Vettery Small Talk

So I am intrigued… it seems the story goes something like this. You were working in Boston designing shoes for Cole Haan and at the drop of the hat, you flew to Japan to be inspired by the wayward shoe brands of our past, when you stumbled upon a pair of SeaVees shoes and decided to resurrect them to their pinnacle as an iconic surf culture shoe. Am I on the right track? You are more or less on the right track. I had actually started my career at Cole Haan in Maine where I thought I’d learn the ropes for a few years before moving to California and starting my own brand. Cut to 18 years later and I was still in New England (working for Sperry Topsider in Boston) and not any closer to realizing my dream. With doubt and disenchantment setting in, I began to search in earnest for the right opportunity. Ideally a sneaker brand with a heritage, a once-proud brand in need of a resurrection. It was behind glass in a secondhand store in Tokyo where I found my first pair of SeaVees. I love casual shoes more than most, in fact I even wrote a post about them (“Kicks”). Unfortunately I didn’t know much about SeaVees at the time… tell me why I should add them to my quiver. You are not alone. This brand was off the radar for most after going dormant in the early 1970s. I was an obsessed aficionado of the category and even I had never heard of SeaVees. I soon discovered SeaVees was born in 1964 and was the original casual sneaker. With a groundbreaking advertising campaign throughout the 1960s, SeaVees pioneered the transformation of the sneaker from gym shoe to casual shoe. To “Show Up In SeaVees” meant you could enjoy the comfort of a sneaker with the sophistication of a more refined footwear choice. Today we honor the brand’s 1960s origin with a "vintage vibes meets modern tech" mantra by making contemporary amendments to classic design. The result is a timeless sneaker of exceptional quality and comfort that you can confidently wear in any social setting. California seems to be an woven into the fabric of the SeaVees story (and you for that matter!). What is it about California that resonates so much with you and the vibe of the brand? California provided the creative origin of the brand back in the 1960s when the Golden State in its golden age defined the coastal casual lifestyle. As a landlocked kid growing up in Oklahoma, I always aspired to be from California so I understand its powerful magnetic pull. Most of us have a reverence for the escapism that is promised with the warmth of the sun. Responding to that lifelong yearning is what resonates with me, is what SeaVees means to me. A wise man once said, “You spend most of your time in your bed or on your feet, so it’s important to invest in both.” If we opened up your closet, what shoes would we find in your assemblage?

SeaVees. You’d be shocked by the number of shoes in my closet. I definitely have issues - there is literally a sea of SeaVees. I have a pair of Nikes for trail running and a pair for the gym. And I have held on to a pair of Prada Chelsea boots for so long they have now officially taken on vintage status. Other than that I show up in SeaVees everywhere I go, for every occasion. How do you think about your competitive landscape-- is your target demographic currently wearing Vans/Converse or are you hoping to be the first foray into fashionable sneaker for the guy wearing his father’s crusty old New Balances? Both. Come one, come all. Today’s consumer has grown up in sneakers, and unlike the generations before him, he’s not being told at some point in his life to get out of those smelly gym shoes he wore as a kid. Still, while he respects the brands he grew up wearing, at some point in his early adult life he’s looking for something a little more evolved. A clean and sophisticated design he can easily dress up or dress down and look appropriate for most any occasion. As he comes of age and develops his own sense of style, he’s willing to pay a little more for the quality, comfort and class offered by SeaVees. Men’s style has certainly has become more casual these days. How do you see that fitting in with the SeaVees brand?

As the category creator of the casual sneaker, this movement truly hits the core of our brand. Todays athleisure or everyday casual style is just a modern day translation or evolution of what SeaVees was initiating back in the day. With the discerning modern sneaker consumer our heritage grants us an authentic voice in this movement. There is a certain cool factor that permeates throughout the SeaVees brand. In fact, I’ve read that you said,  “California in its golden age was the certified hub of all things cool, so I’m equally inspired by Steve McQueen’s hot-rod culture, Jack Kerouac’s San Francisco Beat scene and Richard Neutra’s Desert Modernism.” Who or what in today’s society inspires you/represents all things cool? I am most inspired by new music and travel. I’m on an undying daily quest to discover my next favorite band. I spend way more time reading music blogs and deep diving on Bandcamp then I do studying the latest fashion trends. And since the day I was dropped in Paris at 19 years old with a backpack, $500 in American Express travelers checks, and not knowing a word of French, I’ve been addicted to the adrenaline rush of foreign travel. Somewhere along the line I converted culture shock to a familiar comforting pang that never fails to inspire. How would you describe your personal style? Smart casual or dress casual. I tend to twist the traditional in a thoughtful way. I subscribe to the over/under rule of style. When the occasion calls for casual attire, I will err on the side of being slightly overdressed. For a dressy occasion - when I’m certain most guys will be wearing dark suits and wingtips - I’ll make a less serious statement by slightly underdressing. I’ll leave the tie at home and have my pant leg cropped just-so to show an irreverent bare ankle - and of course to show off my SeaVees. A classic, relaxed elegance is what I’d like to always represent. What is your favorite SeaVees shoe?

