EPISODE 15
June 2, 2024

Insights on Unique Category Fit with Verl Allen

A Conversation with Claravine’s Founder & CEO

While all startups hope to be unique enough to stand out from the crowd, there are often multiple startups within the same category. What if your company doesn’t fit into a standard category? What if your mission is so unique you have to trailblaze your own path in the startup world? To get a better idea of how one niche company successfully did this and grew from seed money into a Series A–all within 20 months–join us in our conversation with Claravine’s CEO and founder, Verl Allen, and investor Gavin Christensen of Kickstart (a VC firm for startups in Utah, Colorado, and the Mountain West) as we bring you both sides of a Perfect Pitch. In this episode, we’ll talk about:

• An investor’s perspective on companies with a unique category fit

• Verl’s advice to founders whose startup is trailblazing a new niche in the market

• Why self-awareness is critical to being a founder

• How leaning into and growing with pain helped Verl grow as a leader