“The more you can utilize a $20 million jet, the better” says XOJet founder Paul Touw who is my guest today. He shares with us how he has built successful companies by eliminating operational inefficiencies.

In 1996, Paul founded Ariba (ARBA) with the idea of eliminating procurement inefficiency through an online marketplace. Today, Ariba is the dominant business-to-business procurement platform used by 75 percent of the Fortune 500. The company went public in 1999 at a valuation of $115 million, and today has a market cap of $950MM.

Paul’s latest venture, XOJet, offers jet fractional ownership and is tackling the $35 Billion private aviation market. The company focuses on operational scale, technology innovation and customer service; it has the highest revenue-earning utilization of any retail aircraft operator and is the most economical way to own a jet. The company’s ownership model is about 40% less expensive than jet cards, 33% less expensive than fractional solutions and 20% less than traditional ownership

Listen in to hear how Paul has transformed existing markets and created enormous opportunities.

 

 Paul Touw founder of Ariba and XOJet on why it can be good to pick a fight with a more established company [2:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (838)

 

 Full interview with XOJet and Ariba founder Paul Touw [30:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6393)

David Hornik is a partner at August Capital and sits on the board of directors of DoneRight, Nomis Solutions, PayCycle, Six Apart, Splunk Technology and VideoEgg. He previously served on the board of Evite which was acquired by Ticketmaster and he was a board observer with Tickle, which was later acquired by Monster. He has taught business and law internationally and is a lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. But what he is most well known for is being the first venture capitalist to begin blogging about the industry. His blog, aptly called VentureBlog, has over 50,000 subscribers which is more than the seating capacity at Fenway Park. He also hosts a podcast called VentureCast and authors several personal blogs, including SaysMe, which had me laughing out loud. Listen in to hear his advice for entrepreneurs.

 

 David Hornik's advice on how to become a venture capitalist [3:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1135)

 

 David Hornik VC and author of VentureBlog [44:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4038)

If you filled up your car’s gas tank with printer ink instead of gas, it would cost $100,000. Hayden Hamilton knew the high cost of all the wasted printed pages that sat by the print station at his office. He searched for a solution and couldn’t find one, so he founded GreenPrint. The company offers software to reduce the number of unwanted pages from printing. The average Fortune 500 company using GreenPrint saves $2 million and 4,000 trees annually.

GreenPrint is not Hayden’s first socially conscious venture. In college, he was frustrated with the monopoly of the campus bookstore so he started a competing co-op to allow students to sell their used books for 85% of the sale price. After college, Hayden saw family members without health insurance struggle to pay for prescription medications, so he started ProgressiveRx.com, which sources drugs from overseas and offers a low cost alternative for Americans without prescription drug benefits. He also created Progressive Health Worldwide, a non-profit that provides free pediatric tuberculosis clinics for kids in India and medications for AIDS orphans in Tanzania. Listen in to hear Hayden’s story.

 

 Hayden Hamilton founder of GreenPrint, ProgressiveRx.com, Progressive Health Worldwide [35:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2791)

Today my guest is serial entrepreneur David Samuel, the co-founder of Spinner Networks, Grouper, and Brondell. In 1996, two years after graduating from MIT, David pioneered Internet radio with the creation of Spinner Networks. The company was acquired three years later by AOL (AOL) for $320 million. David’s most recent venture, Grouper Networks, which specializes in Internet video sharing, was acquired last year by Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) for $65 million. But his most unique venture is Brondell, the first American-based company to develop high-tech toilet seats. Toilets have seen little innovation in the past century and Brondell is looking to change that by offering seats with remote controlled heat, warm water spray, and dryer. Listen in to hear David’s story and his advice for entrepreneurs.

 

 Full interview with David Samuel co-founder of Spinner Networks, Grouper, and Brondell [24:52m]: [24:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1728)

My guest is Jon Gavenman, shareholder at Heller Ehrman Venture Law Group, one of the premier emerging technology law firms in the country and a recognized leader in structuring and negotiating venture capital financings. Last Year, Heller Ehrman’s clients included 22 of Red Herring magazine’s top 100 private companies. The firm has strong relationships with leading venture capitalists and is known for taking an active role in bringing together entrepreneurs and investors. Listen in to hear how the company helps entrepreneurs succeed.

The views presented below have been prepared by Heller Ehrman LLP for informational purposes only and are not legal advice. Transmission of the information is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Internet subscribers and online readers should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. The information contained in this web site is provided only as general information which may or may not reflect the most current legal developments. This information is not provided in the course of an attorney-client relationship and is not intended to constitute legal advice or to substitute for obtaining legal advice from an attorney licensed in your state. This web site may be considered advertising under applicable laws and ethical rules. Heller Ehrman LLP does not wish to represent anyone desiring representation based upon viewing this web site in a state where this web site fails to comply with all laws and ethical rules of that state.

 

 Jon Gavenman of Heller Ehrman Venture Law Group [34:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2182)

Today my guest is Jonathan Cobb, the founder and CEO of Kiptronic. The company helps online media publishers generate revenue by providing an easy-to-use ad insertion technology platform. Last year, ad spending totaled $80 million for podcasts and $1.5 billion for online video. By 2011, those numbers are expected to grow to $400 million and $6.2 billion respectively. Kiptronic is well positioned to take advantage of this emerging market. Download the mp3 to hear how they will.

 

 StartupStudio interview with Kiptronic founder Jonathan Cobb [22:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2003)

Joe Markham’s dog Fritz liked to chew rocks. That’s right — rocks. Out of desperation to saves his dog’s teeth, Joe created the Kong, one of the most unique, successful and useful dog toys of all time. But building the Kong Company wasn’t easy. When he first pitched his idea to pet store owners, they told him not to quit his day job. Fortunately he disregarded their advice and since then, over 50 million Kongs have been sold. That’s almost one for every dog in the US. Listen in to hear how Joe did it.

 

 Kong Company founder Joe Markham [ 34:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2360)

In July 2006 Mignon Fogarty launched “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing,” a podcast that highlights common grammar mistakes. Since then, in under ten months, she’s been a guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the topic of articles in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BusinessWeek and CNN.com. On iTunes, her podcast has been ranked as high as #2 and her audiobook topped their best-selling list ten days after it was released. Her show has been downloaded over five million times. Listen in to hear how grammar suddenly became hip.

 

 Grammar Girl's founder Mignon Fogarty [16:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2300)

Blip.tv is the video sharing website that focuses on TV style shows that are broadcast in serialized episodes. In addition to being named in Business 2.0’s list of the 25 startups to watch, Walt Mossberg wrote that it is his favorite website for original content episodic TV shows online. “WallStrip“, “Alive in Baghdad“ and “the show with zefrank” are just some of the choices you can find on blip.tv. Funded by several high profile investors including Ron Conway and Peter Thiel, the company is in an excellent position to take advantage of the next generation of video entertainment. My guest today is Dina Kaplan, one of the company’s five co-founders. Download the podcast to hear the company’s story.

 

 blip.tv co-founder Dina Kaplan [36:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1711)