We chat with Kevin Bennett, a successful entrepreneur who helped grow Caribou to a billion-dollar company. Now, he's back with Further, a platform focused on helping people afford their first homes. Kevin shares important lessons for early-stage founders and gives practical advice for growing a business.
We Discuss:
Product vs. Distribution: Kevin explains why both product development and getting your product to customers are equally important.
Experimenting with Marketing: Kevin talks about the need to test different marketing channels and how to do it quickly.
Evaluating Marketing Channels: Kevin shares a simple framework to decide if a marketing channel is worth investing in:
Does it resonate with your audience?
Can it scale as you grow?
Are the economics (costs and returns) good?
How stable is the channel or partnership?
Speed and Cycle Time: Kevin emphasizes the need to test ideas fast and make decisions quickly.
Strategic Partnerships: Kevin talks about the value of finding strong partners who can help your business grow.
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Streamline your lending application pages with 2-fields.
If you’re anything like us, friction on application pages makes you nauseous.
It makes your CACs go up. It makes your volumes drop. It causes your CFO and CEO to say mean things.
The trouble is, application friction isn’t easy to fix. Your prod/eng is busy. We get it.
Spinwheel’s APIs streamline a lending application form with just a phone number and a birthdate - like magic (but it’s really just smart tech)! Then you get a 20-30% lift in your application rate.
Additionally, they can give you real-time, verified consumer credit data and seamless payment processing, which can help you serve customers beyond the initial application.
To see a demo, click below to connect with their Head of Growth and see this thing in action.
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=jan
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction to Early Stage Scalability (02:13) Strategies for Early Stage Distribution (05:04) Experimentation and Learning in Marketing (14:43) Strategic Partnerships and Scaling (26:26) Kevin's Current Venture: Further (28:14) Conclusion and Podcast Wrap-Up
Where to find Carlos:
About the host: Carlos Caro is the founder of a New Market Growth, an agency focused on helping fintech lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Contact him at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.