Q: What is the process like for selecting and adding a school to Cribspot's network?
There isn't an exact science for launching at new colleges. We typically consider several qualities such as the university type, size, location, geography, and make-up. Once we've targeted a school, we then ask landlords to add their rentals to Cribspot.  It's a very laborious and tedious process, so we typically work with universities to aid in that process.

Q: Can you talk a bit about your competition.  There’s plenty of it between Craigslist, Zillow and then of course the entrenched major property owners in the college towns.  How do you get students to go to Cribspot before them?
College students know they need a place to live the next year, but they aren't just going to use one website and lease the first place they find. We find that most renters use multiple sites and our advantage is that our site is built by college renters, so we typically have more data than other competitors.

Q: Cribspot is super active on social media and its own blog, generating a ton of quality content.  What's the strategy for the company when it comes to using social media specifically?
As a college start-up, we naturally focus on social media as a marketing tool. However, the real motivator behind sharing our content is that most new renters are completely ignorant of the rental process. We know this because we were once freshmen on campus. We really want to help these renters find a place and we've found that good content provides greater transparency to the chaotic housing search.

Q: You guys just raised a big seed round recently ($660,000), how will that additional capital help with the next phase of growth at Cribspot?
We raised the seed round to grow our portfolio of current campuses. The rental process is so broken that we are only tackling the first part of the problem. Eventually, we want to use the capital to alleviate some of the other stresses surrounding the rental search and leasing time.

 

Only a few moments after clicking submit I began to panic.  After finding  out weeks ago I needed to be in Denver for work, I had just ordered lift tickets and ski rentals for my first ski trip out west to Copper Mountain in Colorado. But as the confirmation e-mail landed in my inbox, I suddenly wondered how the hell I was going to bring all of my ski clothes out with me.  I was scheduled to be in Denver for a work trip from Monday to Thursday, but I would be skiing the weekend before which meant I’d be traveling for nearly a week.  Equipped with just a backpack and a standard carry on bag, I barely had enough room for work and casual clothes, let alone full ski gear.  I turned to almighty Google to address my problem and within a few searches of “ski gear rental” and “ski apparel rent”, I found my answer in the form of a Colorado based tech startup GetOutfitted.

Founded by Stanford grad Julian Flores, GetOutfitted is a ski and snowboard e-commerce site that delivers heavily discounted apparel and accessories rentals right to your door.  Having moved out to Colorado from California 9 years ago, Julian was eager to take advantage of all the great outdoor activities his new home state had to offer.  But time and time again, Julian’s plans to develop a passion for skiing and snowboarding were thwarted by expensive price tags for both apparel and equipment.  He was frustrated by the high  costs associated with outdoor sports, but Julian noticed his wife had rented a designer dress at a discounted price through the mail for an upcoming event.  “She accessed luxury at a fraction of the cost, with no intimidation and a lot of joy,” Flores recalls. “I realized right then, I could do the same for the outdoor sports industry, allowing people like me to get outside and try something, save money, and feel like a big spender.”   Julian quickly built out an online prototype to acquire customer validation and hasn’t looked back since.  

When I first landed on the website, I was impressed with its slick, professional layout and easy to use interface.  After creating an account in a few clicks, I set out to fill my cart by searching through an impressive selection of high-quality gear.  I went with a Dakine Atmos jacket and a pair of Obermeyer Recon pants.  I then scheduled my rental period (the site gives you the option to select between 3/5/10 day rentals) and entered my buddy’s Denver apartment as the delivery location.   GetOutfitted also gives its customers the option to pay extra to get your gear sooner. 

As my ski trip grew closer, I started to wonder if there was a way to track my order to ensure my gear would get to Denver on time for my ski trip.  Fortunately, a few days before I was all set to leave, I got shipping confirmation e-mail from GetOutfitted including tracking details and links to the FedEx shipping status on my items. 

