I recently had the chance to chat with Andrew Dumont, director of BD at SEOmoz.

I’ve been following him from a distance after discovering his blog so it was awesome to get some facetime to rap BD, life, and other coolness.

In this interview we talk about:

• His introduction to working in tech at the ripe age of 18 years young and various startup experience since then (Tatango -> Seesmic -> SEOmoz)
• How to manage business development relationships when you’re company pivots…a lot
• What the heck business development at SEOmoz actually means
• How he evaluates channel partnerships and the expected conversion rate he anticipates for channel deals. A lot of startup founders need to understand this if they pursue this distribution strategy
• The greatest learning he’s had from bringing his side hustle Stride to market. Stride is simple sales CRM optimized for a small number of high value deals vs. a ginourmous funnel fest – perfect for BD people
• How he manages all of his projects/ambitions while still maintaining balance. I appreciated this insight mucho.

If you prefer audio so you can download this onto your phone and listen to this in transit like a productive little bee head, grab the interview on Soundcloud here…

Andrew is a great dude and definitely someone to watch (hopefully from NYC in the next couple of years). I highly reccomend you check out his blog AndrewDumont.me, Stride, and find him on twitter at @andrewdumont

Psst…if you enjoyed this interview, you can find all 7 other interviews I’ve done on this youtube playlist where I plan on posting all future interviews including one I’m really excited about in the next few weeks ; )

Show notes:

1. Avoiding Burnout article

2. Techcrunch Article about Seesmic

Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing my buddy Max Altschuler, VP of business development at AttorneyFee and previously BD at Udemy. Max is a GTD type of dude.

In this interview we talk about:

• How he started a business making American $money$ abroad right out of school before joining education marketplace Udemy
• Insight into creating a process to build out the supply side marketplace for Udemy (hint – they leveraged outsourced labor!)
• Critical elements to successfully managing a pipeline and the “apology technique“
• Ways they compelled teachers to take action on their verbal commitments to teach courses
• Advice he’d give anyone whose looking to land a startup job
• His new gig at Attorney Fee and what he likes about the business (profitable and bootstrapped anyone?)

If you’re like me and prefer audio so you can listen to it on your phone we can do that here too…

Soundcloud link

If you know anyone interested in creative partnerships that appeals to the vibrant audience of lawyers that work with attorneyFee, definitely hit Max up.

I also highly recommend you check out his great blog MaxTalksHacks and follow him on twitter. Till next time.

Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Delk, head of Growth/Business Development at GumRoad.

Ryan is a stud. I met him 6 weeks ago and could tell immediately that a) he gets it and b) he’s a doer. He was an early employee at GumRoad and dropped out of college to join the team. In their first year, they’ve raised over 8 millions bucks from Silicon Valley’s finest and seen awesome growth in transactions/users.

In this interview we chat about:

• What GumRoad is and how it’s changing the way commerce is done online
• What Business Development at GumRoad means (like doing deals with Enimem, Ellie Goulding and other cool peeps)
• How a little startup can get deals with major record labels and agencies
• Some insight into “The Neighborhood Tactic” – a personal fav
• How he convinced Sahil, GumRoad’s founder who was Pinterest’s first developer to hire him even though he was a college kid with limited experience. Note he used the Proof Approach!
• The biggest lessons he’s learned about company building and business development

This is good stuff you don’t want to miss out on so tune in below.

If you haven’t checked out GumRoad yet, I highly encourage you to head on over. I’m going to start selling mi loot with it soon : ) Tell your friends who create any type of digital product to take a gander too.

You can follow Ryan on twitter at @Delk or connect with him via email here. He’s definitely worth getting to know!

Do you know a youngish badass whose story or life you’re curious about? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see if I can cajole them to have a fireside chat with me over orange soda. J.K. I’m all about sparkling water.

Today I want to share an interview with my buddy Charlie Houpert, founder of KickAss Academy, a business that focuses on self improvement for men by helping them get better with women.

