#50: Secrets to Industry Disruption w/ Voicemail Inventor Scott Jones, w/Summer Crenshaw & Ry Walker

And…we’re back! Powderkeg: Igniting Startups returns after a brief hiatus with something of an experiment ahead of season two of the podcast. (We’re calling it an “in-between-isode.”) This show features a Q&A-meets-pitch event featuring one veteran entrepreneur and two founders who are earlier in their journey and have exciting startups of their own. Our first guest is Scott Jones, a serial tech entrepreneur and investor who’s perhaps best known as the inventor of voicemail (yes, you read that right), co-founder of Gracenote and ChaCha, and Chairman of the Indianapolis-based coding bootcamp Eleven Fifty Academy. Joining him are two entrepreneurs from Cincinnati: Summer Crenshaw, co-founder and COO of the recruitment app Tilr, and Ry Walker, CEO of the data engineering platform Astronomer. After diving into a few of the highlights and key lessons from Scott’s storied career, we give Summer and Ry a chance to pitch their companies and receive real-time feedback and actionable advice. In the process, Scott shares his expert strategies that should be of use to every entrepreneur, such as how to disrupt your space by “cross-pollinating” ideas from other industries and when to explore new business ideas versus when to go all-in on your best one. (P.S. All three of our guests will also be featured at the upcoming Fuse50 conference in Cincinnati on May 17, which we’re hosting in collaboration with Cintrifuse. This is part of Powderkeg’s new event series designed to help “fuse” together all of the awesome tech hubs growing and thriving outside Silicon Valley. In this episode with Scott Jones, Summer Crenshaw and Ry Walker, you’ll learn: --- How Scott became a successful serial entrepreneurial by always thinking outside the box (5:26) --- The secret to learning quickly and innovating in a space that’s brand new to you (10:25) --- How tilr is using tech to disrupt an industry that’s stuck in its ways (17:13) --- Tried-and-true tips for cross-pollinating ideas between industries (26:15) --- Why Astronomer thinks it’s time for a revolutionize data collection and management (28:50) --- Expert advice on when to explore new ideas and when to put your eggs in one basket (34:52) --- The most important things to do when you start scaling your company (42:37) --- If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud or Stitcher. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes