Shows
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 96: A Different Approach to Saving the Planet and Why Plastic Water Bottles are the New Cigarettes with Rich ‘Raz’ Razgaitis - CEO of FloWaterToday Philip Kasumu had the pleasure of speaking with Raz who's vision is fueled by wanting to leave a better environment for his children and the next generation, Rich ‘Raz’ Razgaitis is tackling a problem most people don’t even know they have: toxic drinking water.
As Co-Founder & CEO of FloWater, which is the world’s most advanced water refill station and member of the Inc. 500 list, Raz is combining this vision with his 20+ years of leadership & tech experience to deliver a product that keeps 5.5 plastic water bottles from reaching our landfills and oceans every second...
2021-07-071h 48Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 95: It's Not Enough to Build Something You Have Think About Distribution with Amir Salihefendić of DoistToday's interview was with Amir Salihefendić the CEO and Founder of Doist and Twist. Amir has viewed life a little differently ever since his family fled war-torn Bosnia for Denmark. He began to see the world becoming borderless and that worldview has influenced his mission to shape the future of work as Founder and CEO of Doist, a fully distributed, bootstrapped company that creates productivity tools used by over 25 million people globally.
Amir has always believed that the future of work is remote way before covid 19 and that innovation doesn’t only happen in offices. From day one...
2021-06-301h 13Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 94: Creating a New Way to Shop Online with Girish Ramachandra Co-founder & CEO, ShopalystIn this episode, Philip spoke with Girish the co-founder & CEO at Shopalyst. Prior to Shopalyst, he was a Vice President at Infosys where he was responsible for their Retail Industry Solutions Business.
An author of four patents that he helped commercialize, he is passionate about how data and technology are shaping our world. Besides adoption by global customers, his work is featured in MIT Tech Review, Businessweek, and Fast Company, among others.
Girish is a Mechanical Engineer from UVCE Bangalore, and a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B).
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2021-04-2845 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 93: Why you Need to Build your MVP End to End with Serial Entrepreneur Peter Yared CEO of InCountryPeter Yared is the founder and CEO of InCountry, a regulatory technology company that is providing data residency-as-a-service worldwide. Peter is also a 7x founder with more than $500M in exits, A Silicon Valley veteran, Peter founded six enterprise software companies that were acquired by Sun, Oracle, Citrix, VMware and more. Previously, Peter was the CTO/CIO of CBS Interactive, where he was responsible for bringing CBS into the cloud with the end-to-end replatform of its Comscore #7 group of Internet properties. At Sun, Peter was the CTO of the Application Server Division and the CTO of the Liberty federated...
2021-04-071h 05Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 92: How I Sold a Company Before I Went to College and Building Amazing Consumer Focused Startups - Kal Vepuri - Founder of Hero and Serial Angel InvestorIn this episode, Philip speaks with Kal Vepuri, serial investor and founder and CEO of Hero, the IoT-connected device that automatically dispenses medication when you need it, was inspired to build his company after his mother, who's an M.D., admitted herself to the hospital for quadruple bypass surgery.
The surgery was successful, but it was what came next for his mother that opened her son's eyes to the difficulties millions of Americans face every day. Dr. Vepuri, herself a nationally renowned physician, underwent two readmissions that could have been prevented if she managed her medication as...
2021-01-251h 06Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 92: We Were Selling One Car Per Month When I Joined Tesla - JOhn ROkos - Angel Investor and EntrepreneurJohn is the Founder, CEO, & Product Architect of Enemy Tree, a California, USA based technology startup whose products are wide-reaching experiments in hardware, software, and services that positively impact peoples lives.
Previously, John spent nearly 6 years at Tesla Motors leading teams and internally innovating in areas like operations, sales, delivery, customer service, and marketing. This created an even deeper passion for startups that was already so strong it pulled JOhn to the West Coast. It gave him a profound appreciation for the incredible people who sacrifice so much to make a product and company great.
2020-09-301h 41Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 90: Austen Allred Founder and CEO of Lambda School - Transforming Education and How We Learn(Rerun) This week we sat down with Austen Allred of Lambda School, Fit Marketing, Grasswire, and Lendup. On this episode we discuss: - Growth marketing galore - The free upfront model - When to invest Austen Allred has a super interesting origin story, having dropped out of university himself, he went on to co-found his own school and pushing the envelope for the future of education. For those of you who are out of the loop, Austen created Lambda School, a coding school that asks for no money up front in an exchange for a percentage of your salary...
2020-09-1647 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 89: Marketing Mistakes Startups Make with Gaston Tourn - CMO Appear Here, Ex-Googler, Ex-Badoo(Re-run) This week on Startup Handmedowns, we sat down with Gaston Tourn, CMO of Badoo which for those of you who don’t know is a dating app that is most popular in Europe and South America. Gaston describes himself as a writer and a poet, creating the narrative of the customer and integrating their stories into the product in question. Like many of us, Gaston once had the belief that marketers go out and trick people, that it’s more of a "slimy job", which makes his journey to marketing even more interesting. Hear how he didn’t set ou...
2020-09-0947 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 88: How to crowdfund £1million in 4 days with Alex Stefani CEO of BeamIn this repeat episode, Philip speaks with Alex about how you should approach investors or attempt to raise money from the crowd? We talk to the founder of Beam and JustPark's Ex-Ceo Alex Stefani about what it took to raise the largest Crowdfunding campaign of its time and to lead JustPark to become a household name. We discuss 1. Tips and tricks to a successful crowdfunding campaign 2. How to make it easier to launch projects when starting out 3. Why focus groups are dangerous and reliable alternatives for collecting data.
2020-09-0823 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 87: You Don't Need More Processes with Ryan Walsh Chief Product Officer at Splice and Formally Beat by Dre and Floodgate VC(Re-upload) In this week’s episode of Startup Handmedowns, we sit down with Ryan Walsh who is currently a partner at Floodgate. Ryan has had a very rich career history, from starting out as a performing DJ in San Francisco to co-founding his own startup, and working as the VP of product at Beats by Dre. His origin story is wild, as Ryan got his start as a raver in Pittsburg, taking pictures of the polished DJ’s equipment with a disposable camera to figure out how to emulate that sound. After figuring out that the party life of a DJ...
2020-08-261h 12Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 86: Hope is Not a Strategy - With Ian Chambers CEO of Mind Candy and Moshi: Sleep and MindfulnessIan the CEO of Mind Candy the creators of Moshi Monsters and more recently Moshi Sleeps. Ian's wealth of entertainment experience comes from his time at Ubisoft and Electronic Arts, which led to his role as International Managing Director at IGN where he was responsible for its global expansion and making IGN the #1 video games and entertainment media network in the world. A father of two, Ian’s inspiration for Moshi comes from his vision of helping millions of families around the world become happier and healthier by helping kids sleep.
https://www.moshisleep.com/
2020-08-1947 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 85: Does Money Buy Happiness and Effective Content Writing with - Morgan Housel, Partner at The Collaborative FundMorgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative VC an investment fund focused on supporting and investing in the shared future. The fund centers around two macro themes which are the growth of the creative class and the concept of collaborative consumption. Now, Morgan has a unique role at the fund because he's not actually an investing partner, he's a writer. He produces all the written content for the fund which was why I wanted to talk with him. In this episode, we talk about content marketing, whether money can buy happiness and his new book, The psychology of money.
2020-08-1257 min
Groovy SoupThe Bascinets and The HandmedownsThe Bascinets and The Handmedowns join the Soup this week. Original Air Date 6-23-20
2020-08-1053 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 84: The Importance of Having a Startup Mindset within Multinationals - with Zack Weisfeld General Manager and Head of Ignite, Intel's Startup Mentorship ProgramTzahi (Zack) Weisfeld is a seasoned executive and a serial entrepreneur, with 25+ years of experience in tech consumer and enterprise markets. General manager and head of Ignite, Intel's Startup Mentorship Program. President of ASN (Accelerating Startup Nations), Zack was one of the founders of Microsoft Israel R&D site as well as a member of its management team for 8 years where he created Microsoft for startups which has gone on to be one of the most successful programmes in the world.
startuphandmedowns.co
2020-07-2958 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 83: Build a Team of Curious People to Achieve Success with Haymo Meran - Serial Entrepreneur and InvestorIn this episode Philip spoke with serial entrepreneur and investor Haymo Meran. Haymo is currently the head of product at Usersnap which provides SaaS companies with feedback collection tools so that they can become more customer-centric and truly make use of the voice of the customer to improve their service.
But before this, Haymo built and sold 2 companies and that is what we spent of our time discussing. How to build meaningful products and what the production process should look like. We also discussed how he thinks about angel investing and how he got involved with...
2020-07-0151 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 82: Why All Founders Have to be Great Sales People with Dan Bowyer - Co-Founder and Partner at SuperSeed VCDan Bowyer co-founder and invest at Superseed VC. Dan invests in technical founders building smart B2B tech startups (SaaS/health/data), with a mission to help them to find global market fit.
It's Dan's job to help them get out of startup mode using scalable, repeatable and profitable sales models. Ensuring they get the right people on the bus, create the right energy, infrastructure & activity to get to their first £1m in recurring revenue - which is definitely the most exciting and precarious stage for any tech startup. Before Dan was a VC he was a...
2020-06-2449 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 81: Not All Businesses Need Venture Capital Funding with Andrea Hippeau Principal Investor at Lerer Hippeau VCIn this episode Philip spoke with Andrea Hippeau is a Principal on our investment team. Prior to joining Lerer Hippeau, she held management and business development roles at portfolio companies. Andrea worked in corporate development while at Advance Publications and managed client relationships for Thomson Reuters. After studying French and business management at Skidmore College, she went on to get her MBA from Columbia Business School.
In this episode, Philip and Andrea talk all things venture capital, COVID-19, deal flow, and more.
2020-06-1744 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 80: Creating the right culture starts with leadership - Melissa Daimler Founder of Daimler PartnersMelissa has been an executive at high-growth companies for over twenty years. She is now Principal of Daimler Partners, working as an advisor, facilitator, and executive coach. Her primary focus is on helping leaders define and operationalize culture.
Prior to starting Daimler Partners, Melissa was an executive who experienced multiple leadership viewpoints throughout her career. She led HR for a fast-growing venture-funded startup. She created and built Learning & Organizational Development functions for Adobe, Twitter, and WeWork. She built a coaching company while also the first employee of Coach University, one of the first leaders in the...
2020-06-101h 07Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 79: Angel investor by day world-class DJ by night with Mick Batyske Investor and DJMick is a Brooklyn-based multi-talented creative with influential footprints internationally – from New York to LA, London to Tokyo. He is a DJ, style influencer, tech investor, inspirational speaker, music curator and brand consultant. He's also a pretty cool dad from what I hear also!
In this episode, we talk about Mick's approach to becoming the go-to DJ for many celebrities and how he's the ability to network and add value afforded him many opportunities. Many of these opportunities included giggs, sponsorship deals, and angel investment opportunities. One deal, in particular, was with podcast hosting platform Anchor which wa...
2020-06-0346 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 78: Peter Rojas - Partner at Betaworks Ventures - How We Built Multiple Media Brands Without Paying for Traffic, Acquisitions, Venture Capital and More.Peter Rojas is a founding partner at Betaworks Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund based in New York and San Francisco. He is also the co-founder of several startups, including Weblogs Inc. (acquired by AOL in 2005), where he created and was editor-in-chief of both Engadget and Joystiq; Gizmodo (formerly Gawker Media, now part of Univision); music discovery service RCRD LBL; and gdgt, a social commerce platform (acquired by AOL in 2013). Prior to Betaworks Ventures, he worked at AOL as VP of Strategy and later as Co-director of Alpha, the company's experimental products group. I really enjoyed this episode because...
2020-05-191h 01Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 77: What's your startups moat? Branding Isn't enough with Hadley Harris - Founding Partner at Eniac VenturesHadley has done a little bit of everything on the path to co-founding Eniac. Starting as an engineer and development team lead at Pegasystems, he later took on roles as a product manager at Microsoft and strategist at Samsung, where it became clear that big companies were not for him.
In 2007 he was very fortunate to join a very talented AI team out of MIT at Vlingo where he ran a few aspects of the business across product, strategy, and marketing until it was sold to Nuance for $225M. He rolled his experience building a successful startup...
2020-05-0654 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 76: I lost everything in 2008 so I was more prepared for COVID-19 with George McGehrin - Founder of The McGehrin GroupFor close to 20 years, George has run a national executive search firm mostly dealing with executive search and leadership at the C-Suite level such as CEO, CFO, CTO roles throughout the US, Europe, and South America. He's worked with small startups to some household named organizations.
Besides managing his recruiting firm, he also works with similar executives by helping them take control of their careers and branding themselves appropriately when looking for their next move. In this episode, George talks about losing everything in 2008 and having to restart and reinvent himself. We also talk about the importance...
2020-04-271h 05Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 75: From Drug Addiction to Successful Tech CEO and Leadership Coach with Michael Brody-Waite Co-Founder of InQuickerMichael Brody-Waite is an award-winning CEO, tech-startup entrepreneur, and recovering drug addict. In 2009, Brody-Waite left a Fortune 50 company to co-found and lead InQuicker, a healthcare SaaS company that allows patients to self-schedule appointments. His leadership grew the organization from two employees to 50 employees and 20,000% revenue growth in less than six years. This exceptional growth landed InQuicker a spot on the Inc. 500 list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies. In 2015, InQuicker was sold to a publicly-traded company.
In the time since InQuicker went public, Brody-Waite has made a name for himself as an untraditional leadership coach. He credits his success to...
2020-03-111h 10Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 74: The Worse Thing You Can Do is Live With Regret - Patrick Drake Co-Founder and Former Head Chef - HelloFresh UKRebroadcast: This week we sit down with Patrick, founder/CEO at HelloFresh. An all-around foodie, Patrick talks us through his road to success and the difficulties of bringing a new product to market. For those who haven’t tried it yet, HelloFresh is a meal kit service that brings portioned packages of food to your door with easy recipes to follow, and it’s actually the first meal kit service of its kind. Being the first of your kind in any sphere is tough, and Patrick really brings to light the process of educating the public about your product, whic...
2020-02-2656 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 73: Self Awareness Helped Us Grow Our Direct to Consumer Business - Abhi Lokesh CEO of Fracture (Rebroadcast)This week in Startup Handmedowns, we chat with Abhi Lokesh, founder CEO of Fracture and down-to-earth world traveler. Fracture is a glass printing company that emerged out of Abhi’s university passion project, an e-commerce art business that donated all of its profits to charity, as well as a trip to Swaziland with his classmate, Alex. A major lesson in this week’s episode, is patience. Abhi talks about refreshing his order intake page and projecting the typical hockey stick growth curve in a naivié way that I’m sure a lot of us can relate too. His dreams for Fra...
2020-02-0553 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 72: What I've Learned as An Investor For The last 11 Years with Rodney Appiah Founder and Chairman of Cornerstone Partners and Director at Foresight Private EquityIn today’s episode I had the pleasure of interviewing Rodney Appiah founder and chairman of Cornerstone partners, an angel investment group focused on investing in predominantly black founders. They not only invest in the business but they also provide debt financing to businesses already in operation and generating significant revenues. Rodney is also a Director and venture capital investor at Foresight Private Equity, a leading investment firm focusing on earlier stage UK businesses. He has worked with several entrepreneurial companies over the last 11 years and currently sits on the board of a number of high growth businesses. In th...
2020-01-291h 25Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 71: How I Sold My Startup for $45m and Why I Started my Next Startup the Following Day with Jude Gomila Founder of GoldenJude Gomila is a serial entrepreneur and a serial angel investor. He's invested in over 180+ companies including Airtable. In this episode, Philip talks with Jude about early life and "failed" projects to moving to San Francisco and starting Heyzap with his childhood friend which they went on to sell for $45m. We also discuss getting into Y-combinator and the conversation with Paul Graham (PG) on the sidewall.
2020-01-221h 30Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 70: Lo Toney Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital. Formerly eBay, Zynga Google Venture PartnersLo Toney is an investor and founding managing partner of Plexo Capital a fund that invests in women and people from minority backgrounds.
Plexo Capital, the fund founded by the former GV partner recently closed its first fund of $42.5 million. The plan is to invest in both startups and emerging VC funds, with 60% of the capital going toward venture capital funds as a limited partner, and 40% going directly to startups.
Lo has had an incredible career to date and on this episode, we discuss the work he’s done over the years with the li...
2020-01-151h 06Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 69: Your Life Should Have a Theme, Don't Just Do One Thing with Anthony Frasier Entrepreneur and StrategistAnthony Frasier is a digital strategist, tech entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. A Newark, NJ native, Anthony has a long history of mentoring, advising startups & community infrastructures, to solve real problems and build solutions. Before joining Newark Venture Partners as their entrepreneur in residence, Anthony was one of the founders behind The Phat Startup. With well over a decade of experience in tech, media, speaking and coaching aspiring entrepreneurs and students from underserved groups, he has developed a thoroughly different worldview. A published author, Anthony believes that success isn’t something external, it comes from within. You can cr...
2019-12-1849 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 68: Building B2B Products and Why You Shouldn't Get Sucked into The B2C Game with Andrew MacGill, VP of Product at PagerToday I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew MacGill who’s an entrepreneur and product director. Andrews has been through 2 exits where the ideas have been in their early stages of development so he knows a thing or two about building meaningful products. Andrew is currently the VP of product at Pager, a New York-based startup that’s transforming the way consumers interact with their healthcare. Pager has raised over $34m to date. They allow you to interact with your doctor or carer through your phone, at any time from anywhere. It’s super easy.
This episod...
2019-12-111h 02Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 67: How I Grew Traffic to Millions of Views and Sold My Blog for $9m with Serial Entrepreneur Ramon Van MeerRamon is a serial entrepreneur and in my opinion a serial hustler. He’s a different kind of entrepreneur, not a tech startup tech-savvy kind of guy but more of a methodical "how do I drive traffic and monetize" it kind of guy. In this episode we discuss how to create engaging content and drive huge amounts of traffic to your site and also, how Ramon started a soap opera blog which he went on to sell for $9m without ever watching a single soap opera show. Learn how to pick a topic, start testing content ideas, grow tr...
2019-12-041h 04Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 66: Why Startups Need to Get Good at Telling Stories With Tammy Nam COO of PicsArtRe-run - This week we're sharing our interview with Tammy Nam, COO of PicsArt, a photo-editing platform with over 100 million monthly users. Tammy has worked at tons of cool companies such as Slide, Scribd, and Viki, and has earned quite a name in the consumer-facing tech world. In this episode we discuss: How to deal with different founders The attributes of virally successful companies The role of culture in startups Full of helpful startup marketing tips, this episode is for all non-technical entrepreneurs out there. Voted one of the top 25 women to watch in tech...
2019-11-2748 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 65: How I Built the App Vivino to 36 million Users and Raised over $57m with Heini Zachariassen Founder of Vivino Wine AppIn today's episode, Philip spoke with serial entrepreneur Heini Zachariassen Founder of Vivino. Vivino is currently the world's largest online wine marketplace with over 36 million users and attracting 20 thousand new users per day. Boosting a very impressive database of over 10 million wines from over 200 thousand producers around the world Heni knows a thing or two about how to build a tech company. To date, VIVINO has raised around $57 million dollars in funding in venture funding.
Before founding Vivino he also played a key role in the success of BullGuard an antivirus startup that went on to generate $20...
2019-11-2052 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 64: Stop Taking Programmatic Approaches to Systemic Issues with Ben Hecht President & CEO at Living CitiesThis was a slightly different type of interview as I did not interview a serial entrepreneur who’s built multiple tech companies and sold it for millions or a venture capitalist but instead, I spoke with a different type of entrepreneur. Ben Hecht, Ben is an unusual type of entrepreneur because he actually focuses on philanthropy and more specifically on shortening the race pay gap and the racial wealth gap. I don’t think based on his work he’d call himself an entrepreneur but his approach to solving this problem is nothing short of entrepreneurial and it’s been he’...
2019-11-1348 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 63: How to Build Successful Tech Companies and Market Them with Dan Sutera, Serial Entrepreneur, Startup Advisor and InvestorIn this episode, Philip had the pleasure of speaking with serial entrepreneur, advisor, and investor Dan Sutera. Dan Sutera has started a number of tech companies which he’s either sold or, has created so much meaningful value that it'll eventually sell at some point. When you have a look at Dan Sutera's entrepreneurial resume it looks as if everything he touches literally turns into gold. Amongst his many successes, Dan was the co-founder of Futurism which is a technology-focused media company that boasts over 5m monthly views–– the company was recently acquired by Singularity University. His most recent projec...
2019-11-061h 08Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 62: From raising over £200m to becoming a VC and trying to solve the "pipeline" problem with Ezechi Britton Principal at Impact X Capital and Co-founder of NeyberIn this episode Philip sat down with Ezechi Britton Principal at Impact X Capital and Co-founder of Neyber to talk about his journey so far. From growing up in Lewisham with his parents who were teachers to finding his way into investment banking and later as a co-founder to a startup that would go on to raise £200m. Ezechi touches on moonlighting Neyber while still working as an engineer at an investment bank and why he believes entrepreneurs should keep cashflow coming at all costs until they can transition out and work on a project full time.
2019-10-311h 41Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 61: Why The Best Way to Learn is by Doing with Kai Bond, Serial Entrepreneur and VC at Courtside VCRe-run: This episode originally aired in March 2018 but Kai's lessons in entrepreneurship are timeless. In this episode Philip spoke with serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist Kai Bond. Kai is the lead investor at Catalyst Fund which is a seed fund based in New York City. Catalyst Fund is an extension of Comcast Ventures and it serves as a unique investment vehicle to elevate minority entrepreneurship by matching capital and resources with underrepresented minority entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Catalyst Fund Kai has had a truly remarkable career as an entrepreneur. He’s had some painful failures and tells Phil ab...
2019-10-2334 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 60: Investing in Diverse Founders with Eric Collins Founder and CEO of Impact X CapitalSticking with the theme of Black History Month, Philip sat down with Eric Collins who's the founder and CEO of Impact X Capital which is a venture capital firm based in the UK. They invest in diverse, underserved –– or what Philip likes to say "underestimated"–– founders in the UK and across Europe.
On this longer than usual episode, Eric talks about him growing up in the South and his career as a consultant where he worked on M&A deals. Eric talks about the importance of key partnerships to enable growth, raising capital and why he and h...
2019-10-162h 04Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 59: The Importance of a Strong Brand and How to Create One with Alain Sylvain Founder of Sylvain LabsAlain Sylvain is the founder and CEO of Sylvain Labs, an innovation and brand design consultancy. They have offices in New York, Amsterdam and Richmond, VA. The company serves as a strategic planning resource for product developers and marketers. They have some of the biggest names as clients including Google, Airbnb, Spotify, General Motors, Samsung, Facebook, Nike, Uniqlo, PepsiCo, Bloomberg, and others.
Alain is co-founder and investor of several ventures including: Master + Dynamic, a design-driven, premium audio brand. Lílo, the first-of-its-kind refrigerator-stable açai bowl, and Waynesaw, a mobile game.
On the show, we un...
2019-10-0942 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 58: Why I wouldn't want to be a startup founder again with Charles Hudson Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor VCOn this episode, Philip spoke with Charles Hudson. Charles is a serial entrepreneur and is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures. Precursor is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. They recently closed their second fund at $31m, doubling their first fund which was $15m. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC. In this role, he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure.
Before joining the world of venture capital Charles was...
2019-10-0238 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 57: We Raised $1m and Sold our App for $48m in Less Than 2 years with Jordan Fliegel MD of TechStars Sports and Serial EntrepreneurToday I had the pleasure of interviewing Jordan Fliegel who’s an early-stage investor and serial entrepreneur with a focus on sports tech. Before Jordan started investing he co-founded a number of successful startups, including Draft, a fantasy league app which he started with his best friend and went on to be acquired by Paddy Power. At the time of the acquisition, they had a team of fewer than 15 employees. Jordan also co-founded CoachUp which he raised $15m for with the likes of Steph Curry from the Golden State Warriors later investing in the company. A calm an...
2019-09-2551 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 56: (Re-run) Why you don't need to burn the ship to be an entrepreneur - Tom Bilyeu Co- Founder of Quest Nutrition and Impact TheoryThis was one of my first interviews when I was still getting into podcasting. This interview was first aired in 2017 and you can hear just how bad of an interviewer I was! But luckily, I was interviewing an OG! Tom Bilyeu brought that fire regardless of my poor interviewing skills! SO many great insights and killer pieces of advise for startup founders that he drops here. If you haven’t already checked out Impact Theory–– Tom’s Youtube and podcast–– make sure you do, he has some of the best interviews and with some of the highest performers in the world.
2019-09-1839 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 55: Sales Masterclass with Adam Liebman - VP of Sales at SeatedToday I had the pleasure of speaking with Adam Liebman who's currently VP of Sales at Seated who is known in New York City as one of the top sales executives in the tech ecosystem. Adam has built and grown sales teams for some of the largest tech startups in New York City such as Yext (YEXT) which is now a publicly traded company where Adam was sales hire number one and SinglePlatform where he also played an integral role in craft the sales experience before rapidly growing the team. Adam started out wanting to be a journalist before...
2019-05-0952 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 54: Nathalie Molina Niño- Founder of BRAVA Investments and Author of Leapfrog: The New Revolution For Women EntrepreneursToday I had the pleasure of speaking with Nathalie Molina Nino.
