ActionsTalk

#44 Gravity’s “Interest Graph”

Blake Samic — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:58:51 +0000

Last week Michael Arrington of TechCrunch interviewed an exciting new startup “Gravity”, founded by some ex MySpace execs. Gravity discusses how they are building the Internet’s “Interest Graph”. Read the original post here.

#43 – SocialDreamium’s Failure

Ryan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:15:41 +0000

A few weeks ago I drove back up to Milwaukee for the first time since my move to Chicago in early August to speak at Web414. I was asked by the founder of Web414, Gabe, to share my experience of failing at a startup (SocialDreamium), a topic that people usually shy away from sharing.

The main reason that I accepted the offer to share this experience and expose myself and the weakness’s of my first startup is the fact that I think sharing, claiming, and learning from failures is likely the single best way to promote trying. Doing a startup is tough and risky but what we need more of, EVERYWHERE, is trying. Eliminating the fear of doing a startup is important. We can do that by realizing that if things don’t go well your career won’t be over, you won’t be crucified, and you’ll likely be better off for it!

I would love to get your thoughts on the talk, please comment!

#42 – Facebook Founder Talks Business

Ryan — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:33:08 +0000

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO talks to Robert Scoble. During the interview he gives his dad, who is a dentist, business advice and shares with us how Facebook is shifting its service yet again: this time to integrate businesses into the social graph. He also talks about the new competition that Facebook is seeing from Google, Twitter, and Friendfeed. Obviously the video isn’t brand new because Friendfeed has since been acquired by Facebook Funny how that works out.

This video was originally posted on Building43.

#41 – Tumblr Founder David Karp

Ryan — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:30:55 +0000

This is the first guest post on ActionsTalk. After a short intermission for your regularly scheduled posts, we’re changing the format a bit so that you’ll continue to get great founder interviews from people that are doing big things and making their actions talk.

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David Karp is the founder and CEO of Tumblr. Tumblr lets you create a blog and the process to do that is refreshingly simple. They are the easiest way to share anything you find, love, hate, or create.

Tumblr is a web service that makes it easy to express yourself online in beautiful style. With Tumblr a user can create a tumblelog. A tumblelog is short-form blog that often consists of mixed media and multiple posts that flow together; the result is often a stream of consciousness of the author. Tumblr is located in New York.

In this interview, Sarah from Pop17 talks to David about his office space in NYC, and the basics of Tumblr.

Tumblr is hosting more than 15,000 custom domain names and you can post any content for FREE, they host all. As of this interview David reports that they have over 305 thousand users on Tumblr, not to shabby.

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Please let us know what you like about the new format, let us know what vids you’d like us to post, and as always, anybody can have an idea, but only Actions Talk.

#40 Flowtown.com

Ryan — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:11:54 +0000

Ryan met up with CEO and co-founder of Flowtown, Ethan Bloch. Ethan’s unorthodoxed approach to his startup exudes through his personality and passion for the startup process. This interview is packed with lessons learned, excitement, a little language (ear muffs), and some good laughs.

Check out Ethan on Twitter @ebloch <— this is the correct link, not the one in the video, oops

Check out Flowtown.com

Shoot Ethan an email or hit him up in the comments & he’ll respond *we prefer this

*If you can’t tell I’m ungodly sunburned in the video. Sorry about that, I’ll be sure to wear sunscreen next time.

#39 – Underground Printing

Blake Samic — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:47:30 +0000

This week Blake met up with Rishi Narayan, founder of Underground Printing. Rishi talks about experiences with past ventures and lessons learned so far with UGP. If you’d like to ask Rishi a specific question, please leave it in the comments.

#38 – Groupcard.com

Ryan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:07:52 +0000

John Anderson, CEO of Groupcard.com is interviewing at a kickin’ Cinco De Mayo party by ActionsTalk host Amber Rae Lamke.

Groupcard is the best online way to send an office, family, or even over seas greeting card. Check it out! GroupCard is a tool that helps you select a great design, invite signers, and manage the card to perfection. For the thousands who sign GroupCards every day, the card is a simple way to quickly show they care by adding a thoughtful message and picture using our unique card interface.

#37 – Comet Branding

Blake Samic — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:09:04 +0000

Blake and Ryan met up with Milwaukee based Comet Branding for the second time, 6 months after our first interview. Since we talked last, founder Al Krueger has expanded the company by adding a new partner, Sara Meaney. Al and Sara talk about how they bring a balanced right-brain, left-brain approach to their clients.

#36 – TeensInTech

Ryan — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:00:59 +0000

Ryan followed up with Daniel Brusilovsky about 6 months after our first spotlight and TeensInTech has made some big moves with an acquisition of a blogging network and the addition of some critical advisers. Plus, TinT launched a conference that was so successful they’re doing one now in the UK.

Thanks again for Daniel for chatting with ActionsTalk. Best of luck!

#35 – Valo Photography

Blake Samic — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:59:22 +0000

This week Blake meets up with Simon and Jake, founders of Valo Photography in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They talk about how they’ve established themselves as professional photographers and how the quality of the product is the number one priority.