How to Build an App
Strides Development
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This is a podcast for first-time app founders to help them refine their idea, build an insanely useful app, scale it up, and change the world.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Feb 9, 2022
Why is a Project Manager Vital to Building an App (Amanda Mock)
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Feb 2, 2022
10 Questions You Must Ask Before Hiring A Developer (Strides Development)
Welcome back to How to Build an App!
Over the past year, we have organized and collected the most common questions that we get asked.
During today's episode, you will get the answer to at least the following questions.
* How long does it take to build an app?
* What language should I use to build an app?
* How much does it cost to build an app?
* When am I ready to start developing my app?
This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Jan 27, 2022
Build an App Without Any Code with David Adkin(Adalo)
Welcome back to How to Build an App!
Building an app has never been easier than it is today.
The app industry is shifting away from code and beginning to shift more to no-code solutions.
In today's episode, we talk with the CEO and founder David Adkin to tell us how the industry is shifting.
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Learn more about Adalo here:
https://www.adalo.com/
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Jan 20, 2022
Collaborate, Publish, Measure Social Content. All in one place with Thibaud Clément(Loomly)
Welcome back to How to Build an App!
Marketing is a major pillar across every space, if you are not marketing now you will start very soon.
Posting social content is one of the many ways to find and reach a wider audience for your target demographic. It also allows you to build a community of loyal followers and find new supporters.
Chances are you will need to post social content, and in doing so you will find that managing content across teams and social platforms is a huge challenge for many companies.
We brought on Thibaud Clément on the show to tell us about his product Loomly.
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Learn more about Loomly here:
https://www.loomly.com/
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Jan 20, 2022
Learning that technology shouldn't be limiting with Sai Krishna(Scapic)
Welcome back to How to Build an App!
In today's episode, you will learn whether or not technology is the most important part of building a tech company. You might be surprised by the answer!
Today Sai Krishna the founder and CEO of Scapic will be joining us.
Scapic is meant to be the simplest way you create, share and explore AR, VR & 3D experiences.
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Learn more about Scapic here
https://www.scapic.com/
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Dec 22, 2021
Building Acorns, the Micro-investing Platform with Walter Cruttenden (Acorns)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
This week, we’ve brought Walter Cruttenden, the co-founder of Acorns onto the show!
I feel like everyone’s heard of Acorns, but if you haven’t, it’s a micro-investing platform that allows users to set up automated investments through round-ups.
Basically Acorns rounds up a debit or credit card purchase to the nearest dollar and invests the change for you automatically.
It’s a super cool platform that’s helped A LOT of people save money and get into investing, and Walter is going to tell us all about how it came to be!
In this episode, you’ll get to hear the Acorn's backstory and how Walter and his son built the company and scaled it up.
We’ll talk about the challenges they had to overcome, breakthroughs they made, ups and downs, failures and successes, tidbits of advice for new founders and everything in between.
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Learn more about Walters different ventures here:
https://www.acorns.com/
https://www.learnandearn.com/
https://blast.com/
https://atm.com/
Follow Walter on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/walter-cruttenden-58097b34/
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Dec 15, 2021
Hiring Faster and Smarter with Robb Lifferth (IsoTalent)
Welcome back to How to Build an App!
As a founder, there will come a time where you have to start bringing more people onto your team.
Whether it’s finding a co-founder, bringing on a developer, or hiring a development shop, you can’t do this alone.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, there is no one person who can strategize, concept, design, build, develop, test, AND launch your app.
Chances are, you’ll have to go through the hiring process several times, especially if you’re looking to scale up.
So how do you go about finding the right fit for your team?
We brought Robb Lifferth on the show this week to deliver some great pointers!
Robb is the co-founder and COO of IsoTalent, a technology enabled recruiting service with a 95% retention rate (15% higher than industry standard).
IsoTalent helps companies hire faster and smarter, and reduces the average recruiting cost per hire by over 75%.
Basically, it’s their job to find the best fit for each company with speed and efficiency.
In this episode, Robb breaks down the challenges of the hiring process, and some important things to keep in mind so that you’re hiring the best candidates for your startup.
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Learn more about IsoTalent here:
https://www.isotalent.com/
Follow Robb on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robblifferth/
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Dec 8, 2021
Organic and Ad-Based Growth Tactics with Darius Mora (Reflectly)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
Today’s episode may be a little shorter than usual, but it packs a punch!
We got together with Darius Mora, the Chief Marketing Officer of the app Reflectly.
If you haven’t heard much about it, Reflectly is an AI journaling app that has gained tens of millions of users and seen massive growth over the last 3 years.
Not only is it the world’s biggest journaling app, Reflectly also won the Google Design Award for Innovation and is consistently in the top 10 Health & Fitness iOS apps in the US.
So how did a simple, one-feature journaling app find this level of success?
In this week’s episode of How to Build an App, you’ll get the inside scoop with some great takeaways for your own app startup.
Stick around for an info-packed discussion of several different marketing strategies for organic AND ad-based growth intermixed with Darius’s wealth of knowledge and experience in high conversion marketing.
