thank you for listening!

My guest for this show is Gret Glyer, founder of Donorsee. DonorSee is a new app that connects donors and fundraisers using the power of story and feedback to make a direct impact on the world. Gret is also a missionary in Malawi, one of the poorest countries on earth, where he's building a girls school among other great projects.

In this episode, Gret and I discuss:

How he got from Northern Virginia to Malawi
Building homes for $800
Why he's chosen to build and start a girl's school, and how he's working with the natives to make it happen
The genesis of DonorSee and the lessons he's learned being a first-time founder without a tech background
What it's been like to raise money for his venture
Whether or not he can stay in Malawi and build the company
and much more

Though he's still very early in his venture, there's a lot to learn from what he's gone through already, as well as his approach to life in general. I hope you enjoy it, and as always thanks for listening!

My guest for this show is John Saddington, CEO and founder of EVE.io.

John has been the founder or co-founder of a number of prior ventures, including The Iron Yard, the world's largest coding school.

In this episode, John and I discuss:

What it's like to leave corporate America
Why blogging has been so integral to John's life and how he uses blogging as he's building companies to create awareness
Hiring at scale
How to find a co-founder and sparring
and much more

I hope you enjoy it.

My guest for this show is Matt Fiedler, CEO and co-founder of Vinyl Me, Please.

Vinyl Me, Please is a record of the month club unlike any other. Not only do you get an awesome, curated new vinyl record every month, but you also get a cocktail recipe and artist / label goodies you can't get anywhere else.

We cover a lot of topics in this show, including:

How Matt and his co-founder Tyler came up with the original idea
How they tested different permutations with early customers
How they funded the company in the early going
The trials and tribulations of partnerships
How they found and hired key early employees
How they survived a near-death experience as a company
How he misjudged when to build out his technology platform
and much, much more

Matt's brutally honest in this interview. You're going to learn a ton from it. I know I did.

I hope you enjoy, and as always thanks for listening!

My guest for this show is Allan Branch, co-founder of Less Everything, which is the parent company of Less Accounting and Less Films. Less Accounting is the accounting software for business owners who dislike bookkeeping. Less Films creates videos that help turn your web traffic into paying customers.

I first met Allan in 2013 at the most unusual conference I've ever been to, LessConf. I had the honor of speaking at the conference, but more of an honor was getting to hang around Allan and his partner Steve and the amazing group of people they had invited to the conference. We start this podcast by talking about the origins of LessConf because I think it speaks to who Allan is and what makes him unique.

Allan and Steve built Less Everything by bootstrapping the business with services work and by being maniacally focused on being profitable. Strange, right? The theme throughout this chat with Allan is that he does things his own way, and doesn't care what others think about it For fun, Allan builds the most amazing lamps and is in the process of refinishing a sailboat from the ground up.

He is truly one of a kind, and is a role model for me of how you can build great, sustainable businesses and not have to sell your soul to do it.

If you're offended by such things or have your kids in the car with you, there is the occasional cuss word in this episode. I don't edit the show unless it's absolutely necessary because I want you to hear these interviews as a conversation between friends.

Show Notes:

Less Everything
Less Accounting
Less Films
Allan on Twitter

Patrick Campbell at Pricing Intelligently

Amy Hoy on Twitter

Our guest for this show is Mike Schneider, the CEO of First.io. First helps real estate agents identify who amongst their list of contacts is most likely to move in the next six months using publicly available data and a super-secret algorithm they’ve built from the ground up. Prior to starting First, Mike worked with a private equity firm working on pipeline deals and doing financial and market due diligence. We start our conversation with Mike taking issue with the term “non-technical founder”. I love what he has to say about this, and it changed my mind in the process. We talk a lot about his relationship with his technical co-founder, Jess Martin, including how they got together, where they’ve run into issues, and how they’ve worked through those issues. We also spend a good bit of time talking about the turning point in the company, where Mike became the product owner, and why that ended up being the right move. The thing I like about Mike is that he’s brutally honest about himself and his shortcomings, and where he wishes he would’ve done things differently. In the interest of full disclosure, the venture capital firm where I work part time, is one of the investors in First. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Mike, and thank you so much for listening

I’m really excited about our guest for this show, I think you’re going to love it. Janice Smith is the founder and CEO of Mission 100%, a practice-based teacher development platform that helps teachers and teacher coaches learn and implement best practices from the most successful classrooms in the country. As you’ll hear in our conversation, Janice cares deeply about the problems in education, so much so that she walked away from a very successful teaching career to launch Mission 100%. We talk about what it’s like to be a female tech founder in a world dominated by males, how she came to be selected for a premier west coast incubator, the challenges of hiring (and then parting ways with) a technical co founder, how she’s struggled to find product-market fit, why she’s turned down additional investment, and much much more.

In this, the first episode of the Scott Barstow Show, we talk with Jared Pelo, CEO of iScribes, about how he and his co-founders conceived of and built their product as untechnical founders. Jared is not only the CEO of iScribes, but is also a practicing ER doctor as well.

iScribes helps doctors reclaim hours of their workday by offloading the creation of medical records to iScribes team of trained medical scribes. Doctors record all patient visits using a mobile app and microphone, which is then sent off to iScribes to be processed. Jared and his co-founders, Christopher McGuire and David Meisner, have built an amazing company in just a couple of years, but it was not without it's bumps along the way.

Listen in as Jared walks through how they conceived of the idea, the trials and tribulations of getting the product built, and what they're up to next.

Enjoy my interview with Jared Pelo!