Oct 25, 2017
Bettina Hein is the founder of Pixability, one of the fastest-growing companies in Massachusetts. She was also co-founder of SVOX, a profitable Swiss startup sold to Nuance Communications for $125MM. This record may make her success seem easier to achieve than it was. Bettina Hein overcame numerous obstacles to justify the sobriquet “Fearless Founder”. Learn from her as I did. She is an exemplar of resilience, grace under fire and plain common sense. She also has much to teach us about how a startup might best raise money. Whenever I ask angel investors about a remarkable pivot by a founder, there’s a good chance Bettina’s name will come up. Don’t miss this charming and instructive conversation with a star founder.
Here are topics and quotes from the interview:
- Bettina Hein Bio
- How Bettina Hein Found Her Entrepreneurial Path in Life
- Bettina Hein Used to Write Computer Programs in Fourth Grade but Did Not Learn to Code in College; Why?
- Professors Discouraged Bettina Hein from Pursuing a Career in the Sciences
- “If I had to go back, I would probably get an undergraduate degree in either electrical engineering or computer science.”
- “I think I wanted to be an entrepreneur very early on. There's just that example that was set in my family. There's no one in my family that has had a nine to five job ever, except my brother…”
- Bettina Hein Founds an Entrepreneurship Initiative for Students at her University Called Start, that Leads her to Brains-to-Venture, Which Connects Her with Her co-founders in SVOX
- SVOX Has a $125 MM Exit to Nuance Communications
- Bettina Hein Starts Pixability – Looked for Co-founders But Could Not Find Any Willing Takers – How She made Being a Solo Founder Work
- Pixability’s Storied Pivots
- “We help large brands and their agencies place their video advertising and optimize it on YouTube, and we've expanded to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.”
- How Pixability’s Platform Impacts the Viewing Public
- “Consumers like it better, and brands get more out of it.”
- Sal Daher Reads an iTunes Review from HealthTech617 – Asks You to Leave a Review on iTunes
- Bettina Hein’s Advice on Fundraising for a Startup
- Bettina Hein on How Things Change Once a Startup Gets Venture Funding
- Bettina Hein Thinks Founders Are Scared of Having a Board So They Miss out on a Lot
- “Many beginning entrepreneurs are scared of having a board. They fear the meddling in their business. They fear that people will force decisions on them, on the board. I have not seen that ever happen.”
- “For me, often times the exercise of preparing for a board meeting is almost more important than the board meeting itself because it allows me to really think through the narrative of the company.”
- Bettina Hein’s Way of Balancing Work & Family
- Bettina Hein on Fundraising While Pregnant
- Bettina Hein on Marketing Technology’s Crowded Landscape