What gave you the idea to create RepnUp?
Today, many meaningful events in person’s life such as getting into college, getting a job, keeping a job and finding a life partner, are dependent on what they “look” like on social media. The idea to build Rep’nUp came from reading articles about college admission officers that review applicants’ social media profiles before extending admissions offers. The articles explained what types of content will lead students to get eliminated from the applicant pool. We thought that we can develop a service that will help applicants by detecting this types of content and allow them to deal with that before applying. When we solicit feedback from friends, they indicated that there are two bigger addressable markets for such service, such as users who are looking for jobs and people who engage in online dating.
What advice would you give someone who wants to make a social networking website?
Try to work from day one with multiple social media networks and not only one.
What do you spend all of your hard earned cash on?
We spend most of our budget on two fronts – R&D and M&S.
Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?
Most of my professional life I spent in startups. I co-founded two that were acquired by IBM and McAfee so I think it is in my blood.
Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?
I look up to people like Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of AirBNB.com a company that created a market that was not there before and build a fast growing business around it.
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Execution trump everything else. Eventually you’ll get a product that works more or less as you thought it would but it is all about getting to the market and succeeding in getting sales/users/partners.
What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur setting up their first business?
First, get a strong team around you. Investors invest mostly in teams and they are looking for an experienced and capable members.
What are your plans for the future?
We are growing at a fast rate and we need to make sure we continue to grow.
Find out more about RepnUp.