Having started GetOutfitted  just a year ago, Flores, a former founder of a nonprofit consultancy and a Charter School in Colorado Springs, has been managing the steady growth of the e-commerce company thanks to effective SEO and search ad campaigns.  He has also invested considerable time trying to address the challenges faced by those searching for alternatives to current rental options.  Flores has obviously set out to build an experience that aims to please its renters from the moment they make an order until the time they ship the products back (free of charge).   “We track our customer facing-metrics, which are incredibly important to a consumer service like ours.  These include customer satisfaction, delivery reliability, sizing and fit accuracy of the apparel, and referrals from customers.   

When I landed in Denver Friday afternoon, I learned my order had arrived safely and on time, so I headed out with a couple of college friends to enjoy my first ski trip out west.  Both the pants and jacket did a stellar job of keeping me warm and comfortable (I quickly realized that although I might have looked the part, having spent most of my time on the bunny slopes in the Poconos, I was a little in over my head in terms of the quality and difficulty of skiing out west.  Returning the apparel to GetOutfitted was as simple as tossing the gear in the prepaid return envelope included in the box and finding the closest mailbox to drop it off.  Despite being sore from head to toe from a full weekend of skiing, I was thankful that I didn’t have to lug around my jacket and pants the rest of the week and back to the airport.  I vowed to return to ski out west at the next available opportunity in order to enjoy the fresh powder as much as this bro.

Flores will be the first to admit that competition does exist in the seasonal yet lucrative business of snow and ski apparel sales; however, the fantastic customer experience provided by Get Outfitted puts them in a position to win out against current alternatives for those heading to the mountains on a budget.  “Few resorts offer apparel out of their rental shops, and none offer the ability to put together a custom, current look that will allow skiers to look and feel great on the mountain,” explains Flores. “We offer a luxury experience for a fraction of the cost, with a fantastic unboxing experience, great customer service and a dead-simple return process.”  With a passionate founder leading the way and a group bent on creating a seamless rental experience from start to finish, GetOutfitted is a great option for anyone looking for great value during their next trek to the mountains.

Rajesh Karmani really hates food waste.   While studying at the University of Illinois, it was something he noticed on a daily basis, but after researching the topic of food waste a bit more, he quickly discovered the problem was much bigger than he thought.  He soon learned that the average American throws away 20 pounds of food every month. According to the Washington Post, the United States wastes enough food every day to fill up the Rose Bowl.  While 40 percent of the food produced in this country goes uneaten, 1 in 6 Americans deal with hunger on a daily basis.   An entrepreneur at heart, Raj saw opportunity where most saw inefficiency.

 Knowing there had to be a better way to connect the vast quantities of food surplus with the organizations that needed it most, Raj founded Zero Percent with that very goal in mind.  Utilizing his computer science background, Raj set out to build a convenient, safe, and efficient online food donation marketplace helping restaurants move surplus food to nearby soup kitchens and shelters.  “For me, Zero Percent was at the nexus of what comes natural to me, what felt right to me, and what interests me,” Raj explained. 

While Raj was trying to get his company off the ground in Champaign, just a few hours away, a program was being built to help startups just like Zero Percent. Operating out of co-working center 1871 in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, Impact Engine was created as a 16-week startup accelerator offering mentorship, support, and resources to companies addressing societal and environmental challenges.   When Zero Percent was accepted into Impact Engine’s second round of startups, Raj knew the opportunity would serve as the perfect chance to help him learn about his business at a rapid pace.  With the help of Impact Engine, Zero Percent is now working with over fifty nonprofits (Pacific Garden Mission, Franciscan Outreach, and Salvation Army to name a few) and is receiving regular food donations from well-known businesses and restaurants all over Chicago including Goddess and Grocer, Hannah’s Bretzel, and Dimo’s Pizza.  I got a chance to sit down with Raj to hear more about Zero Percent and how he began his crusade against food waste.

Q: Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I finished college in 2005, and I initially started doing some freelance consulting for companies in the UK, Pakistan, and the U.S., so that was my first jump into entrepreneurship.  I got admitted into a PhD program and for a while in that academic setting I got the chance to teach and do research.  I seriously considered pursuing an academic path, but I think during that time, entrepreneurship was aways in the back of my mind, but it just wasn’t getting the right outlet. 

