Successfully Funded

Fresh off the sale of Mommybites, an online resource for expectant parents, Rebecca Dixon invested her background in media sales and community building in the*gameHERS, a long-overdue social-networking platform for female gamers. A lifelong fan of math, Rebecca breaks down the essential formula that inspires their crowdfund: in terms of the overall market value, gaming > 2(music + movies). We talk about how their community has grown to over 600,000 in under three years (hint: talk to them), setting an entrepreneurial example for her tween daughters, and the perplexing double standard of how moms and dads are judged as parents. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/successfully-funded/message

"When you're with Nixplay, you're not the product," says CEO Mark Palfreeman, whose subscribers retain secure ownership of every photo they share using smart digital picture frames and a mobile app intuitive enough for every family member to use. Nixplay is also a personal passion for Mark, who spends most of his time seven time zones away from his wife and children. Now that Nixplay has amassed $330 million in lifetime revenue and a community of over 3 million users, Mark and COO Joel Durbridge discuss their new Reg A crowdfund, setting aside time in his calendar every day to talk to his kids, and why boarding schol didn't turn him into a looney. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/successfully-funded/message

Simple Labs CEO Mike Slone grew up in Louisville, where bourbon distillers accept losing the "angel's share" as the cost of doing business. When he saw California vintners facing the same problem, he created the Cogni — a wireless, barrel-aging monitor that finally gives centuries-old winemaking techniques a high-tech upgrade — which saves enough precious product to pay for itself within six months. We talk about the success of the Simple Labs crowdfund, finding the mentors he needed to build his business plan, and how developing the Cogni during COVID saved him from binge-watching Tiger King. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Pneumeric CEO and Chief Medical Officer Johnathon Aho grew up in the shadow of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, but it wasn't until he began studying engineering at Michigan Tech that he decided he wanted more in his life than writing code. So he pivoted to medicine, returned to Mayo, and in 2017 developed Capnospot, a visual detection device for treating collapsed lungs. We talk about why the usual therapy (listening for a gush of air from the chest cavity) fails as much as half the time, his 20 or so patents, Midwestern frugality, and why so much of a physician's life involves dealing with human goop.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Kristian Hansen and Marshall Conley are building the slø jeans empire almost entirely on a massive TikTok platform, which provides constant crowdsourcing, propels their marketing, and accounts for over $10 million in estimated revenue potential. And their non-gendered, made-to-order denim is just the start. We talk about applying their "fash-tech" business plan into other clothing lines that need an upgrade, balancing their efforts with carbon offsets, and re-creating a time when quality merchandise was worth waiting for.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Moments after Dan O'Toole hatched the idea of Dronedek — a versatile, secure receptacle for autonomous delivery systems that protects against the 1.7 million packages that are stolen every day — he called his patent attorney. And three years later, when the patent came through, he learned he had beaten Amazon by four days. Buoyed by the success of his second crowdfund (which has raised nearly $500,000), Dan has big plans for re-shaping consumer behavior, lowering the world's carbon footprint, and announcing a name change that's soon to Arrive. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Kettle is the result of the right pivot with the right idea at the right time. Originally hatched as a workspace broker, Kettle emerged from the pandemic as a hybrid workspace management software platform whose equity crowdfund has already raised over $1.72 million. We talk with CEO Nick Iovacchini about the massive new market opportunity of redefining work, why his baseball career influenced his entrepreneurial skills, why most employees value their time over their compensation, and the perils of "anticipointment." --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

After spending most of his life in and out of wheelchairs, GOGOTECH CEO John DeBenedette talks about why he developed ABBY in order to end 40 years of stagnant design and soaring prices. (Check out the ABBY crowdfund here.) And the accolades for ABBY's high-tech and lower-cost design keep coming, most recently from Melinda French Gates. We talk about how living in a wheelchair changes your perspective, his deep respect for assisted caregivers, and the sympathy he still has for the truck driver who nearly sheared his leg off. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

The term "accredited investor" means nothing to Chris Lustrino, who knows firsthand that analyzing private companies is literally not rocket science. He created KingsCrowd as a data company designed to map an analyst's talents and instincts for investing in public companies onto the very different playing field of private equity. We talk about the blog that kick-started his career, how equity crowdfunding might function in a bear market, and life as "a capable quant with an empathetic, human side." --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Bruce Berkoff is one of that rare breed of scientist marketers who enjoys the discovery almost as much as he enjoys telling people about it. And as CMO of Lightsense Technology, his job is to spread the word about the crowdfund for his company's miniature, handheld spectrometer platforms that are helping solve some major problems in public health, including detecting opioids, viral pathogens, and bacterial pathogens. We talk about his extensive expertise in physics, biophysics, and business development, raising his kids in Korea, and the mud puddle that sent him westward. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

