Starting a Business with Your Best Friend with Mollie Kehoe and Lynn Browne of BrandVerge

How many good ideas are born over brunch? We’re not sure. But if you’re Mollie Kehoe and Lynn Browne, the idea to start a business that helps link advertisers with companies came to light over avocado toast and coffee. Friends since college, Lynn and Mollie were shocked that a business like that had yet to exist, so they created it. 

In today’s episode, we sit down with Lynn Browne and Mollie Kehoe, co-founders of BrandVerge, a platform that makes it easy for brands and companies to connect with advertising programs. Lynn and Mollie share how they knew how much capital to raise, how to maintain a healthy relationship when in business with your best friend, who their ideal clients are, and so much more. 

“We have a platform in house that makes it easy for brands and media companies like Entreprenista to connect with each other and work on impactful advertising programs together.” – Mollie Kehoe 

This week on Startups in Stilettos:

• Mollie and Lynn share how BrandVerge came to be (1:47)
• Mollie talks about how much capital they needed to raise (6:40)
• What the secret to maintaining friendship while being business partners is (14:18)
• What Mollie and Lynn are most proud of (17:26)
• Mollie shares who their dream clients are (21:39)
• Mollie, Lynn, and Stephanie talk about how to know when your business is ready for the next step (25:03)
• What is next for BrandVerge in 2023 (30:13)

Resources Mentioned:

• Asana
• Slack
• Microsoft
• Fellow
• HubSpot
• Salesforce
• Boostr

Our Favorite Quotes:

• “The first step was literally looking at each other and saying, ‘This is a genius idea, someone should do it, why not us?’ I think that when starting a business, the first step is always the hardest, which is just deciding to go after it.” – Lynn Browne
• “When we’re not at work, we don’t really talk about work. And I think people always ask like ‘How? That must be so hard,’ but we were friends first. So it’s very easy for us to keep things separate.” – Mollie Kehoe
• “Yes, it’s very important the work that we do, but we’re also complete human beings. So having grace around certain things, or having just an understanding of what’s going on in people’s lives just helps make the co-founder relationship just go a lot smoother, because it’s not everything all work all the time.” – Lynn Browne

Connect with BrandVerge:

• GoBrandVerge.com
• BrandVerge on Instagram 
• BrandVerge on Twitter
• BrandVerge on LinkedIn

Connect with your Startups in Stilettos hosts:

• Stephanie Cartin on Instagram
• Stephanie Cartin on LinkedIn
• Jessica Abo on Instagram
• Jessica Abo on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Jessica Abo here

Get Featured on Startups in Stilettos

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