Braydan Young is the Co-founder and CEO of SlashExperts, a leading peer-conversation platform that helps B2B companies accelerate revenue by connecting prospective buyers with real customers. Under his leadership, SlashExperts announced $2M in seed funding in April 2025, marking a significant milestone for the company. Braydan has a background in entrepreneurship, having previously co-founded Sendoso, a successful company that is a leading sending platform simplifying direct mail, gifting, and corporate gifting processes for businesses. Beyond his ventures, he serves as a mentor at ChicoSTART, offering guidance to emerging entrepreneurs.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [2:12] Braydan Young shares how growing up with entrepreneurial parents influenced his career path
- [3:16] Early career struggles with corporate processes and CRM compliance
- [5:26] Transition to tech sales with Demandforce and missing out on Lyft
- [7:28] What was the idea behind Coffee Sender, and what led to its early viral success?
- [11:21] Challenges of managing warehousing and customization for Sendoso
- [17:12] The impact of COVID-19 on Sendoso’s growth
- [18:49] Braydan discusses the process of raising capital with major investors like SoftBank and Craft Ventures
- [23:39] Navigating layoffs and the difficult shift to profitability post-pandemic
- [28:00] Braydan reflects on the decision to move on to a new venture
- [31:10] Why use contractors and AI before hiring full-time to scale efficiently?
In this episode…
Launching a startup is never easy, but scaling one introduces an entirely new set of challenges. Founders often struggle to balance rapid growth with operational complexity, investor expectations, and the pressure to remain profitable. How do entrepreneurs navigate these competing demands while staying true to their vision?
Braydan Young turned a simple idea, sending Starbucks gift cards via email, into a fast-growing business by staying attuned to customer needs and market shifts. As demand expanded, he evolved the offering from basic digital gifting to full-scale warehousing and fulfillment, ultimately co-founding Sendoso and raising over $100 million in venture funding, including a $100M Series C. When market conditions changed, Braydan faced tough decisions, including multiple rounds of layoffs, which taught him the importance of transparent leadership and leading with empathy during difficult moments. These experiences shaped his approach to building more resilient companies. He emphasizes the value of listening to customers, staying flexible, and learning from setbacks to drive long-term success.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Braydan Young, Co-founder of SlashExperts, about startup growth, resilience, and innovation. Braydan discusses hypergrowth during COVID-19, the complexities of warehousing, lessons from fundraising, his new SaaS peer-to-peer model, and strategies for lean startup operations.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Quotable Moments:
- “I always knew I would end up building my own thing because I kept looking for shortcuts.”
- “We went from a cease and desist letter from Starbucks to a partnership deal in just weeks.”
- “During COVID-19, we doubled in size month after month as everyone went remote.”
- “The hardest part was cutting hundreds of employees while trying to remain human and transparent.”
- “Before hiring anyone, we first ask: can a contractor or AI do this?”
Action Steps:
- Embrace creative problem-solving early: Braydan Young’s career pivoted when he sought alternative paths instead of rigid corporate processes. Entrepreneurs should stay open to non-traditional solutions, as they often spark innovation.
- Validate product ideas quickly: Coffee Sender’s viral growth highlighted the power of fast market testing. Founders should launch MVPs rapidly to gauge real demand and refine offerings based on immediate feedback.
- Leverage strategic partnerships: Negotiating directly with Starbucks transformed a legal threat into a growth opportunity. Proactively seeking partnerships can open doors and provide critical early-stage credibility.
- Prioritize operational scalability: Braydan learned the importance of mastering warehouse operations to support Sendoso’s growth. Entrepreneurs should anticipate scalability challenges early to avoid costly inefficiencies later.
- Adopt lean growth practices: With SlashExperts, Braydan prioritizes contractors and AI before full-time hires. Founders should consider flexible resourcing models to conserve capital and maintain agility during early-stage growth.
Sponsor: Rise25
At Rise25 we help B2B businesses give to and connect to your ‘Dream 200’ relationships and partnerships.
We help you cultivate amazing relationships in 2 ways.
#1 Our Predictable Podcast ROI Program
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 200 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.
We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.
What do you need to start a podcast?
When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.
The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.
We make distribution easy.
We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Podcasts. We’ll also create copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?
Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
#2 Our Comprehensive Corporate Gifting Program
Elevate business relationships with customers, partners, staff, and prospects through gifting.
At Rise25, thoughtful and consistent gifting is a key component of staying top of mind and helps build lasting business relationships. Our corporate gift program is designed to simplify your process by delivering a full-service corporate gifting program — from sourcing and hand selecting the best gifts to expert packaging, custom branding, reliable shipping, and personalized messaging on your branded stationary.
Our done-for-you corporate gifting service ensures that your referral partners, prospects, and clients receive personalized touchpoints that enhance your business gifting efforts and provide a refined executive gifting experience. Whether you’re looking to impress key stakeholders or boost client loyalty, our comprehensive approach makes it easy and affordable.
Discover how Rise25’s personalized corporate gifting program can help you create lasting impressions. Get started today and experience the difference a strategic gifting approach can make.
Email us through our contact form.
You can learn more and watch a video on how it works here: https://rise25.com/giftprogram/
Contact us now at [email protected] or message us here https://rise25.com/contact/
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
All right. Today, we’re talking about how to get clients with strategic relationship building. My guest today is Braydan Young. And I’ll tell you more about him in a second. So stay tuned.
Intro: 00:12
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:28
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show. And you know, every week we talk with smart CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies and organizations.
We’ve had Netflix and Grubhub and Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, lots of great episodes. Just check out the archives, and you can check out those past guests. And before we get into this interview, this episode is brought to you by Rise25, our company, where we help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping you to run your podcast and content marketing.