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Learn more about Reflectly here:
https://reflectly.app/
Follow Darius on TikTok here:
https://www.tiktok.com/@darius.mora?lang=en
Follow Darius on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/moravcik/?originalSubdomain=pt
Subscribe to Darius’s Youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfaxmVZDN-hqV6HfMbcCOwA
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Dec 1, 2021
Forging Your Own Path to Success with Scott Paul (Wooly)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!
*
As much as we’d all love a step by step roadmap as entrepreneurs, there is no exact formula.
There’s no exact formula for building a successful startup, or a company that you can have a successful exit from.
Being an entrepreneur is unpredictable and you have to be ready to forge your own way and solve problems that you won’t find the answers to on google.
This week’s episode is all about breaking the mold and forging your own path to success.
Our guest this week is Scott Paul, a repeat startup founder, angel investor, youtuber, and self-proclaimed hairfluencer!
Having already founded 5 companies, Scott wanted to get in on helping to fund and mentor new founders, so they started HyperActive, seed capital for fellow founders.
Since then, they’ve invested in over 65 startups, primarily in tech.
We’ve quickly learned that an experience with Scott is always out of the box and against the grain—just how they like it.
As Scott says, “Out of chaos comes greatness.”
In this episode Scott shares the hard truth of being an entrepreneur and the mentality you need to succeed.
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Learn more about Wooly here:
https://www.wooly.com/
Learn more about HyperActive here:
https://hyperactivecap.com/
Follow Scott on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottpaul2/
Follow Scott on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/scottycoin
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Nov 24, 2021
Securing Early Seed Funding with John Mayfield (Album VC)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
This week, we’ve got John Mayfield on the show with us.
He’s the founder of a venture capital firm called Album VC, that invests in early-stage tech ventures.
They’ve invested in over 80 companies and have grown to the point that their average investment is $1.5 million.
You might recognize some of the big names they’ve worked with here in Utah, like Podium, Homie, and Divvy—which just sold for $2.5 billion by the way.
You’re about to get a whole bunch of dating advice from John.
And by dating advice, we mean advice on how to secure early-stage funding which is a process John relates to dating.
Finding an investor isn’t just a one and done deal where they write a check and you‘re done with them.
It’s a partnership that will go on for years, so you’ve got to make sure your vision is aligned, that you work well together, and things click.
In this episode, John dives into the “courtship” process of finding an investor.
He’s got some great insight on the do’s and don’ts of approaching investors, what will make you stick out as a founder, and what working with investors actually looks like.
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Learn more about Album VC here:
https://www.album.vc/
Follow Harlan on Linkedin here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmayfield/#
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/strides.dev/
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betzeraustin/
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Nov 17, 2021
401GO: Getting a Startup Off the Ground with Daniel Beck (401GO)
What does it take to get a great idea off the ground?
You’re probably here, listening to this podcast because you’ve got a great idea for an app.
Maybe you’ve already got a prototype, or maybe you’re just getting started.
There is a lot to consider in the beginning stages of turning your idea into an app, and one of the most important things to remember is that you’ve got to build a BUSINESS not just an app.
In this episode, we’ll run through a real life example of getting a startup off the ground with Daniel Beck, the founder of 401GO.
Daniel has founded or been involved with successfully building over a dozen small businesses and startups.
His most recent entrepreneurial venture is 401GO, the most innovative 401k platform in the world!
In this episode he dives into what founders need to know early on to get their startup off the ground and continually growing.
From explaining the value of bootstrapping your business, to insight on working with family and friends,…
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Nov 10, 2021
Building a Company That Will Sell with Josh Lindsey (American Business Brokers)
*Would you rather have twenty-five percent of a company that sells for $8 billion, or a hundred percent of something that's worth $250 grand?*
With some quick math, that question should be pretty easy for anyone to answer.
There’s much more profit in owning a portion of that $8 billion company!
But why are we asking?
This week’s episode is all about building a company that will sell, and one of the main points we’ll discuss is how your team will impact that ability.
Many founders cling to the idea that they’ve got to do it ALL, and struggle to give up any control within their startup.
Running a successful startup that will scale up and make you the big bucks is impossible if you try to do it on your own!
You’ve got to build a company that can thrive without you, and that all starts with a solid and balanced founding team that possesses both the tech and sales knowledge to build and sell a viable product.
Our guest this week is Joshua Lindsey, founder of American Busine…
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Nov 3, 2021
Getting Investors to Take You Seriously with Harlan Milkove (Foundational)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
This week, we’re talking about funding and investors.
When it comes to startups, funding is a big topic of conversation.
Are you going to bootstrap? Will you seek out investors? What kind of investors? When should you even start trying to get outside funding?
Then you’ve got to consider how to pitch your product to investors and secure funding. What are they looking for? What do they view as red flags?
That’s why we’ve brought Harlan Milkove onto the show this week.
Harlan is a repeat start-up founder and an early-stage venture capital strategist.
He’s currently the Managing Partner of Foundational, a management consulting company that helps startups secure early-stage venture capital funding.
All of this to say, he knows the ins and outs of the industry, and he’s going to answer all of the questions we just asked and more.
In this episode, Harlan shares how you can prepare to pitch your idea, and the steps you need to take fo…
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Oct 27, 2021
Building Your Team: Quality Over Quantity with Eric Buckley (Skipio)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
One of the things that is most impactful on your success as a founder, is the culture of your development team.
