Meet Jared O’Toole, co-founder of Under30CEO, an online and offline platform covering news, advice, trends and events about early stage businesses.
Discover some of the biggest mistakes start up businesses make and why sharing information freely is so important.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Franziska: Hi and welcome to another episode of the Basic Bananas podcast show. Today we have a very special guest from one of my favorite cities in the world, New York. Jared O‘Toole graduated from college with a finance degree and like so many other business majors, he quickly realized that corporate life was not a path for him. So, instead he got passionate about entrepreneurship, branding and how companies could leverage new social tools online. This led him to co-found Under30CEO.com. A website dedicated to inspiring young entrepreneurs and providing them with the resources needed to succeed on their journey. Jared has led Under30CEO to be featured on the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and also Yahoo! Finance to just name a few. Jared is always open to networking and he can be found on Twitter, Facebook. So just feel free to shoot him a message and if you happen to be in New York City, he‘s always down for grabbing a drink. So, thank you so much Jared for being on today‘s podcast.
Jared: No. Thank you for having me.
Franziska: All the way from New York City.
Jared: Right, yeah.
Franziska: My favorite city. One of my favorite cities in the world.
Jared: Good. That‘s what I like to hear. We love it here.
Franziska: Yeah, I know. I love it. I love it. So Jared, just tell us a little bit more about Under30CEO and also how you came up with the concept.
Jared: Right. Well, actually it happened right out of college about three years ago now. Myself and my business partner, Matt Wilson, we graduated in 2008. I had a finance degree. That‘s when the markets were really doing poorly. No one was getting jobs especially in finance. We moved back home living with our parents, just back in… Not in New York City but outside the city a couple of hours so a very quiet area and we were bored. I mean we were just so bored and we couldn‘t find jobs and we missed that sort of… We missed that exciting environment of college. There was business clubs and entrepreneurship clubs and just people were always trying to create things. It was exciting and you were around people that just sort of wanted to take over the world. And we lost that moving back home. So we said, how can we create that? Or how can we find people that are still thinking that way and connect with them? And that was the original idea behind Under30CEO was just whether… They may not be in our town, but there‘s got to be people across the country, around the world, wherever, that we can connect with online who were simply doing stuff like this. Who were starting companies. Who were in our same situation where they‘re out of college, living at home and trying to do something but just haven‘t figured out life yet. That‘s all we wanted to do. We started connecting those people. We built sort of a little social network with Under30CEO and after three years later, it‘s all about content now and we publish a lot of business advice content, inspiration for young entrepreneurs and we‘re all about helping them find the resources and the motivation to succeed. But, it really started on a whim of just wanting to connect with people. Wasn‘t even meant to be a business. But people liked the idea. They liked what we were doing so we said, “Hey, maybe we should take this seriously.” And we‘re still around a few years later. So I guess it was a good thing to sort of jump out there and just start doing led us to what we are doing today.
Franziska: And I guess the reason why you‘re probably still around is because it is a great site and it does have a lot of fantastic content and I‘m super excited to be providing content to the site because I think you guys are doing just such a high quality job with Under30CEO.
Jared: No, that‘s great. We‘re happy to have you contributed today. But yeah, that‘s all we do all day is we put a lot of focus on the quality of the content, finding more of it, of course, and still today, looking for ways to expand into different areas and cover things even better because there‘s a lot of stuff I know that we miss sometimes, but that‘s part of growing and learning. I hope we just get a little better every day.
Franziska: A little side note here. When you moved home in 2008, I‘m sure your parents were a little bit worried because of… You had a financial degree and the financial crisis was really bad.
Jared: Oh, no. They definitely were. But that‘s why they actually… They supported… Both of our parents, I guess, supported us through starting this because they said, well honestly, there didn‘t seem like there was a lot of better opportunities. So they‘re like, “Rather than sit around and just fill out job applications and try to improve our resumes, trying something sounds great because I really don‘t know what else you guys are going to do right now anyway.” So they were kind of excited to see us taking a little initiative and just trying to put ourselves out there in different ways. So, it was a good time for that support, too, because they also realized that, yeah, they didn‘t know what the other option was at that point.
