Shows
This Week in StartupsGas Stations in Space and Carried Interest on the Chopping Block | E2082This Week in Startups is brought to you by…Squarespace. Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain athttps://www.Squarespace.com/TWISTAtlassian. Head tohttps://www.atlassian.com/software/startups to see if you qualify for 50 free seats for 12 months.AdQuick. Visithttps://adquick.com/twist and mention TWIST to get $1000 off your first campaign.Today’s show: Jason and Alex discuss the carried interest tax loophole being in Trump’s crosshairs, a great interview with Orbit Fab and their plans for the industrialization of spa...2025-02-081h 02
Office Hours with Vela WoodPreparing for Funding Ep1: Incorporation – RecutOffice Hours is our podcast covering general issues related to small businesses and startups. Preparing For Funding is a series of Office Hours episodes hosted by VW Partners Kevin Vela and Rad Wood about getting your company’s legal house in order before taking on funding. We are recutting this series to reflect updates in law and venture trends in the last 5 years to better help you navigate through preparing for funding.
In this episode, we discuss the basics of incorporation, including the difference between corporations v. LLCs, which state to organize in, and when we...2023-04-1426 min
Startup FoundationsSophia Yen: Democratizing birth control in the USSophia Yen is the CEO and co-founder of Pandia Health, a women-founded and women-led birth control delivery company. Pandia partners with pharmacies and doctors who specialize in women’s health to bring convenient, dignified and stress-free ways of accessing telehealth services.In our conversation we talked about the goals of Pandia Health, and how abortion laws could potentially impact Sophia’s business. We also discuss how the idea for Pandia Health was born through Sophia’ practice as a clinical associate professor at Stanford, and why she thought birth control delivery company should be doctor-founded and led by women. Sophia...2023-02-0133 min
Startup FoundationsAshley Etling: Solutions for sustainable logisticsAshley Etling is the CEO and co-founder of LimeLoop, a smart shipping platform building reusable packaging and sustainable logistics solutions.In our conversation with Ashley we cover the origin story of LimeLoop, and discuss how their product evolved from reusable packaging to a smart platform helping companies make their supply chains sustainable. We dig deep into the issues of minimizing the environmental impacts of global supply chains, and discuss interesting innovation happening in that space.We also discuss the recent political actions for environmental impact like carbon taxes in EU and China’s National Sword policy, an...2023-01-2030 min
Startup FoundationsJill Koziol: Redefining MotherhoodJill Koziol is the CEO and co-founder of Motherly, an educational platform and lifestyle brand redefining motherhood. Motherly’s goal is building a movement helping women across the world thrive as mothers and make the most of their parenting experience.Jill talked to us about how the idea for Motherly was born, and how she and her co-founder Liz Tenety originally met. Jill discussed building the brand recognition, getting the first publicity and leveraging the organic content distribution to get the initial traction. We also talked about the advantages of a content and community-first approach to building a st...2023-01-1329 min
EquityFrank-ly, the Kardashian method won’t work for SBFThis week, Natasha was joined by Mary Ann Azevedo and Rebecca Szkutak to talk about the latest and greatest in tech:
Deals of the week include Inflow, which has developed a self-help app designed to help people manage their ADHD, Cartograph Ventures, a new venture fund run by an ex-Juul operator, and the latest lawsuit and layoffs happening over at Carta
The plethora of fintech M&A that took place this week, including Fidelity's acquisition of a startup called Shoobx (we couldn't pronounce its name either) and Deel's buyout of Capbase.
Microsoft's deal with ChatGPT OpenAI which, we'll...2023-01-1332 min
Startup FoundationsTara Viswanathan: Democratizing root cause medicineTara Viswanathan is the co-founder and CEO of Rupa Health, a health startup focused on expanding access to root cause medicine and modernizing the process of ordering specialty lab tests. Tara talked to us about what exactly is root cause medicine and why is it central to Rupa Health’s mission. We discuss how the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry has evolved and what are the current challenges for healthcare practitioners. Tara shares her thoughts regarding chronic illnesses and talks about why they are currently the biggest danger to our health. We also discuss Americans’ nutrition and diet...2022-12-0734 min
Startup FoundationsElise Boivin: Creating an art experience marketplaceWe talked to Elise Boivin, the CEO and founder behind ArtlyOwl, an art curation and ecommerce startup that’s focused on connecting local artists and collectors in their respective cities. Since our conversation with Elise, ArtlyOwl joined forces with Wescover, an online marketplace for uniquely made items, that aims to support artists and designers from the local communities.In our conversation with Elise we discussed how ArtlyOwl worked, how it sourced artists for their platform, and built out the local connections to artists and clients. Elise shares the backstory of how she got the idea to start ArtlyOwl an...2022-12-0133 min
Startup FoundationsBorys Musielak: Venture capital & startups in PolandBorys Musielak is an investor, engineer, and entrepreneur, currently managing SMOK Ventures, a US venture capital fund investing in early-stage software startups in Central & Eastern Europe. Borys’ entrepreneurial experience includes co-founding Filmaster, a startup for film fans to get personalized film recommendations which got acquired by Samba TV back in 2015. Borys is also very active on the Polish startup scene, where he’s a board member of the Startup Poland foundation and has co-founded ReaktorX, a remote-first startup acceleration program.Borys talked to us about turning his passion for films into a successful startup that created a Netflix-like reco...2022-11-2333 min
Startup FoundationsKim Roxie: Helping women enhance their beautyKim Roxie is the founder and CEO of LAMIK Beauty, licensed esthetician, motivational speaker, philanthropist and community advocate. Her company is creating makeup products made with organic ingredients that help women of color enhance their beauty.In our conversation we talked about Kim’s background, running a beauty salon, developing her own formulas for beauty products, and how she got the idea to start her own company.We discuss how Kim’s customers helped to shape LAMIK Beauty products and getting the initial funds to start the company from a crowdfunding campaign and pitch competitions.2022-11-1827 min
