Against all odds: Steven’s journey to entrepreneurship

Pratik

Hello everyone. This is Pratik, founder at INSIDEA. Good evening, good afternoon, good morning, wherever you guys are joining from. I’m here with my co-host Chris Cownden and wonderful guest, which we will introduce in a moment. This podcast is about like bringing your ideas into reality. We are bringing you inspiring stories from founders who are successful in their journey. And we’ll find out like you know how what they did in their journey, which will help you actually learn and bring your ideas into reality. So Chris, over to you man, take it forward.

Chris

OK. Thank you Pratik. It’s been, it’s been since I think it was like in July I met this person in a in a well I have been working remotely for Appsumo since November time and then when I went to Austin I did meet.

Chris

This guest and it it’s been fascinating to see you Steven joining the podcast session today. Talk about your fitness, technology and thank you for joining us on unlocking your ideas. Steven Bell.

Steven

Yeah. Well, it’s super great to be here. Thanks for the invite and even the consideration and hopefully something I shared today is helpful for your listeners.

Pratik

Awesome. And tell us your back story. Like, you know, before we even begin, we want to know.

Pratik

Who you are, where are you from, what do you do? And bit more in details. The audience can actually understand your background and then we can make more about like your professional life and why you created this platform.

Steven

Yeah, definitely. So happy to take the microphone for a second and introduce myself. So my name is Steven Bell. I originally grew up in southern Orange County in the city called Laguna Beach and really enjoyed my time there. And I think because of my upbringing, I was able to meet a lot of people that were successful in business.

Steven

I went to high school with the founder of Quicksilver, the founder of Sanak, the sandals, all their kids and more, and just being in that business atmosphere was always really enticing to me. So ever since high school, I went on to pursue a degree in philosophy at the University of Utah. And the way that I tried to look at that degree was not so much to study philosophy for the sake of philosophy and to not only increase and have a more meaningful life, but also to look at.

Steven

Business from uh, kind of outside the box angle. So since then I came out of college, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I had a few different things along the way that were entrepreneurial endeavors. But I then ended up getting into software sales. And after being at large organizations, I continue to whittle away my whittle myself down to small organizations. And my most recent experience was at a company called Appsumo. And that’s where I met Chris. And the best thing about appsumo is they’re huge. Side hustles. And so that’s kind of what brings us here today.

Pratik

Incredible. So if you see like you know the listeners, any entrepreneurs we bring you here, they have tried multiple things in their career before they find something which is meaningful and they they want to pursue for a long time. So again, thanks for sharing your journey. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur or a founder?

Steven

Yeah, I think what tried to what I’m trying to do to take me from, I guess, what the industry. Also, wantrepreneur to an entrepreneur is just finding something that I’ve monitored a problem for a long duration of time. I’ve tried to do the market research, and it’s in an area that I’m passionate about. And so I think with that trifecta, it finally kind of pushed the scale because one of the biggest hiccups into being an entrepreneur was, hey, what am I going to work on next? And I think that’s because I was chasing dollars or chasing ideas that I didn’t actually care about, and so I didn’t know how to motivate myself to do the next step. And so I think because I had monitored the fitness space for a number of years, that’s what made me finally take the jump and give a crack at trying to build my own successful business.

Pratik

So bringing like you know you, you chose this industry, you chose this entrepreneurship, how did you decide to bring this idea into reality? What actions did you take and maybe that will help people who are in the same journey to get inspired and, uh, learn from it.

Steven

Yeah, so I can share a little bit of a back story to help connect the pieces so that everyone’s all on the same page. So during my time in college, I had a friend that was pretty successful in the Amazon FBA space. We see it on Tiktok, we see all over social media. Oh my goodness, go to Alibaba, buy this product, slap a logo on it, and you’re going to be a millionaire. well-being young and naive, I thought, OK, well my buddies doing really well. Why? Might as well have him help me out.

Steven

Well, that fell flat on its face. Ended up spending $10,000 at a loss, which when you’re in college, that’s a lot of money. And so going forward, I knew that I wanted to be a lot more tactical and a lot more smart about it. I tried to just slap a high sticker price. And obviously as I’ve evolved as a business professional, you realize that you don’t really do that on Amazon. And so kind of what got me to where I’m at today is I have been monitoring Apple forums for about a year because.

Steven

Even though I loved fitness, ever since I was in high school I played high school basketball, club basketball, high school volleyball, the whole 9 yards I was really active. But then there’s a period in my late teens, early 20s that I wasn’t so active, and so I then used an Apple Watch to get back into better shape. Well within the weightlifting sphere, people use common things like wrist wraps for wrist support and wrist straps for grip support, amongst other accessories to complement. Their workouts. And so I always realized that I had to take off my Apple Watch one putting on a risk support. And that kind of drove me nuts. And so I always just wanted to wait around, hope that somebody would build out the product and I can buy it as a consumer for 3050 bucks and call it a day. But I think what really took me from monitoring into action was just opening, opening my mouth at my local gym. I am pretty. I go the same time.