Nathalie is an impact investor targeting high-growth businesses that economically benefit women and the planet. A confessed but recovering serial entrepreneur, Nathalie launched her first tech startup at the age of twenty and like most of us got hooked. She's the co-founder of Entrepreneurs@Athena at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies of Barnard College at Columbia University, where the idea for LEAPFROG was first born. Before that, she spent over a decade sharing her no-BS, opinionated flavor of business advice and growth strategy with folks...
2019-04-0953 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 53: Why You Don't Need Another Book with Angel GambinoAngel Gambino is a WIRED Top 100 executive who has built companies on three continents. She's also an urban regeneration pioneer, a visionary investor, a passionate environmental lawyer, and a dedicated and loving mother. The technology phase of her career has included co-founding investment partnership Prehype Partners, senior roles at the BBC and MTV Networks, and leading the pioneering UK social network Bebo. She has also played pro soccer, and she ran logistics for the USWNT at the Olympics. Raised in Detroit, she recently returned to San Francisco as founder-CEO of a social artificial intelligence startup called Sensai.
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2019-04-021h 09Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 52: (Re-run) How to build amazing products - with Ian White of Business Insider and Co-founder of SailthruThis week is a repeat episode with Ian White who’s the co-founder and former CTO of Sailthru. Recorded June 2017
On this episode, we discuss:
- How to build a product
- The importance of talking with users
- Speed to market
Ian White was the CTO and Co-Founder of email service provider Sailthru. They’ve raised over $48m and now staff over 200 people in New York City. He also helped build Silicon Valley Insider which later grew to become Business Insider. He’s known for building the famous slideshows feature in Business Insider articles.
Ian is now the Founder of Sta...
2018-12-1449 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 51: Transforming Education and How We Learn with Austen Allred Founder and CEO of Lambda SchoolThis week we sat down with Austen Allred of Lambda School, Fit Marketing, Grasswire, and Lendup.
On this episode we discuss:
- Growth marketing galore
- The free upfront model
- When to invest
Austen Allred has a super interesting origin story, having dropped out of university himself, he went on to co-found his own school and pushing the envelope for the future of education. For those of you who are out of the loop, Austen created Lambda School, a coding school that asks for no money up front in an exchange for a percentage of your salary after you...
2018-12-0747 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 50: Tony Conrad - Serial Entrepreneur and Partner at True Ventures with over $2bn AUMThis week we're interviewing Tony Conrad of True Ventures, Sphere, about.me, Wordpress and many other great startups. On this episode we discuss: - The turning point of modern startup culture - Expert level networking - The emotional intelligence necessary to excel in the startup landscape The theme of this episode is networking, networking, networking! And no, you aren't just going to hear the obvious "just get out there and meet people!", Tony has some concrete advice for how to surround yourself with people that will guide you along your journey as an entrepreneur. Coming from a tiny...
2018-11-301h 40Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 49: The One Thing All Successful Startups Have in Common With Tammy Nam COO of PicsArtThis week we're sharing our interview with Tammy Nam, COO of PicsArt, a photo editing platform with over 100 million monthly users. Tammy has worked at tons of cool companies such as Slide, Scribd, and Viki, and has earned quite a name in the consumer-facing tech world.
On this episode we discuss:
How to deal with different founders
The attributes of virally successful companies
The role of culture in startups
Full of helpful startup marketing tips, this episode is for all non-technical entrepreneurs out there. Voted one of the top 25 women to watch in tech by AlwaysOn, Tammy has a ton of e...
2018-11-2352 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 48: Just Do What You Love and It'll Work Out with David Jamilly Co-Founder of Theme TradersThis week we've interviewed David "DJ" Jamilly, co-founder of Theme Traders, a creative event production business (emphasis on the creative) which grew to the impressive from his party entertainment gig as a teenager!
On this episode we discuss:
The social aspect of doing business
Setting client expectations
Kindness (both the not-for-profit organization David founded and just kindness in general)
David is just a super nice guy who has figured out how to make millions off of having fun. You know when people tell you "just do what you love and it'll work out" and you don't believe them? Well, it...
2018-11-1641 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 47: (Re-run) Why Brands Need Personality with Mat Braddy Former CMO of Just Eat and Founder of UpdraftOk I know last week we promised a new episode but you're going to have to wait one more week... this week we're playing a rerun of one of our favorite interviews with Mat Braddy, former CMO of Just Eat and current mentor extraordinaire.
On this episode we discuss:
- Why Mat Braddy ran for office
- Eating the Big Fish by Adam Morgan
- The importance of bold marketing as a brand competitor
- Some marketing tips and tricks (read: how to not waste your whole marketing budget on an ineffective ad)
Mat is a pretty funny guy which...
2018-11-0944 min
Simple on Purpose | Intentional Living and Parenting3. Brain dump, kid’s clothes storage, minimum baseline to change habits.Declutter your mind and time with a brain dump, keep track of all the seasonal kid's clothes and handmedowns, change your habits using minimum baseline.
Welcome to another Simple Saturday!
This is a bi-weekly email newsletter that has been running for 2 years! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FRIENDS!! Thank you for being along with me on this journey and giving me a space in your inbox!
In this Simple Saturday we are talking about:
++ simple life ++
If you’ve been around Simple Saturdays for a while you know that I will often recommend doing a brain dump. A brain dump is a list of al...
2018-10-2709 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 46: (Re-run) Anton Derlyakta - CEO & Co-founder of Sweatcoin and Founder & Managing Partner at Talent Equity VCThis week we are reairing and old episode- our interview with Anton Derlyakta, CEO & co-founder of Sweatcoin and founder & managing partner at Talent Equity Ventures.
On this episode we discuss:
How to tell when someone is going to be a success
The best qualities of an entrepreneur
The contextual nature of the startup world
This episode was aired two years ago and since then, he’s been busy. For those of you out of the loop, Sweatcoin is an app that pays you in Sweatcoins to move outside. SweatcoinsThis interview is full of great venture capital insights as well as his...
2018-10-2642 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 45: Marketing Mistakes Startups Make with Ex-Googler, Gaston Tourn - CMO of BadooThis week on Startup Handmedowns, we sat down with Gaston Tourn, CMO of Badoo which for those of you who don’t know is a dating app that is most popular in Europe and South America. Gaston describes himself as a writer and a poet, creating the narrative of the customer and integrating their stories into the product in question. Like many of us, Gaston once had the belief that marketers go out and trick people, that it’s more of a "slimy job", which makes his journey to marketing even more interesting. Hear how he didn’t set out to bec...
2018-10-1947 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 44: Why Diversity of Thought is Extremely Valuable with Porter Braswell - Co founder and CEO of JopwellWelcome to another episode of Startup Handmedowns! We promise this episode was worth the wait! This week, we chat with Porter Braswell, co-founder and CEO of Jopwell, a career advancement platform for people of colour. As Porter describes, Jopwell was created out of necessity. When Porter entered the finance industry, he noticed that there were very few people in the industry that looked like him, and as a black man who had many opportunities that most people of colour are systematically barred from, he allocated the responsibility onto himself to fight for diversity in the workforce.
Part of the reason...
2018-10-0934 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 43: The Journey So Far with Patrick Drake Co-Founder and Head Chef of HelloFresh UKThis week we sit down with Patrick, founder/CEO at HelloFresh. An all around foodie, Patrick talks us through his road to success and the difficulties of bringing a new product to market. For those who haven’t tried it yet, HelloFresh is a meal kit service that brings portioned packages of food to your door with easy recipes to follow, and it’s actually the first meal kit service of its kind. Being the first of your kind in any sphere is tough, and Patrick really brings to light the process of educating the public about your product, which can...
2018-08-2054 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 42: Self awareness helped us grow - Abhi Lokesh CEO of FractureThis week in Startup Handmedowns, we chat with Abhi Lokesh, founder CEO of Fracture and down-to-earth world traveler. Fracture is a glass printing company which emerged out of Abhi’s university passion project, an e-commerce art business which donated all of its profits to charity, as well as a trip to Swaziland with his classmate, Alex.
A major lesson in this week’s episode is patience. Abhi talks about refreshing his order intake page and projecting the typical hockey stick growth curve in a naivié way that I’m sure a lot of us can relate too. His dreams for Fractur...
2018-08-1453 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 41: You Don't Need More Processes with Ryan Walsh Partner at Floodgate VC and Formally Beat by DreIn this week’s episode of Startup Handmedowns, we sit down with Ryan Walsh who is currently a partner at Floodgate. Ryan has had a very rich career history, from starting out as a performing DJ in San Francisco to co-founding his own startup, and working as the VP of product at Beats by Dre. His origin story is wild, as Ryan got his start as a raver in Pittsburg, taking pictures of the polished DJ’s equipment with a disposable camera to figure out how to emulate that sound.
After figuring out that the party life of a DJ was...
2018-07-301h 12Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 40: Why You Shouldn't Raise Too Much Money with Paul GrossingerIn this week’s episode, we interview Paul Grossinger, an angel investor and co-founder of Gaingels Syndicate, Blue Jay Syndicate, A-Level Capital, and Pervasive Group Inc. Gaingels Syndicate is a group offering investment opportunities to LGBT founders and Blue Jay Syndicate offers investment to founders in the Johns Hopkins community, which Paul started partially as a way to give back to his community.
During this interview, Paul challenges the idea that there is a perfect startup formula of funding and encourages founders to think critically about their company’s funding strategy. We are taught to go after big-name venture capitalists, but...
2018-07-2341 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 39: What I've learned starting companies with Jack Levine former CEO of Digg and Electric ObjectsJake Levine is the former Founder & CEO of Electric Objects, named one of Time Magazine's 25 Best Inventions of 2014. He started the company in 2013 to explore ambient computing and the future of art. In 2017 Electric Objects was acquired by GIPHY, which is basically the Google of gifs. Before Electric Objects, Jake was the General Manager of Digg, a Betaworks company which they acquired in 2012. Jake is a part-time VC at Notation Capital and is also a product manager at Square. We cover a lot of ground in this very chilled interview with Jake. we talk about his time at Digg and...
2018-07-1051 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 38: Success takes time - Russ Shaw Founder of TLA and InvestorRuss Shaw is the founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates. He originally founded Tech London Advocates in 2013 to establish an independent voice for the technology sector which would focus on the private sector. Since then he has been championing London as a global tech hub and campaigning to address some of the biggest challenges facing tech companies in the UK – diversity, digital skills, immigration, infrastructure and of course access to funding.
Tech London Advocates is a network of more than 6,000 tech leaders, entrepreneurs, and experts in London, across the UK and in over 50 countries worldwide and Philip ac...
2018-07-0242 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 37: Getting 25,000 downloads a day Patrick Jackson of DisconnectPatrick Jackson who is the Chief Technology Officer at Disconnect, which allows people to browse the web without being tracked. given the new GDPR regulations you could say these guys launched way before their tme. Disconnect launched in early 2010 and has gone on to have over 50mill users, they’ve raised a millions of dollars and have google chrome and Firefox extensions of the product.
Before joining Disconnect Patrick founded a number of startups through his company imaginary feet which received over 8 million downloads across various apps that they launched. Like one of our previous guests, Mckeever Conwell the 2nd Pa...
2018-06-1856 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 36: Success = Reading More with Anthony Frasier from ABF CreativeAnthony Frasier is a digital strategist, tech entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. A Newark, NJ native, Anthony has a long history of mentoring, advising startups & community infrastructures, to solve real problems and build solutions. Before joining Newark Venture Partners as their entrepreneur in residence, Anthony was one of the founders behind The Phat Startup. With well over a decade of experience in tech, media, speaking and coaching aspiring entrepreneurs and students from underserved groups, he has developed a thoroughly different worldview. A published author, Anthony believes that success isn’t something external, it comes from within. You can cr...
2018-04-3048 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 35: Why VC's Aren't Racist with Mckeever Conwell II of TEDCOMckeever Conwell, 2nd, AKA Mac is a Baltimore native serial entrepreneur. He’s currently a Deal Team Coordinator at TEDCO which is an independent organization that strives to be Maryland’s lead source for entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding. Prior to joining TEDCO Mac worked with the Department of Defense where he achieved Top Secret Security Clearance. He also went on to co-found two startups going through a number of accelerators including NewME. Mac sold of those startups back in 2014.
We talk about life as a programmer to life a CEO and why it’s hard to be a founde...
2018-04-2343 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 34: The Art of Branding with Alain Sylvain CEO of Sylvain LabsAlain Sylvain is the founder and CEO of Sylvain Labs, an innovation and brand design consultancy. They have offices in New York, Amsterdam and Richmond, VA. The company serves as a strategic planning resource for product developers and marketers. They have some of the biggest names as Clients including: Google, Airbnb, Spotify, AB-InBev, General Motors, Samsung, Facebook, Nike, Uniqlo, PepsiCo, Bloomberg and others.
Alain is co-founder and investor of several ventures including: Master + Dynamic, a design-driven, premium audio brand. Lílo, the first-of-its-kind refrigerator-stable açai bowl, and Waynesaw, a mobile game.
On the show we unpack what it takes to...
2018-04-1641 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 33: E-commerce Masterclass with Brian Berger CEO of Mack WeldonBrian Berger is the founder and CEO of menswear basics brand, Mack Weldon. With over a decade of success in the digital world, Brian created Mack Weldon in 2012, a men’s specialty line consisting of underwear, socks and t-shirts with a focus on design, performance and functionality. Mack Weldon has grown to become one of the leaders within the industry.
Brian served in several leadership positions within consumer internet and media companies including Comcast, WebMD and Excite@Home.
Brian graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Colorado and continued his education at Columbia University wh...
2018-04-0945 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 32: I started Birchbox with tunnel vision with Katia BeauchampKatia cofounded Birchbox in 2010, driven by a fascination with the business dynamics of the beauty industry and a mission to redefine the way people discovered and shopped for beauty online. Today she is more passionate than ever about building the beauty destination for the average woman who is not passionate about beauty. Birchbox, which is best known for its monthly subscription of personalized samples, now has more than 1 million subscribers, 4 million total customers, 800 beauty and grooming brand partners, operations in six countries and a flagship store in New York City.
This episode is brought to you by DesignCrowd. DesignCrowd is...
2018-04-0253 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 31: Why I wouldn't want to be a startup founder again - with Charles Hudson from Precursor VenturesOn this episode, Philip spoke with Charles Hudson. Charles is a serial entrepreneur and is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures. Precursor is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC. In this role, he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure.
Before joining the world of venture capital Charles was a budding entrepreneur in the events industry and then the gaming industry.
In this episode, they talk startups, diversity...
2018-03-2644 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 30: What founders of color can do to win - With Kai Bond (Part 2)This is Part 2 of Philip's interview with serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist Kai Bond. Kai is the lead investor at Catalyst Fund which is a seed fund based in New York City and an extension of Comcast Ventures.
The second half of this interview Kai talks about his experience as a founder of color and also what founders of colors can do to increase the 1% of venture capital funding that goes to founders of color.
This episode is brought to you by DesignCrowd. DesignCrowd is a website that helps entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses outsource or ‘CROWDSOURCE’ design. DesignCrowd has...
2018-03-1935 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 29: How I Sold My Startup to Samsung within 9 months- with Kai Bond from Catalyst Fund (Part 1)Today Philip spoke with serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist Kai Bond. Kai is the lead investor at Catalyst Fund which is a seed fund based in New York City. Catalyst Fund is an extension of Comcast Ventures and it serves as a unique investment vehicle to elevate minority entrepreneurship by matching capital and resources with underrepresented minority entrepreneurs.
Prior to joining Catalyst Fund Kai has had a truly remarkable career as an entrepreneur. He’s had some painful failures and tells Phil about his lowest point where he didn’t even have enough money for a subway ride.
Kai talk...
2018-03-1233 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 28: How we get 12m readers per month with Derek Flanzraich Founder and CEO of GreatistOn this episode, Philip spoke with his former boss Derek Flanzraich who is the CEO and Founder of Greatist. Greatist is health and wellness media startup for millennials. Derek is the son of 2 medical doctors and he grew up on the west coast before moving to Miami at age 11. He later went on to study at Harvard University where he found his passion for media and content creation. After graduating from college he went on to work at a high flying startup which would go on to exit just after 6 months of him joining.
As someone who openly admits to...
2018-03-0548 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 27: Raising money comes with strings attached with Victor Penev of EdamamOn this episode, Philip Kasumu speaks to serial entrepreneur Victor Penev. Victor founded Bulgaria's largest internet company info.bg which has been called the the Yahoo and Google of Bulgaria by Forbes which he sold to 2 of Bulgaria's largest media companies in a multi-million dollar deal. He's also co-founded 3 other companies including his current startups Edamam which is about helping people eat better by making daily food choices simple and easy. The company has set itself the ambitious goal of organizing all the food knowledge in the world!
Victor has some interesting views when it comes to raising money for...
2017-11-1934 min
Local Spins LiveLocal Spins on WYCE: Brant Satala’s musical voyage continues, plus Sleepover, Nordlund, New Music Ensemble, Rick Chyme & NixonThis week’s episode featured Satala playing a new song in-studio, plus music from Benjaman James, Jukejoint Handmedowns, The Zannies, Last Gasp Collective, Magenta Flag and more. Watch the video, listen to the full podcast.
2017-11-1102 minStartup HandMeDownsEpisode 26: Facilitating the personal branding revolution with Brian Schechter of SelfMadeOn this episode, Philip Kasumu spoke with serial entrepreneur Brian Schechter. Brian, a former high school teacher turned successful entrepreneur loves to watch people grow whilst supporting them in their own version of self-expression. He previously co-founded and sold dating site 'HowAboutWe' and he's currently the founder and CEO of SelfMade.
SelfMade’s a platform that connects members with expert and affordable professional image editors and brand strategists. Members elevate their brands on Instagram, which results in follower growth, business opportunity and increased revenue.
They've raised $11m to date from top investors such as Primary VC, BoxGroup, FirstMark and many mo...
2017-11-0942 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 25: How I Judge Startups for Investment - With WeWork Labs Cofounder Jesse MiddletonCo founder of Wework Labs and Investor.
Jesse’s investment interests includes mobile, SaaS, big data, consumer and e-commerce. Prior to joining Flybridge in 2016, Jesse was an early executive at WeWork, one of the fastest growing and most valuable startups in history. He co-founded WeWork Labs in 2011, which became WeWork’s global startup incubator, and ran WeWork X, M&A, startup investments, business and digital product development as well as inside sales during his five-year tenure at the company.
Prior to WeWork, Jesse was the co-founder and CEO of Backstory, a venture backed startup. Jesse began his career traveling across the...
2017-06-271h 06
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 24: Step by Step Guide to Raising Venture Capital - with VC Sumeet Shah from Brand Foundry VCStep by step guide to raising VC money from a VC with Sumeet Shah from Brand Foundry.
Sumeet Shah is a principal at Brand Foundry VC. Brand Foundry VC have invested companies such as Warby Parker, Birchbox, Harry’s, Peloton and more. Sumeet graduated from Columbia university in 2008 with a bachelors in biomedical engineering focusing on biomechanics. He has over 6 years of experience across the startup and private equity industries, formerly running new business strategies at Gist Digital and handling business development and project work at Gotham Consulting Partners. He also assisted in the creation of XRC Labs, a consumer an...