Franziska: The other option was sitting on the couch and watching TV shows probably so they must have been a bit excited for you guys to do something different.
Jared: Exactly.
Franziska: Both of you, Matt and yourself, you‘re very passionate about inspiring young entrepreneurs. So, why the focus on young entrepreneurs? And also another question. Do you have older entrepreneurs amongst your community?
Jared: Of course. One reason for the focus on young entrepreneurs was definitely that that‘s who we are and it‘s kind of, as I said, the way it started was simply trying to connect with like-minded people who… We were 22 years old. Quite frankly, we were a lot more interested in talking to other people in their twenties doing cool things than we were connecting with the older business generations that… We just weren‘t on that level. We didn‘t have as much in common. We weren‘t at the same stage in life. We wanted to meet people who were just out of college, living with their parents still that we could just talk about the same things with. So that was definitely one reason is it‘s just who we are, but, the other reason behind it was what we came to realize was because we went out there and tried to start something, as we just talked about where the markets weren‘t doing well, jobs, even today, are up and down. The corporate world is not what it was 50 years ago and it‘s not as simple as a process, we want more young people to realize starting a business is just as good of an option as trying to find a job. They should be presented, we think, equally. Not everyone‘s meant to be an entrepreneur. Not everyone should start a business. But especially in the college system here in the US and I believe still around the world, it‘s definitely not presented equally. Not everyone sort of even sees the chance or given the opportunity to go after an idea they might have. We hope to help change that and really show people that, look, if you have something interesting, the best time in your life to try it is when you‘re young and when you‘re in college or just out of college. I mean, take a chance and take a leap and we hope to help push people that way and give them the resources to show that this is… You don‘t need to get a job. That‘s not how it has to be. There are other options. You just have to take a little risk, but there are things you can do.
Franziska: Yeah. I love that because you‘re absolutely right. I think probably all around the world it‘s still not very highly regarded in school or in college to be talking about this stuff and to be talking about running your own business. I know, for myself, growing up in Switzerland, it was totally not even a question. And even when I quit my corporate job, I didn‘t tell my parents back home in Switzerland until my business was successful because I knew it wouldn‘t be a good idea to do that.
Jared: Right, of course.
Franziska: Yeah. And also the other thing I believe is that young entrepreneurs obviously, hopefully, they succeed and then they will be the ones creating jobs for people that don‘t have a job. Obviously small business is driving the economy.
Jared: Right. I mean that‘s exactly what we push forward is we‘re looking… What we try to highlight on the site is the next job creators and the next people who will be the business leaders and will be employing hundreds, if not thousands of people because these are the young people today, someone is going to be creating the next Apples and Googles and whatever it is. They‘re out there. Not everyone will, but that‘s part of what we‘re trying to do and help discover and the more people trying, the more people are going to have that kind of success at some point.
Franziska: Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, you‘re really passionate about this stuff. So, in business, when it comes to business and being in business, what gets you up in the morning? What really motivates you?
Jared: Well, yeah. I think part of it‘s definitely the lifestyle. I love sort of seeing… I love working for myself but I also love just seeing the results and everything I make and do is generated from me. There‘s no one else. There‘s not… I‘m not generating it for someone else. I‘m not seeing someone else reap the rewards of whatever I‘m putting my effort in every single day. I love just knowing that I‘m kind of… Whatever I do… How much money I have to spend on things or the flexibility I have in my day, completely falls on my shoulders as to the decisions I make, the work I put in. I think there‘s risk in that, but that‘s also the excitement for me. That‘s kind of what pushes me forward and says, if I look ahead, I want to take August off in the summer and enjoy it a little bit. Okay, well, certain things have to line up. But it‘s possible. But it all falls on my shoulders as to what do I do the other months of the year. What decisions do I make? I like that excitement. I really like… That‘s a lot of what motivates me and pushes me because it really is flexible, but, it does depend on what I do all the time. That‘s the excitement for me, I think, is its constant… It‘s always the unknown, but it all comes back to what you do and what the decisions you make and hopefully you‘re making the right ones. That‘s definitely an exciting sort of feeling, I guess, for me.
