Dino Dogan was the CEO and cofounder of Triberr, an ad-tech startup which he launched in 2011 and was acquired in 2015. He is a builder of software, designer of experiences, architect of ideas, tamer of complexities, and a collector of rare books.
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Resources Mentioned:
- Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
- Audible – Get a FREE Audiobook & 30 day trial if you’re not currently a member!
- Made in NYC – Dino’s website
- The Freedom Journal – Set & Accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days!
- FunnelOnFire – A free 8 day course on how to create a funnel that converts!
3 Key Points:
- Technology has changed entrepreneurship and opened possibilities that did not exist before.
- Witnessing, firsthand, the kind of problems businesses face is a valuable opportunity to learn.
- Be that entrepreneur who wants to solve an unseen problem for a very specific niche, then scale from there.
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Time Stamped Show Notes
(click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.)
- [01:10] – Dino realized he’s been an entrepreneur for 10 years
- [01:28] – “It’s been tremendous growth”
- [02:39] – Co-founding Triberr was a 5-year journey
- [02:48] – When Dino and Dan Cristo, his co-founder, started Triberr, they were both clueless
- [02:56] – The business was built in 3 days and it was “half-baked”
- [03:13] – “We got some traction”
- [03:29] – Finding their “money button” was insane so they switched strategies
- [03:59] – In 2015, they received a couple of offers and took one
- [05:35] – Dino pulled back after they sold Triberr
- [05:48] – What he saw in 2016 was insane – Zika Virus, election issues, etc.
- [06:49] – When Dino and Dan were working on Triberr, they started off as two, three, then five on the team
- [07:34] – In 2016, after Triberr was sold, Dino saw how technology had advanced
- [07:49] – 3 years ago, it wasn’t feasible to create a clickable prototype
- [08:22] – Now, clickable prototypes can validate businesses without spending a million dollars
- [09:13] – MVP’s can be created by just 1 person in 2 months with $20K
- [10:41] – Technology is just one part of the answer
- [11:22] – The other big trends are described by a handful of people:
- [11:33] – Steve Blank developed the Customer Development Model
- [12:35] – He has written The Four Steps to Epiphany
- [13:04] – Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas
- [13:09] – Pirate Metrics by Dave McClure
- [13:12] – Eric Ries of Lean Startup
- [13:28] – All these people cover different parts of validating a technology business
- [13:54] – Taking them in combination is possible
- [14:54] – Dino was on Episode 597 of EOFire
- [16:03] – Last year, Dino had the opportunity to work with people in Austin
- [16:30] – By November, he was doing 6 different projects
- [16:59] – Dino was able to witness, firsthand, the difficulties that businesses were facing and he noticed the inefficiencies
- [17:24] – He started exploring and discovering everything that was already out there
- [18:51] – “No startup guy wants to do a service business”
- [19:08] – Dino talked to Charlie Poznek about his reluctance to do a service business
- [19:40] – Charlie reminded him of Accenture’s model
- [19:56] – Dino thought of Amazon
- [21:24] – One problem with building a tech business is trust
- [22:08] – All of Dino’s efforts are now concentrated in NYC
- [22:30] – “It’s not an easy process”
- [23:03] – Entrepreneurs must be willing to do things that don’t scale and find out along the way what they can scale
- [23:41] – Check out Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder
Killer Resources!
1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!
3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!