Andrew Healy and Alex French are the Co-Founders of Bizzy Coffee, “coffee for people who don’t have time for coffee.” Bizzy Coffee comes in the form of an organic two-ounce cold brew shot and can be found in a multitude of grocery stores, as well as on Amazon.

Bizzy Coffee was created by two people who complement each other well: Alex’s background is in in Finance and Entrepreneurship while Andrew’s is in Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing. After trial and error and some product tweaking, they created something that truly works -- an especially impressive feat in the competitive market that is Food and Beverage.

Some Questions I Ask Andrew and Alex:

• What was the worst and best experience you had during your road trip to promote and sell Bizzy Coffee? [4:05]
• What was involved in the process of recruiting people for the trip? [6:45]
• What do each of your backgrounds consist of? [11:27]
• What was the e-commerce business you both had at one point, and why did you decide to ditch it? [19:24]
• What made you choose coffee as a marketable product? [23:26]
• As soon as you got your cold brew recipe dialed in, what was the next step? [31:40]
• Were you able to secure any funding prior to applying for and getting accepted to an accelerator? [35:24]
• What were some of the most valuable lessons you learned from going through an accelerator? [37:19]
• After the accelerator program, was there a demo day? [39:23]
• After having gone through an accelerator program and getting that initial investment, do you think it was easier to raise money from local angels as a result? [41:12]
• After you raised money and your backs were against the wall, what was the next move? [42:01]
• Are there any other notable examples where you utilized data to make a business choice? [48:01]
• What exactly do you mean by “PPC”? [49:10]
• Since moving into producing coffee shots alone, has your consumer base further evolved? [49:52]
• What are some of your best marketing channels right now? [57:50]
• What is the next step for Bizzy Coffee? [1:00:00]
• Are there any books you’d recommend for entrepreneurs? [1:01:27]
• What other resources would you recommend for entrepreneurs? [1:02:46]
• What do each of your morning routines consist of? [1:04:13]
• What advice would you give to an entrepreneur looking to go into the Food and Beverage industry? [1:06:55]

Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:

• Where Alex and Andrew traveled to on their recent road trip
• What Alex and Andrew learned about the value of finding a good business partner
• Why their initial e-commerce product attempt didn’t work
• How long it took Alex and Andrew to get smart about coffee and what attracted them to it as a product
• How many rounds of consumer learning tests went into developing Bizzy Coffee
• What methodology Alex and Andrew used for manufacturing their product
• Why getting the first round of capital for the product was exceptionally difficult
• How Bizzy Coffee’s first investor came about
• What the pivotal first point in the business was
• What Alex and Andrew’s “aha!” moment was when they were figuring out how to tweak their product format
• One of the biggest advantages Bizzy Coffee holds as a product

Get In Touch With Bizzy Coffee:

• Instagram: @bizzycoffee
• Email: alex@bizzycoffee.com & andrew@bizzycoffee.com    
• Website: https://www.bizzycoffee.com/

Baird Hall is the Co-Founder of Wavve, a platform based out of Charleston, South Carolina. Having launched in 2016, Wavve helps podcasters, musicians, radio show hosts, and various other content creators easily turn audio clips into social video content -- whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or wherever else.

Wavve – a platform created by two people who met a mere 2 years ago and have successfully grown their company to help a plethora of users since – also provides multiple video templates and cards to help creators add animation and text prior to sharing their final product on social media. Combining audio and visual elements, Wavve introduces an entirely fresh approach for content creation.

Some Questions I Ask Baird:

• What about the business model of your company wasn’t quite right before it was rebranded as “Wavve”? [6:10]
• What’s involved in running a marketing test? [11:50]
• When you first set up a marketing test, what data were you using? [13:01]
• Where do customers commonly find you when they’re seeking out the platform you provide? [15:57]
• Have there been any “aha!” or eureka moments during interactions with customers? [19:03]
• Have you encountered any roadblocks since launching Wavve? [23:15]
• How did you and your co-founder meet? [26:02]
• What kind of co-working space do you utilize in addition to working remotely? [28:51]
• What has been your experience so far being in Charleston while working? [34:10]
• What books would you recommend, both inside and outside the startup world? [54:32]
• What’s been the most surprising podcast to utilize Wavve as platform for their content? [56:15]
• What podcasts do you listen to? [57:41]
• Where do you see “podcasting” going in the next 3-10 years? [58:31]
• Do you follow any specific bloggers or influencers? [1:04:05]
• Do you have any words of advice to budding entrepreneurs and startup owners? [1:06:02]

Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:

• The kind of approach Baird takes to the company
• What the toughest thing, in Baird’s opinion, about building a startup is
• What kind of framework Wavve uses for their approach to business
• How Wavve markets their product and the mediums they use
• What Wavve found out from their user testing
• The wide range of users that Wavve attracts
• The difficulties Wavve came across when it first launched
• How Wavve has used the gig economy to its advantage
• What a typical work day for Baird looks like
• How long it took before Wavve became profitable

Get In Touch With Wavve:

• Twitter: @bairdhall and @wavve
• Email: baird@wavve.co
• Website: http://wavve.co/

Ryan McLeod became an indie app developer after graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2014 and briefly working as a web developer.

After working on a social music startup for a time that ended up disbanding, Ryan switched gears and started learning iOS. Originally a side project, this knowledge led to the creation of the popular iOS app Blackbox, a game that helps players practice creative thinking by solving puzzles without actually touching their screen.

Some Questions I Ask Ryan:

• What got you into indie app development? [2:58]
• What happened after you finished up school? [4:24]
• What about taking risks with app development scares you? [6:36]
• How did the idea for Blackbox come about and were there any parameters? [10:08]
• What do you think provides the biggest value when having people test out an app before releasing it? [16:22]
• Have you ever done a soft launch on an update? [20:39]
• How do you market the Blackbox app? [22:32]
• What is the story behind Snapchat and your successful marketing? [34:18]
• What tools do you use to measure the effects of Blackbox? [39:34]
• Is the indie developer game realm big? [49:38]
• What would you give as words of advice to anyone looking to bring their product to the app store? [54:39]
• What’s next for Blackbox? [1:00:00]
• How do you develop the levels for Blackbox? [1:02:23]
• What was the award you received? [1:04:28]
• Was there a large bump in users when you received this award? [1:06:20]
• What’s the story behind your Gravity app? [1:07:20]
• What advice would you give to entrepreneurs? [1:15:35]
• Would you recommend that entrepreneurs release products right away? [1:16:05]
• Are there any books, audiobooks, or content you’d recommend? [1:20:06]

Some Things You’ll Learn In This Episode:

• Why Ryan wouldn’t recommend getting into the music startup industry
• The work Ryan was doing before training in iOS
• Ryan’s thoughts on taking risks when there are possibilities for big rewards
• What aspects of app development Ryan has a particular interest in
• What Blackbox’s beta testing process was like
• What program Ryan used for beta testing to tease out flaws
• What Ryan wished he would have done with the soft launch during testing
• Why Ryan doesn’t utilize push notifications for Blackbox
• What the hardest part about developing levels for Blackbox is
• How the idea for Ryan’s Gravity app came to fruition
• What kinds of products Ryan personally doesn’t like

Looking to get in touch with Ryan? You can find him here:

Twitter: @Warpling

Instagram: @Warpling