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In any consumer app, attracting your first 1,000 users is a critical milestone to successfully launching your solution. In this episode, Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt discuss various strategies for successfully reaching this milestone and discuss how Dave will be applying these strategies as he launches his new social solution called “ComeWith." Enjoy … www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In this episode, Paul Benevich  and Dave Linhardt discuss Greg Nigro’s successful journey on Shark Tank. It’s a story with twists and turns, has a very unexpected outcome, and provides insight into how the show operates behind the scenes.   In many ways, preparing for Shark Tank is similar to preparing for any investor pitch. The primary difference is the magnitude of the audience you are pitching. Anyone that has ever pitched to a group of investors knows it can be a stressful experience, but to pitch in front of a million or more people ... that’s downright frightening.    Enjoy …  www.justbuilditpodcast.com   

In this episode, we focus on three important questions to ask when you are thinking about raising capital for your venture:  1.     Should I raise capital? and if you decide the answer is yes, then 2.     When should I raise capital? and 3.     How do I find a compatible investor?  Raising capital can be a significant commitment in regards to time and resources for a startup, and it can be a humiliating and excruciatingly long process with no guarantee of success.  Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt discuss the pros and cons of raising funds.  Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In this episode, we discuss Not Sweating the Details Until you Need to Sweat the Details.   Often as entrepreneurs, we can over-think an idea or concept. We painstakingly try to map out the entire business model in our head and in doing so, complicate the idea to a point where we get defeated, even before we have a chance to truly explore it.   I think if we can keep an idea pure, it gives us the best chance of giving that idea life.  In this episode, Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt discuss the idea of keeping an idea pure, and when you have an idea: Not Sweating the Details Until you Need to Sweat the Details.   Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In our podcast, we try to portray the raw mindset of an entrepreneur as we build our startups. In this episode, we take a look at why entrepreneurs often experience "FEELINGS OF GUILT" as we venture out to create our companies, and we discuss and how we go about taming these feelings.   Today, Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt discuss the origin of this GUILT, why it can be so destructive, and how we handle it. We don’t want these emotions to interfere with the creative process.  And we certainly don’t want them to kill the joy of our entrepreneurship.  Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com

This podcast episode is dedicated to discussing the benefits of being our authentic selves.  I have found that almost all entrepreneurs are a bit broken. In a way, I think you have to be. It comes with the job. While pursuing an idea that you have faith in, but one that is new and untested, you get beat up along the way. You will face doubters and rejection. So, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, put on a smile, and walk into another beating. Keep your chin up. This is our life. Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In this episode, Dave Linhardt is trying to launch a business that is leveraging a very hot political topic right now.  Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt discuss this trend and Dave’s strategy for fast-tracking his concept and building a streamlined solution that will hopefully allow Dave’s company to participate in this trend and gain enough momentum to launch a sustainable business from it.   Enjoy …  www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In this episode, Dave takes us through the process of navigating his new startup’s first product build and making decisions on the resources he needs to initiate operations. Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt discuss issues like: ·      Finding a development team ·      Fixed bid vs. hourly ·      1st build budget ·      Negotiating pricing ·      Managing a build ·      Development team skills ·      and Goals of the first product. Enjoy …  www.justbuilditpodcast.com    

It’s so easy to lose focus when you’re building a business.  And when you lose focus, you lose traction.  Sometimes it’s difficult to decide which of the challenges you face has the highest priority.  Which one do you tackle first?  Are you wasting your time and energy on the wrong things?  Creativity has so many avenues – it can lead to opportunity or a curse.    In this episode, we explore what methods and processes Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt put in place to help them stay focused and give them a chance to move their startups from concept to traction.    Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com

The focus of this episode is on the importance of building a community of advocates around your business or startup. The community can consist of advisors, supporters and solution evangelists, investors, and customers. Each of these advocates can have a profound influence on your business success. Whether it’s welcome advice, public approval and commendation, financial support, influence, or someone becoming a buyer, you can never have enough support and acceptance. Building a community of followers will strengthen your image and help you gain market momentum. In this episode, we discuss how Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt approach this process of building a community that helps bring their businesses to life. Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com