My favorite SeaVees style is the 06/64 Legend. It’s our most iconic style as it celebrates the original brand’s launch in June of 1964 and is the shoe featured in the old advertising campaign. This style is a re-creation of the shoe I discovered in Tokyo, so it holds special emotional status for me. I feel it best defines SeaVees today as it appeals to both modern and classic tastes. It’s familiar in styling but its high sidewall gives it an aggressive edge. Looking to the future, does the SeaVees brand extend beyond footwear into a fully fledged fashion/lifestyle brand? I certainly envision a SeaVees future that embraces the 1960s coastal casual lifestyle across multiple product categories. But honestly we’re focussed on improving within our core competency before we move on to other things. Our women’s business is still in its infancy, our international business (with the exception of Japan and Korea) is totally untapped. And while I’m very proud of the progress we’ve made to date, I know we still have a great amount work to do to restore the brand to its rightful place on the top shelf of heritage sneaker brands. Our favorite question: if you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?

“After any call or on-site with an employer, it's generally a great idea to send a follow-up email to the team thanking them for their time and expressing enthusiasm at the opportunity. Although it may not significantly improve your candidacy if you do send a note, some hiring managers regard it as a strike if you don’t send one. Like sending out an annual holiday card, better to just send one and be safe than sorry!” 

- Ali

“As soon as you walk into an office to interview ask them what kind of holiday cookies they have. You can learn a lot. Also, be prepared to be flexible. Employers are often looking to make hires before a holiday and start fresh with some new faces afterwards, but unfortunately that means they have to find time to talk to candidates whenever they can.” 

- Mike

“If you're emailing with anyone before the holidays, let them know what days over the break you won't be checking email. This gives you leeway to browse your inbox while you're off work and only respond to the most important emails.” 

- Emma

“If you need a little extra cash for holiday gifts, refer your friends to Vettery and we'll pay you once we find them jobs!” 

Away It’s the holiday travel season, which means oodles of disgruntled travelers recklessly reclining their airplane seat straight into your freshly poured ginger ale (the preferred drink at 40,000 feet). Confrontations may happen. Elbows may be passive-aggressively nudged on armrests. But you know what will always calm a ruckus? A beautifully crafted and tasteful carry-on suitcase. And our friends at Away have just the one for your gift recipient to turn heads and pacify unruly passengers - think of it as Adele’s “Hello” in luggage form.

Warby Parker A brief list of things that are better in fours: classic rock band members, Mario Kart 64 players, curse word letters, and of course, eyes. And if you’re going to rock the four-eyed look, how better than Warby Parker? Classical and modern designs at an approachable price, a new pair of glasses or sunglasses will give your gift recipient so much added spring in their step you’ll wonder where the winter went.

Harry’s Usually when we think of razors and the holidays, it’s usually in the context of “bought that gift with a razor-thin margin of time left”. A gift of Harry’s high quality razors and shaving kits is the kind of present you video record the recipient opening because their unrestrained proclamations of sheer joy will likely be the material of YouTube memes.

Nebia The Nebia shower system is the perfect gift for individuals that enjoy getting repeatedly, but gently, sneezed on by a choir of angels. Using technology that “atomizes water into millions of droplets”, Nebia creates 10 times more surface area than a regular shower and uses 70% less water, a feat that surely violates some law of physics. Although still only available for pre-order, we think that the gift recipient won’t mind, and may even savor, the suspense.

