BOSS-it
Mark Edwards
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Top 10 BOSS-it Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best BOSS-it episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to BOSS-it for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite BOSS-it episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
07/15/22 • 63 min
"Blockchain tech insights for software execs - with Dr Christian de Vartavan
Hear from an advisor to the UK government about the surprising ways software companies can use Blockchain technology to their benefit, also how companies who don’t use it are being left behind, and finally, hear Christian’s expert prediction for Blockchain going forwards (and how it’ll affect your software business). Listen to this BOSS-it episode now hosted by top M&A deal maker, Mark Edwards.
Contact Christian here: https://projectis.co.uk/ "
Ransomware attacks, innovation mistakes, & cyber security - with Leon Kuperman
Hear Leon’s personal story about the ransomware attack that struck when they were making between $750k-1m sales a day, the unorthodox ways he keeps his engineers happy, and the one innovation mistake that’s so common in the software industry. Listen to this BOSS-it episode now hosted by top M&A deal maker Mark Edwards. Contact Leon here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itexecutivecto/ & www.Cast.ai
01/10/22 • 45 min
For the last episode of Season 2, Mark was delighted to host Steve Hoffman, CEO of Founders Space and author of three startup-related books (links below).
The conversation between the two CEOs is far-ranging, lively and entertaining - Steve's energy and enthusiasm for what he does are infectious.
From early ambitions to be an architect, filmmaker or games designer, Steve admits he never expected to end up being a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and writer.
Founders Space - the Platform for Startups
Steve's platform - Founders Space - is a startup accelerator, focusing primarily on software startups.
The goal is to help promising tech startups raise funding and connect with strategic partners, marketing people, lawyers etc. – whatever they need to grow their business.
Steve's Four Rules for Startups
- Go out into the market and look for unmet needs - Don't just think of an idea and fall in love with it. Then, later on, find that nobody cares about it.
- Find your "A-Team" - Don't try to go it alone or be a solopreneur. Nobody builds a billion-dollar company by themselves
- When presenting to potential investors, keep it visual - Slides should have no more than 6 words but better still, create a video. Investors don't want to read. Just like everybody else, they want to be entertained.
- Never tell an investor you're going to sell via partners - This is the "Kiss of Death". If you're relying on partners to sell your product, your investor is gone.
On a Mission to Help Startups
Founders Space is an early-stage investor whose mission is to help startups progress into the venture funnel, where they can seek additional funding from investors on the Founders Edge platform.
Startups also have access to a huge network of business mentors, across marketing, legal etc. They can work with experienced mentors over a period of weeks, rather than paying to have these skills in-house full-time.
Founders Edge is currently working with around 100 companies in the US and overseas - with 5 locations in China.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/foundersspace/
https://www.foundersedge.com/
First Book: Make Elephants Fly
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Elephants-Fly-Process-Innovation/dp/0349418837
Second Book: Surviving a Startup
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Surviving-Startup-Practical-Strategies-Overcoming-ebook/dp/B08BYZXWDY
Latest Book: The 5 Forces that change everything
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781953295040?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=CjwKCAiAlfqOBhAeEiwAYi43FzQiFbvRWrOic7oAxLz5exuJPBD3HXUMJ4ziMSFFLpyjx3msA3skJBoCTHUQAvD_BwE
01/10/22 • 39 min
Mark Edwards talks to Salt Lake City-based Joseph Wilkins of FunnySalesVideos.com, about how his company uses humorous videos to connect with audiences and drive massive sales.
Background..
In 2000, Joseph Wilkins founded ProCreative Studios, which produced infomercials for television & marketing videos for clients, including Google, Linkedin, McDonalds, Goldman Sachs, Chevrolet & Home Depot.
As viewing habits shifted away from television, Joseph launched FunnySalesVideos.com where, after several evolutions, he now creates attention-grabbing "viral style" sales videos that get millions of views, converting cold traffic into sales.
With 20 years' experience, hundreds of millions of views and over $250 MILLION in career sales, Joseph enjoys sharing 8 steps anyone can follow to drive sales on his podcast "How To Make A Video Go Viral."
Switch to Humorous Video Proved a Huge Success
Making the switch to video was hugely successful - Joseph explains that the biggest video success they’d ever had online, using straightforward sales pitch videos was 100,000 views. Yet, when they launched their new brand - funnysalesvideos.com - their very first video campaign hit 7 million views. Fast forward to today and their campaigns are now hitting 100 million viewers and millions of dollars in directly tracked sales.
So, the business has come full circle, surpassing its former huge levels of success, but this time using social media and harnessing the power of humour.
When is a Sales Video Not Appropriate...?
Joseph says he's never yet seen a situation where video is inappropriate - Even videos created for funeral service companies.
The questions to ask are: Did it do justice to the story and to the audience? It’s got to be funny without being offensive to the audience.
Comedy makes the risky safe - Because you’re using humour you can discuss things that you’d not normally talk about.
And Finally...Reinvention is Key
You always have to be evolving - You can never stay still. This is true across all industries and in particular in the software sector. You need to learn to look at the trends and see where things are going. Ten years ago, people were fast-forwarding through commercials on tv. If Joseph hadn't reinvented the company the ongoing changes would have killed it.
Links:
Joseph Wilkins:
Harmon Bros University: https://harmonbrothersuniversity.com/start-home
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilkinsjoseph/
https://funnysalesvideos.com/
joseph@funnysalesvideos.com
Free ebook: How to make a funny sales video without hiring us
https://funnysalesvideos.com/ebook/
How to make a video go viral
Mark Edwards:
https://www.bossequity.com/resources/podcasts https://www.linkedin.com/in/markledwards/
https://www.bossequity.com/
01/10/22 • 34 min
BOSS-it host, Mark Edwards has a wide-ranging chat with CTO and author, Mark Herschberg, who, it turns out, has been a guest on 180 podcasts. No pressure there then for our host to ask some decent questions :-)
Brief Bio for Mark Herschberg
Back in the 90s, during the .com era, Mark was a software developer. At the same time, he recognised the skills required to be successful were leadership, communication and networking. These were skills that were not taught in college, so he ended up teaching them at MIT - for the past 20 years.
Mark has followed these two careers in parallel and is still a CTO.
Best Lessons Learned
Mark says the best lessons he has learned came from a book called "Peopleware", by Tom de Marco & Timothy Lister – The essence of the book is that most software projects fail not because of technological (software) issues but for sociological reasons – In other words, because your team didn’t talk to each other and plan and communicate well, they messed up the project.
He outlines the most important things to do to avoid this scenario:
1) Set the overarching goal – What are we trying to achieve? – Not just what it is but how it's positioned.
2) Have a clear process - How are we going to work together? Have a clear idea for what happens when there’s an issue? – How do you raise that to your teammate? Where do we use Slack, versus an email or a meeting? Don’t leave this to chance.
3) Agree the definition of “Done”? – You need a common definition so that everybody knows when a job is actually complete.
Links:
The Career Toolkit – Mark A Herschberg
https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com/
Download the career development kit:
https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com/author
Peopleware by Tom de Marco & Timothy Lister
https://menloinnovations.com/
The BOSS-it Podcast:
https://www.bossequity.com/resources/podcasts
01/10/22 • 60 min
In this podcast, Mark has an illuminating conversation with John Taylor of Action.ai, a company that offers the world's most advanced natural language technology, conceived by the best computational linguistics.
Never one to shy away from a controversial question, Mark’s opening question, “Does AI really exist?”, doesn’t disappoint.
Taking this in his stride, John says it does exist but the term is much misused. He agrees that "AI" is an extraordinarily broad term that has, unfortunately, been attached to just about everything in any context you can imagine.
However, the current buzz is justified as the sector is at an extraordinary flexion point, where computational power and algorithms can be applied to use the tech in really useful ways - in healthcare, customer service etc.
John notes that knowledge is building really rapidly - and its origins are in academia.
Early Foray into Entrepreneurship
John started his entreprenuerial career early, setting up a small software company with a friend to pay university fees.
That friend was Richard Tolcher, now Action-ai's CTO. Richard was brilliant technology-wise but also had a strong commercial awareness - an unusual combination. Their aim was to do something really pioneering - to create "Delightful Automation".
The Vision: "Delightful Automation"
John and Richard knew that the Big Tech companies - Facebook, Microsoft and Google - were going to launch automated customer communication with chatbots, and although this had potential, it wasn’t really going to work, in terms of the “Delightful Automation” John and Richard were seeking to achieve.
It was going to make an impact but it wasn’t going to change behaviours and the way people interact.
Their vision has remained constant since the early days but everything else has evolved over time and the business now looks radically different from Day 1.
