From Teenage Tech Dreams to US Takeover: Roei Samuel is Back to Speak on his Master Plan for Connectd by 2025 | S2 Ep. 167

Summary

Episode Summary: "From Teenage Tech Dreams to US Takeover: Royi Samuel is Back to Speak on his Master Plan for Connectd by 2025" | Season 2, Episode 167

Host: Nadia Atwal
Guest: Roy Samuels, CEO and Serial Entrepreneur
Release Date: January 26, 2025
Podcast: Founder's Story by IBH Media

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Introduction

In Season 2, Episode 167 of "Founder's Story," host Nadia Atwal welcomes Roy Samuels, a dynamic CEO known for his ventures in technology and startup mentorship. This episode delves deep into Roy's entrepreneurial journey, his latest venture Connectd, and his strategic vision for empowering startups by 2025.

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Roy Samuels' Entrepreneurial Journey

Early Beginnings: Roy shares his passion for technology, which ignited during his early teenage years.

Roy Samuels [02:29]: "I started playing around with technology when I was 13, 14 years old. YouTube came out around that time, so video content creation was very much the obsession."

First Venture and Success: At 23, Roy founded his first tech company focused on video content creation tools, which rapidly scaled to 8 million monthly users and partnered with major sports leagues before being acquired by Gfinity in 2018.

Roy Samuels [02:29]: "We scaled it up to about 8 million monthly users... we were acquired by a gaming company called Gfinity in 2018."

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Founding and Growth of Connectd

Vision Behind Connectd: Roy founded Connectd to bridge the gap between startups and essential resources like investor reporting and expert networking.

Roy Samuels [04:22]: "With Connectd, I've started to build tools that enable businesses, investors, and talent to make their lives as easy as possible and get the most successful outcomes."

Service Expansion: Since its launch in late 2020, Connectd has grown to serve 4,500 customers, including 800 in the US as of January 2025.

Roy Samuels [04:38]: "We're now servicing about 4,500 customers, including about 800 in the US since we launched here last January."

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Common Mistakes Startups Make

Isolation During Growth: Roy emphasizes that startups often become insular during challenging times, attempting to solve problems without leveraging their networks.

Roy Samuels [05:58]: "The biggest mistake they make is they try to solve all the problems themselves. They don't work on building out the network, getting that expert advice."

Lack of Focus: Startups may get distracted by non-essential achievements like accelerator programs or awards instead of focusing on core growth metrics.

Roy Samuels [05:58]: "They start going for all these accelerators, incubators, awards... but don't really move the needle."

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Importance of Advisory Boards

Filling Skill Gaps: Roy highlights the critical role of advisory boards in supplementing a startup's strengths and addressing weaknesses.

Roy Samuels [07:10]: "Your ability to fill out the people around you with the skill sets that you need... it's so important."

Guidance and Direction: Advisors provide the necessary guidance to navigate blind spots, ensuring startups remain on the path to success.

Roy Samuels [07:10]: "The advisory board, who can guide, who can steer, who can fill in those gaps... it's so important."

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Marketing Pre-Product

Early Marketing Efforts: Roy advocates for initiating marketing and public relations efforts even before the product is fully developed.

Roy Samuels [08:22]: "You can create a buzz without even a product. There's an expectation that you should have built distribution, that you should have built ways to reach your audience, even pre-product."

Monetizing Early: Startups can leverage pre-sales and pre-orders to validate and monetize their ideas before launch.

Roy Samuels [08:22]: "There's nothing stopping you monetizing pre-product with pre-sales, pre-orders, all of these things."

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Future Plans for Connectd

Expansion Goals: Connectd aims to expand nationwide by the end of 2025, building on its successful growth trajectory.

Roy Samuels [09:23]: "We went from 0 to 9 million ARR in just over three and a half years... by the end of 2025 we want to be nationwide."

Leveraging Global Talent: The company plans to utilize asynchronous relationships, allowing them to work with experts across different time zones seamlessly.

Roy Samuels [14:26]: "Find the right expert with the right clinical background six time zones away working with you as an advisor, it doesn't matter."

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How to Get Involved

Engaging with Connectd: Roy encourages listeners to follow him on LinkedIn for valuable insights and to explore Connectd's offerings to enhance their startups.

Roy Samuels [14:46]: "Follow me on LinkedIn to get all the advice that goes into what we've built and then have a look @connected.com."

