Calendly: Tope Awotona

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.7 • 31.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2020

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After emigrating from Nigeria to the US to attend college, Tope Awotona worked as a door-to-door salesman and eventually set out to become a tech entrepreneur. He launched a series of e-commerce businesses that quickly fizzled when he realized he had no passion for them. But then he landed on an idea he was truly excited about: designing software that would minimize the hassle and headache of scheduling meetings. In 2013, he cashed in his 401k and went into debt to build Calendly, a scheduling service expected to make about $60 million this year.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New years is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:27.0	Hey, it's Guy here. So what are some of the key traits that successful entrepreneurs have in common?
0:34.0	Why do some people succeed when others fail?
0:37.0	How do you build something with no connections, no money, and no experience?
0:42.0	And can you learn to develop the skills and traits it takes to become an entrepreneur?
0:48.0	Well, to find out the answers to all these questions, pick up a copy of my new book. It's called How I Built This.
0:54.0	And if you love the show, you will love this book.
0:57.0	And if you order before September 15th, I'll send you a free autographed book play to put inside the book.
1:04.0	Just visit gyros.com or howibuiltthis.com to order.
1:09.0	Or pick up how I built this wherever you get your books. And thanks.
1:14.0	How much was it going to cost you to get this prototype built?
1:21.0	A little over $200,000 is what we thought it would cost.
1:24.0	Wow. So I had to empty every single dollar in my 401k.
1:29.0	Use every single dollar in my savings account. I had to borrow a little bit on top of that.
1:33.0	I ended up borrowing a little bit from Linden Club.
1:35.0	At a high interest rate.
1:36.0	I had a very high interest rate and maxed out all my credit cards.
	...

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