CC047: Elias Torres of Drift // opening offices outside of silicon valley (live from Embarc Collecti

Episode details

Interview begins: 5:29 Elias Torres is the co-founder and CTO of Drift. Jay recently had the chance to talk to with Elias Torres at Embarc Collective in Tampa Bay. Having worked in software all his life, Elias has been a part of impressive businesses, including IBM and Hubspot, and has founded two software based companies. A Nicaraguan native, Elias discusses his story of immigrating to America and the opportunity he commits to in other LatinX founders and in his home town, Tampa Bay. With his extensive experience, he leaves us with valuable tips in starting effective and strong teams. We discuss: - Ad: Business calling and texting anytime, anywhere with Tresta (4:30) - Immigrating to America (6:05) - Transitioning from corporate to entrepreneur (8:43) - Mentorship (12:00) - Starting companies in Boston (13:34) - Tampa vs. Boston (19:17, 34:37) - Multi-city office organization (23:40) - Bringing opportunity to LatinX founders (24:35)0 - How to bring speed to a startup (29:01) - Hiring at Drift (32:08) - Tips for successful fundraising (32:58) Learn more about Drift: https://www.drift.com/ Learn more about Embarc Collective: https://www.embarccollective.com/ Follow Elias on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eliast Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm -- This episode of Upside is sponsored by Tresta. Tresta is a mobile app that lets you do business calling and texting from anywhere. With Tresta, you can set up your business phone number, download the app, and start calling and texting UNLIMITED right away. Tresta is the best business phone app on the market, whether you’re a founder or freelancer / just starting your business, or you’re already established. Growing your network and your business is all about communication. You’ve got to be available, no matter where you are. Tresta offers the call management features that empower you to communicate smarter and more efficiently, like auto attendants, call recording, user groups, and more. And you don’t need any special equipment – just the smartphone you’re already using. Tresta is easy to configure, so you can set everything up yourself – all online. It’s just $15 per user per month, with no contract, so start your free 30-day trial today at https://tresta.com/upside