This month I spoke with Brandon Clarke, who is both the Co-Founder and CEO of StartupAZ, a foundation that connects founders, partners, and resources to support Arizona’s strongest startups, and Co-Founder of Scratch, the first business management software designed for teens and pre-teens to safely launch, run, and grow their neighborhood gigs and side-hustles. We explore the importance of community building and the fulfillment to be found in empowering others, as well as technology trends and the emerging venture capital landscape in Arizona. Brandon Clarke speaks to the power of bringing humas together in a thoughtful and facilitative way. His passion for fostering entrepreneurship and his commitment to helping young minds thrive in the business world shine through in our conversation.
The Interview
Griffin Connolly: Thank you so much for meeting with me today. I’m excited to get your insight, as you are both launching a current start-up and supporting other entrepreneurs in their launch ventures. So, to begin, let’s talk a little bit about your role in assisting other entrepreneurs. Talk to me about StartupAZ, and how you got involved in that venture.
Brandon Clarke: Absolutely, I’m happy too. We launched StartupAZ in 2015. Prior to that, I had started a couple of businesses myself. They were moderately successful, but I also realized I didn’t have much of a network to lean on as I was building those businesses. In 2015, I met a couple of other founders in Phoenix, and we all agreed that there could be better organization and support for entrepreneurs, especially tech entrepreneurs aiming to build big technology-based companies. So, we launched StartupAZ with that mission and vision in mind.
The criteria for the start-ups we support is having a product that’s already in market. They must have built something and have some validation and traction. Through our efforts to identify and support entrepreneurs, we built an experience called the Founders Collective. This begins with a retreat in Flagstaff every summer and then we bring founders together in small 8 to 10 person cohorts. These cohorts come together once a month for what we call accountability check-ins, designed to help them unblock challenges they’re facing. So, StartupAZ’s role is facilitating those experiences.
For me that experience was about channeling years of energy around how important entrepreneurship is generally but then also identifying the unique few that are building big meaningful companies whose growth we can support. We’ve supported about 122 founders over about 8 years now, and we’re continuing to double down on that work and build new experiences to support the entrepreneurial journey.
Griffin Connolly: So, you’ve been supporting technology centric start-ups for 8 or 9 years now. What trends do you see in this space compared to when you started? How is entrepreneurship as a whole changing, especially now with AI and technology?
Brandon Clarke: AI is probably the most transformational thing that has emerged to date. Things that came before it most recently, blockchain, crypto and things in that space, have been noisy, and there’s definitely money to be made there, but AI is very practical, so its impact is far more wide-ranging.
Today, even small businesses rely heavily on technology. For example, if you’re a mom-and-pop pizzeria, technology is powering your ability to sell pizzas and manage your business. So, AI is going to be transformational system wide. In our space, predominantly software-based companies are looking at how AI can enhance their existing product lines to solve problems for their customers in whatever their market segment is.
More generally, we’re also in a world where a lot of these companies are venture backed. By this I mean venture capital is playing a role in providing the fuel to take an idea into a V1 (first version) product and identify product market fit – where there’s a clearly defined path to scale that product within a specific sales market. It’s usually at that inflection point where venture capital becomes an important tool. But we’ve also seen plenty of successful startups launch bootstrapped. Where they don’t take on capital until they, for example, reach about a million in revenue.
The venture capital landscape, especially in Arizona, has changed a lot over the last 10 years. There’s far more venture capital activity now, which is an important signal indicating that venture quality companies are starting to emerge here. We’d like to think Startup AZ has played a small role in that, supporting those individuals trying to build those companies and making connections to venture capital partners.
Griffin Connolly: What would you say from a big picture point of view is the most rewarding aspect of your role with Startup AZ in supporting other startups and entrepreneurs around Arizona and the country?
Brandon Clarke: We’ve been referred to as a lifeline and one of the most important resources in a founder’s life. The lifeline part of it has really meant a lot to me and the team internally. Because starting a company can be incredibly lonely. You come into the experience with a big vision and a big idea and then you’ve got to demonstrate the ability to execute it, and you can’t do it on your own. Having a community to lean on is crucial. So, the lifeline comment has been very validating for us.
With these cohorts, it’s like having your tribe, your network, your trusted people to learn from and provide support. It’s incredibly important to bring people together and allow them the space to lean in, learn, and influence each other’s lives and learning experiences. We bring our humanness to company building. All we’re doing is bringing humans together, really. And sometimes there’s power in just being able to do that in a thoughtful and facilitative way.
