Startup Life Show With Ande Lyons

A geek of all trades, our guest, Keisha Howard, has been a video game enthusiast since childhood. Growing up "geeky" resulted in her developing interests that were very different from her peers on Chicago's South Side. With a degree in psychology and communications at DePaul University, Keisha acquired an understanding of consumer motivations that ultimately led her to real estate. After a successful decade long career, Keisha's communications background and passion for business innovation led her to the Information Technology Industry, specifically social media, the video game industry and geek culture. She quickly discovered that a considerable part of the industry's consumer and professional demographics were not being represented, so Keisha created Sugar Gamers – the new face of geek culture. It began as a women's advocacy and networking group for consumers and professionals, but eventually blossomed into an organization that advocates for all demographics who are under serve

A former CPA and Forensics Examiner, Jessica Lynch, founder of WishRoute, kept hearing people say “I wish.” I wish I were healthier, I wish I were stronger, I wish I were happier. She realized there was a “wish epidemic,” and when her research showed 92% of Americans fail to follow through with their goals, Jessica knew she had to find a way to help people realize their full potential.Jessica shares: •her first startup story at the age of 10 (Hamsters are involved!)•how her brother’s diagnosis of juvenile diabetes led to her having a deep awareness of health and wellness•how the constant crises management life of a forensics examiner prepared her for being a founder•how low-tech customer-centric reiterations helped her build a successful text-messaged based, human powered tech company around constant customer feedback•the important but time-consuming process of bringing on an aligned CTO•how she manages feelings of isolation as a founder•how entrepreneurship has enhanced her life.A few fave quotes from our d

Vicki O’Neill, founder of KenKay Marketing, will help you sharpen your marketing, sales and strategy management skills, while she shares her own sensational startup journey.Vicki’s passion for helping small and mid-size business leaders achieve success was the driving force to launching her business in 2011. What started out as a ‘side hustle’ to fulfill marketing requests for entrepreneurs and startups, Vicki turned into a full-time strategy and coaching business. That’s what we love about side hustles!Vicki helps business owners who are stuck, who need help creating new business and revenue opportunities, and who struggle with too-much-to-get-done-and-not-enough-time. Oh yeah - I’m feeling the head nodding and hands raising here, right founders?Vicki hosts the Connect the Dots podcast which focuses on Marketing and Sales related topics. It's all about making sure Marketing and Sales are aligned and in harmony! I met Vicki on Instagram… her content is so outstanding and compelling… it was easy to align

Presentation Coach and Communications Consultant Christina Brennan, helps founders, professionals and companies figure out what they’re trying to say and how to say it well. Through workshops, seminars, and 1:1 coaching, she builds messaging development, storytelling, and public speaking skills which equates to building deeper connections, landing more deals, and overall being a more impactful communicator. Through her diverse background in marketing, advertising, sales, and journalism – ranging from large corporations like Microsoft to startups – Christina has established systems that help her understand how any audience best consumes information and how to create content that is useful and memorable.Listeners - Christina is going to up your presentation game – especially for pitching your business to investors. She also shares terrific insights for solopreneurs launching a service-based business, and how she manages isolation.Here's some actionable advice Christina shares during our delicious conversat

"The odd thing about being a startup founder is it requires probably the broadest set of skills of almost any job out there. You need to know a little bit about marketing, operations, everything. Yet despite the fact that it has this huge requirement for different skill sets, it's one of the very few jobs on the planet that requires absolutely no prior experience.You can't get a job in a restaurant as a waiter unless you waited someplace else. You can't get a job most places unless you have experience. Here we have a complex job with dozens of skills needed, and you can just wake up one day and go, I'm a founder. That's when the hard work starts."I love this quote by our guest and fellow Startup Founder Coach Tony Clemendor! Tony entered the startup ecosystem straight out of Harvard Business School and has loved startups ever since. For over 25 years, he's been a founder, an investor, an advisor, a mentor, a teacher, and now a founder coach who works primarily with ear

Priyanka Raha is helping families reimagine digital playtime and create Digital Citizens with her startup, PopSmartKids. It all began when her young sons went from sharing their excitement from building legos or artwork masterpieces to becoming lost to the world while they watched something on their screens. There was no longer any shared interaction, and she had a difficult time getting their attention.Sound familiar parents? Priyanka has a deep love of technology and a distinguished career as a software engineer. But she didn't want to lose her children to the isolating world of screen time, so she took her passion for technology and her children’s future and launched PopSmartKids! PopSmartKids provides parents with tools that will reduce the burden of them feeling guilty about handing over the tablet to their children. The platform ignites imagination through writing stories and creating art in a collaborative online experience. Through storyboards and art, kids can collaborate with their parents or t

“Be an Asker, not a Guesser.”A serial entrepreneur and startup adviser on a mission to change today's perception of millennial consumer behavior, Chino Lex is the founder and CEO of Keyring, the cable bundle of the subscription generation. With savings from his carpet-cleaning job at the young age of 19, he decided to leave college one day after freshmen orientation to start and bootstrap his first company. It published over 180 iOS apps and over 50 reached Apple's Top Charts, amassing over 5 million downloads, resulting in an acquisition. Chino’s advice for attracting top talent when you can’t pay “Google/Microsoft” salaries is impactful and valuable for startup founders.Chino also goes deep into what his parents said when he dropped out of college during Freshman Orientation, how he found developers for his first few app companies, proving an app’s value proposition, finding startup support while living in a desert for startups, how the concept for Keyring came about, raising capital vs. bootstrap

Venture Capital, Angel Investors... or bootstrapping... MONEY is oxygen for a startup.But how does a founder decide which oxygen mask is best for their business? I have some Andelicious Advice to help you choose the best funding option… and oxygen… for your startup.When I’m gardening, driving into Boston, or doing household chores, I love tuning into podcasts.The other day I had two back-to-back podcasts that got me thinking about the question – which oxygen does your business need to soar?The first podcast I listened to was Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn… and he was interviewing Ben Chestnut, the co-founder of MailChimp. They were focusing on how MailChimp grew without any investment capital. They completely bootstrapped the business. Throughout the interview, Reid was highlighting the importance of Venture Capital to provide rocket fuel for a company's growth. Given his podcast title, Masters of Scale, he clearly is all about scaling a business.His final words of advice: &qu

A serial entrepreneur focused on digital marketing and health media, our guest Kenny Kline shares the best startup stories from his wild, roller coaster entrepreneurial rides!Kenny is the founder and Managing Director of JAKK Media, a niche media web company. From soup-to-nuts, JAKK Media does it all: content creation, digital marketing, video production, design, business development, and technical management. Collectively their sites and social profiles reach tens of millions of people each month.What I love about JAKK Media is how passionate they are about creating niche content for curious audiences... while being a kindness focused team.From a side hustle app to establishing a work culture focused on kindness, Kenny brings us a deeper awareness that can only be found on the startup founder journey.We chat about digital marketing, content marketing, monetizing content, niche content, sponsored content... Kenny shares insights and advice he's learned from founding the "little content engine that

Our guest, Adam Mutschler, is an executive coach, the host of a terrific podcast called The Founder's Mind, he’s a mentor to startup founders through many wonderful organizations, including Backstage Capital, and he’s a new Dad!Adam works with individuals, teams, and organizations to break through the barriers that slow them down and develop strategies, tactics, and practices to scale themselves as they scale their businesses.Adam shares his best advice for dissolving chokeholds on a new business, especially when it’s the founder’s mindset.This delicious conversation includes:* how Adam serves founders and senior executives* advice for founders on how to build out teams and evolve into a deeper leadership role* Adam's favorite founders, articles and podcasts... and how to challenge yourself after reading/listening to the advice by saying "How do I apply this, and how do I actually use it?"* the power of self awareness and delegating tasks that drain youPlease follow Adam everywhere he glow