Startup FoundationsAaron Bailey: Community based marketplacesAaron Bailey is the CEO & co-founder of Builtfirst, a startup building cloud marketplace platform. Aaron’s company streamlines creation of community-based marketplaces and modernizes how SaaS and services are discovered and purchased. Aaron talked about his background, the time he spent as head of global partnerships at 500 Startups, and how that influenced his decision to start his own company, Builtfirst. Aaron shared how the product has changed to meet the needs of users, shifting from a focus on accelerators and VC funds to a focus on anyone who wants to recommend trusted vendors to their online co...2022-11-1132 min
Startup FoundationsDr. Roshawnna Novellus: Bridging the funding gap for women and people of colorDr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a Techstars backed FinTech lending platform that streamlines capital deployment process for individual and institutional investors who want to support businesses led by women and people of color. EnrichHER has been in-market since 2019, deploying $14M in capital to traditional businesses from 47 states.In our conversation with Dr. Roshawnna we talk about many obstacles facing small business owners, women of color in particular, when trying to raise capital for their companies. We also discuss Roshawnna’s backstory and how she got into entrepreneurship.Dr. Roshawnna shares her in...2022-11-0430 min
Startup FoundationsRogelio Caceres: Enabling digital nomadsRogelio Caceres is a serial entrepreneur, currently serving as the founder and CEO of Global Residency & Citizenship Group (Global RCG), a startup enabling digital nomads to move abroad and stay compliant with the international employment laws. In our conversation with Rogelio we talked about how Global RCG is simplifying lives of digital nomads, the US immigration system along with its flaws and shortcomings, and the trends behind people looking for more flexibility around where they work.Rogelio also discusses how he got the idea to work on mobility solutions and international compliance, his initial fundraising experiences...2022-10-2430 min
Startup FoundationsCheryl Contee: Democratizing entrepreneurship for women of colorCheryl Contee is an entrepreneur, investor, writer, founder of a digital marketing agency Do Big Things, and currently the CEO of the Impact Seat Foundation, an organization that aims to level the playing field for women of color who want to become successful business leaders. Over the course of her career, Cheryl was also successful in building Attentive.ly, a social listening and marketing automation startup focused on developing tools for non-profits.In our conversation, we discuss Cheryl’s work with Attentive.ly, and how she co-founded the company as a spin-off of her digital marketing company Do Bi...2022-10-1432 min
Startup FoundationsSahin Boydas: Streamlining remote work for international teamsSahin Boydas is a serial entrepreneur, born in the US, grew up in Turkey, who most recently founded RemoteTeam, a startup building software for remote hiring and international payroll. RemoteTeam was acquired by Gusto back in 2021, and at the moment Sahin is Gusto’s head of RemoteTeam.In our conversation we discuss Sahin’s entrepreneurial background, and his rich experience in finding the right ideas, building good products, and then exiting successfuly. Sahin shares the insights that made him start RemoteTeam back in 2019, just before the beginning of pandemic. We also discuss how partnerships can turn into...2022-10-0740 min
Startup FoundationsJess Lee: Building texting tools for car dealershipsJess Lee is the founder and CEO of Bitesize, a startup helping car dealerships communicate with thousands of customers at once. Jess is also an active angel investor working with the Hustle Fund.In our conversation, we talk about how Jess got the idea to build texting tools through immigrant activism at college, and how she ended up translating her experience to a completely different space, which is the automotive industry.Jess discusses why she decided to build software for car dealerships and what’s the business rationale behind Bitesize. She also shares why she decided to...2022-09-3033 min
Startup FoundationsAhmad Ibrahim: Building tax automation softwareAhmad Ibrahim is the co-founder and CEO of neo.tax, a startup that creates tax filing and automation software that simplifies the R&D tax credit application process. Ahmad's career path included studying economics and philosophy, working as a product manager at Intuit, and launching his own accounting firms.We discuss how studying philosophy can be helpful in a career of a founder and lessons learned from Ibrahim’s first startup, Unleash. We also discuss how building an software product for accountant within the confines of Intuit has influenced Ibrahim’s will to pursue another startup venture in that...2022-09-2145 min
Startup FoundationsViola Llewellyn: Building Sharia-compliant fintech productsViola Llewellyn is the president and co-founder of Ovamba Solutions, a fintech startup working on financing products for the trade and commodities sectors in Africa and other developing markets. Ovamba works as an ecosystem that helps African businesses with short-term financing and enables sharia-compliant funding structures.We discuss the origin story of Ovamba, how it got its first users and funding, and the meeting of its co-founders - Viola and Marvin Cole. Viola shares her valuable insights into the intricacies of financing the commodities market in Africa and building unique data sets that are based on inventory and...2022-09-1441 min
Startup FoundationsKiwi Camara: Automating Law PracticesKiwi Camara is the CEO and co-founder of DISCO, a publicly traded legal tech company providing cloud-native, AI-powered solutions that simplify ediscovery, case management, and legal document review for law firms and enterprises. Kiwi’s extensive background includes a B.S. in computer science, as well as J.D. from Harvard Law School and Ph.D. in economics from Stanford.We discuss what is DISCO, and how lawyers can use it to streamline their work with legal documents and case files. Kiwi also shares how he got the idea to start his own company and what it takes to...2022-09-0728 min
Startup FoundationsLisa Gelobter: Reducing bias and discrimination in the workplaceLisa Gelobter is the CEO and co-founder of tEQuitable, an independent, confidential platform helping companies address issues of bias, discrimination and harassment in the workplace.Lisa expansive background includes working on groundbreaking multimedia projects like Shockwave, Hulu, Viacom, and serving as Chief Digital Service Officer for the US Department of Education during the presidency of Barack Obama.Lisa talked to us about her current company tEQuitable, its mission, and how technology can be used to mitigate issues of harassment and discrimination in a workplace. We talk about different types of organizations tEQuitable has already worked with...2022-08-2438 min
Startup FoundationsHenrik Werdelin: Building BARK, from an idea to IPOHenrik Werdelin is a serial entrepreneur and author, who co-founded BarkBox, a subscription-based service providing a monthly box of treats and toys for dogs. BarkBox is now called BARK and it is a publicly traded company, after its IPO in June of 2021. Henrik has also started Prehype, a collective of entrepreneurs that builds products and companies through collaboration with corporations and VCs.Henrik talks to us about the early days of BARK, randomly meeting his co-founder Matt Meeker during a cruise ship and the strategies used for growing their company. We discuss the creative marketing and the famous 4/20...2022-08-1736 min
Startup FoundationsCourtney Caldwell: Revolutionizing revenue generation for beauty industryCourtney Caldwell is the co-founder and COO of ShearShare, a “Hairbnb” startup that helps salon owners maximize their earnings potential by renting out their spaces to beauty industry professionals. Courtney talked to us about how ShearShare works, and why “space as a service” has been such a big deal for people working in the beauty industry. We also go over why many professionals in the space have been deciding to pursue a solo career, instead of working as employees in salons.We cover the origin story of ShearShare, which is rather far from serendipitous. Courtney herself was a hi...2022-08-1037 min
Startup FoundationsNial DeMena: Making women's pleasure more accessibleNial DeMena is the CEO and co-founder of Vella Bioscience, a femtech startup dedicated to sexually empowering every woman. Vella’s flagship product is a pre-play topical serum designed to help women achieve better orgasms, no matter their hormonal status.We talked to Nial about the details of how Vella’s main product works and what’s it like doing business at the intersection of sexual wellness and femtech industries. Nials also shares the rationale behind Vella’s multichannel distribution strategy, which involves direct-to-consumer and retail.Nial shares more information about his background and previous ventures, includin...2022-08-0342 min
Startup FoundationsMelissa Pancoast: Simplifying the path to financial successMelissa Pancoast is the founder and CEO of The Beans, an app helping people manage their finances in stressfree way. Melissa actually started her career as a teacher, but eventually left that behind to study how people think and feel about money at Oxford. Partially as a result of the she ended up starting The Beans, which is aimed to simplify financial management for middle-class Americans.In our conversation with Melissa we talk about why she decided to name her Startup “The Beans”, and how is her product different from many other fintech products in the personal finance mana...2022-07-2041 min
Startup FoundationsKerry Schrader: Streamlining networking with a mobile appKerry Schrader is the CEO and co-founder of Mixtroz, a mobile app boosting event engagement by helping attendees make virtual and in-person connections. Kerry is the 37th black female founder to ever raise $1M+ in a venture-backed pre-seed round. We talk about what Mixtroz is, how it works and how event organizers can use it to boost their gathering’s engagement. Kerry details the inner workings of the app, and how it can be customized to fit different scenarios and use cases.Kerry shares an amazing backstory behind Mixtroz, and how the idea for the app wa...2022-07-1343 min
Startup FoundationsAlec Hartman: Revolutionizing the way people buy homesAlec Hartman is the co-founder and CEO of Welcome Homes, a startup streamlining the way people buy homes online. Alec was also a co-founder in a now publicly traded company Digital Ocean, that provides cloud infrastructure that helps businesses build and scale software applications. Alec, a Florida native, talked to us about the evolution of the startup ecosystem in Miami and Florida, and how both city and the state situation have changed for tech people over the recent years. Alec also discusses the origin story of Welcome Homes and shares a detailed market analysis that made...2022-07-0640 min
Startup FoundationsNatalie Barbu: Software tools for influencers and content creatorsNatalie Barbu is the co-founder and CEO of Rella, a startup building software to help influencers and content creators manage and expand their business. Natalie is also an experienced content creator, with over 350,000 followers across platforms like Youtube and Instagram. We talked to Natalie about how the idea for Rella came about, and how her background as a content creator and influencer helped her find the right pain-points to solve. We also dive deeper into the life of content creators and discuss the ins and outs of the business, along with the landscape of tools offered by different...2022-06-2929 min
Startup FoundationsLuke Deka: Solving lead gen for SMBs & the Polish startup eco-systemThis time on Startup Foundations we speak with Luke Deka, the CEO and co-founder of Growbots, a Polish startup building software to automate outbound email outreach and streamline lead generation for SMBs. Luke talks to us about the in’s and out’s of Growbots product, and how their software is helping companies automate and scale their sales efforts. We also discuss the origin story of Growbots, and how it evolved over the years, trying out different strategies for customer acquisition, fundraising and the product development.Luke and Greg also talk about the art of pricing your...2022-06-2233 min
Startup FoundationsChristina Gilbert: Data import tools for SaaSChristina Gilbert is a co-founder of OneSchema, a Y-Combinator-backed startup working on data importing tools for SaaS companies. OneSchema was a part of the YC’s S21 cohort, and ever since has been gaining a lot of traction, supplying a well-researched product, that solves many pain points for “system of record” companies that deal with extensive databases.Christina talks to us about the customer base or OneSchema, and delves deeper into the features of their product. She also speaks on the process of finding her co-founder, Andrew Luo, and the origin story behind OneSchema.We discuss the ch...2022-06-0830 min
Startup FoundationsRichard White: Streamlining note-taking for Zoom callsRichard White is a serial entrepreneur, founder & CEO of Fathom and previously User Voice. Richard’s current company is a Y-Combinator backed startup, working on a video plugin that enables recording and managing highlights from Zoom calls. In our conversation with Richard, we dig deeper into his current venture Fathom Video. We talk about the problem its trying to solve, which is, simply put, note-taking during sales and customer support calls. Richard also discusses potential use cases for their software and addresses the risks related to building a product that is so closely connected to one specific platform.2022-06-0135 min
Adventure Capital by WefunderLaunch 2 Exit with Greg MiaskiewiczToday we chat with Greg Miaskiewicz, the founder & CEO of Capbase, which helps founders avoid mistakes in incorporating, and early-stage recruiting, cap table management, and much more. https://capbase.com/Hosted by Jonny Price & Katie PowersProduced by William (Classic) Thomas"Wefunder does not endorse, recommend, or advise investing in any company. "2022-05-2757 min
Startup FoundationsJayce Hafner: Farm profitability, agricultural innovationJayce Hafner is the CEO and co-founder of FarmRaise, a startup streamlining the process for agricultural grants and funding. As someone who grew up on a family’s farm, Jayce knows how difficult getting farm funding can be. Hence her decision to build FarmRaise and improve the access to funding for modernizing farm operations.In our conversation with Jayce, we dig deeper into the funding situation of small and medium American farms, as well as Jayce's story and how she ended up building FarmRaise.Jayce talks about how she met her co-founder while doing MBA research fo...2022-05-2530 min
Startup FoundationsNathan Morris: Disrupting the legal tech industryNathan Morris is the co-founder and Chief Culture Officer of Filevine, a legal-tech company building software solutions to help law firms manage their clients’ projects and documents. Nathan was a practicing attorney before realizing how many processes in the legal space can be improved with digitization. He decided to start Filevine along with fellow legal practitioners Jim Blake and Ryan Anderson, and solve many problems that came with an out-of-date way of doing things. In our conversation we discuss the initial vision behind Filevine, how the Iron Man movies inspired the original MVP, and how Nathan’s company got...2022-05-1134 min
Startup FoundationsEma Rouf: Understanding consumers' financial dataEma Rouf is the co-founder of pave.dev - a fintech startup building cashflow API to analyze risk and build financial experiences. We talk about what pave.dev is building, and how their API helps other fintech companies understand and process their consumers’ financial data.Ema also shares the founding story of pave.dev, and takes us back to her ad tech days, where she worked with her husband on social shopping widgets for Facebook. Ema also shares her take on what it's like being married to your co-founder and how that influences fundraising.We also ch...2022-04-2735 min
Startup FoundationsJoshua Wöhle: Better learning, London startup ecosystemJoshua Wöhle is a London-based founder and serial entrepreneur, currently building Mindstone — a platform that allows anyone to create a course by curating a playlist from articles, podcasts, videos, and other resources. Here are the topics that we talked about:- Getting first customers for Mindstone- Backstory of London’s rise to prominence as the biggest startup hub in Europe- How startup ecosystems are created- Employee stock compensation in Europe and how it differs from US- Joshua’s previous venture - Super Awesome, and a successful exit to Epic...2022-04-1435 min
Startup FoundationsTammy Camp: Virtual payment networksTammy Camp is the CEO and co-founder of Stronghold, a financial infrastructure company that provides fast, secure, and accessible financial services through a simple API. Inspired by her previous entrepreneurial experiences across the technology and startup landscape, Tammy founded Stronghold in 2017 to bring better financial services to a broader range of market participants. Under her leadership, Stronghold also launched the highly successful digital currency SHx to provide real-time settlement, discounts in fees for business customers, and more, to its clients. Tammy was also the first Head of Growth for Stellar, the open-source payments platform for fiat...2022-03-2329 min
Startup FoundationsJón Edvald: Cloud delivery platforms, european startupsJon Edvald is the founder and CEO of Garden, an end-to-end cloud delivery platform that streamlines the process of building, deploying, and testing software applications. We chatted about Jon’s startup journey, the development of startup ecosystems in Iceland and Germany, and why Jon’s latest company is a Delaware C Corporation. We also discuss different taxation issues that European founders may face when selling their companies.Jon shares how he got the idea to build Garden and the difference in approach when building a startup for the second time. We dive deeper into the realm of DevOps and...2022-03-0231 min
Startup FoundationsEmma Guo: Team building, company cultureEmma Guo is the co-founder and CEO of Offsyte, a one-stop-shop for discovering and booking team-building events. We chat about the challenges that fully remote startups face when building company culture, pivoting and fundraising in the middle of the pandemic, and Emma’s previous experience working as an early engineer for Lyft.Emma also discusses her startup journey, getting the idea for Offsyte, and finding the right co-founder. Emma also shares her insights regarding building a two-sided marketplace and using SEO to drive customer acquisition and brand awareness.As a female engineer, Emma gives her thoughts on...2022-02-0930 min
Startup FoundationsChris Van Pelt: AI, neural networks, machine learningThis time on Startup Foundations, we chatted with Chris Van Pelt, co-founder of Weights & Biases and previously co-founder and CTO of CrowdFlower/Figure Eight. We talk about neural networking, autonomous vehicles, Chris' experience building two companies in the AI and machine learning space, and whether we have to worry about machines ever taking control over humans. Chris also shares his insights regarding different approaches to selling developer's tools and highlights the effectiveness of the bottom-up approach to customer acquisition, where the developers themselves are the ones driving the adoption. We ask Chris about ethical issues surrounding...2022-01-1929 min
Startup FoundationsVera Kutsenko: Community building & houseplantsIn the first installment of Startup Foundations in 2022, we chat with Vera Kutsenko, co-founder & CEO of Neverland — a marketplace and an online community for houseplant enthusiasts.Vera explains where she got the idea to start Neverland, and discusses the process of building a two-sided marketplace connecting plant lovers with gardening shops across the US. She shares some details about the educational functionality of their app, which includes guidance and support around taking care of houseplants.Vera talks us through the process of building an online community in an almost cult-like space of houseplant aficionados, and how th...2022-01-0540 min
Startup FoundationsYury Lifshits: Serial entrepreneurship, blockchain startupsYury Lifshits is a russian-born, SF-based mathematician, computer scientist, and serial entrepreneur, currently running Openland, a Y Combinator backed messaging platform for online communities.2021-12-0338 min
Startup FoundationsAlison Greenberg: Pregnancy coaching, maternal care 2.0Alison Greenberg co-founded Ruth Health along with Audrey Wu, to make pregnancy easier and provide better maternal care by offering at-home ultrasounds, pregnancy coaching and pelvic training. Their startup is currently a part of the S21 batch of Y Combinator.2021-11-1746 min
Startup FoundationsEmily Dong: Building software for veterinariansEmily Dong is the founder and CEO of SnoutID, a software solution for streamlining veterinary practices and expanding access to pet healthcare. Emily, a pet owner herself, talked us through her startup journey that began with Pawprint, an app that allowed pet owners to manage their pets medical records. Emily eventually sold Pawprint as a YC-fellow and moved on to start SnoutID. Emily discussed what changed in her approach between Pawprint and SnoutID, the huge difference a business plan can make, and why she decided to give pet health another go. She speaks on the painful...2021-10-2727 min
