CrowdHall.com's Jordan Menzel is a Non-technical Founder that's crushing it in the stale web forum space, he shares his journey
Just like email, forum software is the foundation of the internet technology. Back in early 90's BBS's were the hot thing so when I hear of a non-technical founder is innovating in this space I knew we had to have Jordan Menzel from CrowdHall.com on the show.
CrowdHall http://crowdhall.com/
Jordan leveraged his background in state politics & worked with fomor secretary Madeleine Albright when developing this mass deliberation software. Winning a business plan contest he and his co-founder felt emboldened to push his mockup to other politicians.
Now CrowdHall is an evolution of old style forum software for the web to allow rich town hall conversations happen online. It's ideal for anything from political conversations to celebrity "ask me anything" like they did for the Bachelorette.
The company has just finished raising it's second seed round of about $700,000 and is moving into the Las Vegas downtown project. We also chat about their experience coming from The Brandery in Cincinnati.
Jordan shares with us what he's learned about developing customers, fostering early users and proving the usefulness of the product itself. Investors aren't looking for immediate profitability, but rather a sound business model with a sizable market.
As a non technical founder, Jordan found himself pitching the idea like crazy, winning some business competitions and even paying clients without the working product. They later would find their CTO Nick via Techcofounder.com.
The product is looking great, and they're currently working with hosts individually to keep the quality high and curated. Another great feature is the ability to embed your CrowdHall into your own website allowing you to brand the experience on your domain.
Amul noticed CrowdHall on TechCrunch, and we discuss the process of getting noticed by the press. Just like job hunting, you have to use your network and friends to find a connection.
Jordan mentions the massive iterations they made to the site early on, and we ask what kinda of changes were made. Mainly they refined their focus or tucked away features they'd built like notification and complex email digests.
CrowdHall also has host-less town halls to offer a learning space where people can curate content around a topic. Open ended forums that don't always require a response is an example of a change they had to make to the technology they hadn't anticipated at the start.
Using Google Analytics and MixPanel to track user flow and retention on the site helps them study behavior on CrowdHall.
Strong relationships are a reoccurring theme to overcoming the challenges a startup has getting the word out or forming partnerships that make all the difference.
Thank Jordan for sharing his startup story with us by checking out CrowdHall.com and signing up!
The company has just finished raising it's second seed round of about $700,000 and is moving into the Las Vegas downtown project. We also chat about their experience coming from The Brandery in Cincinnati.
Jordan shares with us what he's learned about developing customers, fostering early users and proving the usefulness of the product itself. Investors aren't looking for immediate profitability, but rather a sound business model with a sizable market.
As a non technical founder, Jordan found himself pitching the idea like crazy, winning some business competitions and even paying clients without the working product. They later would find their CTO Nick via Techcofounder.com.
The product is looking great, and they're currently working with hosts individually to keep the quality high and curated. Another great feature is the ability to embed your CrowdHall into your own website allowing you to brand the experience on your domain.
Amul noticed CrowdHall on TechCrunch, and we discuss the process of getting noticed by the press. Just like job hunting, you have to use your network and friends to find a connection.
Jordan mentions the massive iterations they made to the site early on, and we ask what kinda of changes were made. Mainly they refined their focus or tucked away features they'd built like notification and complex email digests.
CrowdHall also has host-less town halls to offer a learning space where people can curate content around a topic. Open ended forums that don't always require a response is an example of a change they had to make to the technology they hadn't anticipated at the start.
Using Google Analytics and MixPanel to track user flow and retention on the site helps them study behavior on CrowdHall.
Strong relationships are a reoccurring theme to overcoming the challenges a startup has getting the word out or forming partnerships that make all the difference.
Thank Jordan for sharing his startup story with us by checking out CrowdHall.com and signing up!
CrowdHall http://crowdhall.com/