Knot Standard In perhaps the greatest sartorial worldplay since Men’s Wearhouse, Knot Standard provides stylish, bespoke men’s suits and shirts at seamingly (three can play this game) incomprehensible prices. Your gift recipient can now bid a fond adieu to that department store suit bought off the rack for their first interview and instead suit up in the equivalent of a fabric Ferrari.

Jack Erwin You can always determine the true measure of a person by what shoes they’re wearing. While the last sentence isn’t particularly accurate, what is accurate is that high-quality, affordable men’s dress shoes are pretty darn challenging to find. That’s why a pair from Jack Erwin’s will make your gift recipient feel ridiculously warm inside, maybe even approaching the internal temperature of a fresh Hot Pocket.

littleBits Although it’s true that the holiday classic Home Alone wouldn’t work in modern times, why leave it up to chance? With littleBits’ electronic modules your gift recipient will be well-prepared to construct a home defense system secure from any bandits. Whimsical, inventive, and clever, littleBits are a superb choice for tinkerers and creatives.

Casper Remember your childhood and how disappointed you were that those dinosaur sponge toys didn’t expand to monstrous sizes when exposed to water? Well it’s 2016 now and Casper has managed to satisfy our expansion dreams by fitting an entire mattress in a box. That’s literally Merlin magic right there. Oh, and did we mention the mattress is so comfy your gift recipient will probably be fine that you didn’t get them the $150,000 Hastens bed this season...

CourseHorse

A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one likes a terrible gift, of course, of course. That’s why this season, why not impart the everlasting gift of knowledge and skills? A gift card to CourseHorse allows your gift recipient to enroll in established local classes, covering topics including cooking, art, yoga, design, finance, and more.

Blue Apron It’s been said that “a good compromise is when both parties are dissatisfied”, but we like to say that a good gift is when both parties benefit. Blue Apron is such a gift. Your gift recipient will get fresh ingredients with clever recipes delivered to their door and you get to reap the rewards of knowing an improving chef taking their skills to new heights. Michelin star, here we come!

SeatGeek Couldn’t score tickets to “Hamilton” this year? We feel you. Good thing SeatGeek is here providing a top-notch ticket search engine that aggregates listings for live sports, concerts, and theater events and helps you identify deals. Find something enjoyable for you and your gift recipient to attend, booked from the comfort of your home without the lines - or duels.

GLAMSQUAD Any company whose name is spelled in all capital letters deserves attention in my book. In this case, it’s the premier service to book beauty services and appointments straight to your home, office, or hotel - which, if you’re a Kardashian, could all be one and the same. Treat somebody to a gift certificate to GLAMSQUAD and they (and you) won’t regret it.

ClassPass Don’t look now but New Year’s resolutions will soon be made and working out more often will likely be at the top of many lists. But no one wants to receive a Snapchat everyday in front of the same old treadmill (which may have been repurposed from a coal mine) at the local gym. Give the gift of variety with ClassPass so that you can receive a snap of the gift recipient boxing one day and lifting bags of rice the next day.

SoulCycle and Peloton Sweating over what gift to get? How about turning the tables and making your gift recipient sweat instead with a gift card to SoulCycle or Peloton? They’re the two best and brightest in the cycling space, offering different formats and experiences, but the same great feeling of “yes, I just crushed that”. 

Postmates Civilization has flourished for thousands of years thanks to many key developments, including specialization of labor and really comfy, permanent homes. Postmates is the pinnacle of these two developments, allowing your gift recipient to skip cooking and bask in the joys of being inside thanks to the gift card you can grant them this season.

Uber Let’s face two cold hard truths of life: 1) Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” can still get a party going in 2016 and 2) you will never get free Uber credit by sharing your referral code because everyone is already a user. This is precisely why your gift recipient’s excitement will surge 2.6x when you get them an Uber gift card.

In typography, a serif is a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol. — Wikipedia

The chart below shows the relative performance of a job seeker with a résumé using a serif typeface (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond) compared to a sans serif typeface (e.g., Verdana, Helvetica). Basically, unless you’re a full-stack developer or a data scientist, you’re going to get more interview invite activity from hiring companies on the Vettery platform with serif typefaces.

Looking at the typeface preference by candidate background reveals that sans serif is most common among all startup roles, save for those in Data Science. Meanwhile, those with roles that are traditionally more user-facing, such as Design and Front-end not only had the highest percentage of sans serif typefaces but also appeared to be the most comfortable combining serif and sans serif into one résumé.

