Sam Shank originally thought he wanted to be a Hollywood film director so he moved out to California to find his fame. He managed to get a job with the legendary director Wes Craven and worked on the now famous movie Scream. Quickly he learned that...
Sam Shank originally thought he wanted to be a Hollywood film director so he moved out to California to find his fame. He managed to get a job with the legendary director Wes Craven and worked on the now famous movie Scream.
Quickly he learned that his reality wasn't anything like his dream. He spent most of his time running errands just like 99% of the others with the same dream.
His entrepreneurial spirit kicked in quickly and he decided to create his own destiny so he moved to the center of the dot-com world, San Francisco.
Sam knew he wanted to start a technology business, but knew he wasn't ready yet. So he decided to try to learn everything he could. He knew he was ready when, as he says, "You're ready when it feels just uncomfortable enough that you can bear starting a company because it's hard, it's intimidating, it's going to be a total grind, it's brutal, it's the hardest thing you're ever going to do. So you have to go in knowing that." He says, "The best way to learn about starting a business is to start a business" and he's an advocate of starting early in your career.
He knew he wasn't ready until about 10 years ago when he started TravelPost, which wasn't a great business model so he pivoted and broadened the business model.
He suddenly found success. It wasn't perfect, and he learned a lot from this move that he would use for his next company, Dealbase.com.
Running Dealbase gave him the knowledge he needed to create HotelTonight. He has raised over $80 million so far and they're opening offices around the world.
Listen in as James asks Sam about a few ideas he has for HotelTonight. Sam loves them, and offers James a job as a product consultant.
It's a great interview and a great app. If you need a last minute room for the holidays, why don't you give HotelTonight a try?