Q: Both you and Caleb Phillips (CTO of Zero Percent) have very impressive backgrounds in computer science, so you have the technology side of the company pretty well covered. What has the learning process been like when it comes to running the business side of things?

We’re certainly learning a lot as we grow. Caleb came from a non-profit background, so he brought a lot in terms of knowing about food waste, food hunger, and non-profit management.  I was about to graduate and I came across this idea that combined my interests in technology, entrepreneurship, and volunteerism, but I knew I still had a lot to learn about business.

U of I has a great incubator program called EnterpriseWorks so we got space and membership there for six months.  It was a way to surround myself with smart entrepreneurs in the area.  As soon as that was ending and my graduation was approaching, we got the offer from Impact Engine and it could not have been a better fit considering it was based in Chicago and had a focus on social entrepreneurship.  They have been great at connecting us with mentors and advisors.  It’s a lot of learning every day, and there’s still plenty more to learn.

Q: When you are trying to get businesses and restaurants to use Zero Percent, how do you convince them to sign up?

Our early adopters are companies where green and sustainability is part of their culture.  These are businesses that have tried sustainability projects before but it did not work for them.  Then, we build upon those experiences and explain our additional benefits, like how these businesses can promote their food donations to their employees and customers.  We also explain the benefits of the data they receive from Zero Percent and the chance to create operating efficiencies and reduce costs such as trash hauling.

Q: With a business like this that depends so much on logistics, what are certain metrics you guys are constantly tracking and trying to improve upon?

At the crudest level we track how many pounds of food are rescued in a day.  We want to grow this from where we are now at 1,500 pounds per day to 15,000.  Doing so will give us operational and business metrics that we can show to potential customers and investors and convey what we do best, which is rescue pounds at the lowest cost, in the shortest amount of time, and in the safest way possible.  This is a hard problem because there are so many variables involved such as time, location, and size of delivery.  The real challenge is meeting those at the supplier side and the need side.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge of expanding this to cities across the country that need it just as badly as Chicago?

The challenge would be how to efficiently reach new donors. Restaurants are busy, time constrained, and cash strapped, so it is about finding more early adopters to help us grow.   We learned a lot in Champaign and Chicago, and we want to take what we’ve learned to help us scale here and grow to other communities.

Growing up in Chicago's south side and now growing a business in Chicago's tech hub, Chris Motley has come full circle. But when you dig a little deeper, it becomes clear that Motley was constantly carving out his own unique path towards becoming a CE0 and founder of a rapidly growing startup providing solutions to the job search process.

Upon graduating from Columbia, Chris began his career as a trader at Goldman Sachs.   After a few years, he switched gears and joined 1888 Mills, a global home and commercial textile manufacturer.  While at 1888 Mills, Chris served as Director of Global Strategy Sustainability and later became Executive Vice President, all while picking up an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Frustrated with the inefficiencies he saw plaguing the job search process, Chris pitched an idea to solve the issue at Chicago’s 2011 Startup Weekend.  The idea captivated fellow attendee Kunal Parbadia, and a few months later the two co-founded Better Weekdays.

Touting itself as the GPS for Your Career Journey, Better Weekdays helps students and professionals navigate the tricky and frustrating job search process by matching their values with career opportunities.  JobScript, an online self-assessment and development tool created by the team at Better Weekdays helps you recognize your unique strengths and provides clarity and targeted professional development to the job search process.

Job seekers utilize comprehensive and validated feedback provided by JobScript, enabling them to develop a plan for their professional life.  Better Weekday users then go on a private job-matching platform providing opportunities aligned with their preferences and job compatibility.

Targeting students and alumni from top universities, Better Weekday’s currently offers it’s assessment for free to students from schools such as Northwestern, Michigan, and Notre Dame.  You can watch Chris discuss Better Weekdays during a recent Technori Pitch event here. To learn more about Chris and Better Weekdays, check out my interview with him below and check out their website betterweekdays.com

Q: What is wrong with the current model behind staffing and recruiting? In a word - everything! Specifically, resumes don’t adequately capture an individual or determine success.  Also, there is little objectivity in the current process. 

