The last two years have taught us so much. How to be flexible and adapt quickly to change. A whole new style of doing business in a virtual world. Even how to integrate your work and your life in a healthy way. 

Today we are hearing startup growth stories from 5 CEOs based in the Circle City. These five Indianapolis-based tech companies are doing incredible things and we are joined by their CEOs to hear some stories and lessons learned over the last two years. 

One CEO opened a 50-acre innovation community during the first year of the pandemic. She proceeded to lead her organization through the biggest mass-adoption of remote work ever.

Another CEO started their company less than a year ago from his home office. 

One even wrote a book chronicling the whole journey!

We are going to hear from;

Emily Krueger, President and CEO, 16 Tech
Jake Miller, CEO, The Engineered Innovation Group
Jim Goldman, CEO, Trava
Steve Johns, CEO, OneCause
Lindsay Tjepkema, CEO, Casted

 These 5 CEOs share practice advice and stories that they have learned over the past two years that you can use in your professional career.

#152: 5 Startup Growth Stories and Lessons Learned While Leading through Change

This Christmas

This Christmas (feat. Evan L Lee)

Albrey Brown, is a Berkeley native who does not take ‘No’ for an answer. He was rejected on his first attempt to becoming a Hack Reactor graduate and went on to become a founder of Telegraph Academy. Most importantly, he found a love for teaching and is an educator that has completely changed the career trajectories for hundreds of students. Although he never graduated from college, he always knew that he was going to be a teacher. He grew up in a single family home where his mom raised him to become the man who he is today.

Key Points:
1. When you’re learning a new skill, it’s good to have resources (see below), but try to find someone to double check if you’re doing the steps “correctly”

2. Bootcamps need to be more accessible and there are resources like Telegraph Prep and Climb that are working to democratize this form of education

3. You’re always going to find another bug (another hill to climb, a new thing to conquer) so don’t be afraid of that. Take risks.

4. Mentorship comes through various channels. If someone invests time into helping you, the best thing that you can do is succeed.

SHOW NOTES (FOCUS ON THE  STEPPING STONES):
[1:12] – Albrey grew up in Berkeley, CA in a single family home with his mother and his aunt. He had no idea of what a startup was.

[3:15] Albrey’s mother got diagnosed with Cancer during his sophomore year and he took a couple of years off after he graduated high school (never graduated college)

 [5:32] Beginner Resources – What resources did you use to learn how to code? First, a mentor. Then, he started with The Odin Project and Learn Ruby the Hard Way

[6:35] What was your motivation to learning how to code?

[10:47] What led you to choose Hack Reactor instead of all the other bootcamps?

[11:52] How did you do with Hack Reactor’s Interview Process?

[15:10] Don’t let money stop you from acquiring a new skill – How did you pay for your tuition ($18,000)? When he passed his interview and got accepted into Hack Reactor he needed to figure out how to pay tuition. He had no more money and used a crowdfunding platform called GoFundMe to raise $18,000 in 30 days

[18:19] Tell us more about the Bootcamp Model as a new model for education

[19:06] What makes Telegraph Academy different from all of the other Bootcamps?

 [21:40] Take a Bootcamp Preparation Program if you are starting from scratch and need someone to guide you  

[22:22] What financing packages are available at Telegraph Academy? 

[24:58] What are some of the outcomes for Telegraph Academy?

[26:17] What do the demographics look like at Telegraph Academy? 

[29:00] How did you put this all together? He is a big advocate of taking the road less traveled. 

[30:40] What do you have planned for the future? Thoughts on education in general? 

[33:37] The Lightning Round
1. How would you get back to this point in your career if you were dropped into a new city with only $100? (assuming your food and shelter is taken care of)

Albrey: Become a Lyft or Uber Driver to get a car (here’s the Uber option), make money, learn about your city, and meet people

2. When you ran into roadblocks or struggles, was there any piece of music or a movie that you watched that helped you get over that situation?

Albrey: Always Be Closing by Glengarry Glen Ross

3. Looking back, what is one piece of advice that you would give to someone now that you’ve been through this journey?

Albrey: The best resource that you can have is a mentor

4. Have you been able to speak with anyone that Sponsored your GoFundMe now that you have executed on your promise to start a school?
Yes; His cousin Brian Tippens, who never told him what he did when he originally contributed. Now that Albrey reconnected with him after the launch of Telegraph Academy, he just realized Brian is the Head of Diversity

#1: Albrey Brown - Self-taught Engineer who founded Telegraph Academy to teach people how to code.