Do they work efficiently? Are they willing to stick with it through the growing pains of a new company?
Can they recognize and utilize their strengths as well as their potential blindspots or weaknesses? Can you trust them to see the full vision and get things done?
We’ve got an awesome discussion ahead on how to build a development team with a culture of trust and efficiency, and the impact your team dynamic can have on the growth and success of your company.
Our guest this week is Eric Buckley, the president of the business text messaging service Skipio.
To put it simply, Skipio utilizes automated personalized messaging solutions to help business owners manage and grow their business.
You’ll hear more about Skipio from Eric in this episode.
He’s got all kinds of insight on building and maintaining a trustworthy, tight-kni…
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Oct 21, 2021
Stop writing code: The ONE thing to do before developing your app to save hundreds of thousands with Austin Betzer (From Denver Startup Week)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
Today we have a different type of episode for you as we wrap up Season 2. Today we’re sharing a session we did recently for Denver Startup Week.
The session was called, Stop writing code: The ONE thing to do before developing your app to save hundreds of thousands and it was a lot of fun to share some of the things we’ve discovered over the past couple of years to help YOU as a future app founder save a LOT of money and time in the process.
This episode is broken into 2 parts: The first half will be the presentation Austin gave walking through the 5 building blocks you need to consider if you want to build a successful app.
Then we’ll cut to the Q&A that Bowdrie did right after where he took questions from the live audience. It’s going to be a lot of fun...
Also, this episode is officially the wrap-up of Season 2 of How To Build An App, but don’t worry, we’ll be right back next week and we have a great lineup of guests for season…
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Oct 13, 2021
How to Build an App Podcast | Episode 38 with Rand Fishkin (SparkToro)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
Just a couple of episodes back we were talking about how you can definitely build an app as a non-technical founder, but you HAVE to find someone who can fill the gaps in your knowledge and experience.
We talk about this a ton! And it’s true for other elements, or you could even say requirements, for running a successful startup.
For example, if you have the technical experience but lack marketing or business experience, you’ve gotta find someone who can fill that gap on your team.
But how do you do that? How do you find someone with the particular skills that you need?
How do you know if someone will actually be right for your team and will follow through on what they are offering?
This week, we’ll be talking about this and more with our guest, Rand Fishkin, the founder of the marketing softwares Moz and Sparktoro.
In this episode, Rand also shares his strategy of incremental validation, explains the importance of audience research,…
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Oct 6, 2021
Creating an Investor-Ready Pitch Deck with Allison Byers (Scroobious)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
In this episode, we’re taking a deep dive into how to create and present an investor-ready pitch deck.
Our guest is Allison Byers, and honestly, she blew us away with her experience in this realm.
Her background is actually in psychology and after being passed up for a job that she was way overqualified for, she decided to try her hand at business.
Clearly, that worked out for her! She went from fundraising over 10 million dollars for a startup medical device company to founding her own fundraising platform, Scroobious.
You’ll hear more about Scroobious in this episode, but basically it’s a virtual platform and community to quickly and meaningfully connect underrepresented founders, investors, and partners.
This episode is definitely a must-listen for all founders.
Allison covers what to include and not include in your pitch deck, how long it should be, tips on presenting, and even runs through different types of investors and what yo…
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Sep 29, 2021
Rumble Studio: A Work in Progress with Carl Robinson and Joris Guerry (Rumble Studio)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
In previous episodes, we’ve addressed the question of whether you can found a tech startup as a non-technical founder.
Ultimately, the answer is YES but you absolutely need to find someone for your team that does have that technical background.
Our guests this week, Carl Robinson and Joris Guerry, are a prime example of how well it plays out when you follow this advice and they have a bit of an interesting backstory.
Carl and Joris were paired up through Entrepreneur First, which basically put them through the entrepreneur version of speed dating to find a cofounder!
You’ll hear more about that story from them in this episode.
Together they founded Rumble Studio, a SAAS company that allows users to produce spoken audio quickly, easily, and affordably with a unique conversational A.I.
In this episode, Carl and Joris explain in more depth what Rumble Studio is and the ups and downs they have experienced throughout the development process.…
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Sep 22, 2021
Product-Led Growth with Jeff Coyle (Market Muse)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
Our guest today is Jeff Coyle, the Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Market Muse
If you haven’t heard of Market Muse, here are a few highlights.
Market Muse is an AI platform used to accelerate content planning, creation, and optimization.
The MarketMuse platform identifies content quality issues on its user’s sites and builds blueprints that show exactly how to maximize the value of their online content.
As a cross-disciplined, data-driven inbound marketing executive with more than 20 years of experience managing products and helping companies scale up, Jeff has a lot to share on the topic of product-led marketing and growth.
In this episode, he breaks down the importance of measuring and utilizing user behavior to build and scale a successful, product-led SAAS company.
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Learn more about Market Muse here:
https://www.marketmuse.com/
Follow Jeff on Linkedin here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcoyle/
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This show is prod…
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Sep 15, 2021
Marketing and Growth Hacks With Steve Young (App Masters)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
I’m your host Austin Betzer and I’m here with Bowdrie Price.
Our guest this week is Steve Young, the founder and CEO of App Masters.
