In the early 2000s, Perry Chen was trying to put on a concert in New Orleans when he thought, what if fans could fund this in advance? His idea didn't work at the time, but he and his co-founders spent the next eight years refining the concept of crowdfunding creative projects. Today Kickstarter has funded over 155,000 projects worldwide. PLUS for our postsc ... Show More
Jul 7
Rick Steves' Europe: Rick Steves (2021)
Rick Steves spent the summer after high school backpacking through Europe on two dollars a day—sleeping on the floor, sneaking into museums, and subsisting on a diet of bread and jam. When he came home, he found people were hungry for tips on how to visit Europe on the cheap, so ... Show More
1h 17m
Jul 3
Advice Line with Jim Koch of Boston Beer Company (August 2024)
Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch joins Guy on the Advice Line, where they answer questions from three founders about finding product-market fit.Today, we meet Kim, whose tropical-inspired apparel company in Florida is venturing into the rum market. Then Llance from Washington ... Show More
51m 11s
Feb 2023
Rapid Response: Kickstart your users from passive to passionate, w/Kickstarter’s Everette Taylor
To breathe fresh life into an established platform, Kickstarter’s new 33-year-old CEO Everette Taylor is shaking things up – and he’s unapologetic if it makes people uncomfortable. From bold new product lines to bold statements, Taylor is working to kickstart Kickstarter’s existi ... Show More
25m 54s
Jul 2014
SPI 117: Broke on a Friend’s Couch to Successful Entrepreneur with Dwight Peters of BackersHub
#117: Today’s guest on the podcast, Dwight Peters, had started a number of different businesses that didn’t go according to plan, which eventually led him to going broke and having to stay on his friend’s couch while he figured out his next move. His perseverance paid off, howeve ... Show More
29m 14s
Jun 2016
SPI 217: Brik Book and How Brett Miller Quit His 6-Figure Job to Build LEGOs
#217: Brett Miller, creator of Brik Book, joins me to discuss selling physical products, from testing and marketing to manufacturing and shipping. Learn how to validate a business idea through Kickstarter. Plus, we have a surprise just for SPI listeners! Podcast show notes availa ... Show More
43m 25s
Apr 2020
How LastObject Broke Their Crowdfunding Goal in 22 Minutes
In this episode, you’ll learn from an entrepreneur who thoroughly validated her idea that led to a $700k Kickstarter CampaignLastSwab is a reusable, sustainable and sanitary alternative to cotton swabs and buds. Replacing at least 1,000 cotton swabs. For more on LastObject and sh ... Show More
43m 3s
Dec 2020
Upstart just went public — CEO Dave Girouard shares why it isn’t a typical success story
Today’s episode is with Dave Girouard, the CEO and co-founder of Upstart, an AI-powered lending platform that recently went public. Before founding Upstart, Dave was President of Google Enterprise, and spent 8 years building Google's billion dollar cloud apps business. Here at Fi ... Show More
1h 3m
Mar 2021
Equity Crowdfunding is making the private markets public
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.For this week’s deep dive, the Equity team brought on Gumroad CEO Sahil Lavingia and Hustle Fund General Partner Elizabeth Yin to talk about equity cro ... Show More
33m 17s