Steven

Every morning to the same gym and after a period of about a year or two, you get to know a lot of people. And so I started interviewing other people and realizing that not only these people on the Internet, but these people in real life have this problem. And so to try to get the ball going, I ended up taking a traditional risk draft, cutting two holes in it and calling that my prototype. And so that’s how I kind of tried to bring it into action. But then I realized in December that I had to enlist the help of a product development firm to kind of really.

Steven

Combat some of the downsides of just cutting two holes in a traditional restrup to really creating the product that is about to release here in January.

Chris

And and where and where do you see that product going next is a massive advancement in the technology.

Steven

Yeah. So I think as far as where I see everything shaking out when it’s all said and done is I’m looking at my first product as even though it’s a finished sellable product that it’s also. Going to be a prototype into other disciplines. And so when I think of sports like mountain biking or bowling or some of these other sports or even just medical risk races, people want to wear their watch. It’s something that we become accustomed to. And why would an injury set that back? And so I definitely see there’s potential and that there’s market research to complement these findings. However, I think that there’s going to take a lot of work to get from.

Steven

Day to see, but I think that’s what I’m excited for.

Chris

Ahead and you and you said before that you were bootstrapped. Is that a route that you’re gonna continue to go on or were you looking for investors to support that research and development and get the product off the ground and into just get some more exposure?

Steven

Yeah, I definitely have thought about the investor route. However, I don’t believe the business is at a point there to tip the scale. I went out on my own. Because I had been working years and years and years of sales, anything from door to door to retail to Sass, you name it. And while I enjoyed that, I realized that I try to be a pocket knife. I look up to people like Leonardo da Vinci and some of these other people that I consider polymaths. Of course Elon is in the news for for this today and so I joined or I created protect as a way to build new hard skills to just kind of have more fun in life when trying to make money. And so while I think that there is.

Steven

Idea or while there is a valor to this idea, I do think that I need to lay a stronger foundation so that I don’t grow too quick and make that common mistake of a lot of entrepreneurs of you grow something that you don’t even have your feet set and then it just ends up crumbling.

Pratik

Wow, so there’s there’s always like, you know, hurdles when you start something new, or exploring your ideas or bringing your ideas into reality. What was your biggest challenge as in founder in this journey.?

Steven

I think the biggest challenge is, I think the biggest challenge is just trying to manage all the various projects. Because you see on Twitter, you see on LinkedIn, you see through podcasts, whatever domain that you need to do XY and Z thing to be successful. Well, how? well-being a solopreneur in this endeavor thus far, you can’t really go out and create a content strategy and SEO strategy. Uh, developed the product market do pre market hype all these different things that I really need to do. And so I think managing all those has definitely spread me thin, but also highlight that I am very capable and have that capacity to manage all these projects. But I definitely didn’t realize how many things I would have to do when bringing an idea to life versus just slapping my label on a product. And so I think that’s the difference.

Pratik

Excellent. So there’s one more thing like, you know, you mentioned that you worked at appsumo and you were like a salesman before. How does how does that skills that you gain from your previous jobs helped you become an entrepreneur? And why you think sales is like one of the important skills that everyone should be mastered at?

Steven

Yeah. So I think appsumo in particular was definitely very pivotal in my career because I was able to talk to so many founders. And you realize sometimes, ohh OK, if this person can do it, I can do it. OK, got it. And then on the other side of the spectrum, it’s like, ohh, this person is really specialized in this area and this is how they’re, it’s hurting their business. How about I go build out that skill myself so that, one, I can advise them more in my role at appsumo, but two, I can have that skill set for myself. And the reason why I think sales is such a pivotal skill set is I think my strongest skill set is talking to people. And if I can.

Steven

Relate to people then like those people can use their own skill sets to help build a bigger mission. And so I have changed my mindset a little bit as far as the chicken or the egg with sales and marketing. I do think if you have great marketing of a great product that that will outpace and scale I guess peer-to-peer sales. But I am grateful that it allows me to build relationships, be confident and asking for help. And knowing when to speak up and want to kind of sit back.

Chris

I agree with you.  I love that connecting with those founders, entrepreneurs, me on the other side of it with the part the partners who were selling non software. But still having that interaction was enough to keep me inspired on my own journey as a as a podcaster and take it into business. So that I love that we got to meet and we were able to leverage what contacts and connections we made apps you know to. Take us on the next journey, what would you say, because I know you said previously that you were couldn’t focus on everything, So what would you say is your top priority right now or for in the next six months?

Steven

Yeah, my top priority right now is laying that foundation. And the way that I’m doing that is by connecting with the people that see the value prop the way one of the ways that I’ve validated the product outside of Reddit and Apple forums is I once a competitor wrist wrap, Instagram, the tagged. Portion and I went through all the people that had their Apple Watch above their wrist strap and I was like OK and so I just left a comment, I’m pretty, I felt like I’m pretty good at guerrilla marketing and and being low pressure. So I just said, hey, if it annoys you that you have to constantly move your Apple Watch our upcoming product might be of interest. I did that with. 

