Knowing startup difficulties early would have caused Brian Verne to quit
Brian Verne · $700k Raised For App That Connects Brands to High School Athletes With Brian Verne of Phantom EP 210 · Mar 30, 2016 · at 20:14
Phenom CEO Brian Verne reflects on what he wishes he knew at age twenty and how naivety helped his early startup journey.
0:00 / 0:25exact quote · 26.0s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I don't necessarily wish I knew this, because I think we probably would have quit, even during our first startup, but just how difficult, you know, it really is to, you know, build a business, and, you know, to grow it, and to see it scale, and, you know, to deal with all the different, you know, ups and downs I mean, maybe if I was aware and wasn't so naive, you know, we wouldn't even be here”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Brian Verne
Verne: Sports brands crave high school athletes over pro influencers
“The brands and the marketers and the retailers are no longer just placing a, you know, value on pro athletes as being influencers. In fact, they absolutely crave the high school athlete segment, but the problem that they have is reaching young athletes at a gr…”
Phenom has about 60,000 high school athlete users
“So we have about 60,000 high school athletes that are using the platform.”
Phenom peaked at over 25,000 monthly active users in early 2016
“Our general, you know, monthly actives are anywhere from, you know, in the tens of thousands all the way up to, we had, you know, over 25,000 monthly actives you know, in the last in the last quarter at one point.”
Phenom users have tagged over 250,000 products to their profiles
“Our users have added over 250,000 products to their phenom profiles”
Verne: Phenom has raised over $700k including 500 Startups
“So overall, we've raised a little over 700,000 between some notes and some equity, and then, you know, now we're in 500 startups you know, batch 16 here in San Francisco, and so that, you know, that comes with you know, a small investment as well.”