Franziska: Yeah. And I guess because you‘re totally in control of everything. If something doesn‘t go the way you want it to go, you are in control of it and you‘re in control of changing it and vice versa, too.
Jared: Right. No definitely. I like being able to change things on the fly. I like seeing when I have an idea, it doesn‘t have to go through corporate levels and management to get approved, it gets implemented ten minutes later. I‘m calling up Matt, my business partner, and saying, “I think we should do this with the company or I think we should go this direction.” And we can. Literally that phone call can be let‘s go do it. Let‘s go try this. So that‘s exciting when you come up with an idea or you have sort of that spark and moment where you‘re like, “Wow. I think we should do this.” It literally is into action maybe a couple of hours later. So it always keeps your mind moving and it keeps you innovated and want to get to the next step because there‘s no road blocks. The only road block is how many ideas you can come up with and what you can think of. I mean that‘s the only thing holding you back so that‘s exciting, too.
Franziska: Do you sometimes have days when you just think, oh, I wish I didn‘t have so much responsibility because if you‘re employed, sometimes you don‘t have any responsibility and… Do you sometimes get that feeling?
Jared: I get that feeling when things aren‘t going well. That‘s definitely when. Being in business for yourself, it‘s a roller coaster. There‘s good weeks, there‘s good months. But there‘s bad months and weeks and… Sometimes hour by hour is bad and one sales call is great. The next sales call is awful. But, so, yeah, definitely when things are going badly, I sure wish it was because of someone else‘s decision. But it‘s not.
Franziska: Exactly. And I think a lot of business owners feel that way. And I‘m wondering because you are obviously around a lot of business owners and working with a lot of business owners through your Under30CEO as well, what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see start-up businesses make? And also, how can they avoid those mistakes?
Jared: Yeah. I think that there‘s always a list of mistakes but I think one thing I see is kind of what I was just talking about with myself even. Definitely a trap we fall into is just a lack of focus on what… You can do anything. Again, you literally can have an idea and implement it ten minutes later when you‘re running a company and when you‘re in business for yourself. But, what are you focusing on things and the lack of focus to say, “What is making me money and what is pushing me forward every single day. Every minute of every single day.” You can‘t constantly go in 100 directions. You can‘t implement new ideas every single day or one of those things is never going to do well. One of those things is never going to be pushed over the top. You have to have a focus on what are the core pieces of your business and what is really going to be producing those revenues and pushing those numbers forward. Because that‘s the only way you‘re going to survive if you do focus on a certain area. So, it‘s fun to have that flexibility. But you have to have that ability to reel it in or to just say, “no” at times and be like, “All right. Maybe if we reach a certain level, we‘ll put that idea into play. But right now, we have to keep focus and we have to make sure that whatever this core piece of the business is, that has to move forward.” So it‘s great to be creative, but you have to be able to reel it in and I think that‘s a challenge for a lot of people starting companies. You always have 1000 ideas, but you have to be able to focus on certain things. I think for even before the early stages of businesses, we‘d see this all the time with young people where the failure to even start and the delays that go into even starting the company because whatever it is. Being nervous, trying to produce that perfect product and just… They don‘t think they have the resources. They don‘t think they have… Things don‘t look or feel perfect, so they‘re scared to put it out there when you just have to launch. You have to put it out there as quickly as possible. The biggest companies in the world and you hear about their earliest days, it usually wasn‘t meant to take over the world. It usually wasn‘t dreaming about a billion dollars. It was kind of messing around. It was kind of throwing something out there to a couple of friends and saying, “Hey. Look at what I created last night or what I spent the weekend working on. What do you guys think of this?” That‘s how a lot of the biggest businesses we see every single day out there, that‘s their early story. It wasn‘t, oh, I spent two years finely tuning this product and half a million dollars and then we just launched the perfect thing. We haven‘t changed it since then. So, one of the biggest mistakes I see young people make all the time is they just don‘t even launch their product or they don‘t launch quick enough and they put themselves 18 months in the hole of producing something when that could have been 18 months actually getting feedback, actually producing revenues. So I think those are two big areas is when you‘re in business, it‘s that lack of focus because I guess as entrepreneurs, we all have a million ideas and you got to pick directions. And then even before you‘re in business, so many young people are just so hesitant to launch because they want all the details right, but, as anyone I think tells you out there in the business world, the details are never right. Things will always be changing. The most important thing you can do is simply put your product on the marketplace and you have to just start seeing what people think of it and what your target audience is going to say back to you. That‘s how you start taking steps forward.
