Startup Confidential
Dr. James F. Richardson
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Top 10 Startup Confidential Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Startup Confidential episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Startup Confidential 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 Startup Confidential episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Ep. 18 - Working w/Agencies - Identity and Branding
Startup Confidential
03/15/20 • 13 min
Look at my glorious brand! Save it for the bedroom, please. In CPG, you are scaling a product line. It may have a name. It may have a look. But let's not confuse how important branding is in the ramp up of a strong business. It is VERY easy to overthink these elements and agencies will charge to the maximum extent of founder ego if you let them. Time to get real. So, you must be in the right place.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 79 - The Last Big Early-Stage Hire is the Toughest
Startup Confidential
10/01/22 • 9 min
Wow. Finding a decent head of marketing is easy. But, their ability to move the needle is probably dumb luck, despite their organizational skills. Most marketing fails to move awareness and household penetration because the head of marketing doesn’t have a Guggenheim ruthless eye for effective creative that moves hearts and wallets. The problem is so bad, I even launched a course, now live, to help train folks who want to up their effectiveness and become major players at the table.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 142 - Planning Your ACV Build
Startup Confidential
05/15/25 • 8 min
I finally spent some time to prove to all you door-counting crazies that doors do not equal value to your business. In the process, I developed a tool to plan your ACV build in a restrained manner, a tool you can reproduce (legally) on your end with your SPINS or NIelsen IQ retainer.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 101 - Why Startups Fail – with Tom Eisenmann, Part 1
Startup Confidential
09/01/23 • 11 min
99% of business media stories on startups are essentially PR for the startup itself. This makes these stories a one-sided source of information on what it’s like to operate and grow a startup. While there are more and more discussions of mistakes, basically no one at Inc or Entrepreneur or anywhere else really will ever greenlight a debate on this or that failed startup unless, like Theranos, it ended in some massive ethical scandal. Failure is depressing, they say. Not me.
I’m honored to bring you a past episode, the first in a two-part interview with Professor Tom Eisenmann of the Harvard Business School (HBS). He and I chat about themes from his new book Why Startups Fail and how these patterns play out in the world of consumer packaged goods (CPG). In this episode, we discuss what to do when you have little business training, how unit economics evolve differently in CPG vs. tech startups, and how to prevent False Positives by doing just the right pre-revenue research.
Since joining the HBS faculty in 1997, Tom has led The Entrepreneurial Manager, an introductory course taught to all first-year MBAs, and launched fourteen electives on all aspects of entrepreneurship, including one on startup failure. Eisenmann has authored more than one hundred HBS case studies, and his writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 72 - Stop Staring at Your Laptop And Do This
Startup Confidential
06/15/22 • 5 min
Consider this a non-violent, verbal kick in the rear. I continue to see too many digitally native founders sit on screens too much of the day. Get out in the field and meet stakeholders, including your fans. Respect the big, broad world out there that builds your brand with you. This is how you achieve an unfair advantage over others.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 71 - Affirmative Action for End Caps
Startup Confidential
06/01/22 • 9 min
In this episode, I'm just going to say what SO many are mumbling. Why can't chain retailers gift end cap space to select high-performing minority founders as a market advantage? It's one thing to onboard minority founders. But, since they're wildly under-capitalized, this rarely works out well. What they need is an initial velocity surge from retail display space. To pull this off, pringles and the retailer need to lose some real profit. This is what affirmative action requires, that the elite sacrifice something. Have a listen.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 70 - Gregory Shepard Interview Part 2
Startup Confidential
05/15/22 • 13 min
Have you ever wanted a founder who is also an investor to peel back the real challenge of investor alignment? I've been looking for two years for such a person. It's hard to find folks like this who will talk honestly. And Greg Shepard is one of them. Greg is the co-founder and CEO of BOSS Startup Systems, an open-source methodology developed to empower entrepreneurs. Greg has built and sold 12 businesses in BioTech, TransitTech, AdTech, and MarTech, is a recipient of four private equity awards for transactions between $250M to $1B and has appeared in Fortune, Entrepreneur, The New York Observer, The DEAL and Thrive Global.
In part two of our interview, Greg and I discuss the red flags of the 'bad faith investor' or simply an investor deal-hunter who is not the investor at all. Hint: think of all the young kids in Patagonia vests at Expo West.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 69 - Gregory Shepard Interview Part 1
Startup Confidential
05/01/22 • 18 min
Have you ever wanted a founder who is also an investor to peel back the real challenge of investor alignment? I've been looking for two years for such a person. It's hard to find folks like this who will talk honestly. And Greg Shepard is one of them. Greg is the co-founder and CEO of BOSS Startup Systems, an open-source methodology developed to empower entrepreneurs. Greg has built and sold 12 businesses in BioTech, TransitTech, AdTech, and MarTech, is a recipient of four private equity awards for transactions between $250M to $1B and has appeared in Fortune, Entrepreneur, The New York Observer, The DEAL and Thrive Global.
In part one of our interview, Greg leans into the whole topic of investor/founder alignment, how thin it is, and how to understand how institutional investors think when they approach you with big smiles.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 68 - The Law of Frito-Lay and Why it Matters
Startup Confidential
04/15/22 • 6 min
Enjoy a clip from the Audible version of Ramping Your Brand on why focus matters so much when scaling a consumer brand AND getting it to grow well into the nine figures. It’s short and sweet. Enjoy!
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC
Premium Growth Solutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
Episode 106 - Behavior-Based Brand Building
Startup Confidential
11/15/23 • 9 min
Unfortunately, the folks who talk loudest about brand-building are either a) branding agencies, b) venture capitalists or c) overly enthusiastic founders. Curb your enthusiasm. You can design a brand identity, a symbolic system. But, ‘brand’ is an outcome. It is an outcome based on influencing real human behavior, entering social networks with memorable consumer experiences, potent symbolism, and grassroots ‘influence,’ not social media puffery. Learn the rules of behavior-based brand-building or get ready to struggle unnecessarily on your journey up the Skate Ramp.
Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com
Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: [email protected]
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FAQ
How many episodes does Startup Confidential have?
Startup Confidential currently has 142 episodes available.
What topics does Startup Confidential cover?
The podcast is about Organic, Management, Entrepreneurship, Podcasts, Business, Cpg, Natural, Strategy and Food.
What is the most popular episode on Startup Confidential?
The episode title 'Episode 74 - Why Engineers Struggle as Startup Founders' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Startup Confidential?
The average episode length on Startup Confidential is 11 minutes.
How often are episodes of Startup Confidential released?
Episodes of Startup Confidential are typically released every 14 days, 12 hours.
When was the first episode of Startup Confidential?
The first episode of Startup Confidential was released on Feb 19, 2019.
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