9. Ryan Denehy | Electric (SaaS for IT)

The Founder

Ryan Denehy is the Founder and CEO of Electric.
Ryan is a 3x founder who got his start making extreme sports videos. He parlayed that into an online ad network and media company that eventually sold to USA Today Sports in 2008. After realizing he didn't want to spend the rest of his career in online advertising, he left USA Today and started his first software company, Swarm. The vision for Swarm was to build a google analytics type solution for small and medium sized retailers. Ryan sold Swarm to Groupon in 2014. During his time building Swarm, Ryan was selling products through a network of local IT providers. When he realized only a handful of the IT providers he was working with provided the expertise and service level he expected, he knew there was an opportunity for disruption. In 2016, Electric was born.
At Electric, Ryan and his team have a super simple mission - make IT really easy for companies that don't have a robust IT department. For small and medium-sized companies that don't have multi-million dollar budgets for IT, they still want a world-class solution that is going to work with rather than against them. Today, Electric has about 200 employees serving over 300 customers and is seeing incredible growth.
This was an inspiring interview that got me fired up about the future of work and the way companies will continue to evolve with software.
Tune in to hear Ryan's story!
EPISODE TOPICS:

• (2:18) What does Electric look like today (mission, vision, products, size)?
• (3:29) What is your background and what were you working on before starting Electric?
• (10:34) What did your first 6-12 months look like at Electric?
• (18:43) How does the product work?
• (21:26) How do you think about product iteration?
• (27:56) What marketing tactics did you use to get paying customers early on?
• (31:13) How do you think about competition?
• (34:34) How are companies grappling with increased needs for remote work with decreased budgets?
• (40:00) What has your funding journey looked like?
• (45:04) What will Electric look like in 5-10 years?
• (46:13) What do you look for when you hire?
• (53:40) What is your approach to mentorship?
• (1:00:13) If you could teleport back to when you started each of your three companies, what would you tell yourself?
• (1:07:17) What does your morning routine look like?
• (1:12:02) What resources would you recommend to others?
• (1:13:10) Ryan's startup manifesto
• (1:15:38) Ryan's founder nomination

Electric - www.electric.ai

• Follow Electric (@electric_ai) on Instagram // Twitter
• Follow Ryan (@denehyxxl) on Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
• Ryan's learning and resource recommendations

The Founder - www.thefounderpod.com

• Follow The Founder (@founderpodcast) on Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn // Facebook