Our guest, Ethan Anthony, is the Founder & CEO of CrankChart, a communication platform designed to create alignment between decision makers and data professionals by leveraging behavioral psychology and machine learning/AI as supporting mechanisms. Ethan can be best described as a self-taught man who is a voracious reader, and a highly motivated problem solver. He spent half of his adult life in the Far East, fully immersed in the Asian culture and language.Currently finishing up his graduate degree at Harvard, Ethan is a published author of 3 technical books, has spent over 10 years serving the world with his technical visionary and problem solving brilliance, and is an authority of behavioral psychology and behavioral economics.Ethan was an expert panelist at the monthly pitch event I co-host, Founders Live Boston, and it was a genuine pleasure to witness his excellent insights, generous guidance and authentic advice for the featured founders. I know you, too, will benefit from his wonderful wisdom.Here

I met our guest, Eva Adosoglou, at the monthly pitch event I co-host here in Boston – called Founders Live Boston. She was a featured founder at the event, and her ability to passionately, clearly, and concisely share her business model wow’d all of us… and I know she’ll wow you too!Eva is the COO at Ntroduced, where she manages all the technical, operational, PR, marketing and fundraising efforts for this startup. Ntroduced is a job introduction platform using artificial intelligence to directly introduce the right candidates to the right employers by providing insights that go far beyond what a resume or a job description can do. Eva is originally from Greece and first moved to the US as a Fulbright Scholar to pursue her Masters in Business with a focus on Innovation and Technology.Please connect with Eva via:https://www.linkedin.com/in/evaadosoglou/https://www.ntroduced.com/https://www.facebook.com/Ntroduced/https://twitter.com/ntroducedhttps://www.instagram.com/ntroduced/Are you ready for startup mentorin

“We should lean on our partners because we want to, not because we have to.” ~ Burju PerezOur guest, Burju Perez, was born in Istanbul, raised in New York City, and now resides in Massachusetts.She is a shoe designer and business owner, who ran a very successful Latin dance company and toured the entire world as a professional dancer, achieving many honors and awards, including “International Best Artist” and “International Best Instructor” in 2007 at the United Kingdom Salsa Congress.While her dancing career proved to be rewarding, Burju’s desire to fully embrace her own fashion, style and art sense encouraged her to launch Burju Shoes in April 2009. Burju Shoes brings a unique collection of stylish, yet highly functional and comfortable designer shoes to the everyday woman. Made to be worn on and off the dance floor, Burju Shoes are distinguished by high-end construction, tailored patterns, brilliant colors, feminine designs, subtle, yet edgy details, and high-quality leather and vegan leathers. They are e

If you love pets, then you are going to LOVE our guest, Artur Sousa, founder of adopets, a platform designed to empower shelters and rescues to save more lives by reducing staff and volunteer's workload. Adopets offers a seamless adoption ecosystem that helps shelter and rescue partners operate more efficiently and focus on what really matters - saving more pets.How wonderful is that?Artur is a social entrepreneur with a mission to support other entrepreneurs in all their endeavors, working closely together to develop ventures that will impact the world in a powerful and positive way. He is a proud winner of a United Nations MDG Award and Member of the Royal Academy of Arts & Music, located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has participated in several human rights initiatives and has been an activist for Hansen's disease eradication. In addition, he is known as an enthusiastic theater professor and public speaker. As Artur continues on his journey of social impact, he hopes to build on his achieveme

"Manufacturing challenges always come up. One of the things we've had to learn is how to figure out timing, because even though you'll get a time frame from one piece of the manufacturing puzzle, something else comes up that you hadn't anticipated or you did anticipate but then it went completely sideways."Edward Madongorere is the CEO and co-founder of MOON Selfie, the smallest, most elegant mobile lighting solution for folks who want to live life in the best light.A jack of many trades, Ed worked in Marketing at Comcast… Developed E-Learning programs and pioneered the video email marketing process at Cisco… and was a designer & project manager at Affectiva. As a talented UX/UI design and cinematographer Ed founded Edemanté Design & Film, where he produced stunning ads and content for clients. His work has appeared on CNN, Fox, CBS, MTV, NECN and more. With a magnetic personality and love for people, Ed is always encouraging others to pursue their dreams and overcome challen