What about résumé length? Based on the data, until you have six or more years of experience, most people stick to one page.

And finally, the optional “Interests” section. Less than 1% of résumés listed interests. But for those that did, can you guess which are the most popular to list? Try out this guessing game before peeking below.

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So what’s the key takeaway from this? Well, not much! Like venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz’s analysis of which first letter to choose in naming your startup, the relationship between typeface choice and your likelihood of interview success is likely correlational, not causal. Just don’t use Comic Papyrus.

I’ve heard this story before…top of the line product retails at $500+ with the alternative being a terrible quality option at bargain prices. In the shoe market, you are making shoes for $90-250 and selling them direct to consumer. Tell us the story here?

It was fall 2012 when Lane and I (Ariel) were walking in New York in need of a pair of dress shoes for a wedding. Everywhere we looked we were finding ourselves compromising on something; good quality – crazy price, comfortable fit – poor design. So we asked ourselves “how is there nothing out there that we actually like?”

So we decided to do it ourselves. The idea was to make beautiful men’s dress shoes for $100 and sell them for $200. We wanted to make shoes that were well made, beautifully designed, and not outrageously priced. So that’s what we did.

I’ve read that part of the inspiration for Jack Erwin was the question, “Where did the simple men's dress shoe go?" What do you mean by that?

At the end of the day we believe in great product. We have always been drawn to simplicity and elegance. There is true beauty in something made well, with the highest quality materials, with design audacious enough be simple and clean.

The men’s shoe market today is crowded. And as everyone tries to get involved we have seen quality and design suffer the most. As a result we are bombarded with over stylized, lower quality, bizarrely priced products that don’t actually reflect what most men want.

To date it seems you are focused exclusively on Men’s shoes. Is this an intentional brand angle or just phase one for the company?

First it is important to note that we also love women’s shoes. Women tend to appreciate great products and have actually responded quite positively to our brand. In fact, an interesting side note is that a significant number of women have bought our men’s styles for themselves.

However, remaining a men’s shoe brand is something we have been very intentional about. We believe men are caring more and more about what brands they align with and how it informs their personal style and identity. This is an exciting time to build a brand for men and the opportunity is only getting bigger. Our goal is to be a brand men can relate to that provides products they actually want.

A wise man once said, “You spend most of your time in your bed or on your feet, so it’s important to invest in both.” If we opened up your closet, what shoes would we find in your quiver?

Both Lane and I love shoes. For me, you would see 5-6 pair of Jack Erwins, my Chuck Taylors, and a pair of Nike running shoes. For me our brand provides the best option for almost any occasion outside athletics. However we are also inspired by those brands that we were brought up with. From Chuck Taylors to Stan Smiths to Nike trainers, between the two of us we cover each base.

How do you think about your competitive landscape-- is your target demographic currently shopping at the Cole Haans/Allen Edmonds of the world, or are you hoping to be the first foray into fashionable dress shoe for the guy who wears squared toed loafers?

We know this sounds like a phony answer but we really don’t look at any specific brand as direct competition. Here’s what we do know, that there are very few brands speaking directly to men in a way that truly resonates. We aim to be that company.

Men’s style has certainly has become more casual these days. How do you see that fitting in with the Jack Erwin brand? Do you envision me wearing your shoes with a t-shirt?

The short answer is yes. The more involved answer is a bit more nuanced. Personal style, especially for men, is evolving in new ways every day. We are challenging what it means to be formal vs. informal. We (men) are looking for products that allow us to be dynamic in life and in style. A beautifully made shoe can be worn with anything. It’s not our job to tell customers how to dress; it’s our job to make the best shoe that you can make you own. That’s our approach.

How would you describe your personal styles?

Lane: Classic, always classic. Usually jeans and a T. Ariel: Classic, with an element of formal. I like a clean button down, jeans and great pair of shoes.

Branding is having an ever greater presence on our mind share of how we learn about things. You guys created a beautiful “How We Make Our Shoes” video. How do you think about this transparency and authenticity as a way to connect with your customer?

We are proud of how we make our product. We spend a tremendous amount of time and energy to ensure we practice what we preach. For us, the design, sourcing of materials and manufacturing process is baked into our brand DNA. So to let our customers see into that process is both authentic and, we believe, important to helping them understand who we are.

What is your favorite Jack Erwin shoe?

Lane: Joe in black (Oxford cap toe) Ariel: Ellis brown suede (Chelsea boot)

Our favorite question: if you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?

Uber meets Open Table. Fully integrated restaurant booking and car service. This could/would pick up all attendees, book table, and return them home after.

What is favorite social media account to follow?

We are not on social media however we do check the Jack Erwin instagram account pretty regularly

Lastly, what does the name Jack Erwin mean?

We launched Vettery’s marketplace 18 months ago because the traditional job search process is awful. Job seekers know the struggle of filling out dozens of applications only to never hear back. Employers know the hassle of combing through hundreds or even thousands of unfiltered applications. There had to be a better way. So we built it.

Today there are over 1,500 companies actively hiring on Vettery’s talent marketplace and we’ve experienced 30% month-over-month growth in 2016. While we’re proud of what we’ve done so far, we know that the hard part is ahead of us. This latest round of funding is simply a means to an end and shouldn’t be celebrated as if we’ve reached the finish line. We’ve merely acquired the proper running shoes. Now the marathon begins.

There’s a lot to look forward to in Vettery’s future. We plan to expand to new geographical markets as well as other industry verticals. We’ll continue to improve the experience for job seekers and hiring managers that use the marketplace with new features and capabilities. Basically, if you loved Vettery before, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

We’re fortunate to have so many supporters help us along the way. The job seekers who trust us with their rocketing careers. The employers who rely on us to find their perfect candidate. The investors who have confidence in us and our ambitious vision. The friends and family who encourage us through late nights and weekends. Thank you for believing in us.

Based in New York, The Daily Water Cooler is a delightful morning newsletter designed to summarize the day’s news across a variety of topics to make sure you’re never left behind in conversations. With thousands of daily readers, the newsletter has attracted a loyal following through word-of-mouth.

Millennials seem to care about getting a snapshot of the world from a different lens: "things that are trending". With that in mind, why am I giving you two minutes to give me a snapshot of whats happening in the world vs. somebody else?

People read The DWC because they like the format and the personality. The information itself is not particularly exclusive but the key is careful curation. Information and news is so plentiful these days that people are looking for just the highlights, as well as to be entertained. The DWC optimizes for this.

The bullet point layout is the same everyday and covers four important topics: Business, Politics, Sports, and Culture. This makes it easy for readers to skim over quickly and if they decide they want to learn more I always provide a link to the source article.

In addition to the format and curation elements I try to inject a little personality into the newsletters too, typically with one-liners or interesting related links. At the bottom of the newsletter I always include a To Share section because people love to share great content with their friends.

I've been told you create the DWC in the wee hours of the morning to hit our fresh eyes when we wake up. Walk me through how a daily issue of the newsletter comes to life.

If I have some free time the night before, I'll try to find a few funny or provocative pieces to go into the To Share section. Sometimes I also write about a Sports or Culture news piece too. In general though most of it is written the morning of delivery because much of it is impossible to write earlier.

I have a list of approximately 50 sites and sources that I visit to each morning starting around 5 or 6AM ET. I choose these specific sites because I trust their content and find them high quality. I typically write the sections in the same order everyday: Sports, Culture, Politics, Business, and lastly, To Share.

I choose Sports first because it's the most straightforward and helps get my brain going in the morning. Then I take a quick swing through Culture, generally focusing first on pop culture/celebrity media then on "harder" topics such as science. I'm about warmed up by now so Politics is next because it takes significantly more comprehension and analytical energy to wade through that news. I'm not always familiar with the background situations of certain stories so I have to do additional reading in order to properly distill the current news appropriately. Afterwards is Business, which I tackle at the end because early morning announcements can happen and I'd rather not miss out on those. Last is the To Share section, because it's the most fun and also the easiest to scale back if I'm running low on time.

After that's all done, I'll try to do a quick spot check for glaring errors, though regular readers will know that I'm not so good at that! I still maintain that typos show personality and that the newsletter was written by a friend rather than a robot. Then I'll press send (hopefully around 7:30AM ET), hope I didn't miss anything or make too many mistakes, and eat breakfast.

Social media is having an ever greater presence on our mind share of how we learn about things. Do you foresee us ever receiving The Daily Water Cooler via Snapchat stories or the like (à la Ian Bremmer's "The World in 60 Seconds" Facebook videos)?