Nico Roberts is the Head of Customer Success at <a href="https://onboardiq.com/">OnboardIQ</a>. Customer success is a highly important in any startup. It not only ensures client satisfaction and handling customer complaints, but it also bridges the gap between different teams in the organization, ensuring its able to achieve a unified goal. Prior to OnboardIQ, Nico served as a consultant at <a href="http://www.deloitte.com/">Deloitte</a>. A native from South Africa, Nico hustled his way through the United States with the goal of living the American dream and becoming a famous Hollywood director. Instead, he decided to finish his Bachelor’s degree, landed a job working as a consultant at Deloitte and found himself breaking into the startup world which he currently enjoys.

#6: Nico Roberts - Consultant who became Head of Customer Success

Jordan Wirsz manages $100 million in real estate investments as CEO of Savant Investment Partners. 

Jordan is a nationally recognized real estate expert who has been recognized by members of the U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, Nevada state government, and has been featured on numerous national television networks including CNBC, NBC, and Fox News.

But today, we go a little off-script and go deep on business philosophy. You can find Jordan at JordanWirsz.com and @JordanWirz on twitter, so give him a shout and let him know what you liked about this interview.

In this episode you’ll learn:
1.) About Jordan’s first business deal (3:40)
2.) About Jordan’s first failed investment (5:12)
3.) How Jordan opened his company, “Extreme Aviation” (6:31)
4.) Attitudes on persevering after failed investments. (8:55)
5.) About Jordan’s mentality of responsibility after going through a large failed investment (11:44)
6.) Jordan’s thoughts of the risks of leading an expensive lifestyle (15:59)
7.) Tips from Jordan for first time entrepreneurs (20:18)
8.) About building business relationships with people through the work that you do (24:59)
9.) Why responding to emails promptly is key to gaining trust from investors (26:30)
10.) How to be more organized and increase productivity (27:30)
11.) Why practice is more important than technology (29:17)
12.) How motivation without knowledge can be hurtful (32:05)
13.) Why quality is greater than quantity in terms of learning (34:22)
14.) Why separating your business time from your leisure time is important (37:17)
15.) The importance of “recharging” every now and again. (40:25)

Download show notes and transcripts at www.powderkeg.co

This episode of Powder Keg is brought to you by DeveloperTown. If you’re a business leader trying to turn a great idea into a product with traction, this is for you.

DeveloperTown works with clients ranging from entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 companies who want to build and launch an app or digital product. They’re able to take the process they use with early stage companies to help big companies move like a startup.

So if you have an idea for a web or mobile app, or need help identifying the great ideas within your company, go to developertown.com/powderkeg.

Thanks again to everyone who has shared an episode of Powderkeg, subscribed to us on iTunes, or left us a review. It’s the only way we’re going to spread this message and reach new people and we could do it without you.

We’re coming out with new episodes every Tuesday, so make sure you subscribe on iTunes or at powederkeg.co/itunes

#7: Build Wealth and Invest in Yourself with Jordan Wirsz at Savant Investments

Luis Garcia is one of the most influential people on Instagram. As of the publication of this podcast, Garcia’s three Instagram accounts alone (@AgentSteven, @MotivationMafia, and @PositiveVibesQuotes) have more than 6 million followers and get more than 30 million impressions a week.

Garcia is the founder of Ambition Media (www.ambitionmedia.co), an influencer marketing agency that has built a network of Instagram brands with more than 100+ million followers. Ambition Media has landed clients like Vayner Media founder Gary Vaynerchuk and Shark Tank star Daymond John, and is on track to have its first seven-figure year in 2017. 

You can follow Luis on Instagram at @LawOfAmbition and join in his entrepreneurial journey. 

In this episode you’ll learn: 
— How a 20-year-old kid from a North Philly ghetto went from the warzone in Afghanistan to become one of the most sought after millennial influencers on social media   
— Step-by-step marketing tips and tricks for Instagram and Periscope
— How to build value-generating relationships from scratch
— Tried and tested techniques for building, growing and enhancing your brand
— Winning principles and best practices on social media
— How to find a worthy mentor and leverage your learning experience
— Why blindly following someone or something on social media erodes your brand
— Why video has become indispensable in articulating your message

Download show notes and transcripts at www.powderkeg.co

This episode of Powder Keg is brought to you by DeveloperTown. If you’re a business leader trying to turn a great idea into a product with traction, this is for you.