There are three big insights that validate what we are doing: 1) By the time one is 30, they will have had 4 different jobs - and there needs to be a platform to facilitate these inevitable transitions, 2) universities are not necessarily funded to provide career services to alumni, thereby fueling the current staffing/recruiting model and 3) companies that  traditionally recruit college graduates don't have access and visibility to certain campuses/alumni pools to objectively select quality talent in a cost effective way. Better Weekdays seeks to be the GPS for one's career journey - a private platform to help individuals actively manage their careers.  This enables us to provide our corporate customers with "best fit" candidates at half the cost of traditional sources. 

Q: What made you decide that culture fit is the most important determinant of success for a “better weekday”?
 We didn't decide culture fit is important - the market did - and as a result, it is a key component of our job matching process.  In established organizations, people tend to outgrow their jobs (in startups, it is the opposite).  Specifically, the rate at which employees acquire skills is much faster than the time it takes for their roles to change - leading to unhappiness and attrition.  If someone is a good fit - defined by their motivations, abilities and personality being aligned to their job and work environment - they will be happier and tend to stay longer.  With the cost of replacing an employee at 1.5x the salary, its easy to recognize the value an extra year can contribute to the bottom line.     

Q: Why the decision to initially focus on recent grads/alumni from top 50 universities?  
We no longer limit ourselves to top universities.  Originally, it was a function of focus and recognizing that the path to get more universities on board is least resistant when you have top universities on board.  Also, we wanted to leverage the admission standards of selective schools to entice companies to be interested in our value proposition.

Q: What makes JobScript better than your average Meyers Briggs Test that most students take to find out what occupation would fit their personality?
JobScript is a career assessment that takes the most holistic perspective of an individual in the context of finding meaningful work.  Other tools, including MBTI, were not specifically designed for this purpose.  It is also important to note that JobScript is only part of the "career DNA" that we capture from an individual.  We also capture their preferences and work experience, which, provides a very holistic picture of a candidate before the 1st interview.

Q: Since your company is focused on recruiting and hiring, what matters most to you as a founder and CEO when it comes to finding new employees?                                                              It is crucial that someone has the motivations, abilities, and personality for the job that they have to do at Better Weekdays.  We eat our own dog food - every current/potential employee goes through JobScript as part of the screening process.  

Q: If you could only ask a potential hire one or two questions, what would they be?                 1) What have you built and why (if they have not built anything - why did you make the choices you made thus far in your career journey)? and 2) Can you explain something to me that you know VERY well (ideally it should be related to the job they applied for)? 

 Q: Better Weekdays puts a good amount of focus on the idea of personality types and characteristic, what is the most important characteristic when it comes to being an entrepreneur?
 A key framework that underlies our technology is Career Archetypes.  There are 9. For example, Artistic Creativity, Human Development, and Process Efficiency.  These archetypes are the manifested by the combination of one's Motivations, Abilities and Personality (MAP) and we measure the dominant archetypes in every individual.  For an entrepreneur, my view is that Entrepreneurial Challenge, Motivational Energy and Strategic Decisions matter most.  I hope that I'm right, because those are my 3 dominant archetypes!  

Your photos are worth more than you think.  It’s a simple idea, but it’s one that means a lot to people like Corbett Drummey.  Knowing he wanted to turn this idea into something more tangible, Corbett and his co-founders got together a few months ago and decided to launch Popular Pays, a platform that allows Chicago businesses to connect with local Instagram influencers to form a mutually beneficial bartering relationship.

The team at Popular Pays is not the first to tackle the concept of social media currency, but the beautifully designed app integrates seamlessly with Instagram and has struck a chord with customers and vendors throughout Chicago.  Now your artsy pic and clever filters can get you a cup of coffee or a slice of pie in a simple and mutually beneficial exchange. 

