#1: Revenue Before Product, Living Forever & Clever Origins (Fred Shilmover, InsightSquared)

05/25/15 • 25 min

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Traction: How Startups Start | NextView Ventures

Fred Shilmover, InsightSquared -- In Traction's first-ever episode, NextView's VP of platform Jay Acunzo briefly explains the concept behind the show - to share the stories of the creative, unusual, and brilliant ways entrepreneurs scrap their way to early results. Then, Jay and co-founding partner Rob Go hear the seed-stage story of InsightSquared, a successful SaaS startup that's exploded in Boston, all based on a smart-yet-sneaky tactic used by co-founder and CEO Fred Shilmover before he had any capital, co-founders, or even software.

If you like the show and want more episodes and related content, subscribe at ViewFromSeed.com. You'll receive new episodes of Traction as soon as they're available, along with more stories, resources, and advice for seed-stage startups from entrepreneurs, VCs, and industry experts.

Let me know what you think of the show -- tweet me (Jay Acunzo) @Jay_zo

Let me know what you think of the show -- tweet me (Jay Acunzo) @Jay_zo

Previous Episode

Coming Soon: Creative & Unusual Ways Startups Start

Launching this spring, a podcast from NextView Ventures about the creative, unusual, clever, and downright brilliant things that entrepreneurs do to gain early results. While everyone gets told to "do things that don't scale," we don't often hear what those things actually are -- at least not until a company succeeds and the story gets polished for the press.

NextView partner Rob Go and VP of Platform Jay Acunzo talk to top founders, startup executives, media members, and VCs about how they scrapped and fought their way to enough traction to survive and advance against the odds.

Subscribe at the NextView blog for seed-stage startups, the View from Seed.

Next Episode

#3: Stalkers at Whole Foods, Sneaky Products & Inventing a Brand (Ken Chen, NatureBox)

NatureBox Co-founder/CMO, Ken Chen -- If ever there was a sneaky way to learn and gain initial traction, this is it. NatureBox currently ships millions of healthy snacks to consumers everywhere, but they all started with a single observation, a single hack using some free tools, and a single weekend of effort. Fastforward to 2015, and they're a Series C startup some would call a success, relative to most startups that launch.

Ken Chen, co-founder and CMO of NatureBox, reveals the story of how he and his co-founder Gautam Gupta launched and began building an actual brand -- a rare thing for startups to care about from Day 1, but a crucial thing for NatureBox to achieve.

Like the show? Subscribe at ViewFromSeed.com to get every new episode plus more exclusive resources and stories from entrepreneurs and VCs.

Let me know what you think of the show -- tweet me (Jay Acunzo) @Jay_zo