How to Juggle Multiple Businesses While Serving Your Community

By dcpreneur 2017-11-21 2017-11-24 Podcast

Tien Wong is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and super connector in the DC entrepreneurial community. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Tech2000, an IT firm that provides advanced technology training and mobile device software to the federal government and Fortune 500 companies, Chairman of Lore Systems, an IT services firm specializing in managed datacenter hosting, cloud computing, IT networking, and Chairman and CEO of Opus8, a private investment and advisory firm. Tien is also the founder and host of Big Idea CONNECTpreneur Forum, a community that connects entrepreneurs and investors in the Mid-Atlantic region.

In this episode, Tien talked about how to effectively manage multiple projects at the same time, what are the most important considerations when evaluating your business ideas, and how to know that your product/service really solves a customer problem. He also shared other lessons learned through years of entrepreneurial experience and explained why “your network is your net worth” for an entrepreneur.

“Be self-aware. Know your limit. But you have to have the supreme confidence that you are going to win.”

– Tien Wong

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Lore Systems

Tech2000

Opus8

Big Idea CONNECTpreneur

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook

Reference

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Soundwise

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How to Create A Business Supported by An Online Community

By dcpreneur 2017-06-27 2017-06-27 Podcast

Craig Zelizer is the CEO and founder of the Peace and Collaborative Development Network (PCDN), a vibrant online hub for professionals, organizations and students in the fields of social change, peacebuilding, social entrepreneurship, and social development.

Craig is a college professor turned entrepreneur. He started PCDN as a hobby in 2007. It became such a popular online community for his field that he left his job to focus on the project full-time. In this episode he talked about how to build an online following, the different approaches you can take to generate revenue once you have built an online community, and how to prioritize tasks as an entrepreneur.

And if you’re looking to learn and grow as an entrepreneur, you should check out Soundwise. Soundwise aims to offer a wide selection of audio courses in business and personal development, so that you can learn to become a better version of yourself…on the go. Soundwise just released a series of crash courses on how to build a startup. They are sourced from some of the best entrepreneurship classes ever taught at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, taught by real founders who have built successful businesses over and over again. They cover the essential insights you need to start building your business. And the best part, they are free! Go check them out at mysoundwise.com/courses.

“Prioritize and stay focused. For each task, ask if this will help your goals.”

– Craig Zelizer

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PCDN

Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn, Facebook

Reference

Entrepreneurship Crash Courses by Soundwise

NING

Google Ads

1776

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From Zero to A National Brand

By dcpreneur 2017-06-21 2017-06-20 Podcast

Agatha Achindu is the founder of Yummy Spoonfuls, an innovative company that makes flash-frozen baby food from fresh, organic and wholesome ingredients.

In this episode, Agatha shared about how she went from making healthy baby food out of her own kitchen to starting a business borrowing money from her own 401(k), to today with a national brand that’s distributed through Whole Foods and Target, with tons of celebrity customers including current co-owner Camila Alves, model-designer and wife of actor Matthew McConaughey. Agatha talked about the lessons she learned in growing the business, including how to get your product into the hands of customers when you had no distribution channels, and how to find balance between the roles of mother, wife and entrepreneur while living your purpose.

And if you’re looking to learn and grow as an entrepreneur, you should check out Soundwise. Soundwise aims to offer a wide selection of audio courses in business and personal development, so that you can learn to become a better version of yourself…on the go. Soundwise just released a series of crash courses on how to build a startup. They are sourced from some of the best entrepreneurship classes ever taught at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, taught by real founders who have built successful businesses over and over again. They cover the essential insights you need to start building your business, ranging from how to get customers, how to talk to investors, to how to project your financials and how to protect your intellectual properties. And the best part, they are free! Go check them out at mysoundwise.com/courses.

“Don’t be afraid to go right to the top (to get your product in the door).”

– Agatha Achindu

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Yummy Spoonfuls

Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook

Reference

Entrepreneurship Crash Courses by Soundwise

Dean & Deluca

Amazon

Whole Foods Market

Target

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How to Build A Disruptive Product

By dcpreneur 2017-06-13 2017-06-28 Podcast

Jonathon Perrelli is the CEO and co-founder of LifeFuels, a health technology company in Virginia. Their main product is smart water bottles with customized nutrition injections, which also allows you to track your consumption of water and nutrients with an app.

In this episode, Jonathon shared how he brought LifeFuels from idea to prototype to production. He talked about how to know if there was a market for your product, and how to make sure your delivery of the product actually solved the customer problem you were aiming to solve. He also offered insights on how to attract the right talents and investment for an innovative product.

And if you’re looking to learn and grow as an entrepreneur, you should check out Soundwise. Soundwise aims to offer a wide selection of audio courses in business and personal development, so that you can learn to become a better version of yourself…on the go. Soundwise just released a series of crash courses on how to build a startup. They are sourced from some of the best entrepreneurship classes ever taught at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, taught by real founders who have built successful businesses over and over again. They cover the essential insights you need to start building your business, ranging from how to get customers, how to talk to investors, to how to project your financials and how to protect your intellectual properties. And the best part, they are free! Go check them out at mysoundwise.com/courses.

“For disruptive innovations, it is the outsider that will catalyze the most drastic changes, not the traditional experts within the industry.”