While the service only works with businesses in Chicago for now, Popular Pays is looking to expand by engaging with its followers on Twitter to decide where to bring the app next.  Their answer so far?  Istanbul, Turkey.  I got a chance to catch up with Corbett and chat about his thoughts on Chicago, Istanbul, and of course Popular Pays.  

Q: Where did the idea for popular pays come from?
On some fateful day in October 2012, my co-founder Allan was drunk and leaning against our fridge when he said, "I want to throw a party that you can't get into unless you have 500 followers." True story.

Q:  Are there vendors/businesses that work better with Popular Pays than others?
It works when you have a product worth sharing. But then again, in this digital age, if you don't have a product worth sharing then you don't have a product at all.  

Besides that, it helps to have a well-lit space. We've shown that Pop Pays works for everything from a cup of coffee to a skydiving trip, but it can be hard to take a photo in a really dim bar or restaurant. Still, our users have surprised me – I've seen some really good and creative pics in spaces I didn't think would work too well.

Q: How does the process of creating transactions/barters work?
In terms of the process, it's simple:

•Users look at our app to see what Swaps are available to them (we call deals "swaps" as in swapping your social currency for a product) 

•They pick one.

•They extend their phone to the cashier to confirm the transaction; the cashier swipes the screen to confirm (just like you swipe a screen to unlock an iPhone). 

•The cashier gives the user the product that appears on the screen.

•The user shares a photo (we don't charge merchants unless a photo is posted. Even if users don't post, it's still worth the merchant's time: 23% of our users in August bought an extra product once inside the store. And they often become long-term customers – something we're working on tracking.)

Q: What if I only have 100 Instagram followers, can the platform provide value to me?
Not yet – we've started out by focusing only on Instagram, and only with those who have 500+ followers. But we think social currency is universal, and we do plan on expanding in terms of opening it up to everyone and every network.

Q: How do you and your co-founders (Allan Holmes & Nathan Michael) work together, who does what? 
Between myself/Nate/Allan, we act as GM/Biz Dev/CMO, but it all blends together. And we live together, so we have those roles too. Those are more like Chef/Interior Decorator/Social Butterfly.

Q: So whats the deal with Istanbul topping the leaderboard? 
They love us over there! And we love them. We asked our followers on Twitter to vote with a Tweet to pick what city we go to next, and Istanbul is kicking ass: seventeen tweets in the first two weeks after we started asking people to vote.

Q: What has it been like working out of Chicago's 1871? 
Phenomenal. The network effects are a huge plus. We've met everyone from mentors to experienced lead developers. Plus it's open 24/7 with super-fast wifi and a better selection of food than your neighborhood 7Eleven. There's even an Intelligentsia inside the space. And scooters and skateboards lying around. Start-up heaven.

Q: What other startups or founders do you look to for inspiration? 
Elon Musk – it's pretty cool to make your millions and then bet it all again on a new project. There's also that dude who named his company after a fruit. He was OK too.

If you were to guess how Gerome Sapp would follow up a successful career in the NFL, stastistically speaking, tech startup founder shouldn't be your first guess.  Sapp however will be the first one to tell you,“I’ve been beating statistics all my life.” Sapp first began to stand out during his high school football days in his hometown of Houston, earning all American honors as a defensive back and ranking highly on numerous lists for top high school players in the country.

After a stellar four years of playing safety at the University of Notre Dame, Sapp was drafted to the NFL, where he excelled as a member of both the Baltimore Ravens and the Indianapolis Colts.  Searching for something beyond his football career, Sapp took his first shot at entrepreneurship with a sustainable apparel company called Morph & Thro, which he founded along with two other former Notre Dame football players in 2008.  Starting the company from scratch, Sapp learned the important lessons of building a business from the ground up, but the lesson of persistence was the one that stayed with Sapp the most.  “I knew next to nothing about the apparel business, especially sustainable apparel,” Sapp said, “but it was something we believed in.  I know it sounds cliché, but I really discovered that it you are really passionate about something and you really believe in it, you can do anything you want to.” 

