Arry Yu, the CEO and co-founder of GiftStarter - a consumer platform for crowd-sourcing gifts. Arry’s a leader in the space where creativity and technology meet. She worked as a consultant for Microsoft, Google and L’Oreal before launching her own startup. Listen as Nathan and Arry talk fundraising, working with co-founders, and what her mom thinks of her career. Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? — Jonathan Sposado What is your favorite online tool? — Autopilot Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I just had a baby If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Get away from your insecurities. It’s okay to mess things up - no one else knows what they’re doing either. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:20 – Nathan’s introduction 02:05 – Welcoming Arry to the show 02:10 – Launched GiftStarter in July 2014 02:30 – After 12 years in services industry, Arry wanted a change 03:01 – Won 1st place on Hackathon and decided to launch 04:17 – GiftStarter lets consumers break a product into affordable chunks 04:33 – Contracts range from $2k to $20k each month 05:10 – “Basically crowdsourcing gifts” 05:40 – Makes money on an 8% transaction fee 06:00 – Makes commission on products sold 06:10 – Total revenue in 2015 was $12k 06:30 – Aiming for 50k in 2016 06:40 – Team of 3 full-time, 3 part-time 06:50 – Raised $525k via convertible note 07:10 – Product changed between fundraising round and today 08:00 – Question to Arry’s mom: “What do you think about Arry starting her own business?” 10:00 – Do you ever feel stuck because of angel investors? 10:30 – People expect us to innovate and change 13:29 – Famous Five 3 Key Points: Don’t be controlled by your insecurities - trust yourself, and let yourself make mistakes Accept that your start-up will change as you grow. It means you’re innovating and responding to your market, and it’s a good thing No one else knows what they’re doing either. Do what you love. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives