Business
Calvin successfully exited two businesses without raising dilutive equity funding before turning 28. While building them, he and his co-founders lived in China, South Africa, Mexico, and Chile for fun and geo-arbitrage. Calvin also tells an UNBELIEVABLE story about how he and his team ended up in jail in Beijing. Listen in for details on Soul Ceramics (the Tim Ferriss style automated cash flow business they sold to an individual investor) & TripHappy (the tech company they sold to Trivago). 0:02:00 – Transitioning their focus from Soul Ceramics to TripHappy in 2015 0:04:22 – The infamous Chinese jail story 0:17:50 – What is TripHappy? First iterations and pivots of the company. 0:21:26 – We have a useful product: now what? 0:22:14 – First attempt at content marketing: using travel bloggers 0:23:04 – Second attempt at content marketing: writing automated travel guides 0:24:30 – Third attempt at content marketing: hitting the front page of Reddit 0:28:31 – Finding the real “problem” that TripHappy solves 0:30:28 – Focusing on viral content & hitting Reddit’s front page … again! 0:32:18 – Seeking funding through Start-Up Chile 0:34:28 – Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares 0:43:00 – Start-Up Chile experience 0:46:22 – Learning from other entrepreneurs: what did you try, what worked, and what didn’t? Review Strategy Chain at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategy-chain/id1492935567 Find Amazon affiliate links at http://strategychainpodcast.com/support Send me (Michael Roberson) questions at http://strategychainpodcast.com/contact Sign up for the email list at http://strategychainpodcast.com/ Social Media @strategychain (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Medium)