For the 73rd episode of our podcast, I interviewed Jared Hecht, Co-Founder and CEO at Fundera.
Jared is a serial entrepreneur who credits his success to the combination of a lot of hard work and yes, a bit of luck. He was a co-founder of GroupMe, a group messaging app, that was acquired for around $85M just about one year after the company was started.
His latest company is Fundera, a marketplace for small businesses who are looking for financing options. To date, the company has helped 15,000 small businesses secure well over $850 million through its platform.
In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like:
- Jared’s early career aspirations to be in the music industry, including the story of how he offered Vampire Weekend to be their manager.
- How he landed at Tumblr when it was still an early-stage company and what he learned there.
- The full story on GroupMe, including how he met his cofounder Steve Martocci and how they were able to get traction that ultimately led to an acquisition by Skype.
- All the details on Fundera, plus the social mission behind the company and how they are filling such a critical gap in our economy by supporting small business owners.
- The hardest parts of building a company.
- How he evaluates talent at different stages of a business.
- Advice for evaluating investors when raising capital.
- Plus, a lot more.
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Keith Cline is the Founder of VentureFizz. Follow him on Twitter: @kcline6.