Startup FoundationsJake Gibson: Building Nerdwallet & Better Tomorrow VenturesJake Gibson is the founding partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures and formerly co-founder and COO of NerdWallet, which he started with Tim Chen back in 2010. Jake talked to us about his professional journey, and what made him pursue a career in startups after spending a few years on a trading floor on Wall Street. As a COO and co-founder of NerdWallet, Jake has built a successful fin-tech business from the ground up. He shared some of the lessons learned along the way, including great SEO and content marketing tips.Jake also discusses how he ended up...2021-10-1333 min
Startup FoundationsJeff Wilson aka Professor Dumpster: Minimalistic design & affordable housingJeff Wilson, also known as Professor Dumpster, is a former HBCU environmental science professor and a serial tech entrepreneur. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Jupe, a hardware startup that creates flat packed shelters and software platforms that operate off grid.As Professor Dumpster, Jeff has lived in a 33 sq. ft. modified trash dumpster as part of an environmental education and minimalist housing experiment. His work on sustainability and minimalism has been covered broadly by publications like Forbes, The Atlantic, NY Times, and The Washington Post.Jeff talked to us about his “Dumpster Project” as w...2021-09-2939 min
Startup FoundationsAnalisa Goodin: Content licensing & discoveryAnalisa Goodin is the CEO & Founder of Catch&Release, a software platform that streamlines the discovery and licensing of content from social media and the open web. The startup has recently raised $14 million series A from Accel Ventures.Analisa, who has been working with ad agencies and brands for over a decade, talked to us about the hurdles of finding relevant and exciting content that's also ripe for licensing and commercial use, and how her company aims to simplify and automate a lot of the redundant steps in those processes. Catch&Release has been a bootstrapping...2021-09-1525 min
Startup FoundationsKarn Saroya: Democratizing property insuranceKarn Saroya is the co-founder & CEO of Cover, a YC-backed insurance technology company that simplifies the process of getting property insurance and focuses on underserved communities.Karn talked to us about the inefficiencies of the property insurance industry and explained how introducing things like financial transaction history and elements of behavioral data results in a better risk segmentation, fair prices, and in many cases - access to the insurance in general.Karn also discusses how he left a career in finance for startups, and shares details of developing and selling StyleKick, a high-end fashion e-commerce business...2021-09-0142 min
Startup FoundationsSari Azout: Future of content monetizationThis time on Startup Foundations, a conversation with Sari Azout, design-thinker, storyteller, angel investor, and founder of Startupy, a company building a community curated knowledge network for startup founders. Sari started her career in finance after graduating from Brown University, and eventually transitioned to tech. She talked to us about the idea of psychological freedom, or lack of thereof, resulting from the attention-based revenue generation models in social media. Sari discusses new, innovative ways of monetizing writing, and how phenomenons like crowdfunding or NFTs could positively impact content and creators.Sari also talks about the untapped...2021-08-1841 min
Startup FoundationsEmmanuel Bamfo: Home-sharing by the hourEmmanuel Bamfo is the CEO and Co-founder of Globe Inc, a Y Combinator-backed startup that enables property owners to rent out their spaces by the hour. Manny chats about his entrepreneurial journey, including working for Linkedin, going through the acquisition process with Hitch, and founding his own startup Recharge, which provided hotel room rental by the hour. Due to problems with the supply side of business, Manny had to close down Recharge, despite having a dedicated customer base, and millions in funding and revenue. Manny eventually decided to iterate on his original idea for Recharge and founded Globe...2021-08-0640 min
Startup FoundationsMadeline Lauf: Optimizing children’s digestive healthMadeline Lauf is the founder and CEO of Begin Health - the toddler and kids nutrition health startup that empowers parents to optimize their kid’s health and well-being.Madeline talked to us about transitioning from a career in finance to founding her own company Revolt Electrics — an e-bikes startup back in 2021. We chat about how Madeline first started working on Begin Health, and what was her inspiration to explore the kid’s health industry. Madeline’s current venture Begin Health is focused on developing tools to support young children’s digestive health by providing better nutritional supplements. 2021-07-2333 min
Startup FoundationsKanishka Maheshwari: Treasury management for SMEsKanishka Maheshwari is the CEO and co-founder of InterPrime Technologies, a YCombinator backed startup offering a treasury management service for businesses to manage their money. Kanishka moved to the US to study at Carnegie Mellon and afterward joined Salesforce early in the lifecycle of the company. He sums up the key learnings from his tenure in Salesforce by emphasizing the importance of a customer-focused approach and treating customers as partners, that help you develop the right solutions. As a foreign founder, Kanishka talks about the advantages of registering a company in the States, the hurdles of...2021-07-0931 min
Startup FoundationsSònia Hurtado: Sustainable plant-based seafoodSònia Hurtado is the co-founder and chief scientist of Kuleana, a food startup focused on developing plant-based seafood alternatives. Sònia talks about her background as a food biotechnology researcher, and how she came to be interested in startups and decided to found Kuleana in 2019. Sònia shares her scientific perspective on the evolution of alternative meat products, including cell-based and plant-based alternatives, and discusses the state of 3D food printing technology.Sònia talks about meeting her co-founder Jacek Prus, and the environmental mission of Kuleana -- saving bluefin tuna species from extinction and limi...2021-06-2533 min
The AFT podcast: At the Forefront of Transactions | Previously known as Fundraising Radio.B-corps and when startup founders should work with lawyers instead of software automations. By Shayn FernandezShayn Fernandez, Corporate Attorney at Rockridge Venture Law talks about the use of the "B-corp" signature and how to obtain one and if it's even worth it obtaining it. We also discussed how startup founders should interact with their lawyers and when it might be a good idea to use software automation.
