Prompt Cast
The Journey of Angie Hicks in Building Angie's List
TLDR Angie Hicks founded Angie's List in Columbus, Ohio, starting with a small investment and a vision to help people find reliable contractors. Despite facing challenges in the early days, Angie persevered through door-to-door sales, expanded to new cities, and transitioned the business from a physical newsletter to an online platform.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Angie Hicks started Angie's List after graduating college and receiving mentorship from a venture capitalist.
04:20
Angie Hicks started Angie's List with a small investment and the idea of helping people find reliable contractors in Columbus, Ohio.
08:05
Angie Hicks found the early days of starting Angie's List in Columbus, Ohio to be a challenging and lonely experience, but she persevered through door-to-door sales and eventually found success by placing a small ad in a local newspaper.
11:47
Angie Hicks started Angie's List in Columbus, Ohio, initially named Columbus Neighbors, and after seeing success with a thousand members in the first year, expanded to Indianapolis and hired her first employee, Maggie, who is still with the company.
15:37
Angie Hicks decided to apply for business school after three years of running Angie's List, recognizing the need for perspective and further management skills despite the company's growing success.
19:55
After getting into Harvard Business School, Angie Hicks returned to Angie's List and took on the role of Chief Marketing Officer without worrying about titles.
23:42
Angie's List transitioned from a physical newsletter to an online platform in the early 2000s, realizing the importance of online presence for their business model based on building a community of trust.
27:28
Angie Hicks scaled national marketing and opened a hundred markets in 18 months, learning from initial hesitations about expanding into large cities like Chicago and emphasizing the importance of balancing positive and negative reviews for consumer trust.
31:09
Angie's List podcast episode concludes with a brief mention of listener feedback and a story about a company selling cayenne pepper throat lozenges.
35:23
Managing cash flow is a challenge for the company, but they are starting to break even and hope to eventually transition to working full-time on the growing operation.
Categories:
Business