Not to be confused with Steve Young, the football player haha!
Steve has kind of a cool backstory that he’ll share with you during this episode, but just to give a little teaser, it starts with Steve running growth for a startup in San Francisco and follows him through his entrepreneurial journey to success with App Masters.
Just to give you an idea of what that success looks like, App Masters has become the #1 app business podcast, and scaled into a highly successful marketing agency.
App Masters has helped dozens of clients get featured by Apple, hit the #2 paid app overall, and get coverage by major publications like Techcrunch and Mashable.
In this week’s episode, Steve shares his first-hand knowledge of how to make it in the app industry with action-packed advice about product design, app marketin…
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Sep 8, 2021
Growth Hacks and Retention Strategies with Fouad Saeidi (App Growth Network)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
We’ve got an awesome episode ahead on go-to-market strategy and customer retention.
Our guest this week is, Fouad Saeidi, the founder and CEO of App Growth Network, a global app marketing agency that helps app founders identify growth objectives and come up with a data-backed action plan for success.
You’ll hear a lot more about the App Growth Network in this episode along with a ton of actionable tips, strategies, and insight into marketing, growth, and customer retention.
Fouad’s in-depth experience with the data, analytics and technicalities behind creating a successful marketing and retention strategy is extensive and impressive.
We learned a lot from this interview and were super excited to share it with you!
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Learn more about App Growth Network here:
https://appgrowthnetwork.com/
How to Launch an App ebook:
https://appgrowthnetwork.com/how-to-launch-an-app-ebook/
Follow Fouad on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com…
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Sep 1, 2021
Stair Step Bootstrapping with Rob Walling (TinySeed)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
This week on the How to Build an App Podcast, we’ve got an absolutely information-packed episode with Rob Walling.
Rob is the co-founder of TinySeed which is the first startup accelerator designed for bootstrappers.
He’s also written three books, spoken at startup conferences around the world, and co-founded MicroConf, the largest conference for bootstrapped entrepreneurs,
All this to say, he knows what he’s talking about!
Rob has started and sold tons of companies, bootstrapping his way to success, and he’s going to share how he did it in this episode.
This episode is basically bootstrapping 101.
It’s not about focusing on making millions upfront, it’s about making the first thousand and building from there.
In this episode we’ll talk about stair step bootstrapping, how you can make millions starting with a small idea, how to create success instead of making excuses, and more.
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Learn more about Rob and his resources here:…
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Aug 25, 2021
The Road to Success: Time, Dedication, and Perseverance with Josh Nielsen (Zencastr) - Part 2
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
This is part 2 of our conversation with Josh Nielsen, the founder of Zencastr.
In last week’s episode we talked about Josh’s back story and how Zencastr came about, so if you haven’t listened to episode 30 yet, check it out!
It’s a great episode where Josh shares his own personal experiences of struggle, rejection, and failure on his way to success.
This week we’ll be continuing the conversation, delving into some more of the nitty gritty details of the process.
This episode focuses more on the importance of building a dynamic team, learning to delegate, and pivoting to overcome issues that are out of your control (like the COVID pandemic).
One more thing, a lot of our listeners may not have a technical background and that can present its own issues when you’re trying to start a tech company.
In this episode, Josh addresses how a non-technical founder can successfully run a tech start-up so stick around for that!
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Learn mor…
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Aug 18, 2021
The Road to Success: It’s not about the code with Josh Nielsen (Zencastr) - Part 1
*Welcome back to How to Build an App. *
This week we’re talking with Josh Nielsen, founder of Zencastr.
Zencastr is a modern web based solution for high-quality audio and video podcast production.
After his own business ideas were rejected by Techstars several times, Josh started working for them as a developer.
Eventually he left Techstars to do what he’d always wanted, create his own startup.
His first attempt failed, but he pushed forward and years later, Zencastr was born.
In this episode, Josh shares the story of how Zencastr came into existence, the problems he faced and overcame along the way, and his own advice on what it takes to succeed as a tech startup.
Hint: it’s about a heck of a lot more than just coding.
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Learn more about Zencastr here:
https://zencastr.com/
Follow Zencastr on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/zencastr?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Follow Josh on Linkedin here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshnielsen/
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This s…
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Aug 12, 2021
Personal Development as a Service with Doug Cartwright (The Daily Shifts)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
This week we’re sitting down with another founder of one of our earliest app builds!
Doug Cartwright is the founder of The Daily Shifts, a personal development platform and media company with an online course, workshops, personal coaching, and a mobile app.
The Daily Shifts app helps its users build healthy daily habits with growth challenges, daily mindfulness prompts, and instructional tools.
The idea came to Doug as he was going through a rough patch in his own sales career and he started doubling down on personal development.
He noticed that the more he focused on meditation, eating healthy, and daily goal setting he not only felt better, but his sales career started to expand.
After developing a morning routine that worked really well for him and his sales team he started thinking about how he could turn it into a company.
And then the idea hit him — it’s a simple, intuitive, and beautiful app that people can use each day to make…
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Aug 4, 2021
How a Niche Marketplace App Found Instant Success with Chris Holmes (EquineTrader)
Welcome back to How To Build An App!
This week we are sitting down with Chris Holmes, the founder of EquineTrader.
