Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sean Tepper, CEO of Tykr, located in Pewaukee, WI, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Tykr is a stock screener and education platform all-in-one that helps beginner and advanced investors manage their own investments with confidence.

Tell us about yourself

I have over 15 years of experience in software engineering as a project manager. I've built and sold a previous company, and I also worked for large corporations, including GE and Kohler. Aside from my software engineering career, I've been investing for over ten years. I created Tykr because I saw a massive opportunity in a fast-growing market. The retail investor market is growing by 5% in the US and between 5% and 20% in most countries around the world. In other words, beginner investors are starting to buy stocks on their own. The problem is most of these investors don't know the difference between a good stock and a bad stock. In fact, most investors follow advice on Youtube, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, the news, and friends. In most cases, these investors are buying popular stocks that are also bad investments. This is where Tykr comes in. Tykr not only teaches you how to invest, how to reduce risk, when to buy, when to sell, and how to make big returns in the market. It also screens over 30,000 stocks from around the globe and gives those stocks a score. The higher the score, the safer the investment. If you're going to invest, make sure you use Tykr so you don't buy a stock that could potentially cause you to lose a lot of money.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

After two years in business, we now have over 7,000 customers in over 50 countries.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Being a business owner requires fortitude. Nothing happens as fast as you like. You need to train your mind to enjoy the journey. When you face difficult situations, embrace them as a learning experience.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Don't overcomplicate your business idea. In fact, you don't really need to come up with an idea. The objective is to put that weight on the customer. Get really good at asking questions and understanding the true problems your customers are facing. The more you can do that, the easier it is to build a product that truly solves a problem.
  2. Remember the 80/20 rule. I found that 20% of my focus generates 80% of the results. I see a lot of entrepreneurs trying to do 100 things at once. Most of these activities do NOT produce revenue. You need to figure out what truly generates revenue and ONLY do that. The other things can be pushed aside.
  3. The hardest phase in building your company is finding product-market fit. Once you do that, the next phase is distribution. I see a lot of entrepreneurs focusing on building a brand from the ground up, including social media, SEO, advertising, etc. You need to look at large corporations and understand how they scale so fast. The trick is CHANNEL PARTNERS. Find other companies that already have your audience and offer to solve a problem for them or their customers. Finding the right channel partner can give you an immediate reach of 10,000, 100,000, or even 1,000,000 customers or more. Don't overengineer marketing and advertising. Just follow the template used by large corporates.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://tykr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/seantepper
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seantepper/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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