I suppose it's a possibility during the inevitable path towards The DWC's initial public offering (ha!), but in the short to medium-term, no, not likely. Twitter is a strong candidate to have an improved presence on but as for other channels I typically have a negative view of video content and the like. It's time-intensive and expensive to make, plus from a user’s perspective it's not easy to consume (impossible on the go and gutsy at work) and challenging to skim over quickly. You pretty much just have to watch the entire thing and ain't nobody got time for that.

What is your favorite topic/article that you have discussed in The DWC?

This will sound odd, but one of my favorite topic was the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike at the end of 2015, which was the first increase in nearly a decade. I liked it for a two main reasons. First, it was a topic that had far-reaching implications but one that most everyday people would not really know or care that much about. Second, it was a real challenge to make the subject entertaining and engaging. How many jokes can you really make about interest rates?

Our favorite question: if you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?

Chatroulette + Facebook, but anonymous and text-only. So basically you would get paired up with a random Facebook friend in a chat and you would both be anonymous. There could be daily prompts of conversation topics to get the conversation started. It would be a great way to learn more about your friends, as well as an interesting use for all those Facebook friends you have that aren't really friends or you haven't spoken to in a long time.

What's your favorite social media handle/account to follow?

On Instagram I enjoy @CoffeeCupsOfTheWorld, because I love coffee and design, as well as things that have standard forms but can be differentiated in creative ways (e.g., business cards, résumés). Also big fan of accounts that use the grid on their profile page in neat ways, such as @GeometryClub and @MicahNotFound.

I'm a heavy Twitter user, mostly for news and surfacing interesting articles. But one account I'll mention is @RecruiterBro, which I find hilarious since I work in that industry.

Lastly, what caused this obsession with GIFs?!

I love GIFs because in many ways they're the perfect medium of communication and surprisingly complex. GIFs are the ideal blend for mobile consumption - more expressive than still images but less committal than video (see my comments about video above). Superficially, they're just entertaining and a stellar way to end the newsletter on a bright note.

Based in New York, Faherty is a lifestyle brand dedicated to creating premium products for life’s great moments at the beach and all those times when you wish you were there.

What was version one (season one) of your product like? And compared to your latest season?

Our first season was solely men's and women's swim made from our signature recycled polyester material. Three years later, we have a full ready to wear collection. For men we offer indigo and cotton knits, outdoor pieces, sweaters, canvas jeans, chinos, flip-flops, and a wide variety of woven shirting. For women, our collection includes tomboy flannels, silk shirts and dresses, embroidered shorts, cozy sweaters, and ethnic jackets.

Have any tips you would give to someone who wanted to work for your company?

The people we hire all have five of the same characteristics: (1) super ambitious, (2) a can-do positive attitude, (3) a self starter, (4) extremely passionate, and (5) extremely kind and a team player.

The last is likely the most important. We're a tight knit team, so bringing people onboard is like hiring a family member.

If you weren't at your current company, which other startup would you love to work at? Why?

Honestly, we couldn't possible imagine being at a place other than here. It's been our dream to create this company since we were kids.

Describe your perfect day?

Get up early, surf, eat a homemade omelet with cold brew, head to the office and work for a few hours to touch base with the team, and end the day with a rum punch and a big family dinner.

Given your shred travels far and wide, what is your favorite surf spot you have visited?

To this day, we love surfing at our home down in Spring Lake, NJ. The waves are good, the water stays warm till November, and there's never a crowd.

What's your favorite social media handle/account to follow?

Oh man, we're constantly inspired by so many. Anything that showcases good waves, cool cabins, and vintage trucks.

If you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?

Based in Boston, HourlyNerd is the leading software helping businesses generate differential outcomes when facing ad-hoc challenges and opportunities using the power of data. HourlyNerd leverages a technology-driven delivery model to create a new market for readily available elite expertise with client-friendly pricing structures and data-vetted, market-tested quality. HourlyNerd’s network boasts over 15,000 independent experts, including top MBAs, elite business advisors, and industry experts from leading corporations, serves more than 8,000 companies, ranging from startups and small business up to nearly 10% of the Fortune 1000.

HourlyNerd is a marketplace that connects businesses with independent consultants for project-based work-- what does that mean exactly?