DeveloperTown works with clients ranging from entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 companies who want to build and launch an app or digital product. They’re able to take the process they use with early stage companies to help big companies move like a startup.

So if you have an idea for a web or mobile app, or need help identifying the great ideas within your company, go to developertown.com/powderkeg.

Thanks again to everyone who has shared an episode of Powderkeg, subscribed to us on iTunes, or left us a review. It’s the only way we’re going to spread this message and reach new people and we could do it without you.

We’re coming out with new episodes every Tuesday, so make sure you subscribe on iTunes or at powederkeg.co/itunes

#8: Masterclass On Building Influence with Luis Garcia of Ambition Media and AgentSteven

Gabriel Weinberg is the founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, an Internet search engine that doesn’t track you or your personal data (https://duckduckgo.com/).

And in an industry dominated by goliaths like Google and Yahoo, DuckDuckGo does more than 3 billion searches per year. 

Weinberg is the author of Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers, and it has become the field manual for tech entrepreneurs, growth hackers, and marketers around the world.  

This framework has been used by founders like Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), and Paul English (Kayak.com) to build some of the biggest companies and organizations in the world.

You can find Gabriel on Twitter at (@yegg), but he’s also a prolific writer on the blogging platform Medium, and fairly active on AngelList with more than a dozen investments he’s made into innovation-driven companies (@yegg).

This conversation with Weinberg is a masterclass on getting more customers for your business or idea. 

Today Gabriel and I talk about:

— The best strategies from his book Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers
— Why he decided to compete against big companies like Google 
— How he gained traction as a search engine
— And why he’s growing his tech company from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Download show notes and transcripts at www.powderkeg.co

This episode of Powder Keg is brought to you by DeveloperTown. If you’re a business leader trying to turn a great idea into a product with traction, this is for you.

DeveloperTown works with clients ranging from entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 companies who want to build and launch an app or digital product. They’re able to take the process they use with early stage companies to help big companies move like a startup.

So if you have an idea for a web or mobile app, or need help identifying the great ideas within your company, go to developertown.com/powderkeg.

Thanks again to everyone who has shared an episode of Powderkeg, subscribed to us on iTunes, or left us a review. It’s the only way we’re going to spread this message and reach new people and we could do it without you.

We’re coming out with new episodes every Tuesday, so make sure you subscribe on iTunes or at powederkeg.co/itunes

#9: How to Build Traction, Gain Customers, and Grow with DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg

"Punch above your weight" -- If there's one thing public relations (PR) should help startups and founders do, it's that. Unfortunately, some companies are actually punching below their weight when there's a strong company, founder, product ... yet nobody knows about let alone talks about you. Or worse, someone else defines you first. Or you just become a hype machine.

So what conversations should you be in? Is it good or bad to do PR before you have a product? And operationally, WHEN is the right time to build a PR function; WHO should you hire (whether a full-time PR person, consultant, or agency); and HOW can you tell the good from the bad? How do you even know "it's working", when time-is-money for both the startup and the PR firm that's billing you hourly or monthly?

There's no easy answer, but it doesn't have to be that hard, either. In this episode of the a16z podcast, partners Margit Wennmachers and Kim Milosevich -- PR veterans who've seen all sides of public relations, from agency to big companies to startups -- share how to strike the just-right balance between doing PR too early or too late, time wasted or time wisely spent, and knowing to say "not now" vs. no... It's all about the art of persuasion.

---

The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
 
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

a16z Podcast: The Why, How, and When of PR

Tom Murray and Don discuss the role of technology in education and having it play a greater role than an "expensive notebook". They also go into the importance of providing today's students a memorable and authentic education environment by reducing the amount that needs to be remembered and instead focussing on building necessary skills needed in life. 

----TOM MURRAY plugs----
Website: http://thomascmurray.com/
Twitter: @thomascmurray

QUAKEBOOKS [sponsored]
http://quakebooks.net/

Tom Murray "Future Ready Education"

Powderkeg shares Startup Stories for High-Growth Business Leaders with Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Top Talent Beyond Silicon Valley. Powder Keg Gives You the Best Business Strategy from SaaS Entrepreneurs, Startup Investors, and Business Experts.

#152: 5 Startup Growth Stories and Lessons Learned While Leading through Change

Powderkeg - Igniting Startups

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