Chris grew up riding, training, and owning horses. According to him, people either love horses or rarely give them a second thought.
Chris is one of those people that absolutely loves horses.
During a time when he was breeding and raising horses, Chris was planning on selling one of them and realized there was no place to sell a horse. Some of the few options he found were clunky, awkward, overwhelming, and extremely ineffective.
This is where the idea for EquineTrader first made its debut, inspired purely by frustration.
EquineTrader was our first app here at Strides Development so we’re really excited to include our listeners in this discussion.
In this episode, we’ll walk you through the process of creating the app, obstacles we encountered, and lessons learned.
We’ll be discussing pricing and budget, defining your target market, development timelines, prod…
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Jul 28, 2021
Fundraising and Defining Success with Cahlan Sharp (DevMountain) - Part 2
Welcome back to How to Build an App.
Last week, we sat down with Cahlan Sharp, founder of DevMountain, one of the top coding schools in the country.
We talked about everything from selecting a balanced founding team to how ideas evolve and what it takes for a product to succeed.
This week on How to Build an App we’re continuing our conversation with Cahlan.
We’ll be talking about when to fundraise and why, utilizing failures as stepping stones, defining success, and more.
As someone who’s participated in his fair share of both failed and successful startups, Cahlan has plenty of valuable experiences and advice to share.
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Learn more about DevMountain here:
https://devmountain.com/
Follow Cahlan on Linkedin here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cahlan
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we…
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Jul 21, 2021
It’s Not About the Idea, It’s About How You Execute It with Cahlan Sharp (DevMountain) - Part 1
Welcome back to How to Build an App.
This week we’re talking with Cahlan Sharp, founder of DevMountain, one of the top coding schools in the country.
Besides building an awesome coding school, Cahlan has participated in his fair share of startups and is a self- proclaimed “serial entrepreneur.”
Through his experiences as a teacher, technologist, engineer, entrepreneur and investor, Cahlan has learned what it takes for an idea to really succeed.
In this episode you’ll hear some hard truths about misconceptions and mistakes that many app founders make, and what it really takes for an idea to succeed.
We’ll talk about how to select a balanced founding team, when to launch your app, how to get customer feedback, and how vital it is to understand that ideas evolve and you’ve got to evolve with them.
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Learn more about DevMountain here:
https://devmountain.com/
Follow Cahlan on Linkedin here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cahlan
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This show is produced by Strides Deve…
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Jul 14, 2021
Persevering to Success with Aaron Mitchell (FreePlay) — Part 2
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
This is part two of our two part episode with Aaron Mitchell, founder of FreePlay.
In part one, Aaron shared some of his back story and what led him to create FreePlay, as well as some of the hard lessons he learned along the way.
Just to recap a little, FreePlay is an app that allows any group fitness instructor to connect with and coach their fitness communities live, but it has a lot of other awesome features we talked about in part one.
In part two, Aaron talks about how he was able to build an awesome founding team that has persevered and pivoted through major challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stick around to the end for three awesome pieces of advice for new founders and some great insight into how to pick the right team and why it’s so vital.
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Learn more about FreePlay here:
https://www.freeplayapp.com/
Follow Aaron on Linkedin here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-mitchell-b7172525/
Read the medium.com article Aaron me…
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Jul 7, 2021
From Side Hustle to Full-Time with Aaron Mitchell (FreePlay) — Part 1
*Welcome back to How to Build an App. *
This week we’re talking with Aaron Mitchell, founder of FreePlay.
FreePlay is an app that allows any group fitness instructor to connect with and coach their fitness communities live.
It didn’t start out that way, but we’ll let Aaron tell you how it did and how it became what it is today.
Aaron started out in project management at a tech software company called Landesk and then took those skills over to Domo where he ran multiple product teams.
Now he’s working full-time on FreePlay while consulting huge companies like Twitter, Sony, and ADT on the side.
In this episode, Aaron will give us some of his back story and what led him to create FreePlay.
He’ll share some of the hard lessons he learned along the way and what he’d do differently if he could go back.
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Learn more about FreePlay here:
https://www.freeplayapp.com/
Follow Aaron on Linkedin here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-mitchell-b7172525/
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This show is p…
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Jun 30, 2021
Scalability and Exponential Growth with Peter Caputa (Databox)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
Our guest today is Peter Caputa, the CEO of Databox
Databox is a software that helps companies view all of their performance data in one place so they can spend less time checking on data and creating reports, and more time acting on data insights.
Peter also played a huge role in the rise and success of Hubspot, a billion dollar marketing and sales software company.
From his experience at Hubspot and Databox, to his experience with his own startups, Peter has plenty of insight to offer.
In this episode he walks us through the obstacles and challenges he’s overcome throughout his career and breaks down what it takes for a company to be scalable and succeed long term.
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Learn more about Databox here:
https://databox.com/
Follow Peter on Linkedin here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pc4media
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a f…
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Jun 23, 2021
The Journey from Founder to Investor With Tyler Richards (DevMountain) — Part 2
This is episode 22 and this is the SECOND part of our interview with Tyler Richards from Dev Mountain.
If you missed part one, definitely head back and catch that one — it’s the episode RIGHT BEFORE this one.
