10 Podcasts Sharing Successful Startup Stories

Rather than reinventing the wheel as you build your startup, you should be trying to learn the lessons of those who have successfully walked the path you are on before you. Here are the startup stories of a diverse group of entrepreneurs who have all built profitable businesses. Have a listen to these approximately 30-minute podcast interviews:

Alexander Zacke, Founder and CEO of Auctionata – Discusses his online auction house business and how he has built a quintessential Web 3.0 business taking advantage of the web’s building blocks: commerce, community and content in the context of online auctions.

Allan Wille, President and CEO at Klipfolio – Talks about his long journey from a bootstrapped business to a venture funded, higher growth company with 8,000+ customers.

Ashik Ahmed, CEO, CTO and Co-founder at Deputy – Shares how he bootstrapped his venture from Australia to $10 Million in revenue and then raised $25 Million in financing from the US.

Christian Vanek, CEO and Co-founder of SurveyGizmo – He has bootstrapped the company to $13 million and is forecasting $26 million within a year with no external funding. We had a candid discussion that was both inspiring and enlightening.

Demitris Memos is CEO of MarineTraffic – MarineTraffic is a $5M+ revenue startup from Greece. Much of Southern Europe, especially Greece, is in economic trouble, and there is an exodus of talent. It is great to see Demitris’ success story against that backdrop.

Eyal Levy, Co-founder and CEO of Yogibo – He shares his lessons from the trenches building a niche online-offline brand that started with a set of bean bags. It’s a charming and very informative interview.

Jeremy Young, CEO of Tanga Network – He has bootstrapped a ~$30M a year affiliate marketplace. It’s a Groupon-like business, but with much more sustainable unit economics and business practices. Very interesting discussion on how and why!

Shaul Weisband, Co-Founder and CMO of Jifiti – He discusses his journey and talks about the pivot that his company made early on and its impact on the investors.

Stephan Goss, CEO of Zeeto – He has bootstrapped a traffic arbitrage business to $42 million in 2015 revenue. If you are working on an affiliate marketing / lead generation type of business, this is a useful conversation.

Venky Balasubramanian, Co-founder of Plivo – Along with his partner, he has achieved the amazing feat of growing a relatively fast growth business to well over $10 million in revenue with just $2M in Angel financing. What’s even more impressive is that they have done this with a convertible note, first $250K from angel investors in India, followed by $1.75M from investors in the Bay Area. The company operates in the US-India mode, and for those of you working in that style, many important lessons are discussed.