Let’s find Kalen Jordan’s next business idea
Kalen Jordan joins me to talk about the next business idea.
“If you made somebody laugh, then you have a spark of what it takes and you just have to work at it.” - Kalen Jordan
Watch this episode on YouTube
Kalen Jordan:
Kalen's company, Commercehero.io
Kalen on Twitter: @kalenjordan
Brian Casel:
Brian’s company, ZipMessage
Brian on Twitter: @casjam
Thanks to ZipMessage
ZipMessage (today’s sponsor) is the video messaging tool that replaces live calls with asynchronous conversations. Use it free or tune into the episode for an exclusive coupon for Open Threads listeners.
Quotes from this episode:
Quote 01:
Brian Casel: I'm really curious about this concept of moving from one business that you spend multiple years on to the next, right? Like Is there any set of criteria or big concepts like, oh, like it's got to check these boxes, whatever the idea ends up being like, it's got to be this and it definitely can't be that like?
Kalen Jordan: Yeah, that's, that's a great question. So I'm sick of recruiting, even though I felt like I did it in a way that I was happy with the way I did it. I just I'm just tired of it. Like it's tired of it. Also, the building model for Commerce Hero, I think, was kind of innovative for a recruiting thing, which was monthly. So you pay 12% on a monthly basis for up to 12 months.
Most of them just charge you upfront for like the whole year of salary or whatever. And so but it would end after 12 months. So after 12 months, they're there, they're done. And if they hire somebody else, then, you know, they pay But I wanted something that is recurring. I was one of the criteria.
I wanted them, the payments to not end And beyond that, I think really beyond that, like, I feel like I've been in like a slow-moving mid-life crisis for like five years or so. And I've just been trying to figure out what I really want to do, what I'm excited about. I, you know. And so basically the criteria is like, what's something I'm interested in?
What's something I'm really excited about? And it's it can be challenging when your interests can change from day to day, month to month, whatever but I think I have a tendency to take an idea and run with it. And then, you know, a year later, you go, do I even want to be doing this? But you got to keep doing it kind of a thing.
Quote 02:
Brian Casel: A big value to a company with their people. Are there network effects? Right. Especially people in like sales and biz dev and things like that like how much can they leverage their network to bring opportunities to the business? And yeah, a company buying this for their employees is almost like buying a network for that. Yeah.
A company makes its employees more networked.
Kalen Jordan: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Community. Yeah. It's a similar, I think, value prop to when you send an employee to a conference, they're going to learn, they're going to you, they're going to learn from the top from formal talks. They're going to learn from networking with people. They're going to be pumped that you sent them to a conference. So it's a kind of a, you know, a simplified version of that.
Quote 03:
Brian Casel: And I've heard that before from other communities like they were just active in the community and then they became a moderator and then. Kalen Jordan: Right. Right. I think that I think could be part of it. Although I've kind of embraced the idea. I'm just going to work solo. I get weird about equity. I get weird about partnership percentages.
But the thing that I'm excited about is not having a product that I have to build. It's just slack and so then it's really all going to be about the network, the people vetting the people, and this, you know, selling it right Like doing the outreach around it. And as I think about that, I go, you know, maybe that's more my sweet spot is like not trying to build the product itself.
Brian Casel: Yeah.
Watch this episode on YouTube
Kalen Jordan:
Kalen's company, Commercehero.io
Kalen on Twitter: @kalenjordan
Brian Casel:
Brian’s company, ZipMessage
Brian on Twitter: @casjam
Thanks to ZipMessage
ZipMessage (today’s sponsor) is the video messaging tool that replaces live calls with asynchronous conversations. Use it free or tune into the episode for an exclusive coupon for Open Threads listeners.
Quotes from this episode:
Quote 01:
Brian Casel: I'm really curious about this concept of moving from one business that you spend multiple years on to the next, right? Like Is there any set of criteria or big concepts like, oh, like it's got to check these boxes, whatever the idea ends up being like, it's got to be this and it definitely can't be that like?
Kalen Jordan: Yeah, that's, that's a great question. So I'm sick of recruiting, even though I felt like I did it in a way that I was happy with the way I did it. I just I'm just tired of it. Like it's tired of it. Also, the building model for Commerce Hero, I think, was kind of innovative for a recruiting thing, which was monthly. So you pay 12% on a monthly basis for up to 12 months.
Most of them just charge you upfront for like the whole year of salary or whatever. And so but it would end after 12 months. So after 12 months, they're there, they're done. And if they hire somebody else, then, you know, they pay But I wanted something that is recurring. I was one of the criteria.
I wanted them, the payments to not end And beyond that, I think really beyond that, like, I feel like I've been in like a slow-moving mid-life crisis for like five years or so. And I've just been trying to figure out what I really want to do, what I'm excited about. I, you know. And so basically the criteria is like, what's something I'm interested in?
What's something I'm really excited about? And it's it can be challenging when your interests can change from day to day, month to month, whatever but I think I have a tendency to take an idea and run with it. And then, you know, a year later, you go, do I even want to be doing this? But you got to keep doing it kind of a thing.
Quote 02:
Brian Casel: A big value to a company with their people. Are there network effects? Right. Especially people in like sales and biz dev and things like that like how much can they leverage their network to bring opportunities to the business? And yeah, a company buying this for their employees is almost like buying a network for that. Yeah.
A company makes its employees more networked.
Kalen Jordan: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Community. Yeah. It's a similar, I think, value prop to when you send an employee to a conference, they're going to learn, they're going to you, they're going to learn from the top from formal talks. They're going to learn from networking with people. They're going to be pumped that you sent them to a conference. So it's a kind of a, you know, a simplified version of that.
Quote 03:
Brian Casel: And I've heard that before from other communities like they were just active in the community and then they became a moderator and then. Kalen Jordan: Right. Right. I think that I think could be part of it. Although I've kind of embraced the idea. I'm just going to work solo. I get weird about equity. I get weird about partnership percentages.
But the thing that I'm excited about is not having a product that I have to build. It's just slack and so then it's really all going to be about the network, the people vetting the people, and this, you know, selling it right Like doing the outreach around it. And as I think about that, I go, you know, maybe that's more my sweet spot is like not trying to build the product itself.
Brian Casel: Yeah.