Last week we heard Tyler’s origin story and how Dev Mountain came to be.
When we left off, Tyler was on top of the world — you heard about his exit from Dev Mountain and how he’s taking an active role as an investor.
This week we’re jumping back to a few of the low points…
Tyler talks about expanding too fast, hiring the wrong people, and the lessons he learned along the way.
We can’t wait to share this episode with you — so let’s jump in.
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Learn more about DevMountain here:
https://devmountain.com
Follow Tyler on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerjordanrichards
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a fe…
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Jun 16, 2021
Teaching Thousands of Coders How to Code With Tyler Richards (DevMountain) — Part 1
Our guest today is Tyler Richards who was a co-founder behind Dev Mountain which is THE coding boot camp.
Dev Mountain has re-imagined skills-based education through their intensive program where new students can come in and learn how to program in just a few weeks.
Austin actually started his career with Dev Mountain and that’s where HE learned how to write code.
They’ve had over 2000 graduates and in 2016 Tyler and the rest of the team sold the company to Capella Education for $20 million.
This interview is broken up into 2 parts and today we’ll be covering the origin story, the first companies Tyler worked on, and how he ended up at DevMountain.
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Learn more about DevMountain here:
https://devmountain.com
Follow Tyler on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerjordanrichards
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
I…
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Jun 10, 2021
Raising Money and Managing Investors the Right Way With Jeff Erickson (Carta)
*Welcome back to How To Build An App!*
As you know, in season 2, we’re talking to FOUNDERS about their journey in starting and scaling their company…
And have a great episode for you today…
Our guest today is Jeff Erickson of Carta.com
If you haven’t heard of Carta, here are a few highlights.
Carta helps companies and investors manage their cap tables, valuations, investments, and equity plans.
They work with some of the biggest VC-backed startups in the world including Robinhood, Intercom, and Class Pass.
How big is this company you ask?
Let’s put it this way…
In 2019 Carta closed a $300 million Series E round that valued the company at $1.7 BILLION post-money.
In this latest round, the famous Marc Andreessen joined the board because he believes that Carta will transform private markets of companies not yet public.
So to put it plainly… Jeff knows a thing or two about raising money.
In this episode he breaks down the mechanics of fundraising and gives some gr…
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Jun 2, 2021
Staying True to Your Core Mission With Zachariah Moreno (Squadcast) — Part 2
*This is part TWO of our interview with Zachariah Moreno.*
We’ll be doing a lot of these two-part episodes going forward where we share their origin story in the first part and then their lessons learned in part 2.
So here we are!
And Zachariah has a ton of great lessons to share.
We’ll talk about navigating FUNDING and the difference between bootstrapping and raising money from a VC.
We talk about how to lead a technical team and lead product people who are more talented in their space than you are…
Zachariah Moreno talks about developing features that have never been done before — Squadcast actually has multiple patents on its upload process.
So let’s get to it. We’re going to jump back in where we left off last week talking about Squadcast’s big pivot to VIDEO and how that timing was perfect in a world where everyone is working remotely.
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Interested in Squadcast? Head over to Squadcast.fm to start your free 7-day trial.
http://sqaudcast.fm/
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This show…
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May 27, 2021
Building a Better Platform for Interviews With Zachariah Moreno (Squadcast) — Part 1
*Welcome to season TWO!*
We JUST wrapped season 1 and that was all about our story, our background as an app development shop, and most importantly, we had conversations with our team and our network to talk about all the things you need to consider as you build your app.
In season 2 we’re talking to founders and operators of tech companies.
A lot of the episodes in season 2 are going to be broken up into 2 parts. Like today’s episode with Zachariah Moreno, the founder of SquadCast.
In this episode, we’ll learn about his story and his journey to building a profitable and successful tool for podcasters.
In the NEXT episode, Zachariah will break down the insights and lessons he can share with you.
Squadcast allows you to record studio-quality
podcasts from anywhere.
Their customers include founders and prominent executives in the tech world.
We think you’ll love hearing Zachariah’s story.
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Interested in Squadcast? Head over to Squadcast.fm to start your free 7-day…
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May 26, 2021
Season 1 Recap with Brian Springer (Strides Development) — Part 2
*This is PART 2 of our Season 1 recap.*
If you haven’t listened to part 1, you’ll definitely want to give that a listen before jumping in here. We released it yesterday, so it’s just RIGHT BEFORE this one.
In part 1, we talked about episodes 1-9. We chatted about validating your idea, designing your app, and creating a MAGICAL user experience.
We talked about the importance of building your team, marketing your app, having the right legal advice, and building a brand.
This episode focuses on recapping episodes 10 - 15 and we’re going to cover testing your ideas, getting initial traction, raising money, and financing your big idea… and we also hear from one of our clients Jay Eichelberger who we worked with to launch the FlipFlops food delivery app.
Then we finish up with our favorite topic… DEVELOPMENT.
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in o…
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May 25, 2021
Season 1 Recap with Brian Springer (Strides Development) — Part 1
*This is the first of a TWO part episode to wrap up what we’re calling the first season of How to Build An App. *
So far in this season, we’ve talked about different things you need to consider as you’re trying to turn your big idea into a finished app.