– Jonathon Perrelli

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LifeFuels

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

Reference

Entrepreneurship Crash Courses by Soundwise

CES

Keurig

S’well

YETI

No comments

Startup Marketing Tips from the Trenches

By dcpreneur 2017-05-30 2017-05-30 Podcast

Kevin Alansky is the Chief Marketing Officer of Logi Analytics, a software company in Northern Virginia. Kevin was one of the early employees at DC tech scene’s superstar, Blackboard Inc. He was also the cofounder of startup SocialRadar. In today’s interview, Kevin share his marketing insights, including how to develop institutional partnerships and customer accounts as a B2B company, how to design a marketing strategy with low budget, and what founders need to know about hiring marketers.

“Driving the demand for your product requires a completely different set of skills than doing marketing research for product ‘positioning’.”

– Kevin Alansky

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Kevin Alansky

Twitter, LinkedIn

Reference

Soundwise: Audio Courses in Business and Personal Development

Logi Analytics

Blackboard

SocialRadar

Chief Martec

Heartful.ly

No comments

How to Validate Your Business Ideas with Minimal Cost

By dcpreneur 2017-05-23 2017-05-23 Podcast

Earlier this year, our host Natasha Che started Soundwise, a mobile marketplace for on-demand audio courses in business and personal development. She and her cofounders want to build the Netflix for learning-on-the-go. In today’s episode, Natasha and Founders Nextdoor producer, Xue Bai, sit down and chat about how Natasha got the idea for Soundwise. And more importantly, this is an example of how you can go about testing your business ideas, so that you can confirm that your business actually has legs, before you plunge into execution and spend a bunch of money on developing the idea.

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Reference

Soundwise: Audio Courses in Business and Personal Development

Business Model Canvas

Lean Startup Methodology

How to Validate Your Business Ideas without Spending A Dime

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How Bree Ryback Turned A Hobby into A Thriving Business

By dcpreneur 2017-05-09 2017-05-10 Podcast

Bree Ryback is the founder of Capitol Romance, a wedding coordination and e-commerce business in DC. When Bree was getting married in 2010, she struggled to find local resources that would help her plan the wedding the way she wanted. So when the wedding was over, she decided to start blogging and share useful tips from her own wedding. The blog got a steady following and eventually helped her to start her own business. In this interview, Bree talked about how to get your first clients when you don’t have a lot of experience or track record, how to be super productive, juggle different projects while staying sane, and what she learned from launching the e-commerce side of her business.

“You never feel you’ve done enough when you are an entrepreneur.”

– Bree Ryback

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Capitol Romance

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

Reference

Washingtonian

Etsy

Soundwise: Audio Courses in Business and Personal Development

No comments

How to Grow A Consulting Business

By dcpreneur 2017-05-02 2017-05-01 Podcast

Cenk Sidar is the founder and CEO of Sidar Global Ventures (SGV), a global macro research and strategic advisory firm. After graduate school, Cenk started doing risk analysis research for the American-Turkish Council, where not only did he hone his expertise but also built a steady client base. Encouraged by his boss and by targeted demand from clients, he founded SGV. In this interview, Cenk talked about how to get your first consulting client without hard sale, the efficient way of doing business development, how to compete against big name players as a small consultancy, and how to network smartly.

“Offer something that’s a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have’.”

– Cenk Sidar

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Sidar Global Ventures

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter

Reference

American-Turkish Council

Foreign Policy

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Cenk Sidar

Soundwise: Audio Courses in Business and Personal Development

No comments

How to Bootstrap A Media Empire by Curating Shareable Content

By dcpreneur 2017-04-25 2017-04-24 Podcast

Svetlana Legetic is the co-founder of Brightest Young Things, an online publishing, event production and marketing company. Svetlana moved to Washington DC for an architect job in 2003. She and her cofounders initially started BYT as a simple blog writing about events happening around town. But BYT quickly got so popular that she left her job to focus fulltime on the project. In this interview, Svetlana talked about how to identify your brand voice, promote your business through content, attract organic traffic to your site, and how to capture audience in this day and age of short attention span.

“We do not have a Plan B, failure is not an option.”

– Svetlana Legetic

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BrightestYoungThings

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

Reference

FotoWeekDC

Summer Camp

The Bentzen Ball Comedy Festival

Hot On The Heels

Newseum

Hirshhorn

Smithsonian

Kennedy Center

The National Museum of American History

Library of Congress

The National Museum of American History

Renwick Gallery

Soundwise: Audio Courses in Business and Personal Development

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Creative Strategies to Get Customers and Grow Your Brand

By dcpreneur 2017-04-18 2017-04-17 Podcast

Melanie Spring is the Chief Inspiration Officer of Sisarina, a Washington DC-based brand strategy agency with purpose. Melanie had the entrepreneurial blood in her since she was a kid. She started out in the web-design and marketing business, and found her true passion in helping companies grow their brands and build their communities. In this episode, Melanie shared how she made Sisarina stand out from the crowd with authentic human interactions and relationship building. She also talked about some really creative strategies to attract customers and simple actions you can take immediately to refine and grow your brand.

“Your brand should reflect who you are fundamentally.”

– Melanie Spring

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Sisarina

Location:

801 A St SE #2
Washington, DC 20003
Telephone: (202) 854-8964

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter