Richard Mensah shares his journey from founding 3 startups in Ghana to launching EllisX, a platform that gives startups access to high-quality media and speaking opportunities offering teams greater visibility to help scale their impact.
Richard and his co-founder Leia Ruseva created a platform where startups irrespective of their background or whom they know, could directly access opportunities to tell their stories and share insights with podcasters, writers, and event organizers who are looking for the expertise and the insights to be able to share with the audience.
When startups sign-up they are connected to high-quality media and speaking opportunities. Once a startup has joined the platform it’s about how they initiate interests without having to pitch. Startups simply identify the media opportunities they are interested in and send out a request to be featured. EllisX tries to reduce the time startups need to make connections so they can focus on their business.
Richard shares the example of a startup called Salvage, a fashion-tech company that uses AI to design the best clothing for women. The founder was one of the first early adopters to join Ellis X. Since joining the platform she has been invited to speak at the Harvard Dynamic Women in Business Conference and has judged a number of competitions at MIT.
Success on the platform is measured by the number of media and speaking opportunities startups receive that drive their growth.
EllisX creates awareness for their platform by utilising events, judging opportunities, and competitions to actively tap into their network. They’re also always looking for influential media personalities to join the platform and refer it to other companies.
Richard shares that the platform makes it easier to identify the right opportunities. Startups can look at the profile of the podcast, for example, and view the number of subscribers. This information only becomes available once a request is sent. They do this strategically to optimize the send requests and to encourage startups to look for the quality of listeners instead of the quantity of listeners.
Instead of trying to get in front of most people, EllisX encourages startups to engage with people and opportunities that are highly active and engaged in their particular space. You could have a podcast with a thousand engaged listeners, but it could give you a lot more value than a podcast with ten thousand passive subscribers. It’s more about getting in front of those people who recognize your brand and are able to spread the word within their circles.
Richard shares that they are working towards building strategic partnerships with other platforms and high-quality contributors that will enable media opportunities of greater value for startups.
They have strong demand from startups for their service as it’s really hard for teams to get the word out about their products. Paid ads can be expensive and don’t always work well over long periods. The good thing about content in podcasts, articles, and blogs is that it compounds and people can engage with it over time.
We’re looking to partner with influencers in media companies to bring more opportunities for startups to gain visibility.
Our mission is to provide diverse innovators with equal opportunity to share their stories and amplify their voices. We hope to help innovators build their brand and a base of supporters around their company to scale their innovation.
https://www.ellisx.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ellisx/
https://twitter.com/ellisxinc
https://www.bonbillo.com/verrobot/design-startup-flywheel/