David, Dan and Savannah are the founders of The Fable Podcast, where they discuss the unconventional ways of starting a business.
David excels at propelling Slingshot towards its goals and oversees the strategic direction of the company. He’s been described as ‘intense, driven, caring, and passionate’ both at work and play. At work, he enjoys watching his team explore, imagine, and reinvent to do the best for their clients. At play, he drives Karts at insanely high speeds and scares his wife half to death. It’s all or nothing. Which means he gives it all.
Dan is a husband, father, entrepreneur, and a seeker. He has spent the majority of his 15-year career growing technology service companies, and the other years creating his own. At Slingshot Ventures he is primarily responsible for engaging new founders and supporting existing founders with their market development and sales strategy. Dan is always quick to lend a hand in other areas and never fails to enjoy the ride, no matter how bumpy it may get.
Savannah is Slingshot’s one-woman marketing department. She posts writes, and creates all things Slingshot. While she may not be making software for you, she does have a minor in Computer Information Systems. We’d call her the opposite of a procrastinator: she can’t rest until all her work is done. She loves playing her switch and meal-prepping.
What is The Founders’ Fable all about?
The Founder’s Fable is where we all get together to learn more about start-ups from others’ stories and experiences.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you know that nothing is traditional about building a startup. That’s why David, Dan and Savannah have decided to sit down and talk about the unconventional ways of starting a business. The team, as well as the occasional guest entrepreneur, will discuss mindset, advice, and startups.
Tell us a little bit about your personal background – how, and why you started your podcast?
We truly wanted to help the startup ecosystem. Everyone can become an expert, but only some turn around and teach what they’ve learned. Slingshot Ventures and our podcast The Founders’ Fable allow us to share our years of experience in building both businesses and products.
We don’t just design and build tech products. We support startups with a go-to-market strategy, sales, business guidance, and everything else that goes with being a true business partner. No matter what the goal, we want to focus on growing a business in a way that makes sense for the founder.
What was the biggest problem you encountered launching your podcast, and how did you overcome it?
Before we launched, nailing down exactly what we wanted to focus on. We knew we wanted it to be about advice for founders and startups, but we didn’t know what direction to go. If we did everything we originally planned to, we’d be spread too thin. Once we decided we would focus on learning from other’s experiences, it was easier to nail down the tone, copy, and material for the podcast.
What are some mistakes you made as a podcaster?
Planning. There have been episodes where we over-planned, and it started to feel too scripted. Not to mention we didn’t cover everything we wanted to. There have also been episodes where we didn’t plan enough, and there was dead-air that needed to be edited. Finding the balance between structure and spontaneity is important to making a podcast people want to listen to.
Do you have any other projects or businesses you are working on?
The Founders’ Fable comes from Slingshot Ventures: the innovation and startup arm of Slingshot. At Slingshot, we wanted to create a way to help empower entrepreneurs with technology ideas. By leveraging our expertise in designing and building tech products, we looked to partner with entrepreneurs, making their ideas a reality. We know starting a business is hard, and growing a business is harder.
How does it work? – Bring a problem or idea for a company, and we’ll work with you to validate the idea, design the solution, and deliver the first version of your minimal viable product (MVP). Along the way, we’ll collaborate with you on the brand, website, and go-to-market strategy, getting in the trenches with you to land your first customers.
Who is a fit? – If you’re in the early stages of building a B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) company and lack a technical co-founder, we may be right for you. We do not discriminate based on the industry but tend to focus on B2B and look for those with experience in the industry. If you have an idea and don’t know what to do next, or have a clear vision and are ready to start building out your MVP, contact us and we can have a conversation.
Do you monetize your Podcast, or plan on monetizing, tell us how or how you plan to do it?
Not currently, no. We’ve discussed that if we grow to a certain point, we’ll look for sponsors. The hosting platform we use has a connection with Podcorn, and it seems easy to implement.
How do you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business and podcast?
Having more than one host helps with accountability. If one begins to fall off, the other hosts can motivate them again. For us (David, Dan, and Savannah), we set aside time every week to record new episodes. If we’re not recording that week, we have that time to work on other aspects of the podcast (marketing, interview acquisition, content creation, etc).
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your podcast?
Make content for you. If you start to create content that you don’t enjoy, your listeners will be able to tell your heart is not in it. Not to mention that your motivation will die off quickly. When you’re making content that you’re passionate about, you’ll be able to stay motivated and keep listeners engaged.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your audience?
The nature of our podcast is set for growth. Each guest we bring on shares it with their respective communities, adding more people to our audience with each episode. As for marketing strategy, the best route to take is an integrated approach: you want every place that your audience might see your podcast to look and feel the same. Whether that’s on the platforms themselves, your website, or social media, you want to give off the same message and tone. This helps make sure everyone sees the same thing and feels that same way.
What is your definition of success?
For the podcast, our definition of success is helping founders. With each episode, we try to find one piece of advice that may not be readily available to our audience. We truly want to help them grow their business quickly but efficiently.
If you had to start a brand-new podcast today, what are the steps you would take?
The first step would be to nail down the overall goal of the podcast. By getting your purpose laid out early, it’s easier to make decisions down the road. That way you can make sure that everything surrounding your podcast helps push you towards that purpose.
Next would be to come up with the title, description, and artwork. These are the main things that will get people to be interested, so you want it to be engaging and right to the point.
Finally, record a test episode. This helps get the first-recording jitters out and helps test out the whole process from idea to editing. Critique yourself, make needed changes, and then dive into the introductory episode.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new podcasters?
The same way we had mentioned in previous questions, Make content for you. If you start to create content that you don’t enjoy, your listeners will be able to tell your heart is not in it. Not to mention that your motivation will die off quickly. When you’re making content that you’re passionate about, you’ll be able to stay motivated and keep listeners engaged.
What is your favorite quote?
We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we’re too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams.
HERB BROOKS (David)
Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
BRUCE LEE (David)
I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
MARILYN MONROE (Savannah)
How can readers get in touch with you?
Our podcast website is at ventures.yslingshot.com/podcast. Our email is ventures@yslingshot.com. You can find us (David, Dan, and Savannah) on most social media platforms under @heyslingshot.
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