Franziska: I think those are really… Two really important areas that you mention. And you mentioned it actually at the beginning when you said a lot of people don‘t even get started. And it probably is because they‘re scared of failing. It‘s probably not even that they need everything to be perfect. That is obviously the excuse, but really what‘s probably holding them back is that they‘re just scared that they could fail.
Jared: I think that‘s completely true because they want things to be perfect because they… If it‘s not perfect, it‘s going to fail. They don‘t want to take that risk and they say, “I can‘t put this out there because if it‘s not perfect it will fail.” But that‘s what they‘re scared of. They‘re scared of that bad Email. That bad comment because something from the company didn‘t work perfectly, so someone actually has negative feedback for them. That‘s the scariest thing in the world, but, what happens is to all these people. You end up still getting that negative feedback from someone. It always happens and it doesn‘t matter if you spend 24 hours putting your business together or two years, there‘s still going to be something that is off and something that needs improving. It just never is perfect. But, yeah, you can‘t be scared to just throw it out there and see what people have to say, good or bad, because that‘s how you will get it at least as close as possible to being perfect when you start seeing negative and positive feedback come in. But, you‘ve got to start. That‘s what it‘s all about is just getting out there.
Franziska: Exactly. And you also spoke about focus and I think that‘s a huge one for any business owner. I mean for myself, too. I personally have a little note on my laptop that says… On the note it says, “Is this bringing me closer to fulfilling my vision?” Because if I do something say, I‘m wasting time on Facebook, and I look at my note and it asks me the question, “Is this bringing… Is this activity bringing me closer to fulfilling my vision?” It‘s like, no, probably not. But it also helps me if somebody approaches me to do something, a joint venture or something and if I‘m not really sure if it‘s a right fit, all I have to do is go back to my focus question and asking me, “If I do this joint venture, is it going to bring me closer to fulfilling my vision or not?” And it‘s helped a lot I think with my focus and how I manage not to get dis-focused (let‘s invent a word here).
Jared: Right. I think that‘s a great tip is something as simple as that to help maintain that focus. Because again, it‘s just… You‘re at the top. There is no boss saying, “These are the five things you have to do today.” You can potentially do anything that lack of… It‘s very easy to get off track within your own company. So, focus is so critical and I think that‘s a big reason a lot of people… It comes down to the execution of the idea. The execution of the business and that‘s why a lot of companies don’t work out is because people get pulled in different directions. They spend too much time on projects that aren‘t actually producing money. That aren‘t actually getting them closer to that vision. They may think they‘re helping, but anyone could come in and look at them and say, “How many hours did you spend yesterday on that which maybe did nothing for your actual business or your bottom line.” So, it‘s a huge challenge I think because there is no one there to sort of cover you. It‘s also great advice to get mentors and to have those third parties that will take a look at what you‘re doing on a monthly basis even and just say, “Show me what you did yesterday.” Or, “Show me what you did this month.” They will tell you very quickly if it‘s wasted time or if it is pushing you forward and they‘ll ask those questions which you might be a little blind to at times. But having that third party insight is usually really positive to help with that focus.
Franziska: Yeah, and you know what, that‘s really one of the best tips that I‘ve ever given and received is exactly that. Get mentors because you don‘t have to do this stuff alone. There is people out there that have done what you have done or that still have done what you want to achieve. And it makes such a difference to have a mentor, I believe. Or to at least read lots of books and go to Under30CEO and read the blog posts and interact with people. I think it makes a huge difference.
Jared: I completely agree.
Franziska: Now, our listeners, they love obviously hearing about marketing because that‘s our area of specialty and so I always ask our guests on the show, how do you promote your business? And what made you guys become leaders so fast in your industry?
