In this informal vlog, Ryan Shank gives a day‑in‑the‑life update from the Techstars office, recapping a fireside AMA with Techstars co‑CEO David Cohen. The conversation covers several themes: the importance of taking more mentor meetings despite a hands‑on approach, strategies for improving demo conversion by tweaking scripts and using storytelling that resonates with agencies, the current operational focus on scaling calls and setting more demos while aiming for a weekly sales target, and the broader culture of the team—including daily vlogging, gym sessions, and morale‑boosting interactions. Cohen shares his perspective on mentorship as a two‑way relationship that fuels disruption, while Shank reflects on the challenges of staying out of the way to let the business grow. The vlog ends with a call to action for the audience to keep pioneering and continue vlogging.
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But otherwise, it seems like we're crushing it. Like, it's like, how do I get out of the way and not mess it up? Thank you very much. What's up guys? It is Tuesday. We're at the Techstars office. Good morning. Today's gonna be a great day. It's 8:30 in the morning. Entire team's already here, so this is awesome. Anyway, so then I'm like, okay, so we just set up the dynamic number, and then obviously now you can go to reports and then you can report report on, you know, you can see all of your different campaigns, you can see your dynamic. Now John and I just went over the flow of a demo. We're gonna get him on some demos probably within the next day or so. Now the cool thing, film, totally like we vlog every day, 7 days a week. Oh man, I don't know what I mean. We might just, we might just, am I ready for my close-up? So we're talking to agencies right now, we're starting to get larger. I mean, it sounds like things are going pretty freaking good. Like, I mean, I've done this for a lot, I've done a lot of these, like my 6th or 7th cohort, like, yeah, yeah. Not many folks come in with this firm of a business model. It's like, you seem like you're in really operationalization mode now. It's like, you're just pouring gas on the fire. Yeah, I mean— The fire's already pretty strong. Like, I mean, we're like— Is that fair? Yeah. But otherwise, it seems like you're crushing it. Like, it's like, how do I get out of the way enough? Not gonna mess it up. Thank you very much. Alright, man.
Awesome.
Well, appreciate you being with me. Likewise. Likewise. Thanks very much.
Good to meet you. It was good.
He was actually really, really cool. Gave good advice. It was like, hey, you should— whoa. He's like, hey, you should like take more mentor meetings, which is good because like I've been just so like hands-on that I've been trying to like not get distracted by like meetings, but it was actually really good. That was a bad interpretation. Whatever, like let's just talk, you know, let's just talk vlog. This is the vlog fam. So it was, uh, it was good. He was a really cool dude. He was basically just like— I just don't like when people say you're crushing it because like I feel like you can always go faster and build it bigger. Chris, uh, I forget his last name. Chris Excel Rodriguez. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I just saw him. What's up, man? Oh yeah. Yeah, we're vlogging, that's cool. We usually time-lapse. You gave the best vlog going into Alley. Yeah. You were like, I was watching your day because somebody like tagged it.
Now I get it.
Yeah, Chris tagged it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm sorry, I didn't look up right away. You're like a force of nature.
Mike.
What's up? What you doing?
Trying to build a new features page for our marketing site.
Oh yeah? Yeah. How's it going? It's good. I was waiting on a file I needed, finally got it, so just getting to work now.
You guys are all super sharp, like cutting edge, doing amazing new things, and if I'm around you, I'm gonna get new ideas for what I'm doing, right? I'm gonna be a better investor, a better CEO, right? That's one of the things that I've always been jazzed about this for, is I'm coming in and I'm seeing you try this crazy thing that I thought there's no way that could work, and that's where disruption comes from, is that, oh, it does work, and I learn from that. The key, I think, with the local engagement is really, you know, a few great relationships that are genuine and two-way. So what can you do for them?
Right?
Not just what can they do for you.
Alright guys, we just got out of a meeting with the founder and CEO, I think co-CEO of Techstars, David Cohen. We did a fireside chat. He did an Ask Me Anything, AMA, if you guys are familiar with Reddit. It was really awesome, so there was a lot of value. You should tell them that you got Ryan Shank shirts. But I think I got 10 more XL PhoneWagon shirts. Yo, hook one up then. Because I think— because I'm gonna wear it every single day, so I literally want to just delete all my— or delete. That's how you know you're like spent too much time online. Someone gave me something like physical and I had to like search or something. I was like, I want to like Ctrl+F because I was like looking for— so do you like the Ryan Shank shirts that you got? They're very on brand. Good. I was actually just on your website. Do you, uh, do you even lift, bro? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I just lift. Is it every day, bro? It's not every day. I don't lift every day, but like, you know. What's up guys? Daily takeaway today. Two things we're really trying to optimize on right now is setting more demos from the calls that we're getting. We're actually doing a lot of good stuff in terms of dials and we're reaching them, but we're not setting them at the rate that we can. So we're really going back and not just— so we're adjusting the script, but then we're also starting— we're also realizing that storytelling is really resonating with these guys. We're really telling a story and we're basically telling a story that is going to be able to be relatable from an agency. Like, hey, you know, we He almost fired an agency because they weren't reporting on their phone calls. And to them, they're like, oh yeah, you know, I totally get how that's, you know, a thing. Whole squad's out. Nick and I just got back from the gym. I am like literally exhausted. Today was an awesome day and we met with the Techstars, you know, mentors and stuff. So it's really cool to just really just shoot the shit with people who have been there and done that and listen to their advice. I talked with a really cool guy, Jason Saltzman. He's the founder of The Alley. Assalamualaikum.
What's up, man?
Which is a coworking space place that we were supposed to be at. If you saw the first vlog, did probably 3 or 4 different demos. Did no sales today though, so that kind of sucks. We can't put up just one sale, we need to have at least 5 sales this week. And, uh, I hope you guys are out there working hard. Uh, we'll see you tomorrow. Keep being pioneers, keep being Wagoneers. Peace! Keep, keep vlogging. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