Most Important Things Learned from Running a Business
John believes the most important element of the business is its people. And they need to be exceptional. Compromising on the people you hire is a poor economy. In the early days, when funds are limited, if you can find a way to hire those 4 or 5 great people, the difference to the business can be immeasurable.
His approach was to try to run a capital-efficient business, understanding that if you want large, flashy offices, you will need to raise huge amounts of venture funding. John acknowledges that it's harder to run a capital-efficient business but when funding does arrive, it’s a lot easier as you’re not sitting in offices where your overheads are huge, you haven’t made promises you can’t keep, lost track of consultants etc etc.
He notes that there is a caveat though, as you can’t be so cautious that you can’t move quickly. You need to assess how much money you need to spend to get to market quickly - but it’s also about balancing spending as little money as possible in the first couple of years.
Another critical ingredient is that you need to own your own IP and be able to prove that you do. It's simple enough to achieve but you need to be aware of the need to do this from the beginning.
Getting smart people into the business sets the culture for the business. It's important you have a culture of integrity and aim to build long-term relationships.
Thanks for your time and a fascinating conversation, John.
Links and Contact:
Email John: [email protected]
https://action.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjamestaylor/?originalSubdomain=uk
08/30/19 • 46 min
Speech Technology is exploding within the software industry so this episode will bring you up-to-date with what’s going on, so you can see the potential value to yourself and your business.
In this episode Mark Edwards interviews speech technology expert, Nigel Cannings. You’ll also learn about a new, upcoming area within speech technology which could prove of real benefit to your business.
Links:
06/21/19 • 54 min
In this episode Mark talks with Tony Armour. Tony is an expert in the management drivers industry. He’ll explain what management should NOT do in the software industry (even though most of them do these things), the way to run a small company if you’re looking to scale AND why successful people are successful. If you want to get in contact with Mark for any reason then email [email protected]
06/28/18 • 34 min
What are the mistakes software companies make when presenting at trade exhibitions. This episode reveals them. PLUS.... why a lot of software companies already have the knowledge they need to get ahead of their rivals but are not using it. AND some extremely interesting facts on the fastest growing software companies you can use to help your own business. Mark Edwards and Michael Humblet reveal all. Go to www.BossEquity.com to find how you can take your software company to the next level. Do it now and I’ll even offer you a free consultation.
Links for podcast:
CogX Exhibition
Tobacco Dock, London
SaaS Paris Conference - was in US before
Stripe
Thom Dennis is well known for his expertise in creating transformational change and is a sought-after advisor on a spectrum of leadership, diversity, inclusion and justice issues. Over the last 30 years he has been a coach and confidant to executives of many organisations, facilitated pivotal meetings setting strategy, purpose and vision, and devised and led culture change programs bringing lasting value. He has developed the skills of senior management in leadership, conflict resolution, communication and customer service and enabled change in many corporations in the US, South America, Europe, Africa, India and the Far East.
Thom is the CEO of Serenity in Leadership Ltd, the premier culture remodelling, change and leadership specialists. He is an international speaker, voice over actor and Amazon #1 published author and has been featured on both BBC TV News and radio and as a thought leader in over 100 articles in industry leading publications in just the last year alone. With over 30 years’ experience as an Executive Coach, Facilitator, Change Maker and Leadership Developer, he has been hired by global banking, pharmaceutical, energy and engineering brands such as Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Conoco Phillips, Shell, BP, and ABB Automation to name just a few.
He holds an MSc in Change Agent Skills and Strategies, is a Certified Facilitator accredited by the CQ® Center, a certified NLP Master Practitioner, a member of the International Association of Facilitators and a Fellow of The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Thom served 17 years as an officer in the Royal Marines, has lived and worked in many countries and is the proud father of two and grandfather of five. His extensive travels for both work and pleasure have informed his understanding of different cultures, and he is working on a third book. When relaxing, he can be found delving into his library or combining his love for Nature and wild places with his curiosity in photography.
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FAQ
How many episodes does BOSS-it have?
BOSS-it currently has 101 episodes available.
What topics does BOSS-it cover?
The podcast is about Podcasts, Technology, Entrepreneurs, Business and M&A.
What is the most popular episode on BOSS-it?
The episode title 'Season 3 - Episode 20 - Pete Sena - Great Leaders Want The Best Ideas be Heard' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on BOSS-it?
The average episode length on BOSS-it is 42 minutes.
How often are episodes of BOSS-it released?
Episodes of BOSS-it are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of BOSS-it?
The first episode of BOSS-it was released on Mar 16, 2018.
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