What were you doing previously and what inspired you to launch your company?

I was a stand-up comic running a company to book shows for comedic entertainers while holding down a day job in Fintech. The company was showing signs of becoming successful enough to quit that day job, but an audiobook came along and changed everything. I listened to Bill Nye read his book, Unstoppable, and was inspired to do something more with my life than entertainment. I wanted to be part of the solution to one of humanity’s big problems, the ones that really mattered.

At the time, I thought that was going back to school to become an electrical engineer and go to work for a company like Tesla. Working full time and studying full time lead to a lot of lonely nights. I had a rare night off and was sitting in a bar by myself. I’m an extrovert who had spent way too much time in isolation, so I was starved for human interaction. But I’m also shy, which makes it hard to talk to strangers so I’m sitting here at the bar, surrounded by people, unsuccessfully trying to fill my need for human interaction on Facebook while surrounded by people.

Building an app to help people with social anxiety break the ice with people around them sounded like a worthwhile idea. It wasn’t until I built a business model for the idea and saw the growth potential and learned that about 1 in 4 people are shy extroverts that I realized I was on to something.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

The pain points vary by segment. For example, our first phase is helping shy wedding guests mingle with less anxiety and stress so that they can enjoy the party as much as the more confident guests. We’re also giving the brides an affordable tool to ensure their guests have a good time and no one feels left out.

I feel like we have a much broader calling though, one that spans all of our potential markets. 30% of Americans are living with chronic loneliness despite living in a world where we are surrounded by people. This is a leading cause of depression and anxiety and is a stress state that does as much physical damage as smoking 10 cigarettes a day.

Social anxiety his affecting over half of American adults, especially young adults, and a lack of constant contact in crowded environments is the leading contributor. By addressing the symptoms of social anxiety and making first contacts more powerful, we can make these opportunities more numerous, less stressful, and increase the chances of a first encounter leading to further planned engagement.

Name the biggest challenge you faced in the process of launching the company. How did you overcome it?

We started a company based on helping people converse face-to-face in person just before Covid made it impossible to converse face-to-face and in person. Covid limited our opportunities for customer discovery, early testing, and even networking. We lost the developer who was supposed to be part of the startup team very early on, and it took over a year to replace him because networking was shut down. We survived by mostly going dormant and waiting it out while doing a great deal of secondary research.

Where do you see your company headed next?

We just launched our first commercially viable product, and we are going to be working hard to test and improve our marketing plan with the wedding industry over the next few months. This market is designed to bring in some early revenue. Our next phase is going to be the college campuses and military bases which are both exciting to us.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you'd share with another founder just starting out.

When you consider your startup costs, don’t forget to value your time. Time is not equal to money because a dollar earned tomorrow is nearly the same as tomorrow’s dollars, but there is no substitute for today’s hours. You’ll never get those back.

On a less philosophical note, there is no substitute for getting out and talking to customers. I wish we had the chance to do more of that in the beginning.

Why Tampa Bay?

I failed at adulting when I was about 22 and had to move back in with my mother who was a Tampa resident. That brought me here, but I love that Tampa is big enough that there is always something to do but small enough that it doesn’t feel crowded or hectic. I also love how multicultural this city is. There are food and entertainment options from every corner of the world.

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What were you doing previously and what inspired you to launch your company?

I was leading strategy and growth for a mobility and AI startup, and also spent time running my real estate investment business in Chicago.

I advised several tech startups, one of which was focused on bringing innovative payments to hospitality. When 2020 hit, on-premise bar and restaurant business was pretty much shut down. Nobody was going to invest in highly intensive capital solutions for payments. And when the industry opened, it was clear the consumer shift to digital and delivery wasn’t going away.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

We help bars and brick and mortar (bodegas, liquors stores, gas stations, corner shops) to stay in business by driving the foot traffic that is so essential to their financial model. We do this by digitizing, marketing, and selling last-minute specials, flash deals, and promotions for the beverage category. We enable these businesses to move idle inventory, limited volume, and expiring products as well as connect new products/brands to consumers through limited promos.

For consumers, we make it easy to discover, explore and save money on last-minute on-site drink specials and promotions happening in their neighborhood. And while doing so, we provide them the platform to support local and small entrepreneurs, get social and walk a block or two to redeem their products.

Our vision is cities with thriving local businesses, good foot traffic, and safe blocks, where people engage socially, instead of isolating themselves at home.

Name the biggest challenge you faced in the process of launching the company. How did you overcome it?

Being a two-sided marketplace, we struggled with figuring out if we’re supposed to grow two markets at the same time, and if not, which one should be first. Were we more like Groupon, or more like Drizly for on-premise? While we sat on some conflicting advice from mentors and coaches, we didn’t give up looking for advisors who had deeper expertise in food and beverage marketplaces. And soon thereafter it became clear that scaling the number of businesses on our platform is critical to bringing the interest of consumers.

Where do you see your company headed next?

Our immediate goal is to launch in Tampa Bay through partnerships with beverage brands/suppliers and start onboarding businesses to OnlineBar through these strategic relationships. We will replicate this model in other major metro areas, first in Florida, and across the nation, in states with fewer restrictions on the sales of alcoholic drinks.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you'd share with another founder just starting out.

Test your ideas/product concept with your target customers on an ongoing basis, and in doing so get early sales commitments. If your prospective customers aren’t willing to commit to a future buy understand why before you spend too much money building your product.

Why Tampa Bay?

I discovered Tampa after attending the Synapse Innovation Summit this past February. I found a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem that goes above and beyond and a local culture that is a better fit for our platform launch.

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What were you doing previously and what inspired you to launch your company?

I was Chief Operating Officer for a large heavy equipment dealership here in Tampa. After we sold the company, I was inspired by the opportunity to innovate in a very old-school industry.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

Heave is a heavy equipment marketplace. For decades, customers would buy/rent heavy equipment through offline channels. Everything is much more difficult than it needs to be. Our marketplace has an ‘open table’ type element where a customer can submit an ‘RFQ’ and they are served immediately with available inventory from the local dealer salespeople along with their contact information.

What gets me excited every day is knowing that we are solving pain points for both sides of our marketplace. I’m also fueled by the culture of a start-up, being able to experiment constantly. Previously, all I heard was “this is the way we’ve done it” and nothing changed for 10+ years. Any new ideas were met with 5 reasons to not try. It was exhausting.

Name the biggest challenge you faced in the process of launching the company. How did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge is first overcoming the fear of starting something from scratch. A surprising challenge to me was truly figuring out who our core customers would be.

When you have an idea and start a company, naturally you are very proud and want to share it with everyone. The term “early adopters” is used all the time, but I like the approach of “who is our product a no-brainer for?” This process allowed us to focus on the core group and get traction much more easily.

Where do you see your company headed next?

We’ve focused mostly on tools for the supply side of our marketplace and improving the salesperson’s experience. Over the next 12-24 months, we’ll be focused on layering in the other services that benefit the customers in our marketplace. Anything that a customer wants or needs to do with heavy equipment will be able to be accomplished via the Heave app: transport the machine, finance the machine, buy an extended warranty, buy parts, and schedule service. We’ll be focusing on that full suite of products and services for heavy equipment customers.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you'd share with another founder just starting out.

When you encounter resistance with your product, it’s easy to get down. But your customers are telling you that it’s not good enough yet. There’s always another move, another tweak. In the long run, this process will help you develop something that is a no-brainer and you’ll be better off for it.

Why Tampa Bay?

This one’s easy - We’ve loved the area and have lived here since 2012.

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