Griffin Connolly: This is great. So, pivoting a little bit towards your current startup, Scratch, talk to me a little bit about what it is, and what your motivations were leading up to its inception.
Brandon Clarke: Scratch is a software platform purpose-built for younger entrepreneurs who need tools and resources to get started. It’s also an enabling platform for young entrepreneurs who are already running businesses to optimize and professionalize their operations.
If you think about any founder, their journey usually starts at a pretty young age. But there are not a lot of tools to support young aspiring entrepreneurs. There’s a lot of content – books and curriculum, but there’s not a lot of business grade tools that exist to support the young entrepreneurial mind. We want them to realize they are truly running a business, and help them both see the value in it and help them professionalize it.
We’re pre-launched on that and plan to fully launch this summer. We’re working with schools and organizations to make Scratch an important tool in their entrepreneurial programs.
Griffin Connolly: This aligns so much with what I’m trying to do with Student Launch in my own high school community, so this is really exciting. Obviously, Scratch is young but looking back on the whole process of getting up and running, what were some of the biggest struggles you dealt with, or things you might have done differently, in terms of the process?
Brandon Clarke: It’s a great question and we’ve talked about it internally. If we started building Scratch today, it would look entirely different. It would be more AI-driven. We have a new AI tool ‘Scratch AI’ that’s a kind of mentor that sits alongside Scratch and users can ask it questions if they get stuck.
Our main challenge with building Scratch was staying focused on core features. The core features within Scratch are around marketing -helping the young entrepreneur build their first landing page, help them define their services and pricing model. The challenge with any kind of digital or software-based product is you can easily get overwhelmed with features. That first step is often really identifying who that ideal customer is, who’s that ideal user, and then identifying the one or maybe two features that are most important to them and then going and building that, instead of trying to build all the features at once.
That’s kind start-up 101 but it’s an easy trap to fall into. It’s important to understand that the market defines whether a product wins or loses. So, focusing on those one or two crucial features that the market is asking for and delivering that is key. Then you can build from there.
Griffin Connolly: What is your ultimate end goal for Scratch and who it helps?
Brandon Clarke: We have a big lofty goal. By 2030, we want to have impacted a million young entrepreneurs. We want to expose at least a million young people to Scratch and help pivot their mindset towards the ownership economy and the independent economy. The pathways to be entrepreneurial are incredibly broad. It’s not just about owning a business, it’s free-lancers, and young people consistently moving up the corporate career ladder. I think the more young people that can be exposed to that ownership mindset, the more that energy will compound overtime. That’s the vision.
Griffin Connolly: What have you found to be most fulfilling in your personal pursuit of entrepreneurship?
Brandon Clarke: Another great question. It took me a while to come around to this fact, but at the end of the day, I’m a community builder. I love building communities and I love when those communities have an impact.
Startup AZ is a community of founders and company builders. Scratch is a community waiting to form with the same mechanics that Startup AZ has. You’re also a great example of this Griffin, you don’t know who else is out there thinking the way you do, so you feel kind if isolated, so you’re trying to bring people together. You’re doing it with this blog through storytelling.
Bringing people together and allowing them the space and environment where they can lean in and learn from each other is powerful. Recognizing my super-power as a community builder and how that energy can influence the lives and learning experiences of others is the most fulfilling aspect of what I do.
Griffin Connolly: Building off that, one last question: I run a Student Launch Club at school. If you could give us all one piece of advice as budding entrepreneurs, what would it be?
Brandon Clarke: When you’re young, it’s less risky to try new things within a safe environment. Risks are greater as you get into your adult years – when you have a family and other responsibilities. So, explore, experiment, and try to solve problems. Identify others in your peer group who are curious about starting things and solving problems. At the end of the day, entrepreneurship is about solving problems, and the more you expose yourself to different opportunities, the more beneficial it will be in the long run. That’s why I’m a huge fan of things like Start-up Week – bringing people together to explore things with others.
Also, develop self-awareness about what entrepreneurship truly means for you. This is something that will take time. High performance entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Understand your goals and what you want out of the experience. Do you want a comfortable lifestyle business and to not have a boss? Are you wanting to build a big valuable company? Is an entrepreneurial mindset inside a big corporation the best fit for you? The pathways to be entrepreneurial are extremely broad. Exposure to those pathways when you’re young is hugely beneficial in your 20’s and 30’s as your career takes off.
Griffin Connolly: I appreciate you sharing all of this with me. This was fantastic. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to meet with me and look forward to speaking again soon.
Brandon Clarke: Sounds good. Let’s keep in touch. Be well.