Jared: Right. For ours, it‘s kind of easy almost at times. We produce so much content. Content is the easiest thing to promote online because we use all the social media channels. The business was basically built on Facebook and Twitter in the early days. But the big reason was, we had a lot to talk about. Because there‘s new content published every single day. Today, these days, we publish two articles a day, sometimes three. So there‘s lots to talk about on social channels. So it‘s very easy for us to constantly keep conversations going. To have new things to push out there. New things to talk about. And, of course, being online, things like… We don‘t even focus on SEO or any sort of stuff like that. But just by default of publishing so much material, again, it reaches people in corners of the world that we don‘t target at all. But of course, on the Internet anyone can find anything. And when you publish thousands of articles, stuff does find its way out there and some of them do well in different areas. But, you said like how… It‘s kind of how we broke into it so quickly was really, it was a lot of networking. It was a lot of… I don‘t go to many networking events today. I don‘t go to many… I sort of fine-tuned again for the whole point of focus. I can‘t be at an event every single night. Maybe once a week I go to things. But a couple of years ago, we were out as often as possible, especially here in New York City, just constantly trying to meet people and constantly trying to meet press and investors and just influencers. People that we knew on social media or that we knew were big bloggers in the space and when they had an event or when they were speaking somewhere, we would try and meet them because getting mentions and getting Tweets and getting written up from those influencers, that was a big part of our growth a couple of years ago. Was just getting off the ground. Sort of associating with some of the more credible people in our space. So that was kind of the early days. The early days was a lot of networking and just putting ourselves out there to meet people. But like I said, just being in the content business, we have so much to talk about every single day online that there hasn‘t been a lot of tricks, I guess, to our success. There‘s a lot going on on the site so there‘s always a conversation. Under30CEO you‘ll always find us on Twitter and Facebook talking. And by default, that helps us get out there a lot.
Franziska: Absolutely. And I love that you mentioned networking and networking has helped you build connections and relationships with important people. Is that also how you got to be featured in a lot of media? Or do you have any little tricks for our listeners about how to go about to get into the media?
Jared: Right. Well that‘s… Really that was exactly how we got into a lot of the media. One thing for us that‘s done really well is because of what our business talks about. Helping young people and again, it was very sort of a time leap storyline where young people looking for jobs. The unemployment rate‘s high. Other career options. Other life options. It was a natural storyline for kind of what‘s hot in the media in the first place. So, our business, being in that space, really… It led to a lot of opportunities because people sort of view us as the experts and I think that‘s something for anyone who wants press. Is you need to be an expert on something. That you have to be… We never pitch. We don‘t do press releases. We simply offer ourselves as sources for the media. So, one thing we‘ll do is almost all media outlets… We have a connection with, I don‘t even know at this point, hundreds of media outlets but simply we say to them, “Hey guys. No press release, but can we help you? Is there any young people you‘d like to talk to? If you have a story for young people we can probably help connect you to a cool company or to someone in any industry, any demographic that you‘re looking for.” We try to just be a source and just by being a source, we end up with our own opportunities and eventually they come around and say, “Hey guys. We have a story this time that actually fits exactly what you do. But we thought of you first because you helped us write the last four pieces we did about other young entrepreneurs and other areas or other demographics.” So I think that‘s one area. Is yes. We have a timely story just because of the trends in the first place. And we do. We meet people out networking but again, I think the way we… It‘s great to meet someone at a networking event, but it doesn‘t mean those relationships go anywhere. You don‘t want to go pitch every single person you meet. But we just say, “Hey. We‘re an expert on young people in business. If you‘re doing stories on that, just let us know. Be happy to connect you with anyone in any walk of life that you need.” So that‘s a really good way to form like a friendship with someone in the press. And then eventually there‘s stories and opportunities for ourselves just come around that way. I think that‘s my tip right there is be that expert and just offer yourself out there to not a full page press release pitch, but just say, “Hey, if you need some insight on this industry, I‘m happy to find other people. If you‘re looking for other focuses. Or, I‘m happy to give you my one-liner or two.” Eventually you‘ll get your full piece interviews. You‘ll get your full stories when the time comes. But, I don‘t recommend press releases and things like that. I recommend build a relationship and help that reporter and eventually you‘ll get some help too, and you‘ll get your piece.