"In the beginning, you don't want to waste your time trying to raise money of any kind from investors that are not inherently, organically interested in either you or your industry vertical. You are not going to convert those people to you. You want to go out and find the people that are already excited either about you or about the problem space that you're in. It's like starting with a warm audience." ~ Melissa Withers, Managing Partner, RevUp CapitalMelissa Withers is an experienced fund manager and business builder who has overseen investments in over 100 companies. She is currently a Founding Partner of RevUp Capital, a fund focused on B2B and B2C companies moving fast up a revenue-fueled growth curve. She’s a mentor in residence at TechStars Boston and she’s a strong advocate for closing the diversity gap in early stage investing. Hooray!Melissa's career began at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, where she worked at the intersection of basic research, comm

"Maria, you are one of the most impressive people I’ve ever seen in the carpet here. I’m in!" ~ Lori Greiner, Shark Tank I agree 100% with Lori; in fact, I said those same words while watching Maria Luna, the co-founder of BRAVO, pitch the Sharks. She was so outstanding, I had to hop on Twitter and share my awe and wonder! Click this link to read the Tweet: https://twitter.com/AndeLyons/status/957323290577694720 I was delighted to hear right back from Maria, and we’ve been online friends and fans ever since.Maria is an energetic serial entrepreneur with over 22 years of experience in marketing and managing consumer and healthcare brands at Nabisco and other top companies. Maria excels at lean operations and is a firm believer that blockchain and cryptocurrency will disrupt many industries as we know them. Her expertise in business planning, organic growth and building functional teams has kept her in demand from the United States to Central and South America. Maria holds an MBA from the McCombs Busi

“Entrepreneurs have big ideas and big eyes!” I love this quote Diane Najm shares during our delicious conversation.Diane is the founder and CEO of PhotoPad, and she has a sensational and inspirational startup story to share with you!After practicing Social Work for over 20 years, Diane leaped into the entrepreneurial world to launch two tech platforms in the photo and digital content marketing space.She launched her first product - PhotoPad – a consumer photo app on Facebook - in 2010 and then she launched PhotoPad for Business in 2016.Diane is passionate about empowering women to succeed in business, and is consistently sharing the best advice, resources and connections everywhere she glows.A past Director of Founder Institute, Diane is a leader and mentor in the Seattle startup community, where she regularly speaks about entrepreneurship and leadership. Diane serves on the Board of Directors to Women in Wireless and Women in Tech, and in 2018 she received two nominations for startup of the year and innovati

Our guest, Anne-Fleur Andrle, is the co-founder of Jack and Ferdi, a companion application that helps travelers identify what's most authentic about a destination while offering innovative ways to the user to give back to the local community.This Bleisure App also provides data on opportunities to have a positive impact while on the road (run and walk itineraries, indigenous music, and curated local charities to give back to), while not forgetting the primary reason for the business trip...conducting business. The app also offers data on local business etiquette, learning opportunities, and great work/meeting spaces. This well-rounded app will help business travelers combine business and leisure travel and adopt the growing bleisure travel lifestyle. Anne-Fleur graduated from UTC – a French University - as an engineer with a double major in biomechanics and scientific communication. She pursued her education at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo with a focus on cardiac regeneration and b

Please meet Seattle Entrepreneur and Mompreneur Melissa Strawn. She is the founder and CEO of MyPeopleNow.com - a peer-to-peer marketplace for services and directory of freelancers and gig workers. As a busy mom to five active boys, Melissa uses her own site daily and has incorporated many interesting features that aim to make the gig economy accessible to all.Melissa blogs at FromWelfareToMillionaire.org and is on a mission to transform the social services system into one that encourages and supports efforts toward meaningful self-sufficiency.How much do you love that mission?!I met Melissa on LinkedIn through Nick Hughes, the Founder of the international platform Founders Live. She is a role model for how to engage, connect and create meaningful conversations online… I just love how she moves and grooves through comments and posts, bringing smiles and ah-ha moments everywhere she glows.I’m so delighted Melissa is here to share her startup stories and her insights on what every newbie founder needs to know!T