Today, we want to recap a few highlights from our first 9 episodes, and TOMORROW we’re going to cover episodes 10-15.
This is actually a lot of fun and we’re excited to run through this because just in the past couple of weeks we’ve seen a HUGE jump in our listeners. So if you’re listening for the first time, this might help point you in the right direction to which episodes you should check out.
As we walk through our first season we actually brought back one of our favorite guests — Brian Springer.
Brian introduced us to a lot of the guests we had on this season who have become good friends with.
On top of that, a few things have changed in Brian’s world: He recently joined forces with Eric Espinosa and the cre…
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May 19, 2021
The Best Place to Start With Your Big App Idea (Strides Development)
Let’s say you have a really good app idea and you want to build it… where do you start?
Over this past season, we’ve actually chatted with a LOT of people who can help answer that question...
Not to mention we’ve chatted with hundreds of app founders and you know where they wish they would have started?
*Refining the vision for the project. *
In today’s episode, we’re breaking down how to get around the BIGGEST problem new app founders face — the development black box.
Development is complicated — and it’s made even worse by the fact that developers, designers, product people, and founders tend to all speak a different language.
Today, we’re running you through how we shine light on the entire process.
This is actually the FIRST set of milestones that we take all of our new clients through, and if you are looking to build an app, this is exactly where you should start too.
The bottom line: This process we’re about to cover will help you invest a small amou…
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May 12, 2021
The Process of Actually Developing an App — a Roundtable Discussion (Strides Development)
*We’ve talked so much about all the aspects of building an app from validating your idea to design to marketing and more. But you know what we haven’t covered?*
Actually BUILDING and coding your app.
So today we’re jumping on with a handful of devs that we work with on a regular basis to talk shop and talk code.
Shane Kofoed and I break down ins and outs of managing the development process, rolling out different features, and what it takes to keep a dev really happy and excited about your project... and it’s not exactly what you might think.
So let’s get to it — I’m excited to welcome you to a round table discussion all about developing your dream app.
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make s…
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May 5, 2021
Behind the Launch of the Flipflops Delivery App With Jay Eichelberger (FlipFlops)
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could order a Cuban sandwich and a crepe to where you’re sitting right now?
Well… if you were sitting in Seaside, Florida you’d be able to do just that.
Our guest today is one of our friends and clients Jay Eikelburger. Jay is the founder of a really cool app called Flip Flops.
FlipFlops allows you to order food right to your beach chair or cabana.
We’ve been busy working on this app over the last 9 months and we JUST launched it.
In fact, we filmed this interview WITH Jay at the beach on the first weekend the app was up and running.
We’re really excited for this episode and this is a great addition to the episodes where we’ve already covered market validation, UX, design, financing, and launching an app…
Now we’re going to take you through that entire process in an app that we’ve been involved with from the very start.
We can’t wait for you to hear the story and meet Jay and join us right at his kitchen table.
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*Learn about…
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Apr 28, 2021
Creating Content That Brings Customers Straight to You With Brian Dean (Backlinko & Exploding Topics)
*Content is king, but what do you do if you run out of content ideas?*
Our guest today is Brian Dean.
Brian is the founder of Backlinko and Exploding Topics.
Brian Dean has been called an "SEO genius" by Entrepreneur.com and a "brilliant entrepreneur" by Inc Magazine.
Brian's award-winning blog, Backlinko.com, has been listed by Forbes as a top "blog to follow".
Success Magazine has referred to Brian as "the world’s foremost expert on search engine optimization" due to the influence of his blog, which reaches over 3.5 million people every year.
This episode is full of so much valuable information. Brian talks about why you shouldn’t spend too much time or money on App Store Optimization, how to drive traffic to your site like crazy, and how to think about your marketing plan.
We start off talking about what Brian is most known for… SEO.
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Learn more about Backlinko here:
https://backlinko.com/
Watch Brian’s YouTube videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx7…
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Apr 20, 2021
Grow Your Business With the Secret Formula Behind Presidential Campaigns (Win Big Media)
*We’re on episode 11 of How to Build an App… What do you think is the MOST consistent piece of advice we keep hearing over and over? *
This isn’t even a hard question… It seems like every one of our guests has told us that you need to know your customer, know their pains, know their frustrations, and have a clear understanding of how your app will help them.
Today’s episode is no different… We’re talking to Phillip Stutts.
Phillip Stutts comes from the cutthroat world of political marketing. He has over 2 decades of experience working on campaigns with billions of dollars in political ad spend, and contributed to over 1,407 election victories, including 3 U.S. Presidential victories.
Phillip plays the game of political and corporate marketing on the highest level, battling it out with fierce competition, multi-billion-dollar budgets, and a win-or-die mentality.
This was a really fun episode… I think in part because we were excited to talk to Phillip, but we were a…
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Apr 14, 2021
Angel Investment and Funding Your Startup with Brian Springer (Venture Validator)
*What can you do if you have a really great idea, but you don’t have any money to throw at it to make it go? *
This is a common question we hear from founders… ESPECIALLY the founders we work with because in the tech space you typically have to invest a lot in your product and app before you’ll ever make any revenue.
Today we’re talking with Brian Springer. We met Brian through the Utah investor network because — as you’ll hear — he’s incredibly connected and passionate about early-stage startups.