Franziska: I love that. I think that‘s a really awesome approach and nobody has ever actually spoken about that so thank you so much for sharing it. So, do you pretty much, when you talk to your journalists, reporters, or you meet them at an event, do you even call them and say, “Hey, look I‘ve met you. Blah, blah, blah. I would love to help you out if you write about my area of expertise. If I can help you, I‘d be happy to help you.” Is that pretty much how you do it?
Jared: Right. Yeah. I mean I generally, these days, I don‘t even mention… I won‘t even say writing about myself or writing about Under30CEO. I just say, “Hey. We are…” And again, we want to position ourselves as go-to people in this space so I just say, “Hey. If you‘re looking for anyone in this space. I‘m just here to help you find them.” I don‘t even care if they write about us or not. That‘s a goal that, yeah, if it ever happens, but of course, we keep track of these people. We have a list of our contacts in the press and we‘ll once a year Email to every single one of them and just say, “Hey. Just seeing how you‘re doing. Just reminding you if you‘re ever looking for some help or if you‘ve ever looking for someone in the young business space, we‘ve expanded our network here. We‘ve met some cool people in these areas. If you have any stories, let me know and I‘m happy to find someone who can maybe fit or the coolest young person you could interview I‘d be happy to intro you to them.” And I don‘t even mention us. But more often than not, 95% of the time, all of those people, they either by default will just mention us in that article as they were led to the person because of us and because of our website. Or, just I guess that karma comes around, not quickly, sometimes it‘s taken years. But eventually, we‘ll get that full 20-minute interview or that full piece. But we just want to be experts. We just want people think of I need a young business person doing something cool. Guys at Under30CEO are the ones to call. And that‘s all we want. That‘s all we‘re looking for. And everything else just sort of falls into place. But I think it‘s a good way to approach it and I think you never lose any contacts because every single reporter is like, “Sure. I‘ll note you down. I‘ll put you on my list for that sort of source.” That‘s further than a lot of people get with reporters. Even being jotted down somewhere and just being referenced somewhere so I think it‘s rather than going for the gold of that full interview on Day 1, becoming that source, you‘ll get a lot further with a lot more people. So that‘s just how we‘ve approached it.
Franziska: Yeah. I love it. It‘s better than being on the black list. I love it.
Jared: Anyone who‘s ever approached the press before. And I mean we work in the press, too. We obviously cover a lot of young people and we see pitches all the time. But, it‘s very easy to get on the black list. You don‘t even have to be intentionally doing it, but it‘s just reporters see so… They get asked for so much. And people are very quick to ask them for things but are not very quick to help them in any way. And I think it‘s one of those things where you don‘t mean it. You don‘t necessarily mean it. But just the way sometimes people come off because reporters sees a hundred pitches a day, you could just be the wrong time, the wrong place and they just hate the way you worded something and they just have a grudge against you forever. And it‘s not necessarily… You didn‘t mean it at all. You had good intentions but that‘s what happens because you just don‘t know the last five pitches they read, might have just put them in a bad mood.
Franziska: Exactly. I actually spoke to one reporter recently and he said if somebody, because he‘s got a bit of a funny name. He said, “If somebody spells my name wrong in an Email, that person is straightaway banned pretty much.” He‘s not interested straightaway. Pretty harsh.
Jared: Oh, I completely… The thing is, it‘s little things like that because again, as a reporter, you usually have so many options because so many people are reaching out to you. It‘s the smallest things that turn you off from someone because there‘s a hundred other people who maybe didn‘t make that mistake and there‘s just so many options for you as a reporter that it doesn‘t take much to sort of turn you in the wrong direction because there‘s just not a lack of people trying to get covered and trying to get press. So, yeah, it‘s very easy to go the wrong way and it‘s not usually intentional, but, it‘s just the nature of the business. So we kind of have taken a different approach to our relationships with the press.
Franziska: Yeah. I love it. Thanks for sharing that. Now, in regards to Under30CEO, has your vision changed since you‘ve started?
