traffic.libsyn.com/.../Next_Level_09072017.mp3

Welcome to innovator tribe, outside the bubble.

A show about bridging the gap between the inspiration of idea to the creation of a product.

[music]

Amar, what's up man?

How are you doing today, bro?

Man, I'm blessed, man,

I'm happy, you know

I'm positive

I'm focused

I'm...I'm doing good.

And

I'm excited about this episode.

Me too, man, I think

I think it's about time

I think this is a necessary episode

because I feel like people are really

wondering, like,

who are you guys?

[laughs] Yeah

Who are you guys to, you know,

tell us about, uh, how to build the app

and how to start a company

and, uh, yeah, how...how to raise money

all that stuff, like,

who are these guys?

and, you know,

why have they created this podcast?

because, hey,

there's like thousands

of podcasts out there

like, everyday,
someone's coming up with a new podcast

[laughter]

Truth

You know, everybody coming up
with new podcasts

But, what's different about this podcast?

I honestly can't say that

there's anything different about this
podcast

But I can tell you that

this podcast was created

it was created because
we really wanted to help people

Everything you just said is right on

right on point

so yeah

and

we've been focused so much

on figuring out how we can add value for

non-technical technologists

who had that urging itch to, you know

create a...a app or work on a startup

and we've just been so focused on, like

and, I'm happy to take a step back

and to share our story a little bit

and how this space within technology

is so exciting

and you have so much to leverage

from where you're, where you're at today

because Tony and myself,

we, we were in those shoes before

no technology experience,

and found ourselves in an environment now

where we can teach other people
about what we learned in the past

and how it can help you build your ideas.

But, I...I'm humbled and excited

to just be in that position today.

Yeah, definitely

You know, one of the things

that, when you're working on an idea

and building on an idea

or building a technology startup

or building any company at all,

you know the 'why' is very important.

We want to share with you guys the 'why'

But we also want to share with you guys
how.

And

A few other general tips and experiences

that we've had over the last couple months

building and launching a podcast,

because neither of us [laughs]
have ever worked on a podcast ever.

We were definitely listeners of it

But, creating a podcast was not something

that we were familiar with

and

we literally

since we launched this thing

have had a thousand downloads.

And that's

And that's why I'm so exciting

it's because we reached this point

where

we see the vision of where this platform is growing

and we want to just take the time

just to connect with our listeners

and really pull you in

and be a part of this

of this growth

and

where we're taking this moving forward

and

we have some really

we have something really special

for this show too,

that you gotta wait until the end

to listen for

because it's going to

it's going to be

it's going to be important

for how you can contribute to

where we're taking this thing
moving forward

and gotta listen to the end

to really be a part

to be a part of that

so, yeah

it's really cool.

we haven't done something like this before.

And, uh, yeah, you gotta wait
until the end

until we get that

get to the announcement.

Yeah man, so, I mean, I think

You know, if you are tired of the intro,

let's get to it, man [laughs]

let's get it to the meat and potatoes.

[music]

If this is the first episode

that you ever listen to

from Innovator's Tribe: Outside the Bubble

I'm sure you're already asking yourself

who are these guys?

And don't worry,

there are some of our very first listeners

who probably are asking themselves

that question a little bit,

because we haven't really explained

our background

and just, how we got to this point.

And so, I'm happy to, you know,

really share that story now.

And it kind of goes way back

to, um, our college days,

because Tony and I went to the same
university

back in Chicago

and the polyuniversity

at that's when

I met this guy.

I was like:

"You know what?

He seems to be pretty smart.

He seems to, you know,

have his stuff together."

and it's kind of funny,

like, I'm not sure if he remembers this,

but we were driving somewhere

and he told me that he,

he said, "Amar,

like, I don't know when

but at some point,

we're going to be building a
business together."

And, we said this

when we were in school

and it's kind of funny

to see it actually come to life today, but,

Yeah that's crazy

that's crazy,

I really don't remember that.

[laughs]

Yeah man, yeah [laughs]

Those are

Those are the damn lines

I don't know

We were coming from a party

or something like that

[laughs] yeah

Uh, but, you know

it's crazy because

you know,

fast forward however many years

you know, here we are

you know, building something

and you know, I think it's interesting

because, you know

this definitely was not

the first idea

that we had a conversation about

on working on something together

but it just kind of made sense

just based off of our own
personal experiences

building our own technologu start-ups

and working on our own ideas

yeah
and

eventually kind of coming together

to work on something

that we felt would really

you know, not only, you know, highlight

start-up, uh, entrepreneurs and

start-up founders

but really allow us to share
our own experiences

as people who are not only entrepreneurs

and start-up founders

but also people who actually

work within product development

and product management

at very large,
multi-million dollar companies

where we have literally

you know, have built web applications

have built mobile applications

that, you know, hundreds of thousands

if not millions of people have touched

or used over the last few years.

I know where I want to start
this story right now,

this is back when

when I first entered into
corporate America

I started into that field

knowing that I had an itching
to build a web application

and by this point Toye was
already in Chicago

in accelorator, working on his start-up

called "Good.gov"

and I was...
Goodgov.co

[laughs] Goodgov.co

Aw, you just, you just need
to bust my chops like that

Ok, ok, but yeah

He was working on his start-up

Back in Chicago

that I clearly forgot the name of.

But

I was learning through him

through that experience of

just listening to him talk about

how he was itneracting with

investors and

to how he was
working on getting his prototype together

and connecting with customers

and I was seeing him in action

and watching him craft his idea

into an actual business

and so

like I was taking that back
into figuring out

"Ok, I have this idea