We are the easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do three things: strategy, accountability, and full execution. And we even invented what some are calling the Wix B2B podcasting. It’s our platform, Podcast Co-Pilot. So if you want to learn more about what we do, you can go to our website at Rise25.com or email us at [email protected].
All right. I’m excited about today’s guest. And not just because he lives right up the road from me. His name is Braydan Young. He’s the Co-founder of Sendoso and SlashExperts.
He’s a seasoned entrepreneur, has worked for a number of different startups, and founded and started different startups. He co-founded Sendoso in 2016. It’s a pioneering sending platform that streamlines direct mail and mail and gifting solutions for businesses, and under his leadership, Sendoso grew significantly, raising over $150 million in venture capital funding and became a leader in customer engagement technology. Now he’s got a new company which is called SlashExperts, and we’re going to be hearing all about that one as well. And Braydan, great to have you here today.
And, you know, I’d love to know what people were like when they were a kid, when they were growing up. You actually kind of grew up around entrepreneurs. Your dad was a landscaper. Your mom was a florist. They had their own companies. Or were they working for other companies?
Braydan Young: 02:12
Yeah. And it’s good to be here. I should have come in in person, you know, like you’re right down the road. Sure. That’s right. I could have driven right down the road. Yeah. So my dad was a landscaper. So. Still is.
So that’s where my brother works now. A lot of time, like mowing lawns I probably have planted or, like, laid more sod than, like, probably your average person just because I grew up doing it. And then my mom was a florist, and so she did weddings and as a ton of them. So I have a strange skill of like, I can put flowers together, arrange flowers pretty well. So I’ve done a handful of weddings, which was a really fun way in college to try to make some money.
And you got to go to a bunch of weddings, which is kind of fun. So yeah, yeah, it was cool to like, see them grow their businesses very, you know, very different types of businesses, but it was cool to see them put those together when I was a kid for sure.
John Corcoran: 03:00
I find that sometimes when people grow up with their parents being entrepreneurs, either they run away from it or sometimes they run away from it and then they eventually are pulled back in. But did you have any thoughts on your kid about like, well, you know, do I want to own my own company one day, or did you even think about that?
Braydan Young: 03:16
I knew in a weird way that I would end up there, whether it be like a small company or a tech company. I knew that I would go back to that point only because when I was working for other people, I was always in trouble, especially as a sales rep. Or like I wouldn’t follow the process the direct way because I was looking for shortcuts, which I think is like a really good sign for someone who should just go build their own thing. Like for example, like putting things in your CRM. I was horrible at it.
I would just close deals, and I’m like, that’s a waste of time to do it that way. But they were like, we want to pattern recognition. We want to know if someone takes your place. And I was always like, I never want to do that. So I think that because I was looking for different ways of doing things, I felt like I was always going to end up doing my own thing eventually. I just wasn’t sure when that was going to be, nor the space that I was going to end up in for sure.
John Corcoran: 04:05
So what you’ve described so far sounds like a total disaster for what became your next step, which was insurance. You study, you study entrepreneurship in college, like clearly have inclined towards tech, inclined towards not like a stoic like a staid industry. How did you do when you went into this, like the old school insurance industry of insurance?
Braydan Young: 04:26
Yeah, I was like 2009 went into insurance. I mean, that was a really bad time to graduate college because there weren’t a lot of jobs available. So I went into sales because that’s who was hiring.
John Corcoran: 04:36
So sales jobs usually don’t go away.
Braydan Young: 04:38
Yeah. And was not I, like I did. Well because it was sales, but where I didn’t do well was going and asking for permission from like underwriters, like, hey, like you need to prove this, to go prove that, like, you’re moving a, you know, a cost by a penny and you’re like, just because I was a carrier rep, learned a ton, learned a ton about relationship sales. But I remember I went into my boss’s office, and I wanted to do a webinar. And at the time, webinars weren’t as big. In 2009, there weren’t all the software that helped you do them. Yeah.
John Corcoran: 05:04
And it’s a smart idea. I mean, yeah, yeah.
Braydan Young: 05:07
I thought I could do it.
John Corcoran: 05:08
Little bit. Scale to many sales. Yeah.
Braydan Young: 05:10
Yeah. But they’re like, this is a 100-year-old company. And you know, we don’t do those. And like at the time, we didn’t even have a sales force. It was all I remember. Like I had a big stack of folders. And so I jumped into tech from there because I was like. And I was living in San Francisco, I got to.
John Corcoran: 05:25
Go to a different industry.
Braydan Young: 05:26
Yeah. I was like, I want to go learn more transactional sales at scale. So I jumped over to a couple companies, which was funny. I had two job offers. One was the company called Demandforce, which I joined. The other one was a really small company called Zimride that I didn’t join, and I would have been their first sales rep, and Zimride changed. They changed the name of the lift, so I messed up.
John Corcoran: 05:46
Yeah.
Braydan Young: 05:47
But I learned like, okay, like, you know, that was that was fun.
John Corcoran: 05:51
You haven’t done the math on your stock options, have you? Because of that. Don’t even bother.
Braydan Young: 05:55
That’d be horrible. Yeah. I mean, I learned a ton from Manafort that was like transactional sales, learned all about, you know, running Salesforce and doing quick demos and deals. And that was fun. So I learned the relationship side from insurance and the transactional side from Demandforce, for sure.
John Corcoran: 06:09
Yeah, yeah that’s crazy. And when you were just curious, when you went into Zimride, were you like, oh, this is a crazy idea. This will never take off. Or were you like, yeah.
Braydan Young: 06:17
I didn’t get it. I was like, why? Because like they were trying to help college kids, pool home. And like, I went to college in the same town I grew up in. So I wasn’t the right person to sell that because I was like, oh, my parents live down the road. Like, why would I want to carpool home with somebody?
[continue to page 2]