Capturing Content and Tracking Influencers to Save Time and Increase ROI

Hunting Influence

Key Takeaways:

· Joe started his entrepreneurial journey when he first saw a TechCrunch article called Startup Weekend

· Joe’s educational background was in mechanical engineering. He travelled to Japan for a year and that was when he was exposed to different activities such as poker, which started to shift his mindset in terms of learning how money and leverage worked.

· When Joe started his first company, he was unable to find developers to work on his idea as no one was willing to see the end product built out from start to finish

· Joe decided to learn how to design and code at the same time, dedicating 8 to 10 hours a day purely to this.

· Joe’s first idea was called Walter Reed Consulting, where he would code websites for other businesses and charge a monthly fee

· Joe first learned how to use PHP and then Ruby on Rails, learning from Michael Hartle’s tutorial. Joe wanted to learn how to build something from zero to one

· Joe also started learning how to design, reading books such as Don’t make me think by Steve Krug. He really immersed himself in the design thinking methodology.

· For Walter Reed Consulting, Joe would conduct cold calls, attend networking meetings, and even drove to someone’s house two hours away to sell them on a website for a $600 a year charge

· Joe eventually transitioned from Walter Reed Consulting and looked into building an actual product. He heard about an opportunity from a contact about a Startup idea called Chisel which was a social network for salespeople where if you are a VIP shopper, you get a certain type of treatment.

· Joe went door to door, trying to talk to fashion boutiques and checking if anyone who was selling things that have different customers they want to keep in touch with

· Chisel eventually went through seven pivots, where Joe took the business into different industries such as targeting car dealerships, design communities, etc.

· Chisel did not end up working out which led Joe to starting Mighty Scout which is a platform to track influencer campaigns. This idea stemmed from people wanting to grow their Instagram followers and keep track of what’s going on with their campaigns as well as being able to see the analytics

· Mighty Scout initially started off as a discovery platform to help people find influencers to work with.

· Joe realized that many people were using several different platforms to keep track of their campaigns such as Google Drive. He saw an opportunity to bundle everything up in one easy place and make the process super easy for people to do.

· When Joe has customers request additional features on the platform, he employs a backwards feedback loop approach where he determines how much they are willing to pay for those features. If they aren’t willing to pay, then it is likely not a big enough problem

· Joe works very closely with customers, hopping on calls, recording them, and then trying to find common threads to address the issues.

· Joe’s customer base is roughly split between brands and agencies. By focusing on the brand first, when agencies then use the product, they find it easier to use as they can manage multiple brands more efficiently.

· Joe’s favorite accomplishment and moment with Mighty Scout is their feature which allows for tracking story posts, even after they disappear. He would get customers saying that they would spend nights and weekends having to wait for the story posts but for Joe to be able to solve this issue makes him feel very happy.

· One of the biggest changes Joe has seen in the influencer marketing industry is the evolving tactics. For example, Joe finds the gifting strategy to be very interesting as you give out products to influencers without asking for anything in exchange or return. So you’re finding the people that actually care about your product or actually like it, and it’s a more two way opt in, because now the influencer gets a chance to try the product and determine whether they want to collaborate with the brand.

· Joe see’s himself in the next 5 to 10 years pursuing other technologies that help make peoples lives easier and less stressful by automating manual/repetitive tasks

Quickfire Round:

Joe’s morning routine

· Going for a run and meditation

Joe’s content that he listens to or watches the most

· All in podcast and David Sachs for SAAS related content

Joe’s favorite book of all time

· The goal by Eli Goldratt

Joe’s favorite purchase of $100 or less

· Tri blend t-shirts

Joe’s favorite place he has ever been to

· Tokyo, Japan

Joe’s advice to give to someone looking to build their own influence

· Keep practicing and combining different skills to become naturally good at something.

Quotes:

“Focus on creating a wedge in the market and evolve your business over time”

“The most important thing to ask customers how much they are willing to pay for additional features. If they are not willing to pay big enough, then it’s likely not a big enough problem”

“Always ask for feedback on your product and slowly over time, your efforts start to compound”