Then also the new whoop strap went into their tax photos because they’re very big into CrossFit and Crossfitters obviously can make one they can damage their wearable when doing wads. Bill Bell workouts the whole 9 yards there. And so with that, I was able to get about 100 people in two weeks to follow my page and give me their product feedback. And so as far as the foundation goes, I realize that there’s a lot of people that have interest, but it’s a very manual work. But if I can put in that manual work, get those people to buy, and then I have actually a, a, a good healthy number of influencers that are so excited about the product that they’re asking for little to no money that then.

Steven

Doing things like ads and advertising can help scale it. And so by laying down that foundation of trust, land and expand, then I can get those people that hey, I have an Apple Watch, but I’ve never used very support, but this seems cool. Let me buy this gadget and and those are the people that are on the fringe, but I I believe that I’ll get to you eventually.

Pratik

Biggest challenge as an entrepreneur is like, you know, being onto that roller coaster ride. But what is something that?Every entrepreneur should have uh that will make them successful in your opinion.

Steven

Yeah, I think one of the common things that I hear in entrepreneurship space, especially around this notion of it, that it’s a roller coaster. It’s definitely a roller coaster. And I’m somebody that wears my heart on my sleeve. And so it can be like tough if I get a crappy sample or if things don’t go as planned because everything has taken far longer than than I ever expected. But I I think. Also, if you flip that in reverse, I just care a lot. I care about trying to complement the data that’s going to help people create better and healthier lives for themselves. And I do believe in very bullish on fitness, wearables, risk, wearable technology and how it becomes a partner or an assistant to a healthier life. And if I can create the accessories that help enable people to track their workouts, close their rings, monitor their strain, whatever indicators that these individual wearable companies. Upset and gotten their users really accustomed to that. It motivates me to keep going. And so I think because I care, that allows me to work the 8 hours straight because I’m trying to do this one thing without having to think, oh, am I putting too much into this? It just comes very naturally and a lot easier.

Chris

I have no experience building a product out, but I can just, I can kind of hear what’s going around in your head. Like, what do I do next? How am I doing it? How do I come up with ideas? So how does Steven Bell stay inspired and stay focused on building the best technology, wearable technology for fitness freaks? Let’s say that.

Steven

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of it just comes from talking to people. Like the most recent thing that I’ve done is I realized that I lost 60 pounds. Yes, granted, I had years of fitness experience. So maybe I had a leg up than some, but I mean most recently I’ve just been talking to people that are in the middle of their finished transformation today and they’re posting really regularly and just hearing, Oh yeah, I don’t use risk supports, but actually my Apple Watch is broken a few times because of sweat it too much or whatever, verbal. And so it’s just I think by talking to people and seeing that people that, hey, nobody else has reached out to this person with 300 followers, they’re posting every single day trying to show that. They’re losing that one pound this week and the like. Here comes somebody random that’s saying, hey, I love what you’re doing, here’s a free product, no strings attached to like help enable you to more safely push yourself through your finished journey. I think that’s a wonderful thing. And I think trying to go a little meta in a way has really keep kept me going because using my own money and not looking at and trying to do sweat equity and trying to show up and talk to people.

Steven

In real life and not hide behind Facebook ads in a way like it’s hard, but I do think that’s what it really connects with me personally as I try to build a.

Pratik

Business, there’s one thing you mentioned about Guerilla marketing. Me being into marketing for a while, I truly understand the power of guerrilla marketing and maybe I wanna a strong advice to all of the listeners out there on what are the hacks that you use to market your product and And actually create that awareness that is required to be a successful entrepreneur because whether it may be you’re selling a service or a product or whatever, you need to build that awareness and if you don’t have budget for marketing, how Gorilla marketing and help you succeed.

Steven

Yeah, 100%. And I think that’s the fun side of business. Like when people think of the recreational side, it’s like how how loco in a way can I get while still being respectful. And I saw an A video the other day and there’s a chiropractic office. They’re in town and they put up a billboard that said best crack in Austin. And yeah, yeah it’s edgy and but I mean they’ve won best chiropractic for years. And in this interview the gentleman goes on to say it’s because I’m just trying to have fun. And then I think you hit the nail on the head like yeah you could put a lot of money into ads, but until you have awareness through like the people that see also the problem solution fit, then that’s just not going to resonate with the audience.

Pratik

Wow. Thank you so much Steven. Uh, I think you covered so much insightful things for the audience here. This this session INSIDEA presents unlocking your ideas. It’s all about helping you find the answers to bring your ideas to reality. I am Pratik Thakker with my cohost Chris signing off. 

You can watch the full episode on INSIDEA’s YouTube Channel and on Spotify. 

Find all podcasts of INSIDEA here.