253: Surviving a Storm at Sea & Reflecting on Past Startups via Brett Martin of Kumospace (The Innovative Virtual Office Platform)

Subscribe on AppleSubscribe on AndroidLeave a ReviewGoogle PodcastsShare Listen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe via RSSAndroidSpotifyPlayer Embed
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST

Background on Brett Martin of Kumospace:

Brett Martin is President & Co-Founder of Kumospace, the virtual office platform where teams show up, as well as Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Charge Ventures, a pre-seed-focused venture fund based in Brooklyn, NY. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, where he teaches data analytics and technology strategy.

A serial entrepreneur, Brett has spent his entire career building or investing in technology startups, including stints as an EIR @PrimaryVC (NYC-based seed stage fund with >$100MM AUM), Co-Founder @Switchapp (mobile recruiting), Co-Founder @Sonar (pioneering location-based social network), Director of Investments @Appfund (NYC-based incubator and seed stage fund), and @Vice (the multi-billion dollar media company). Brett and his companies have received awards such as Ad: Tech Best Mobile Startup and TechCrunch Disrupt Runner Up and have been featured in hundreds of media outlets including the New York Times, CNN, Huffington Post, Fast Company, The Atlantic, TIME, Financial Times, and Ad Age. He began his career on Wall Street as an equity research analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners.

Outside of technology, Brett has published his Fulbright research in Harvard Business, founded an indie rock band, started a non-profit, and sailed 6,000 miles on a 30ft sailboat. He graduated from Dartmouth College and proudly hails from Ocean City, MD.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

  • [1:12] Brett Martin, 40 years old and currently based in Costa Rica, is the Co-Founder and President of Kumospace, which builds virtual offices for remote and hybrid teams. Brett provides a brief description of Kumospace.
  • [4:35] Kumospace offers some advantages over other virtual work tools such as Zoom and Slack.
  • [6:07] When the pandemic happened in 2020, it gave Brett the idea to create Kumospace.
  • [8:13] His Kumospace Co-Founder, Yang, is also his business partner in his previous companies.
  • [9:24] Big companies like NASA, Facebook, Shopify, Amazon, and other fast-growing tech companies are using Kumospace.
  • [16:12] Brett discusses how Kumospace offers a customizable online work office and the narrative they are pushing to describe their product accurately.
  • [18:21] Having two companies, Brett talks about how he balances his work between the two.
  • [21:31] Even when he was still a young kid, Brett knew he would be an entrepreneur.
  • [23:03] In 2004, Brett graduated from college and started working in the finance industry, but the financial crisis happened a couple of years later.
  • [25:02] Brett explains what Equity Research is all about and what he does as a research analyst.
  • [27:04] Instead of taking over his boss’s job, Brett decided to leave banking and lived in a sailboat for a year.
  • [28:47] Brett shares his story of how he started the idea of sailing and living in a sailboat.
  • [30:09] During his sailing stint, they got caught in a huge winter storm with 15-foot waves that blew them out 300 miles off to sea. This experience gave him an important lesson when facing insurmountable adversities.
  • [33:42] Brett shares another interesting story during his sailing days when they were held at gunpoint twice.
  • [36:28] After living in the sailboat for 9 months, Brett had been accepted into the Fulbright Program in Milan, Italy.
  • [43:36] When Brett was doing the Fulbright Program, he used this opportunity to acquire more networks into the tech space.
  • [44:27] Coming back from Italy, Brett experienced his toughest year in his professional career. He was also able to start his first startup called Sonar.
  • [47:12] His first startup, called Sonar, which is a proximity-based social networking app, had a crazy launch but it didn’t work out.
  • [50:22] After the failure of Sonar, Brett wrote the Postmortem of a Venture-Backed Startup, which he published on Medium.
  • [51:49] Right after Sonar, Brett started his next startup, Switch, which is a Tinder for jobs. He wants to call it his rebound startup and he considers it his next big mistake.
  • [53:26] After stepping away from Switch, he wanted to do angel investing, which was the start of Charge Ventures.
  • [1:01:55] Getting yourself out there and staying in touch with friends and network are just some of the things that Brett did to get these valuable opportunities.
  • [1:02:49] Most people say that startups are very risky, but Brett thinks otherwise.
  • [1:03:37] Brett offers his closing remark for people who want to become successful entrepreneurs.

Brett Martin Interview is Sponsored By:

  • [11:19] Light Years Ahead is a woman-owned national PR firm focusing on emerging brands, exports, and services in the consumer lifestyle space. Based around the US, they specialize in maximizing media exposure for brands and exports, which can then create more sales, brand awareness, and influence buying decisions. The first five listeners of this show that schedule a call with Light Years Ahead to develop a PR campaign will receive $500 off their first month of services. You can email Megan at [email protected], go to their Instagram @LYAPR or check them out at: millionaire-interviews.com/lightyearsahead
  • [13:46] Babbel is a language learning app that has sold over 10 million subscriptions, making learning a new language easier, fun and addictive. Whether you’ll be traveling abroad, connecting in a deeper way with your family, or you just have some free time, Babbel teaches bite size language lessons that you’ll actually use in the real world. Other language learning apps use AI for their lesson plans, but Babbel lessons were created by over a hundred language experts and their teaching methods have been scientifically proven to be effective. Start your new language learning journey today with Babbel. Right now, get up to 55% off your subscription when you go to: millionaire-interviews.com/babbel
  • [39:31] Sunday Lawn Care is everything you need to get the lawn you dreamed of. No trips to the store or hauling heavy bags since they ship it straight to your home. You just need a hose to apply Sunday. You can fertilize your whole lawn in less time that it takes you to watch an episode of your favorite TV show, and they only use ingredients you feel good about, no harsh chemicals, no long waiting periods. Simply apply, let it dry. Sunday’s full season plan starts at only $109, and guess what, Sunday is offering our listeners 20% off when you visit: millionaire-interviews.com/sunday
  • [58:51] Jon Ostenson, Founder of FranBridge Consulting and Top 1% US Franchise Consultant is here to help you explore the world of non-food franchising opportunities today. Jon and his team are part of the largest brokerage in the US and have vetted the market thoroughly. FranBridge is hands down the premier source of the best opportunities in the non-food franchising world. You can hear more of Jon’s story and how he started FranBridge Consulting on Episode 250 of our podcast. Sign up for a free consultation call with Jon today at millionaire-interviews.com/franbridgeconsulting and receive a FREE copy of his new book Non-Food Franchising.

The Fabulous 4 Questions:

  1. 📖📚 Favorite Books? The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  2. 🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? JBL Bluetooth Speaker
  3. 🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Kumospace.com
  4. 💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? PLG growth for multiplayer products

Key Point from Our Episode with Brett Martin:

  • “Partnerships are hard, and if you’re in a partnership that’s not working, I think the main lesson is you got to either accept it and figure out how to make it work, you have to rejigger the terms, or you have to get out of it, but what you can’t do is be in a partnership and be unhappy and complain about it and not fix it because you’re just dead in the water.”

Resources Mentioned:

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST
Want More? Join Our Membership on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!
Tweet
Pin
Share
Share