Landing Fortune 500 Clients & Raising Money from Big VCs – Amanda Greenberg, CEO of Balloonr
David Gil speaks with Amanda Greenberg (@AKGreenberg), the co-founder and CEO of Balloonr. Balloonr is a new breakout SaaS company that enables idea meritocracies within organizations.
They discuss many things, including tips for raising money, how to handle the pressure from VCs, how to go about starting a software company when you come from a non-technical background, how Amanda’s been able to land Fortune 500 clients and how she thinks about the balance between adding new features and while keeping a product simple and easy to use. This episode is a must listen for any founder or anyone operating in the B2B space!
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Time Stamps:
(2:30) – Amanda’s background and what led her to co-found Balloonr.
(4:25) – How Amanda convinced Jason Calacanis to invest in her company.
(8:10) – How to handle the pressure that comes with raising money from VCs.
(11:17) – Why she chose to crowdfund through Republic.co and if she thinks it was a good decision.
(15:20) – Things she wish she knew before raising money.
(18:00) – Choosing the right investors vs. taking money from anyone.
(18:40) – Building a SaaS company as a non-technical founder.
(20:58) – Getting past the stigma of being married to her co-founder.
(22:50) – How she landed multiple Fortune 500 clients as a startup.
(26:03) – How to market and educate customers about a new product while also building brand.
(28:00) – In building a SaaS product, how to prioritize which features should be added first.
(30:36) – How to manage the balance of new features vs. product simplicity to avoid feature overload.
(32:43) – Two of Amanda’s favorite books.
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