Interview with Alex Bullington, Co-Founder of Arbit
The founder series explores the minds of business owners and their journey to make a difference in their industry. We interview these business founders to understand the life lessons that mold them into who they are today. We also learn more about their company, their products or services, how they are different from their competitors, and the problems that they are trying to solve for their customers. The information that these business owners provide to us helps inform other entrepreneurs who are looking to make an impact in the business world. We all can take these lessons and apply them to our entrepreneurial journey. We want to thank every business owner who volunteered their time to participate in these interviews and share their knowledge with the community.
Great to meet you. Thank you for doing the interview. We want to know more about your journey, early struggles, success, and some wisdom that we can pass on to others who are interested in walking your footsteps toward becoming an entrepreneur.
Let us start off with some basic questions to learn more about who you are as a person.
Ricky: Can you tell everyone your name, please?
Alex: Yes my name is Alex Bullington
Ricky: Where did you go to school?
Alex: I attended Loyola University MD, where I played soccer and studied accounting.
Ricky: Can you give an example of an early lesson in life that helped shaped who you are today?
Alex: Yes — In High School I felt like things came naturally and I didn’t need to push myself further. I didn’t train as hard in soccer as I needed to in order to improve my game, and I didn’t study as hard as I needed to in order to be a better, smarter student. The result? I fell short. Looking back, I wish I worked harder, I wish I did more. Today I have a mindset where if I fast forward 10 years in my life and look back on where I am right now, I don’t want to say, “Man I wish I worked harder, I wish I did more.” I won’t let that happen.
Thank you for providing background on who you are as a person. I always find it fascinating to learn who a person is and their early life lessons.
Let us move forward with the interview and discuss what you are doing now and how you are making a difference in your industry.
Ricky: What is the name of your company?
Alex: Arbit, Inc.
Ricky: Where is your company located?
Alex: We are based in Baltimore.
Ricky: What services or products does your organization provide?
Alex: We are a SaaS brand engagement and analytics provider.
Ricky: What problem is your business trying to solve?
Alex: We help companies solve two problems: 1) How they connect with their audience in an authentic way that sparks genuine conversation, engagement, and interaction; and 2) How they take those interactions and increase their insight velocity from their audience.
Ricky: How is your business unique against your competitors?
Alex: A lot of survey/analytics platforms will tell you what your audience likes/wants/requests and you’ll probably get some bar charts of data to show you results. But none of those platforms tell you why. That’s what we’re about.
Ricky: How did the idea for your business come to fruition?
Alex: Arbit started out as a social mobile app that allowed communities of people to vote up on different polls from sports, to pop culture, to random things with friends. It was all about connectivity and bringing people together around topics of interests. We then took that concept to businesses to help them engage their customers and built a SaaS company out of it.
Ricky: Where can people go on the web to learn more about your business?
Alex: They can visit us at www.askarbit.com or simply Google “Arbit” and they’ll find blog posts and other articles detailing our journey.
Final question. We want to thank you for the interview. We have one last question to ask you about imparting some wisdom to future entrepreneurs.
Ricky: What one tip would you give to other entrepreneurs who are starting out on their journey?
Alex: Have conversations as early as possible with potential customers. Lots of them. And don’t stop having them. Continuously learn from them. They’ll tell you about their problems and then you can build a roadmap for how you can solve them.