The nature of work is fundamentally changing, and the evidence is everywhere you look. The freelance economy is booming – it’s clear that people want more control over their lives. One’s job needn’t dominate one’s existence any longer. Relatedly, technology,  is enabling people to connect like never before, which has fueled the hyper growth of the on-demand economy. Our business model plays into both those themes. At HourlyNerd we’ve built software that connects elite business consultants with companies of all sizes. Every day we’re helping businesses tackle challenges using the power of data, we’re enabling our consultants to work on their terms.

HourlyNerd arose from a team section competition at HBS. At what point did you realize that this had the potential to be a real business and not just a school project?

The first light switch really went off when we went out to the streets of Cambridge and Boston and started talking to potential customers. While the responses were varied, it was clear there was a need for what we were offering and that SMBs would be willing to engage. Their current solution of leveraging a friend or doing something themselves when a project arose was highly ineffective.

The second light switch went off when got exposure to the HBS executive education program. We had the opportunity to pitch dozens of leaders from growing, typically multinational businesses, and the response was incredibly positive. It was at this moment we realized there was a need far beyond the traditional SMB market, and that sophisticated business leaders were starving for high quality, on-demand talent.

I've read that you cold called Mark Cuban at a point when you were considering going on Shark Tank. What did you say (or make him believe) to convince him to basically invest on the spot?

We actually cold emailed him, a cold call would have been an entirely different level of bravado. The note we sent Mark was brief, but included what we felt was the necessary information to wet his appetite: who we were as founders, the pain point we were addressing, the compelling market size, and that our offering is unique – no one else is doing what we’re doing. When he responded I honestly thought someone was playing a prank on us given he got back to us so quickly with such a positive response. He responded with a bunch of follow-up questions and from there we were off to the races. I’m thankful every day that Mark took the time to read and respond to a cold email from a bunch of first-time entrepreneurs currently in school.

HourlyNerd was started by four non-technical co-founders. How did you go about growing a tech team and culture as you built out your marketplace? What advice do you have for someone non-technical looking to join a tech startup?

I’d by lying if I said it was easy. It was really f’ing hard. It took us two rounds of investor capital and a significant amount of traction for us to convince our CTO to join (who has been a god-send). Two things made the process very difficult. The first is that we had very little idea what we were looking for and how to evaluate engineering talent. The second was that non-technical founders carry a stigma that tends to keep strong technical folks away, for whatever reason. It was only once we convinced institutional VCs that we were solving a problem worth solving, and we raised a Series A, that the technical community started to take us seriously.

My advice to a non-technical founder is to leverage your network to every extent possible when seeking technical folks. Our CTO ultimately came in through our network, and it’s critical to lean on network connections for introductions, help evaluating tech talent and help in selling tech talent to join your company.

When it comes to growing a tech team, it’s been very important that we make it abundantly clear that we are a technology company first, and the way we’re going to win is with superior technology. That tech emphasis not only attracts great engineers but forces employees on the business side to view everything through the lens of technology. Lastly, we continue to try to solve really hard problems in our space with technology, which tends to attract the brightest engineers who are always seeking that unsolvable challenge.

MBAs bring with them a preconceived notion of aptitude and capability. Given that your marketplace is mainly comprised of MBA students, how do you look to expand that going forward as demand continues to grow--- do you allow other backgrounds into your supply of talent?

It’s a great question, and one we think about a lot. As an MBA myself, I understand that there is a limit to the business expertise that comes with an MBA. Many of our clients are looking for data scientists, as well as other more technical experts, which we have already begun building into our network, which now comprises over 15,000 people and is incredibly deep and diverse. We also recently hired a Director of Supply to help us better understand how to build our network in a way that is consistent with our clients needs. From an expansion standpoint, we’ve deliberately chosen to play in the arena of business consulting, and intend to remain there for the time being, because that market alone is massive and we’re only in the early innings of penetrating it. That said, we continue to round out our skill base to ensure we’re able to staff basically anything that resembles a business consulting project. 

If you weren't growing HourlyNerd which other startup would you love to work at? Why?

As a sports fanatic, I think Gametime, which is an app for last minute sports tickets, is a very cool business.  It’s also attempting to disrupt a market that’s occupied by an incumbent (StubHub) that hasn’t innovated much lately and gouges customers on price, so it’s a worthy endeavor.

If you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?

Drizly and LeanBox, a vending machine for booze!

