Ep142 – Al Bentley (Founder & CEO – Simply Wall St) on building your growth engine

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep142 – Al Bentley (Founder & CEO – Simply Wall St) on building your growth engine March 11, 2021 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep142 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Founder & CEO of Simply Wall St., Al Bentley. Al started Simply Wall St (then known as Ninjavest) as a weekend project from a startup weekend competition back in 2013. Fast forward 8 years later and the company now has more than 3M users and has raised $3.4M including it’s last round of $2.4M in funding that it raised from its own member base. In this interview we covered a range of topics including: How Al built an organic growth engine that allowed Simply Wall St to acquire 3M usersHow to prioritise feedback on product requests from customersHow Al created scarcity when fundraising & much more! Timestamps  1.51 – Als’ story of starting Simply Wall St. 3.01 – His background as a Naval Architect 4.22 – Launching Simply Wall St. as Ninja Vest at a startup competition weekend 7.10 – The importance of validation and Als’ takeaways from the startup weekend9.35 – How Simply Wall St. was developed following the weekend15.29 – Finding a co-founder and why you need one 23.22 – Advice for founders about listening to customer feedback and making decisions on what is worth pursuing 27.27 – The importance of product market fit 32.48 – Focusing on building a quality team and bringing Mahesh onboard37.34 – Managing a growing team41.28 – How to identify the needs of the organisation when hiring42.57 – How and why Simply Wall St. co-founder Nick stepped back from the company 44.47 – Als’ approach to growth52.39 – Prioritising resource allocation and choosing focus areas 56.46 – Als’ recommended resources for founders 1.02.14 – The challenges of fundraising 1.09.52 – Questions you should be asking investors to ensure alignment 1.13.37 – Where you can find Simply Wall St.  Links Mentioned  Al Bently’s Links Simply Wall StAl Bentley TwitterAl Bentley About Me People: Sam Birmingham Marcus TanBill TaiRick BakerBen HeapToby Heap Nick van den BergMarty Cagan (product expert) Zac BrookesMelanie PerkinsMahesh MuralidharSean EllisAndrew ChenAlex Schultz Events West Tech Fest Startup Weekend Resources Angel ListCanvaThe Mom Test BookMarty Cagan Product BooksJobs to be done  Past Episodes Ep139 – Mahesh Muralidhar Ep141 – Alex Zaccaria Special Thanks: Special thanks to Nick van den Berg and Zac Brookes for their help with research for this interview ? . Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams Other channels: Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep142_-_Al_Bentley_Founder__CEO_-_Simply_Wall_St_on_building_your_growth_engine.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-moz-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep142 – Al Bentley (Founder & CEO – Simply Wall St) on building your growth engine appeared first on Startup Playbook.