In high school Charlie was a shy guy, so much so that he was designated “Most Likely to Break Out of His Shell in College.” Dare I say back-handed compliment?

Since then he’s dedicated his life to “breaking out of his shell” and overcoming fear. He’s achieved such mastery that he’s been able to leave his consulting career to create a business out of empowering men to overcome fear and meet women.

Scott, I thought this was a business development blog?

Sorry folks, I’m looking to keep it way more interesting than that. The truth is that anyone that really knows me, knows how much I’m into personal development. Charlie’s journey and how he’s making a business out of his passion is awesome – so much so that I think you should watch this interview.

But Scott, a dating coach? Really man? Listen, I’m a firm believer that discounting your faith in a higher power, the most important decision we make in our lives is who we choose to be our life partner. The fact that Charlie is helping people achieve progress in their search is awesome. And just like professors who help students develop business acumen to make money, whether his disciples use that knowledge for good or evil is out of  his hands.

In this interview we chat about:

•  Charlie’s journey to becoming a real life hitch
• How to overcome fear and develop a tolerance for rejection
• Tactics to put the knowledge we consume into action (and actually internalize it)
• How he teaches men to approach women during the day
• The power and attractiveness of contrast in relationships and business
• How he’s been able to attract clients that pay him over $100/hr with no previous street credibility
• How the people in his life have reacted to his switch from consultant to casanova (HEY MOM!)

P.S. Can’t make any promises, but I’m always looking for suggestions on people to interview. If you have a good idea drop me a line!

Today I bring you an interview with my buddy Alex Banayan, a 20-year old VC and author for Crown Publishing (Random House).

In this interview Alex reveals:

• How we landed a VC job at 19 with Alsop Louie Partners and leveraged the power of authenticity to do it.
• The advice that the President of Microsoft gave him
• Details on his new book that he hopes will shape the minds of the next generation
• How he funded the initial book writing process and travel (hint: involves sail boats and Drew Carey)
• An awesome story on how he hustled his way to get a meeting with the CEO of Toms Shoes (and a personal story from yours truly on the “creating serendipity technique”)
• The lesson that his greatest mentor told him

Pardon the half asleep eyes in the intro. I shot it at 6:30am  after a 3-day work trip to Vegas  : )

If you enjoyed this interview, you’re going to love Alex’s book. Sign up for updates on his personal website AlexBanayan.com. You can also check him out on twitter here.

In the second edition of my new interview series, I have a chat with Dan Shipper. Dan is a co-founder of Firefly and has made a few waves in the tech scene.

In this conversation Dan reveals:

• The details of his new startup Firefly and where he got the idea
• Why he decided to shelve his last startup and the biggest lesson he learned
• A recap on the most valuable lesson he learned from Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
• How he’s started relationships with guys like Gary Vaynerchuk and Jason Freedman
• Insight into what I call the “horizontal relationship building technique”
• How he manages his time amidst running a startup and being a philosophy major at Penn

Clay Christiansen video here

Find Dan on twitter or his blog

Are you a SaaS company that does live customer support with co-browsing? You might want to connect with the team at Firefly to learn how to improve your experience.

This time I pinky promise my next interview will be with the “World’s Youngest VC” (already recorded!). Subscribe below so you don’t miss out.

I’m pumped to announce I’m starting a new interview show. I’m aiming to interview people who’ve done really cool things in order to expose their knowledge to others.

My first interview is with Biz Dev pro Alex Taub. In our interview he reveals:

• How he “broke into tech”
• The most important thing he’s done for building his person brand
• One major reason he left to join Dwolla
• What BD means at Dwolla (for him)
• The one thing he wish he knew when he started out in the tech space

This interview also reveals how excessively I move my eyebrows when I talk. Geez. Going to work on that for next time.

My next interview will be with “America’s Youngest VC” Alex Banayan. Subscribe here or follow me on twitter so you don’t miss out!