May 2, 2016
Clarence Wooten is a Serial Entrepreneur, Investor and Public Speaker in Palo Alto, California. Listen on iTunes, Stitcher Radio or TuneIn Clarence Wooten's Bio Clarence Wooten is a serial internet entrepreneur who has been creating and building Internet startups since 1998. Back then he co-founded and was CEO of ImageCafe.com, an online superstore of pre-fabricated websites for small businesses. ImageCafe was acquired for $23 million by Network Solutions/Verisign in November 1999, 7-months after launch and just before the dot com bubble popped. After being an entrepreneur based in Maryland his entire career, Clarence moved to Palo Alto, CA in early 2011 -- to the heart of Silicon Valley, with the goal of doing it bigger and better. In pursuit of this goal, he recently founded VentureFund.io where he serves as CEO; and co-founded Progressly where he serves as Chairman. VentureFund.io is a real-time traction marketplace that makes it easy for founders to build relationships with investors simply by sharing a live-feed of their startup's growth data. Our goal is to reduce selection bias and make access to capital performance driven. Clarence is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and was honored as a distinguished alumnus in 2010. In this episode, we discussed: 03:18 - What Clarence does in his day to day roles at VentureFund.io and Progressly 05:18 - Why he's enjoying the work he's currently doing 06:00 - Who inspired his direction to go into business and investing 07:27 - The biggest lessons he learned as a business owner over nearly 20 years in business 09:45 - A story about an early roadblock on his career journey that almost tanked his business and how Clarence pushed through 11:35 - When he began learning about the investor side and the process of becoming an investor 14:45 - Explained what VentureFund.io is and does 15:50 - Clarence defines "startups" 16:45 - Explained the Traditional (TVR) and Traction methods for raising assets for your startup 22:15 - What might be contributing most to businesses that are failing 23:50 - How he keeps pushing himself to new and higher heights Links and resources mentioned: ClarenceWooten.com Clarence Wooten on Twitter VentureFund.io Progressly Clarence's Tool: Techmeme.com Clarence's Fav Book: Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 Thanks for Listening! We appreciate you visiting our site today and for helping to bring awareness to the Trailblazers.FM podcast. Please leave an honest review for The Trailblazers Podcast on iTunes & Stitcher! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to get automatic updates! It’s free! Subscribe / Listen on iTunes, Stitcher Radio or TuneIn