Shayn's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaynfernandez/
Rockridge Venture Law website: https://rockridgelaw.com/
Here are the software automation that might help you avoid huge legal fees you'll need to spend on lawyers:
Capbase, helps you with all cap...2021-06-1723 min
Startup FoundationsJames Lott: Using pharmacies to revolutionize healthcareJames Lott is the founder and CEO of Script Health — an early-stage health-tech startup empowering pharmacies to revolutionize healthcare in the US. James talked to us about multiple ways in which pharmacies can provide access to healthcare in remote areas and communities that don’t have hospitals or proper medical facilities, frequently preventing poor outcomes and even saving lives. A pharmacist himself, James discusses how he got the idea for Script Health, and what made him decide to quit his day job and focus on building a startup in a difficult and tightly regulated space like medicine. 2021-06-1132 min
The AFT podcast: At the Forefront of Transactions | Previously known as Fundraising Radio.Spotting a Unicorn: Vik Sasi on Being One of the Earliest Investors in Clubhouse.Vik Sasi, Partner at Dreamers VC—co-founded by Will Smith—talks about spotting unicorns, the epic takeoff of Clubhouse and about the ways founders can be sure that investors see their venture as a future unicorn. We also spoke about partnering up with celebrities (such as Will Smith) while being a founder and how much sense those partnerships make.
Vik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikramsasi/
Vik's Email: vik@dreamers.vc
Dreamers VC: https://www.dreamers.vc/
Capbase: a super useful tool for cap table management: https://capbase.com/
Sec...2021-06-0731 min
Startup FoundationsCarolyn Pitt: Disrupting hiring for film productionThis time on Startup Foundations we host Carolyn Pitt, founder of productions.com, a job marketplace for film production that connects studios, music labels and corporate brands with local film crews. Carolyn explains how huge inefficiencies in hiring for film production in her native Atlanta inspired her to build a platform that leverages technology to make hiring easier, more diverse and more cost-effective. Carolyn discusses the entertainment industry landscape from the production perspective, how parts of it are still pretty archaic, and how the pandemic accelerated some necessary changes.Carolyn also breaks down her customer base...2021-05-2830 min
Startup FoundationsJack Cohen Martin: Innovating spirits supply chainOn this episode of Startup Foundations we talk to Jack Cohen Martin, co-founder and CEO of GrapeIn — a marketing automation and business networking platform for the wine and spirits supply chain.Jack talks about the differences between Israeli and US ecosystem, what motivated him to start his journey in that industry back in the 2000s, and how he ended up moving to New York. Jack and Greg discuss Jack’s initial experiences in ad-tech, deep-fake technology, and how he got the idea to start working on a wine startup.Jack explains the complicated three-tier system that regu...2021-05-1439 min
Startup FoundationsKristen Wiley: Influencer marketing as a serviceThis time on Startup Foundations we chat with Kristen Wiley, founder and CEO of Statusphere — a marketplace that connects brands with influencers and streamlines the process of scaling influencer marketing campaigns.Kristen and Greg discuss the startup world in Florida and how Kristen’s native Miami is becoming a new hotspot for startups. Kristen talks about her early fascination with marketing and the journey that took her from reselling purses on eBay, to becoming a CMO at a marketing agency and finally starting her own startup.We also discuss the space of influencer marketing - where the...2021-04-3030 min
Startup FoundationsJoao Batalha: Streamlining sales & the future of CRMsThis time on Startup Foundations, we chat with Joao Batalha, CEO, and co-founder of Amplemarket — a B2B software startup that streamlines sales workflows, customer outreach, and lead generation. Joao discusses his entire startup journey that took him from studying Computer Science at MIT to working at an early social media mobile app, Path, and then back to his home country of Portugal, where he partnered up with his brother and a friend to found Orankl. His first venture was based around selling services to Shopify stores, and his team’s difficulties building a scalable sales process led to t...2021-04-1640 min
The SynAckFinAck PodcastCyber Fraud Detection to Financial StartupIf you are thinking of starting a company or a new founder, you quickly learn that there are lots of things to do that don't involve working on your technology or your big idea. It can quickly become a problem if you don't have the tools that you need to run your startup. Greg Miaskiewicz started Capbase and solved the above problem after being a successful founder and seeing a bunch of issues that other founders have when starting companies. Capbase is a startup building legal/financial tools for founders to setup and build their companies, from in...2021-04-1642 min
Midstage Startup MomentumCapbase Co-Founder and CEO Greg Miaskiewicz: "The Best Technology Does Not Equate to Big Sales"One of the first lessons all founders learn is that it takes more than a good product to build a company. For example, there are a lot of confusing legal documents that startups need to get off the ground. Fortunately, Capbase is around to help founders who can’t afford a high-priced lawyer with the legal side of starting a company.