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Conclusion

Roy Samuels' journey from a teenage tech enthusiast to a successful CEO underscores the importance of resilience, strategic networking, and proactive marketing in the startup ecosystem. His work with Connectd exemplifies his commitment to empowering entrepreneurs with the tools and insights needed to thrive in a competitive landscape.

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Notable Quotes:

• Roy Samuels [02:29]: "We scaled it up to about 8 million monthly users... we were acquired by a gaming company called Gfinity in 2018."
• Roy Samuels [05:58]: "The biggest mistake they make is they try to solve all the problems themselves."
• Roy Samuels [07:10]: "The advisory board... it's so important."
• Roy Samuels [08:22]: "You can create a buzz without even a product."
• Roy Samuels [09:23]: "By the end of 2025 we want to be nationwide."
• Roy Samuels [14:26]: "Find the right expert with the right clinical background six time zones away working with you as an advisor, it doesn't matter."
• Roy Samuels [14:46]: "Follow me on LinkedIn to get all the advice that goes into what we've built."

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Connect With Roy Samuels:

• LinkedIn: Roy Samuels
• Company Website: Connectd

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This summary encapsulates the core discussions and insights shared by Roy Samuels on "Founder's Story." For a more in-depth understanding, listeners are encouraged to tune into the full episode.

Transcript

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[Nadia Atwal]

Hello and welcome to another episode of Top Leader. I'm your host Nadia Atwal. Today we are joined by a very unique CEO who has a history as a serial entrepreneur, as an innovator and a startup mentor. Welcome to the show, Roy Samuels.

[Roy Samuels]

Nadia, thanks so much for having me on.

[Nadia Atwal]

It's a pleasure to be here Roy. It is so fascinating. I read a little bit about your bio and there are people that are diverse and very diverse on many levels but they don't really use their knowledge the way you have done it to then empower others with it. Especially in the world of startups where everybody needs it. But tell us a little bit about your Entrepreneurial journey.

[Roy Samuels]

Yeah. So I started playing around with technology when I was 13, 14 years old. YouTube came out around that time. So video content creation was very much the obsession, as you can imagine. And then in 2013 I founded my first tech company. I was 23 years old, really wanted to go deeper into video content creation. So I developed some tools that help people create videos, podcasts, giving them tools to optimize that content for social, which is really ahead of its time back in 2013. And we got super fortunate with that. We scaled it up to about 8 million monthly users. Yeah, really exciting journey. We applied it to the world of sports and gaming, ended up working with the NBA, NFL, Premier League. Real dream come true for me. And then we were acquired by a gaming company called Gfinity in 2018. Off the back of that, was fortunate enough to start investing in some startups and advising startups as well. And I could see with the companies that I was working with a really clear, strong positive correlation between specific behaviors those businesses were making and the outcomes they were having in terms of their performance, in terms of their growth and in terms of their funding. And those behaviors were really twofold. One was the quality and frequency of their investor reporting and by extension their hyper focus on the core metrics that go into those reports. And the second was their ability to access expert networks of talent. Neither of these things are rocket science by any means, but amazing to see how many businesses take those behaviors for granted even though they seem to predicate success. So now with Connected, I've started to build tools that we've been building for the last five years. Tools that enable the businesses to the investors and the talent to make their lives as easy as possible and get the most successful outcomes that they can.

[Nadia Atwal]

That's your new company, Connected.

[Roy Samuels]

Exactly. So we started building that in late 2019, we launched in late 2020, so about four years ago now and had a really exciting growth journey. We're now servicing about 4,500 customers, including about 800 in the US since we launched here last January.

[Nadia Atwal]

How do you start the collaborations with a startup company?

[Roy Samuels]

So the way that our system works is a business who is looking to grow, looking to follow that best practice, becomes a customer, becomes a subscriber, and they're plugging in their data. So they're plugging in their banking, their accounting, their payment data. So for example, their HSBC, their QuickBooks, their Stripe. And the connected system ingests their entire transaction level history and automatically generates that reporting environment. So often these early stage businesses don't even know what to report on, let alone how to calculate those metrics. It's done instantly on their behalf from the ingestion of that data. And where we're really helping those businesses is we use that same data to help them find the right talent. So for example, if the system can understand that your revenue is increasing, but your cost of acquisition is increasing, here's your performance marketing expert with a background in financial services. If you're a fintech company. So by building this really holistic system, been able to grow in a really fast way.

