My Companies – a list of companies I am invested in or working on

Co-Founder & CEO
www.PaeDae.com

PaeDae is a patent pending platform, set to change everything you thought you knew about online games.

The worlds largest marketplace of public speakers. The speaking industry is $2B/year but over 95% of speakers are not represented by bureaus. SpeakerSite.com helps speakers by giving them the tools and exposure to get booked, and helps planners find the perfect speaker for their event.

acquired by

Co-Founder & President,
BULX.com

BULX.com is the first private sales site for high end home improvement. Founded in 2010 acquired by Dealyard.com in 2011.

Founder
www.BoundarylessBrands.com

Boundaryless Brands is multichannel online retailer operating the brands below.

FastFireplaces.com was conceived as the ‘Zappos’ of the $5B hearth industry. Founded in 2009, acquired in 2011.

Founder, Road of Life | The Keren Emrich Foundation
www.RoadofLife.org

Health promotion curriculum for children. Road of Life has authored and distributed over $70M of curriculum to more than 250,000 children around the world.

About Rob Emrich

Rob Emrich is a serial entrepreneur, and the Founder & CEO of PaeDae.

He has founded and served as chief executive of six startups and social ventures, including Road of Life (distributed $70M+ curriculum), BULX (acquired by DealYard.com 2011), Boundaryless Brands (acquired 2011) and SpeakerSite.

Rob has spoken about his work at Startup Weekend, Lean Startup Machine, Ohio State University, Kenyon College, The John Glenn School of Public Affairs and others.

He is a mentor at the startup accelerators Hub Ventures & Founders Factory, and sits on a number of nonprofit boards.

Rob and his work have been featured on NPR, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Wall Street Journal, PBS, CNN Money, American City Business Journals, major dailies, and countless blogs, as well as the books The Lean Entrepreneur & 21 Questions for 21 Millionaires.

He lives in the mountains of Topanga, CA with his wife, the fashion stylist Kara Kaufman.

My Startup Path

Startup 6: PaeDae (pronounced Pay Day)
(Internet Advertising Technology)
Status: Private Beta
Funding: Investor Backed

Startup 5: BULX
(Flash Sales E-commerce for Durable Goods)
Action & Result: Signed exclusive online distribution agreement with Angie’s List (Nasdaq: ANGI), in less than 1 year BULX became the worlds first & largest private sales company for home improvement products. It was acquired by DealYard.com in 2011
Funding: Bootstrapped
Lessons: The right team is critical, ownership structure matters

Startup 4: Boundaryless Brands
(Enterprise E-commerce, Logistics, and Marketing Technology Platform)
Action & Result: Built e-commerce and marketing technology for medium sized ($20MM to $120MM) distributors of durable goods. Acquired in 2011
Funding: Bootstrapped
Lesson: Focus on the opportunity, not on control

Startup 3: SpeakerSite
(Online Marketplace of Public Speakers)
Action & Result: Built technology, scaled to large adoption but little revenue, three years of 'ramen profitability', ceased operation
Funding: Bootstrapped
Lesson: Take on a big market with a burning problem, focus on one company at a time

Startup 2: B.A. Mensch Consulting
(Digital Marketing and Technology Consulting)
Action & Result: Scaled to seven figure revenue, evolved into next three ventures
Funding: Bootstrapped
Lesson: Be a good person, treat people right

Startup 1: Road of Life | The Keren Emrich Foundation
(Nonprofit, Social Enterprise)
Action & Result: Sold car and stocks, built the first online health curriculum in wiki format, scaled to $70M in distribution to over 250,000 children internationally
Funding: Stage 1, Bootstrapped; Stage 2, Grew to Government, Corporate, Foundation Grants & Major Gifts
Lesson: Meaning trumps everything, do something you care about

My Companies – a list of companies I am invested in or working on

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My Startup Path