Capbase CEO and co-founder Greg Miaskiewicz joined Roland Siebelink on this week’s episode of the Silicon Valley Momentum Podcast. Greg shared how he discovered the need for a service like Capbase, as well as important less...2021-04-1524 min
Startup FoundationsAditi Shekar: Modern financial management for couplesOn this episode of Startup Foundations, we talk to Aditi Shekar, CEO and founder of Zeta - a modern finance management solution for families and young couples.Aditi discusses how she developed the idea for Zeta and how the app stands out from other financial management tools for couples. Aditi shares some information about her background, what inspired her to get into the personal finance space, and how she validated her startup idea before beginning work on the Zeta app. She also chats about how she decided to work with her co-founder Kevin Hopkins.Zeta took...2021-04-0228 min
The Growth ZoneUnderstand how your startup can build and grow their brand by applying intent based marketingEpisode 224: In this episode Christian Bartsch is discussing with Greg Miaskiewicz (cofounder of capbase.com in Silicon Valley) following topics: It is difficult to build a brand via paying ads. The alternative is to build communities. Why is that? Why click fraud is a problem for growth marketers and startups? The approach to solving this growth problem, is by becoming a media company. Some startups have a fear of being copied by competitors if they are too open with their activities. The reality is a bit different. People are overly focused on their competitors. 2021-03-3055 min
Startup FoundationsErik Torenberg: Product Hunt, On Deck, community buildingThis time on Startup Foundations we chat with Erik Torenberg about his journey from founding his first startup to founding his venture capital fund, Village Global. We cover the full lifecycle of his career: from founding a company, Rapt.FM, which lead to Product Hunt, and how seeing 1000’s of companies on Product Hunt led him to start OnDeck, where he used the information and lessons from seeing so many products launching to create a community for talented founders. In founding OnDeck, Erik was able to find his co-founder at Village Global. A true startup circle of life. 2021-03-1224 min
The AFT podcast: At the Forefront of Transactions | Previously known as Fundraising Radio.Angel investing, advising and unicorns - advice for first time founders from an angel investor, Ashish Bhatia.Ashish Bhatia, software engineer, active angel investor and an advisory board member of 5 different startups talks about the journey of the first time founders. In this episode we've discussed what are the major mistakes that founders tend to make, what kind of advice they can expect from mentors like Ashish and how to get in front of investors.
Ashish's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashish-b/
More about Ashish: https://ashishb.net/about/
Tool that can really simplify cap table management and fundraising in general: https://capbase.com/
Tool to help...2021-03-0528 min
Startup FoundationsDorna Moini: No-code solutions for lawyersOn this episode of Startup Foundations, we chat with Dorna Moini, who is the CEO and founder of Documate, a startup building no-code document solutions for lawyers & law firms. Dorna talks about her experience as a lawyer, how she came up with the idea for Documate while doing pro bono work for victims of domestic violence, and how she eventually left her career in law behind to build Documate. Dorna talks about how she met her cofounder Michael Joseph years before they started working together on the product.Dorna discusses broader trends in the legal services...2021-02-2625 min
Village Global PodcastMaking It Easier For Startups To Get Started with Capbase with Greg Miaskiewicz and Sheel MohnotSheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), and Greg Miaskiewicz (@miaskiewicz), join Erik on this episode. Sheel is a Network Leader at Village Global, and Greg is CEO and co-founder of Capbase.They discuss:- How Capbase can help streamline the workflows involved in getting a company off the ground.- How Greg navigated the idea maze and validated his hypothesis.- Why there should be more transparency in investing and startups.- The pros and cons of transparency within a company.- Ethical investing.- How to give feedback...2021-02-2538 min
Startup FoundationsAndrew Peterson: Web application security, selling Signal SciencesOn this episode of Startup Foundations, we talked to Andrew Peterson, CEO & co-founder of Signal Sciences, an edge security solutions company that just sold to Fastly for almost $1B.Andrew and Greg discuss the impact that the acquisition had on him and his employees. Andrew also shares his insights on what it takes to build a strong company culture and the challenges he faced as a first-time founder. Andrew chats about the specific challenges of building a startup into a trusted brand in the security industry.The episode wraps up with Andrew sharing his experience fundraising...2021-02-1126 min
Startup FoundationsShuo Wang: Building Deel, international payroll & complianceThis time on Startup Foundations, we chatted with Shuo Wang, Co-Founder and CRO at Deel - an international payroll & compliance platform for remote hiring. Shuo details the beginnings of her startup journey, her first venture inspired by fighting air pollution in China, and what made her decide to move on to founding Deel afterward. We also discuss the role of the Y Combinator in getting Deel off the ground and how founders' feedback allowed Shuo and her team to continuously improve their product.The conversation then progresses to topics related to the future of...2021-01-2923 min
Startup FoundationsJude Gomila: Building the world's knowledge engineOn this episode of Startup Foundations, Jude Gomila, an angel investor, serial entrepreneur, and father, joins us to discuss how he is juggling parenthood and being a CEO, as well as his approach to building products and investing in startups.Jude discusses his startup, Golden, and how their technology works, as well as the company’s customer base and product development. We also discuss HeyZap, Jude’s previous venture, which was acquired by Fyber in 2016. He talks about moving to Silicon Valley, finding a co-founder, and navigating the company’s exit. The conversation wraps up with a quic...2021-01-1451 min
The Tech TrekSetting up your startup’s legal entity and evaluating equity in a job offer with Greg Miaskiewicz, Co-founder of CapbaseMeet: Greg Miaskiewicz, CEO & Co-Founder at Capbase, a startup building legal & financial tools for startups. Previously, CEO & Co-Founder of Swarm, a bot detection startup, which exited to Integral Ad Science in 2016. Greg has over a decade of experience working at early-stage Silicon Valley startups in product, engineering, and design roles.