[Nadia Atwal]

Wow. When you are studying the startups that you're working with, when you're analyzing the good, the bad, the ugly, what do you detect as one of the biggest mistakes that startups are making?

[Roy Samuels]

I think one of the biggest mistakes that startups make when they're growing is they go to insular when things get difficult. I think founders have an idea that they have to try and be perfect early on and almost that their investors, their stakeholders are expecting perfection. But if investors were looking for a perfect investment, they're not going for a risky startup. So I think the biggest mistake that they make is they try to solve all the problems themselves. They don't work on building out the network, getting that expert advice, working with their investors, working with their stakeholders to solve problems. So I see that's one of the biggest mistakes they make. And I think they don't have the focus on the things that are really going to move the needle. Startups get distracted. They start going for all these accelerators, incubators, awards, things which seem great but don't really move the needle. So again, having that hyper focus, working closely with your investors, with your stakeholders to make sure that you're solving problems, focusing on those core areas, that's really where we see startups win.

[Nadia Atwal]

How much emphasis do you put on an advisory board early on?

[Roy Samuels]

Yeah, I think it's huge. Especially if you are a small team, which most startups are, you're going to be brilliant at some things and have total blind spots, weaknesses in other areas. Your ability to fill out the people around you with the skill sets that you need. Again, it's so life and death. I meet these amazing, brilliant technologists. I'm sure you're the same and you're like, wow, what they have built is amazing. But they couldn't market it if it was, you know, water in a desert. Right. So you see this all the time. So your ability to be cognizant. And we were talking about founders before where they don't necessarily have that level of awareness. They need to realize, oh actually we're weak here. Again, that's where they get in trouble. So the advisory board, who can guide, who can steer, who can fill in those gaps. It's, it's so important. I'm sure you've seen that with. We were talking before about some of the businesses you've been working with where that advisory board has been so key.

[Nadia Atwal]

Absolutely, absolutely. I always say very underrated. It's the same with marketing, public relations. You know, as, as I told you often I'm being asked when is the right time to start with pr And I say yesterday.

[Roy Samuels]

Right.

[Nadia Atwal]

You know, so you don't need to have even a ready product. You can create a bus without even a product, you know, 100%. That's the beauty has actually happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Great stories about that. Where a company was just launching a campaign, created a bus and it was no product. And then they had such a big interest and they had to come up with one which sold out very quickly. I thought it was a hilarious story.

[Roy Samuels]

Incredible, incredible. But, but I definitely think today with routes to market being as open as they are, there's an expectation that you should have built distribution, that you should have built ways to reach your audience, even pre product. And there's also nothing stopping you monetizing pre product with pre sales, pre orders, all of these things. And really I think the whole idea of like, you know, spent taking years of building without trying to get in front of people, like it's so old school, it's so, so out. So I agree, yeah, I agree with you on the marketing side, definitely.

[Nadia Atwal]

Well, new year, new plans. So what is in stock for Connect? What are your aspirations and expectations and concrete plans?

[Roy Samuels]

Yeah, so we've been really lucky over the last few years to grow in the way that we have. We've gone from 0 to 9 million ARR in just over three and a half years. We launched in Miami this time last year, now launching in New York and then by the end of 2025 we want to be nationwide. So we're really, really blessed that with the market that we're in, advisors, investors, it's not like ordering an Uber or a pizza where it has to be hyper local. Actually people are open to working cross border. We were talking before about your arrangement working through all time zones around the world. We're very much the same. Startups are the same. So we're blessed that if you are an early stage startup within clinical health, with B2C with a subscription model as.

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[Roy Samuels]

Find the right expert with the right clinical background six time zones away working with you as an advisor, it doesn't matter. We've really benefit from those asynchronous relationships. So we have massive ambitions and this year will be the year that we are on all four corners of the states.

[Nadia Atwal]

Love it. So how can people start to get involved with your company?

[Roy Samuels]

Well, definitely come follow me on LinkedIn. I share all of this knowledge. Of course you can become a customer of Connected, but I really believe in giving as much value and as much giving away as much as possible. So definitely follow me on LinkedIn to get all the advice that goes into what we've built and then have a [e-mail] we've built something really, really awesome and you know we're just motivated by getting the best outcomes possible for startups.

[Nadia Atwal]

Well you definitely believe in giving back, you're leading by example. And with that, you are definitely also a thought leader, not just a leader. Wonderful. Well, it was such a pleasure having you on the show, Roy. And this was another episode of Top Leaders. Join us again next time.

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