What's your favorite social media handle/account to follow?

Biz: TechCrunch; Sports: Bill Simmons. Chubbies Instagram handle is pretty fantastic too.

Lastly, I have to ask, who came up with the name HourlyNerd?

Founded in 2013, Drop Messages is an award-winning app that alerts you when you are near friends and photos from accounts that you follow. They recently pushed a new version so check it out today!

Drop users leave location-based messages for friends and other users where upon users can see them when they are at the location. I've heard you say that the idea for Drop messages originated from an email you sent to your roommates to take out the trash (which they subsequently forgot). Is this true?

In 2013 I was living with 3 friends in San Francisco and somehow I was the responsible one of the apartment. I would email and text my roommates to help with simple tasks when I was traveling for work like drag out the trash in the morning or record a football game. They would often forget as I would text or email them when their mind was on something else. I wanted to create a virtual sticky note that I could leave at our apartment so whenever they got home next, they would be reminded of the ask and wouldn't have an excuse for forgetting.

Beyond the fun element, tell us about some of the more practical use cases for leaving Drop messages?

Drop Messages has evolved a lot over the past two years. Our mission is to help you know what is going on around you. Now, you can open the app at anytime and see which friends are the same venue as you or are nearby. For example, if you go to a concert, you can check out which friends are also at the concert. We also send you alerts when friends are nearby and when geo-tagged photos from friends are nearby (either from Instagram or Drop). A practical use case that just happened to me was I was having dinner at Foreign Cinema in San Francisco which is a large restaurant with multiple rooms. I got a push that my sister's two best friends were near me and it turns out they were having dinner in the next room over! It was such a fun coincidence and was great to see them.

You are clearly very driven about the future of Drop. What was the tipping point for you to postpone your second year at HBS and move to SF and dedicate yourself full-time to Drop last year?

We launched in November 2013 and a few hours after launching, we pitched in front of a thousand people at the TechCrunch Boston Pitch-Off and somehow ended up winning. We were on the cover of TechCrunch.com for the weekend and this gave us conviction that location-based content is important and worth pursuing. When I deferred my second year of HBS, they told me that 90% of people that do this don't come back so hopefully I can keep pursuing Drop Messages for the foreseeable future.

You left the corporate world to launch a startup, what advice do you have for someone looking to join a startup but comes from a non-traditional background? Both on the technical side and the non-technical side. 

Be as proactive as you can and be a social sponge. Coming from private equity, I needed to learn a new skill set quickly. I tried to read as much as I could and I had to be more proactive in pursuing small ideas. Nobody was telling me what to work on anymore so you have to grow into a more self-directed role. With the startup community, everyone seems to be very friendly and loves talking about what they are working on so try to attend as many meetups as possible and learn from others who have made the same mistakes you are making!

Integration with other social media seems crucial for creating virality. How important is it to you to incorporate the location craziness of users on other social media apps such as FB, Twitter, and in particular Instagram?

Facebook is the passport to the internet now so it was very important to allow Facebook login because it is quick and trustworthy. We recently integrated with Instagram because we realized that when a millennial takes a photo, it is either staying on their phone, being posted on Instagram or being sent on Snapchat. We realized we couldn't compete at point of capture with Instagram so we made the decision to work with their API and give our userbase location-based context: when they try a new restaurant or explore a new city, we will alert them if their friends have posted at those locations before!

If you weren't growing Drop, which other startup would you love to work at? Why?

I would work at Yoshi. Two of my best friends, Nick Alexander and Bryan Frist, co-founded the company. Yoshi delivers gas to your car every week when parked at work. It is a great idea and saves the average driver ~10 hours a year while filling up at the pump. If they can figure out how to get the price of gas below what is being served at the pump, I think it can be a unicorn of a company!

If you could combine two existing, but unrelated startups to make something totally ridiculous, what would they be?

This is an awesome question and a great brainstorming prompt for new startup ideas! I love people and I love hearing people's background stories -- where they came from, what they care about and where are they going. I would combine Shazam with Facebook so I could shake my phone and quickly learn about someone before I meet them.

What's your favorite social media handle/account to follow?

@historyphotographed on Instagram. Amazing photos -- recently they posted a pic of The Rock's dad from 1981 and he was probably even larger than The Rock.  

Lastly, what your favorite Drop you have come across?