What you’ll learn (disclaimer - this is not legal advice):
Avoiding pitfalls in forming your startup’s legal entity
Implications of incorrectly setting up your entity
What to look for in evaluating equity as apart of a job offer
If...2020-12-1034 min
Mea Culpa, lessons learned in startupsWant to work at a startup? Vet the co-founders as good as they vet youIn this episode: Greg Miaskiewicz, CEO/Co-founder of Capbase. Before that, he was CEO/Co-founder of Swarm, a bot detection startup, which was bought by Integral Ad Science in 2016.
Let us know who you want to hear sharing on this podcast. Thanks to Mizuho Hong Kong for being the venue sponsor for this episode and thanks to Kohpy Ventures for making this series possible.
Contact me @jebbery
2020-11-2444 min
Startup FoundationsMaia Bittner: The future of banking & credit scoringToday on Startup Foundations, we speak with Maia Bittner who is the Voice of the Member at Chime Mobile Banking, which she joined after the acquisition of her third startup, Pinch. Maia is a serial entrepreneur and started her first business at a young age selling goods on eBay. Maia loves technology and has had many roles in her previous startups. In our conversation, we discuss her career trajectory as well as her approach to building startups and recruiting talent. CREDITS:Host: Greg Miaskiewicz, co-founder of Capbasehttps://twitter.com/miaskiewicz Guest...2020-10-0230 min
Startup FoundationsRodney Sampson: Racial equity in the startup ecosystemToday on Startup Foundations, we speak to Rodney Sampson, a serial entrepreneur who is currently the Executive Chairman & CEO of Opportunity Hub. Opportunity Hub is helping create racial equity in the startup ecosystem. Rodney chats with us about how startups and VCs can address racial inequity and build a diverse workforce. We also dive into Rodney's entrepreneurial background and how his startup Multicast Media helped churches broadcast their message on the internet. CREDITS:Host: Greg Miaskiewicz, co-founder of Capbasehttps://twitter.com/miaskiewicz Guest: Rodney Sampson, Executive Chairman & CEO of Opportunity Hub 2020-10-0250 min
Startup FoundationsChris Bennett: Wonderschool, a platform for early childhood educationToday on Startup Foundations, we speak to Chris Bennett, the founder and CEO at Wonderschool. During the pandemic, Wonderschool has been helping more and more families find quality child care and early education. Chris also chats with us about being a minority in the startup community and how issues of racial inequity can be addressed in the world of venture capital. CREDITS:Host: Greg Miaskiewicz, co-founder of Capbasehttps://twitter.com/miaskiewicz Guest: Chris Bennett, CEO and founder of Wonderschool https://twitter.com/8ennettWonderschoolhttps://www.wonderschool...2020-10-0222 min
Startup FoundationsCarlos Escutia: Building a remote work environmentToday on Startup Foundations, we speak to Carlos Escutia, the CEO of GroWrk Remote, a remote office management platform. With most companies transitioning to remote environments, we discuss this pivot and some of the major benefits of having a remote workforce. Carlos comes from a family of entrepreneurs and is a repeat startup founder. CREDITS:Host: Greg Miaskiewicz, co-founder of Capbasehttps://twitter.com/miaskiewicz Guest: Carlos Escutia, CEO and founder of GroWrk Remotehttps://twitter.com/cnescutiaGroWrk Remotehttps://growrk.com Music by: Chris...2020-10-0228 min
Startup FoundationsRobyn Exton: Building dating apps for queer womenThis time on Startup Foundations, we speak to Robyn Exton, the founder of HER, a social dating app for queer women. We learn about her journey as a startup founder, first starting her business in the UK and moving the company to the United States to participate in YCombinator. She also talks about how women can get more support in the startup community and provides valuable advice to female founders launching a startup. CREDITS:Host: Greg Miaskiewicz, co-founder of Capbasehttps://twitter.com/miaskiewicz Guest: Robyn Exton, CEO and founder of HER2020-10-0232 min
Startup FoundationsStartup Foundations TrailerJoin me, Greg Miaskiewicz, the host of the Startup Foundations podcast as we dissect topics affecting the startup community and share founders' stories of how they landed their first customers and raised their first checks from investors. Let the Startup Foundations podcast be the inspiration for your launch!The new season out soon!Presented by Capbasehttps://capbase.com2020-09-0800 min
Fundraising RadioSelling competition - how to raise when you have a large firm working in your field? By Greg Miaskiewicz.In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Greg Miaskiewicz the Co-founder and CEO of Capbase explains how he managed to raise money for Capbase, while there is such a large firm (Carta) operating in this field. He also explains how to differentiate your company from large (and small) competitors and sell that to investors.
Capbase (simple to use legal and financial foundation for your startup): https://capbase.com/
2020-07-0528 min
The AFT podcast: At the Forefront of Transactions | Previously known as Fundraising Radio.Selling competition - how to raise when you have a large firm working in your field? By Greg Miaskiewicz.In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Greg Miaskiewicz the Co-founder and CEO of Capbase explains how he managed to raise money for Capbase, while there is such a large firm (Carta) operating in this field. He also explains how to differentiate your company from large (and small) competitors and sell that to investors.
Capbase (simple to use legal and financial foundation for your startup): https://capbase.com/
2020-07-0528 min