Sapp’s years spent on the football field gave him a competitive edge and bolstered his earlier attempts at founding a company, but as he explained, it was a magazine article that led him to his newest and most recent venture.  The subscription to Entrepreneurship Magazine from his aunt opened up Sapp’s eyes to the fascinating intersection of technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.  In particular, Sapp remembers an article featuring Groupon as “a business created to service the needs of thousands of different companies.”  Powered by his newfound appetite for technology companies and revived interest in brands and social influence, Sapp began to draw out the high level concept behind Fluencr, a social media marketing platform for brands and their top ambassadors, eventually putting it down on paper and taking concrete steps to launch the business last year.

Fluencr helps brands identify and utilize built in ambassadors by leveraging and rewarding their existing social media influence.   By using Fluencr, major companies identify and connect with individuals who prove they can be socially influential for their brands.   Additionally, by linking their major social networking accounts like Twitter and Facebook to Fluencr.com, consumers who prove their social influence to the brands and their accompanying social media campaigns can get rewarded based on how much attention they bring to the brand.  So a fan of Nike with a couple hundred twitter followers could tweet a picture of his or her favorite Nike basketball shoes and potentially get a new pair for free.   Users can also get their friends to join in and create teams to promote social media campaigns of their favorite brands.  

 Attempting to solve the lucrative issues of social media ROI is a problem all companies big and small face. Fluencr provides the answer by tracking, measuring, and scoring all the social engagement a user generates from their action, determining their effectiveness in generating social buzz around the brand and their content or products. In addition to creating a valuable and measurable connection between brands and their top ambassadors, Fluencr has the ability to tap into any social network’s API and gather potentially helpful data for its users from that network.  

As Fluencr’s founder and CEO, Gerome stays quite busy, especially when it comes to traveling the country to pitch Fluencr to potential clients and investors. “The overall response has been extremely positive because any time brands can get some real ROI numbers, they really appreciate it and can understand the benefit,” said Sapp.  While his message and pitch for Fluencr has remained the same, Sapp admits he has worked on tweaking the delivery over time to make it more efficient in order to appease the occasional short attention span here and there. 

While excited about the prospects of Fluencr and its ability to easily access ambassadors and connect brands with them, Sapp took some time to reflect on what he has learned so far during his new career as a startup founder and entrepreneur.  “Make sure you know what you are getting into and the challenges that come with being an entrepreneur,” Sapp advises.  “Not everyone can take being told no or this won’t work for 364 days out of the year, but you still have to go in on that last day knowing your right.”   Without a doubt, Sapp’s success and experience on the football field has carried over into his journey as a startup founder, giving him the proper mindset to succeed with Fluencr going forward.  

“I learned in football, you’re going to lose a game or have a bad one, but that’s life.  What you do that next game or next play is what matters, and that mentality has followed me into the business world,” Sapp said. “Now that I no longer compete on the football field, my competition is in the business world, it’s just a matter of how much work I can put into it.”  

Gerome Sapp cites Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, and Mashable.com as good resources to keep abreast of what’s going on in the business and technology worlds. Feel free to add any other sites/blogs/resources you use in the comments below.  

Companies large and small have been trying to find the right balance between social networks and consumer purchases.  Figuring out the perfect solution has been the goal of recent Notre Dame grad and passionate entreprenuer Robb Crow.  His answer? Shoptalk.  Started a couple years ago during a late night skype sesson between Crow and his fellow co-founder/classmate from ND, Shoptalk allows consumers to share their purchases easily and effectively on their Facebook Newsfeed. ShopTalk then lets you cash in on your actions by rewarding its users with discounts from the retailers they promoted.   

Armed with a background in finance and math and a zeal for building a great product, Crow decided to go all in on ShopTalk upon graduating in May and has quickly learned some tough but valuable lessons that most 22 year olds have yet to even fathom. Crow took some time between pitching to investors and hiring a staff to discuss the exciting journey of running and building a company like ShopTalk.  Click read more for the full interview.