FounderBuzz

Transcript by Speechpad

Scott: Hi, I'm Scott Olson with FounderBuzz. I'm here with Chuck Gordon with SpareFoot. Thanks for joining us today.

Chuck: How's it going? No problem.

Scott: Good. Why don't we just start out with telling us who you are and what do you do?

Chuck: All right. My name is Chuck Gordon and I'm the founder and CEO of SpareFoot. I started the company about two years ago while I was still at UCLA, trying to solve a "where do I find storage space" problem.

It's a long story, but eventually we ended up moving to Austin to participate in Capital Factory and ended up staying here afterwards. Today we are the  number one storage comparison website. We actually operate multiple websites including SelfStorage.com, and we've raised about $4.5 million in funding.

Scott: Wow, terrific. Capital Factory obviously it seems to have had had some influence. It moved you from California to Texas. Obviously it was some of the very early seed funding. But maybe you can just tell us a little bit about what were some of the benefits you got out of that Capital Factory experience?

Chuck: Yeah, absolutely. I can't say enough about Capital Factory. For myself and my co-founder Mario, we were obviously very committed to the company and our idea and everything. But we really needed a kind of bridge to help us get to the next level, from just being two kids who didn't know anything to a legitimate company. So being able to interact with the 20 mentors from Capital Factory, all of whom have started and sold companies and can really give you advice where you need it and help you fund you and your idea and your business, was really, really invaluable for us.

My advice to anyone looking at incubator programs is the most important part is not the cash or the free stuff; it is the advice and the mentorship that you're going to get from the mentors.

Scott: Great. Well, obviously it's a competitive program. There are a lot of companies trying to get in. Do you have any advice on both tips for how to stand out as well as maybe what to expect or how to get the most out of it?

Chuck: Yes. The whole program is all about what you want to get out of it. If you come in and you never talk to anyone, then you're not going to get anything out of it. But we came in and we went out of our way to meet with every single mentor, tried to get some knowledge from every single person. Whenever we had any questions at all, we would run it by people, try to understand their perspectives hopefully having seen similar scenarios before.

My advice would be that Capital Factory likes that because that's kind of the point. If you can communicate that that's what you're interested in, if you are, in your application, then I think that is probably pretty helpful.

Scott: I think that's great advice. As maybe a final question, was there anything that you got out of this in terms of advice or directions for your business that you really weren't expecting? Was there something that maybe surprised you coming out of this?

Chuck: I don't know about surprised, because I went in with a pretty open, fresh mind; frankly not having any experience. So everything is new, not so much surprising.

Scott: Okay. Well, great. It sounds like it was a terrific experience, and I appreciate you taking the time today.

Chuck: Yes, absolutely, no problem. Thanks, Scott.

Scott: Thanks, Chuck.