Brett Knutson creates things that he wants to exist. He created the Hive app a few years ago, because he wanted a social platform to help people meet and hang out (not date). Now, he’s launching a video series called Sharing Startups, because he wanted to create more resources for entrepreneurs.
Right now, the best resource out there for budding startup founders is the How to start a startup series released by Stanford in 2014, Knutson said.
“But it’s old, and they’re not putting out any more videos,” he said. “I’ve watched it a million times, and I want more stuff.”
Sharing Startups will be a high-production video series featuring interviews from various founders and startup experts who have ‘been there, done that.’ Criteria for these individuals are those who have an annual recurring revenue of millions, have a company that has been acquired for millions, or have a company that has gone public.
Knutson is pulling from the extensive network he developed while living in Silicon Valley, sleeping on floors and sending cold e-mails. Knutson said it was his ability to write magnetic subject lines and his background in sales that eventually lead to him meeting some high-profile execs – including grabbing dinner with Steve Wozniak a few times.
“The only places he eats out are Outback Steakhouse or Marie Calendar’s,” he said. “They have a permanently reserved table for him at the Outback in Cupertino.”
He can’t say for sure that Wozniak will make an appearance on the show. He has, however, announced that interviewees include Keith Teare, co-founder of TechCrunch that sold to AOL for over $25 million and Steve McGarry, co-founder of LendLayer which was acquired by Affirm.
“It felt like a waste to know some of these people and not share this amazing wealth of knowledge that they have,” Knutson said.
Interviews are recorded over Skype, and edited by Knutson. Each video will last no longer than ten minutes. The production is sponsored by Knutson’s other project we mentioned, a social app called Hive that is currently being tested at North Dakota State University.
“We won’t monetize this, ever,” Knutson said. “My sole purpose with this is to give back to the startup community and learn more about myself.”
Sharing Startups launched last week. Watch the first episode, a video where Knutson talks about the “first step” in startup-building, right here.
