In this episode of Ventures, my guest Cheryl Kemp (founder of https://indifit.co/) and I discuss her journey of starting a company at the beginning of the pandemic, finding co-founders, leveraging no-code technology to validate her idea, pivoting into a completely different business model, providing software for fitness instructors, experimenting with growth strategies, and raising startup capital in 2021.

You can watch this episode below or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts (search for “Ventures”).

In this episode we cover the following:  

1:45 - Cheryl quick intro, background, and high-level description of Indifit.

3:16 - Did Cheryl have the entrepreneurial drive as a kid or did it come later in life?

5:31 - Will’s story of selling pictures of aircraft carriers as a kid.  

6:06 - What kind of work did Cheryl do earlier in her career?

8:03 - Appreciation for entrepreneurs that start restaurants & cafes.

9:02 - Where did the idea of Indifit come from? (Cheryl mentioned this program: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/cleo-capitals-sarah-kunst-launches-a-fellowship-for-laid-off-workers/)

16:22 - Was the program ongoing or a one-time thing?

16:50 - How did Cheryl go through the process of building and validating the idea?

19:14 - Discussion about the Indifit business model

22:00 - A discussion about the no-code/low-code movement. e.g. https://www.sharetribe.com/ 

24:08 - How is indifit going? How are Cheryl and her team doing?

28:20 - How are Cheryl and her team building trust/culture remotely?

31:57 - Was there an “aha” moment with regard to Indifit’s pivot to sell software for instructors rather than be a marketplace?

36:19 - Did Indifit’s no-code approach help with their pivot? How did she surface the data to know when to pivot?

38:29 - How is Cheryl thinking about their growth strategy from here?

43:05 - Fundraising conversation. What has the process been like to court investors?

47:54 - Commentary about the VC industry in general and strategically finding the right investors.

57:22 - What is the best way to follow Cheryl and Indifit online? (Go to https://cheryl-kemp.com and https://indifit.co/ )

Special thanks to our sponsor: https://www.startuprocket.com