Dave and I are trying something different in this episode. As Dave has mentioned a few times throughout this podcast, good mental health is probably the most important component of being a successful and balanced entrepreneur.  You have to be ready to deal with challenges that test your confidence, courage, creativity, intuition, business sense, and maybe stamina, too. With this said, on occasion, we will host a series of episodes called, “Mind Games and Landmines – Entrepreneurial Mental Health” to discuss some of these issues we all face from time to time. This week, I asked Dave to join me in thinking about and documenting one mental challenge that each of us has had to deal with over the past few days as we engage in our entrepreneurial endeavors.    So, let's lay on the couch, do some self-assessment and discuss our mental battles as entrepreneurs and how we deal with them. Enjoy …  www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In this episode, we talk about the process of launching your first product and then pivoting – based on market feedback.  As an example, today we discuss the process of launching the "Just Build It podcast with Paul and Dave” and how Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt are absorbing market feedback to redirect and improve the podcast vision and overall product.  Enjoy…www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In Episode 5, we talk about bringing your first product to market. You have to decide if you have enough market information to move forward with a “Minimal Viable Product.”  This is the first solution that you can offer to allow your customers to experience it.  You can improve on it later, but you need to get something out there for customers to see. So, you have to decide what that solution looks like, and how much you want to invest in it. What features should it have initially and how will they benefit the customer?  What do you want to accomplish when you bring the product to market?  This episode talks about all these questions and decisions. Dave Linhardt is problem-solving these questions right now with his company called, “Come With.”  If you are looking for inspiration about this process, you will be pleasantly surprised to hear what Dave has to say as he introduces you to a very creative approach to building your first product without having to invest significant money.  Enjoy…www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In Episode 2, we discussed “The Honeymoon Phase – The Possibilities are Endless.”  That’s the time when we are really excited about our ideas and we are totally fearless.  But experience has told me that, while a honeymoon period is a necessary time to get us motivated, reality does set in at some point. In Episode 4, I share my own emotional journey with Dave Linhardt as I continue to move forward creating this podcast.  I discuss that moment in time when the honeymoon phase of my concept ended and I experienced a sudden crash into a state of depression and self-doubt. If this happens to you, know that there is hope ahead.  There is a rainbow after the storm. This episode walks you through this phase of resilience and recovery, and shows that, with Dave’s help, how I managed to re-stabilize my emotions and find inspiration again.  Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In Episode 3, we examine the process of market-testing your idea. It is a fundamental concept to be a lean, agile entrepreneur or have such a company.  So many entrepreneurs and start-ups claim to be lean and agile but very few founders and startup teams apply these concepts well, and that includes, at times, both Dave and myself. In this podcast, Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt interview a new entrepreneur, Dave Salyers, who had planned on making a sizable investment into building his idea before market-testing it.    A conversation we had a few months ago influenced Dave Salyers to pivot his strategy and create a series of market tests before embarking on a more expensive solution.  This episode takes you through his journey and market-testing process.   Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com  

In Episode 2, “The Honeymoon Phase, the Possibilities are Endless,” you get a glimpse of the excitement and energy surrounding a new idea.  During this phase, the idea lives largely in our minds and we take the first steps at bringing this idea into reality.    We thought it would be interesting to allow our audience to journey behind the scenes as Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt bring this podcast to life.    Enjoy …www.justbuilditpodcast.com

In Episode 1, you as an entrepreneur, are introduced to The “Just Build It” mindset: The importance of getting your first product to market as quickly and affordably as possible to get initial audience feedback.  Yes, this will be an imperfect product – and that’s quite acceptable at this early junction. In this episode, you get acquainted with your “Just Build It” Podcast hosts – two long-time friends from College, Paul Benevich and Dave Linhardt, who reconnected five years ago.  Both are lifelong entrepreneurs, and this episode follows the genesis of an idea to start a podcast about entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.  As you follow along and take this journey with them, you will eventually discover the podcast’s “theme within a theme.” Episode 1 is the first chapter.  Enjoy ...   www.justbuilditpodcast.com