We love this episode because funding is a way of life in a tech company.
That’s right at some point, your journey is going to include fundraising but you don’t want to just take any dollar that comes your way…
In fact, that’s where our conversation starts — when Brian realized the money alone wasn’t bringing happiness or success and this led him to the work he does now with startups.
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app develo…
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Apr 7, 2021
How to Build a Brand with Priscilla Blanchot (Carte Blanche)
So far this season we've talked to all kinds of experts.
We've talked to people in finance, design, UX, marketing sales, and a bunch of other things, but what are we missing? Branding.
So, today we're talking with Priscilla Blanchot, a design and brand rockstar.
She's passionate about helping companies nail their brand, specifically those in the B2C space.
Your brand is important because it gives your product a soul, but branding is more than just picking a couple of fonts and colors.
Priscilla talks about how to build a purposeful brand that has meaning and how you should get your brand right before you even start thinking about marketing.
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following St…
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Mar 31, 2021
Protecting Your Ideas and Minimizing Risks with Jeff Holman (Intellectual Strategies)
How do you keep your ideas safe and protect all of your hard work?
Today, the lawyers have officially taken over this podcast.
Our guest today is Jeff Holman, the founder of Intellectual Strategies, which is an IP-Focused law firm for startups.
Jeff has an extensive background in trademarks, patents, and general IP strategy.
This episode is full of insights because LEGAL strategy isn’t something app founders are typically thinking about early on, but legal issues can easily unravel your entire idea if they aren’t addressed.
Like Jeff says in the episode, “Would you rather spend a few thousand dollars NOW or millions of dollars down the road?”
Jeff talks about how app founders can protect their ideas and set themselves up right from the start.
You’ll love Jeff’s style… He doesn’t sound like an attorney — he sounds more like a business guy. That might even be because he’s started his own businesses and has his MBA.
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This show is produced by Strides Develop…
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Mar 25, 2021
Marketing Your Idea with Shane Kofoed (Standard Behavior)
Marketing! That's what Shane Kofoed of Standard Behavior is all about.
Shane has attained a wealth of experience from starting three of his own companies and consulting with 500+ clients over the course of his 15-year entrepreneurial journey.
Now, if you're only just thinking about marketing as your app is launching, then you're a good year or two late.
Marketing and sales aren't things you think about when your product is done. You should be thinking about this throughout your whole process.
If you don't know how you're going to go to market or how you're going to sell your idea, how do you know it's even any good?
Shane talks about this exact thing: marketing your idea and how the best marketing strategies are deeply integrated with your product.
Today, we learn that the best marketing approach isn't marketing at all because it just feels like you're sharing how your idea will help a specific person with the right thing at the right time.
You'll love this episode if you're sti…
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Mar 23, 2021
Cash Planning, Tax Strategy, and Money with Garrick Foy (Red Rock Tax)
Let’s talk about money! In this episode, we’re talking with Garrick Foy of Red Rock Tax.
Garrick has seen a lot of companies in his work as a tax strategist, consultant, and accountant.
He’s dealt with companies of all sizes and helps them manage the ONE constant between them all…
CASHFLOW.
He’s had a TON of opportunity to see the inner workings of companies of all different shapes and sizes and most importantly, he knows why things DON’T work.
So today we’re talking finance, cash planning, tax strategy, and, SURPRISINGLY — team building.
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This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides on Instagram and Linkedin.
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Mar 18, 2021
The Non-Negotiables of UX with Brian Clay (Strides Development)
Welcome to the How to Build an App podcast.
This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides on Instagram and Linkedin.
Today, we’re talking with Brian Clay. Brian is an expert in design, User Interface (UI), and User Experience (UX).
In this episode, we talk about what makes an app experience great, what kills an app experience, and the “table stakes” (as he calls them)…
Think of table stakes as the non-negotiables you need in your app build.
Brian also shares some great tips for building something “magic” even if you’re on a tight budget, and we talk about the value of over-investing in design so you can save yourself a ton of money in development.
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Mar 18, 2021
Finding Product Market Fit with Eric Espinosa (Venture Validator)
Welcome to the How to Build an App podcast.
This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides on Instagram and Linkedin.
Episode four features a conversation with Eric Espinosa of Venture Validator about how to help entrepreneurs understand their customers, provide data for improved business decisions, and achieve Product Market Fit.
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Mar 18, 2021
Creating an Exceptional Client Experience with Bowdrie Price (Strides Development)
Welcome to the How to Build an App podcast.
This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides on Instagram and Linkedin.
Episode three features the backstory of our director of client experience, Bowdrie Price.
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Mar 18, 2021
Learning to Solve Problems Effectively with Austin Betzer (Strides Development)
Welcome to the How to Build an App podcast.
This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides on Instagram and Linkedin.
Today's episode features the backstory of our founder, Austin Betzer.
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Mar 15, 2021
Welcome to How to Build an App
Welcome to the How to Build an App podcast.
This show is produced by Strides Development, a full-service app development agency.
We specialize in taking your ideas and turning them into a finished app in only a few months.
If you have an app you’re building, we would love to talk to you. You can schedule your free strategy call by clicking here.
Make sure you’re following Strides on Instagram and Linkedin.
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