CEO Jake Whitman named his company Really Good Boxed Wine because that's what it is: top-quality wine in 100% recyclable packaging with half the environmental impact of glass bottles. And his branding experience at P&G must have paid off, because the RGBW crowdfund has raised nearly $1.3 million. In our first double-guest interview, he and COO Amy Troutmiller, a career hospitality/beverage executive and credentialed sommelier, discuss their complementary partnership, why wine has a longer life in their airtight packaging, and why Cincinnati and Charlotte should duke it out to determine who gets to call itself the Queen City. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

If your podcast just languishes on a dead RSS feed, does it really exist? YouTube and TikTok use algorithms to help consumers discover new content, but podcasters can't build audiences the same way because the platforms are too busy promoting their expensive talent. CEO Amit Kukreja has created the solution with Audea, a search engine that uses proprietary data and IP to help the spoken word go viral. We talk about his content strategies, debating his older sister, and why the Audea crowdfund wouldn't exist without Michael Jackson. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

After 14 years of investment banking, Sam Payrovi has launched ArkHAUS, a fleet of 40-foot electric boats that connect to form a network of next-generation floating social clubs. Part SoHo House and part WeWork, ArkHAUS will be scalable in waterways all over the world, and its "Party Up Top, Research Down Below" program generates free electricity for researchers studying the water's ecosystem. We talk about grinding it out at Bear Stearns. his new pals at the Coast Guard, and why he never had the temperament to be the doctor his parents wanted.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

On his wife's birthday last year, Vijay Chetty asked himself: Why can't all mail be digital? And why do businesses spend $1.6 trillion on direct-mail campaigns, most of which end up unread in landfills? His answer is Zipinmail: By assigning a cloud-based mailbox to every residential, commercial, and P.O. Box., it will cut marketers' mailing costs by 90% and save 400 million trees every year. We talk about the huge potential upside for crowdfund investors, his first impressions of America as a student in Alabama, and achieving what has eluded the Postal Service for decades. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Peter Clark developed his work ethic as the third of 11 children of a dad who, at 68, still climbs trees as part of his arborist business. Clark and his co-founder Jerusha Greenwald created the SoAct app to harness that energy into helping like-minded activists organize for social good. We talk about the revenue plans around subscriptions, merchandise, and fundraising, the challenges of expanding the app based on the feedback from their thousands of users, and why New Jersey is the best state in the union.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

As 5G technology becomes more prevalent, so too have studies linking cellphone radiation with cancer and other health problems. Lambs has emerged as a health-and-wellness and tech firm that specializes in fabrics that protect us from that radiation. We talk to CEO Arthur Menard de Calenge about Lambs's successful crowdfund, growing up in France, and marketing serious topics with humor.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Inspired by his long career in IT services, Matt DeVico built Dteckt (including its core product, Persona Monitoring), with a specific eye toward serving the customers who need the most help understanding cybersecurity threats. His strategy for finding market share in such a crowded space is to market personal safety, rather than resort to the over-present fearmongering. We talk about the software ecosystems that are most secure (and most vulnerable), taking inspiration from his father's mentorship, and his frank assessment of his crowdfunding experience.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Shawn Wehan spent 17 years as a lay minister in the Roman Catholic Church before starting Givsum, an all-in-one platform that nonprofits and service clubs can use for online donations, volunteer management, event ticketing, memberships, and more. The transition to a profit-based model was seamless, because the volume-based model has already signed over 700 Rotary Clubs throughout the country. We talk about the nuance and critical thinking of Jesuit teachings, how to compartmentalize startups and family, and building a business in paradise. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

Soon after he started his first spirits company in 2011, Adam von Gootkin (whose name anagrams to "Gonna Omit Vodka") learned his family's interest in potent potables dates back to the 1800s and includes his great-grandfather's speakeasy during Prohibition. We talk about how Highclere Castle Gin began with a cold email to Highclere Castle, how marketing a super-premium brand requires building an emotional experience with the customer, and how his childhood informs his instincts for balancing entrepreneurship and family. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message

After careers as a journalist at CNN and an environmental lobbyist, Gary Skulnik started his career as a serial entrepreneur in sustainable energy. His latest company is Neighborhood Sun, which dramatically expands access to solar power by connecting providers with local customers without the need to install rooftop panels. He shares his strategies behind his equity raise (which currently sits at around $1.7 million), how J-school prepared him to communicate as a CEO, and why he's glad he didn't follow his dad's advice to become a lawyer. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message