Learning from Intuit to Partnering with Them: One Founder’s ‘Impossible’ Journey

Daniel Dietzel asks everyone who joins his data analytics software startup, Aphrodite, to solve a Rubik’s Cube. While this might initially puzzle new employees, the lesson Dietzel wants to impart is the company’s motto: “We specialize in the impossible.”

“Everyone thinks solving a Rubik’s Cube is impossible,” Dietzel says. “Turns out, it takes 24 hours.”

It also takes time, patience, and creative problem-solving—traits that led Dietzel to where he is today, with a company that’s grown from one to 50 customers in the last year and started working with big brands, such as Intuit and Eventys Partners.

“There’s a lot of ‘Never give up’ moments,” explains Dietzel, who, just 10 years ago, was attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to study photography. Around that time, the iPhone was growing in popularity, and his job prospects felt bleak.

“The iPhone put a lot of photographers out of a job because everyone had an amazing camera in their pocket,” Dietzel says. “So, halfway through school, I decided to learn how to code.”

He accepted his first web design role after college and taught himself on the job. Two years later, he was working on American Airlines’ in-flight entertainment—using his own product while flying. Although interesting, he wanted to “be where the action is.” So, he packed up his car and drove from Chicago to Silicon Valley to work as a senior web developer for the video game company Electronic Arts. It didn’t take long for a startup to seek him out.

The startup, Jiff, was a digital health benefits platform that Dietzel says grew from 10,000 to six million users in just three years. It was there Dietzel was asked to lead, transitioning “from the guy who fixes things to running a team.” Jiff was soon acquired by Castlight Health to create “the most comprehensive health benefits platform.” After the acquisition, Dietzel didn’t know what to do.

“I felt like I had reached the finish line and was sort of done,” Dietzel says. “I thought, ‘Do I do it over?’”

Instead, he decided to drive an Uber to experience Silicon Valley from a different perspective and started consulting. Around that time, he saw an ad for Harvard Business School Online’s Credential of Readiness (CORe) program.

“It never occurred to me to start my own startup,” Dietzel says. “I just wanted to learn how businesses worked. I wanted to join the C-suite eventually and felt like having a basic grasp of economics, accounting, and analytics would help me. Startups would ask for help with scaling technology, and I could bring the economics into it. I asked, ‘What’s the willingness to pay?’ and they looked at me like I was a wizard.”

Not long after, Dietzel joined the C-suite, becoming the CEO of his own advertising and crowdfunding agency, called Ivory & Gold. He took Entrepreneurship Essentials to learn more about how startups work and Negotiation Mastery to prepare himself for negotiating contracts with investors and customers.

“[Negotiation Mastery] helped us get really, really good revenue and make sure there were no last-minute changes,” Dietzel says. “And then, in Entrepreneurship Essentials, [Intuit founder] Scott Cook was teaching, and he was like, ‘Here’s how to be a CEO.’ I thought, ‘This seems doable.’ I told my team, ‘Let’s turn this into a corporation.’ That wouldn’t have happened without that course.”

But, in March 2020—at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic—Dietzel’s business model needed to change. Overnight, brands’ advertising budgets shrunk to near-zero, and several clients couldn’t keep paying for an agency. The shift forced Dietzel to reevaluate the marketing analytics software his team had built, and they pivoted from an agency to a self-service tool, launching Aphrodite as it’s known today.

Aphrodite provides businesses with what Dietzel calls “an ad agency in a box.” The software monitors ads, automates return-on-investment (ROI) reporting, maps return on advertising spend (ROAS) by country and currency, highlights optimization opportunities, and distills complex marketing data into simple financial insights.

As the company pivoted, Dietzel completed HBS Online’s Disruptive Strategy, Leading with Finance, Alternative Investments, and Global Business courses.

“In Global Business, we learned about currencies, exchange rates, and tariffs, and it helped a lot,” Dietzel says. “It’s one of the reasons Aphrodite supports 50 currencies now.”

Yet, the real full-circle moment came when Intuit approached Dietzel about its Intuit Prosperity Accelerator: AI, a five-month program that provides selected startups with access to a corporate and investor mentorship network, dedicated coaching, and potential funding opportunities.

Dietzel gushed during the interview, showing a photo of him taking Entrepreneurship Essentials and completing the lesson with Scott Cook. Aphrodite was accepted into the 2021 cohort and is now developing technology with the very company that inspired Dietzel to start his own business.

When asked what advice he has for other aspiring entrepreneurs, Dietzel returns to his company’s motto.

“Solve a Rubik’s Cube,” he says. “And then, take all the classes you can and just go for it.”

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