Hello Everyone -
How was everyone’s Halloween? Too much candy and running around?
I make a point to create lasting relationships with folks I’ve had the fortune of working with. One of which is Dan Reich. Dan and I worked together at Buddy Media back in 2011, and have since stayed in touch. He and his co-founders sold their SaaS (software-as-a-service) company, Spinback, to Buddy Media and joined a rocket ship that eventually sold to Salesforce in 2012.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Dan left Salesforce in 2013, and not long thereafter started his next startup, TULA Skincare. After co-founding the company and using his acumen to get the digitally native brand launched he ‘fired’ himself as CEO and re-focused his attention on co-founding another SaaS business, Troops.Ai. Troops.Ai is a middleware technology that allows companies’ Slack channels to speak with Salesforce’s CRM.
2022 has been quite the year for Dan and his co-founders. TULA was sold to Proctor and Gamble (P&G) and Troops.Ai was sold to Salesforce.
Over his career, Dan has started or co-founded 20 companies. I asked Dan what are the ingredients to founding, sustaining and being successful (it’s not just the return or exit) at leading a startup. His response: passion and curiosity. Are you passionate about the challenge or issue you’re trying to solve? Are you curious on how you can fix or solve it? Are you asking questions such as ‘why not me (us)?', ‘why can’t we fix this?’
Like the folks who mentored and supported him early on in his career, Dan also invests and mentors other founders and startups (Hello, CityRow). Dan uses a straightforward methodology in evaluating whether to support a startup. Is the founder the right person for this moment, is the product differentiated enough and is the market large enough for the startup to capture sizable share? In addition, he makes sure his core, fundamental values are aligned with the founders he backs.
More importantly, and what I appreciate about Dan is the human behind the founder. He’s both appreciative and grateful for his upbringing from being a grandson of Holocaust survivors, which he uses as his life’s ‘north star.’ His grandparents came to America to setup and start a new life after experiencing and witnessing inconceivable horrors. As Dan told me his grandfather would drive 2 hours each way from Toms River, NJ to NYC 7 days/week to deliver eggs, while providing for his family. Dan’s grandparents made education sacrosanct, especially a Jewish upbringing. When he was young, Dan attended his local Solomon Schechter day school. With life coming full circle, this year he dedicated and endowed the school for it to become The Reich Hebrew Academy.
Lastly, my conversation with Dan is making me triple down on this platform.
As I stress with choosing my guests, I love speaking with the business leaders who make it a point to do good while doing well; it’s not an afterthought. Doing good is embedded in Dan’s DNA.
All of Dan’s work both in and out of business allows him to do just that!
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