Jared: The core vision hasn‘t really changed. The way I think we execute the vision definitely has adapted a lot. I mean from Day 1 it‘s been all about, as I said earlier, just sort of promoting entrepreneurship to young people and helping more people realize that this is an option in life. That sort of vision hasn‘t changed. I don‘t think at all. How we‘ve done it definitely changed. As I said, it started as a social network. That doesn‘t exist at all anymore. We‘re a content site and have been for a couple of years now. But even today, we‘re branching into local cities. So, we‘re launching… We have a local New York site now to go along with local events here in New York and we hope to expand to other cities in the US and eventually maybe around the world. So the way we‘re approaching this and the way we‘re executing on the vision definitely is constantly adapting but I‘m sort of, I guess, I don‘t know if I‘m happy or proud to say that the core concept of what our kind of mission is every single day it‘s been real steady and it‘s really been the same thing for three years. We‘re just trying to find ways to better deliver it, I guess, on a daily basis.
Franziska: Awesome. And so where do you see the future?
Jared: The future is definitely, as I was just saying, all local. We are really trying to get into the local scenes here in New York and we will be really focused on New York City for probably the remainder of this year. And I think we have a lot of cool ideas at local levels of how to really make… Showcase that young, innovative disruptive scene within cities. Because there is just so much going on that you never would even realize or hear about. And even just the resources available. But the young people doing cool things and there‘s just so much to talk about in cities around the world and that‘s really the future for us right now is just going, taking this thing local and really getting to second and third levels in terms of how in depth we can write about things and cover things. And we‘re excited about that because we want to find out who‘s the next job creators in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and hopefully, eventually, around the world and in Australia and any other countries. We want to know what very local areas who‘s the next leader of New York and they‘re probably 25, 30 years old today. But they‘re going to be doing something. Everyone‘s going to know them in another 20 years and we want to discover that person.
Franziska: Yeah. I realize that concept of going local because there are obviously a lot of global sites and taking it locally and working with local talent and creating your little hub in New York and then going to other cities like you said Boston, San Francisco, Sydney, obviously and Melbourne. I think that‘s a very exciting future for even young entrepreneurs to have that hub and to have that maybe offline connection with people, too. It‘s not just about being online. It‘s also about meeting people offline and making those connections.
Jared: Right. Exactly. And yeah, just as I said before, in terms of the mission that has stayed the same, but local for us is another way that we‘ve just… We‘re seeing more opportunity to just prove at how we deliver that mission and that means connecting people and holding events but, of course, events don‘t work at a national level. Events work… They start local and you start in local areas. The local sites. Again, it‘ll help us be a little more in depth with our coverage. Which is only better for young people reading it all around because again, we need to cover every little opportunity and every small thing that‘s going on. So, yeah, the mission doesn‘t change but we‘re hopefully always innovating and creating new ways to better deliver on that promise and what we‘re trying to do.
Franziska: I‘m very excited about that stuff. So where can people find out more about Under30CEO and you guys?
Jared: Well, yeah, obviously of course they can go to Under30CEO.com. But we‘re also… I‘d say Twitter is a huge way. We‘re very active. I‘m either following @Under30CEO or @jaredotoole on Twitter. And, of course, you can find our Facebook and LinkedIn. Everything there is on Under30CEO.com. Just on the About Us page I think it is. Our Email addresses too. I‘m always open to talking to anyone if they have a pitch for me or if they just want some advice or they just want to see what‘s up, I‘m always happy to connect with people.
Franziska: Awesome. Well you might get some fan mail after this show. Do you want to give your Email address on the show or should we keep that on the website?
Jared: Oh, yeah. It‘s just [email protected]. So yeah, it‘s out. There it is and it‘s on the site, too. And obviously people can always reach me on Twitter and ask for it, but, yeah, I‘m pretty easy I think. Or try to make myself fairly easy to get in touch with.
Franziska: Awesome. Well thank you so much for your generosity and thank you for being so available, too.
Jared: Definitely. No problem. Happy… Always looking for opportunities and I think you get them by meeting people and talking with people.
Franziska: Absolutely. Thank you so much for being on the show, Jared.
Jared: Oh, thanks a lot for having me. This is a good time.
Franziska: Thank you. Bye. See you soon.
Jared: Bye.