“Always Listen to Your Customer” The 5 Lessons I Learned Being a 20-Something Founder

I had the pleasure of interviewing Brandon Gotlieb. Brandon runs NXTSTOR, a peer to peer marketplace for storage and a venture partner at Contrary Capital, a student lead venture firm. Brandon co-founded NXTSTOR as a freshman in college and has launched the platform this past spring. The team is currently raising a seed round and is adding more users continually.

Jean: Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory” of how you become a founder?

I became a founder in that cliche college way you hear about. My roomate Mike, who is my cofounder, was describing an advert he saw for a pitch competition. I immediately thought of an idea I had been dreaming about since highschool when I first heard about AirBnB. It was to create a marketplace for someone who didn’t want to host guests. We quickly threw together a pitch deck and had an absolute blast pitching the project. We got some support and money and got to work building it. We loved the experience and have been building it ever since.

Jean: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We stand out as student founders on a traditionally non-entrepreneurial campus. People are constantly shocked that we remain full time students and…