2017-06-1743 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 23: How I started the world's 1ST SOCIAL NETWORK, SixDegrees - with Andrew WeinreichHear the incredible journey of Andrew Weinreich with SixDegrees, the first ever social network that sold it's patent to LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
Andrew Weinreich is a serial entrepreneur, social networking pioneer, and active presence in NYC’s Silicon Alley for 2 decades. To date, he’s founded 7 startups and has been awarded 2 software patents.
Since 2013, he has sold 2 businesses, including Xtify to IBM, while advising 5 tech startups such as Classpass. He is currently the co-founder and Chairman of Indicative, a data analytics startup. He leads Predicting Our Future, a podcast about the next revolutions in technology.
2017-05-2053 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 22: How I started Birchbox with tunnel vision and cold emails - with Co-founder Katia BeauchampKatia cofounded Birchbox in 2010, driven by a fascination with the business dynamics of the beauty industry and a mission to redefine the way people discovered and shopped for beauty online. Today she is more passionate than ever about building the beauty destination for the average woman who is not passionate about beauty. Birchbox, which is best known for its monthly subscription of personalized samples, now has more than 1 million subscribers, 4 million total customers, 800 beauty and grooming brand partners, operations in six countries and a flagship store in New York City.
Katia holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School...
2017-05-0750 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 21: How I got 700,000 Newsletter Subscribers- With Sam Parr founder of The HustleOn this episode, Philip interviewed Sam Parr the Founder of The Hustle and Hustle Con.
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur who’s started a range of businesses from selling whisky online, to selling hotdogs, to then starting one of the most relevant business newsletters for millennials - The Hustle.
They talk about being aqui-hired for his Roommate app. Sam then talks about taking a 6 month month trip across America on his motorcycle where he was in solitude for the majority of that 6 months and what that did for him. They also talk about starting Hustle con which then led to...
2017-04-1844 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 20: How to build amazing products - with Ian White of Business Insider and Co founder of SailthruIan White was the CTO and Co-Founder of email service provider Sailthru. They’ve raised over $48m and now staff over 200 people in New York city. He also helped build Silicon Valley Insider which later grew to become Business insider. He’s known for building the famous slideshows feature in Business Insider articles.
Ian is now the Founder of Stardog which is his consultancy business for startups.
In this episode of Startup Handmedowns Philip and Ian talk about the early days of Business Insider and building Sailthru whilst still at Business Insider. They talk about product managers, CTO’s and how
sp...
2017-04-0949 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 19: Why I hate the word patience - With Tom Bilyeu Co-founder of Quest Nutrition and Impact TheoryTom Bilyeu is the co-founder of 2014 Inc. 500 company Quest Nutrition — a unicorn startup valued at over $1 billion — and the co-founder and host of Impact Theory. Tom’s mission is the creation of empowering media-based IP and the acceleration of mission-based businesses. Personally driven to help people develop the skills they will need to improve themselves and the world, Tom is intent to use commerce to address the dual pandemics of physical and mental malnourishment.
Tom regularly inspires audiences of entrepreneurs, change makers, and thought leaders at some of the most prestigious conferences and seminars around the world, including Abundance 360, A-fest, and Fr...
2017-03-2537 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 18: Pushing retail fashion into the 21st century - With CTO Josh Builder from Rent the RunwayIn this episode, Rent the Runway CTO Josh Builder walks us through how the founding team launched Rent the Runway, their journey to changing the way consumers think about fashion, and all the challenges along the way.
2017-02-2550 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 17: How we raised £1 million in 4 days via Crowdfunding- with JustPark's Alex StefaniShould you approach investors or attempt to raise money from the crowd? In this episode, we talk to JustPark's Ex-Ceo Alex Stefani about what it took to raise the largest Crowdfunding campaign of it's time, and to lead JustPark to becoming a household name.
We discuss:
1. Tips and tricks to a successful crowdfunding campaign
2. How to make it easier to launch projects when starting out
3. Why focus groups are dangerous, and reliable alternatives for collecting data
2016-09-1123 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 16: How my app got 500 million downloads and exited for £70million - with Jack BowmanKicking of Season 2 with a blast, Ranbir & Phil interview Jack Bowman who has had 3 exits before the age of 29, with his last business getting 500 MILLION downloads and selling for £70million.
We talk:
1. Strategic partnerships
2. Explosive growth
3. Acquisitions
2016-07-2416 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 15: What you learn from chilling with Millionaires - Season 1 FinaleIn this End Of Season 1 group episode, Ranbir, Phil and Omar sit down to discuss:
1. The highlights of learnings from the guests in seasons one
2. How Omar is generating 100 new followers a day on social media
3. Phil entrepreneurial dilemma.
This time it's personal.
2016-07-0526 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 14: Can you trade part time to support your startup? - With Zak MirWith Zak Mir, we explore whether entrepreneurs can trade part time to support their startup dreams. In this episode we discuss:
1. The different types of trading and their pros/cons
2. Is it benefitial to trade part-time?
3. Where & how to start with reduced risk
2016-06-2813 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 13: The Insane Hustle: Why Founder James Poulter slept on the floor to get Pronto off the groundWith an incredible story like this, no wonder James is shaking up the food industry. Having worked in Venture Capital, and then gone on to be a founder and raising Venture Capital, James has some unique hacks into raising money. Listen out for:
1. What is Derisking, and how to do it
2. How to push investors over the line
3. When NOT to raise investment
2016-06-1837 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 12: The new metric all founders need to know- with Dreamstake's Paul DowlingIn this episode with Dreamstake's Paul Dowling, we discuss:
1. What is founder-market fit and why it's so important for angels
2. How to conduct the right tests with your MVP to set yourself up for the next round
3. The next big trends in tech, and where money will be injected.
Enjoy, and let us know what you think!
2016-05-1122 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 11: Why we kidnapped a chef to explore JustEat's inner brand voice- with Mat Braddy Ex CMO of JustEatWe sit down with the former CMO of JustEat and allround business-playboy Mat Braddy and talk:
- The importance of creating a personality behind your brand
- Why JustEat ran for parliament & kidnapped a chef
- How they managed to turn JustEat into a household name
2016-05-0148 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 10: Special Story Episode: How I went from Cab Driver to Founder of $1Billion Startup- Hailo's Russ HallToday me and Phil have a very special story edition of Startup Handmedowns in which Russell Hall walks us through his unbelievable life-story from a cab driver to founder of Hailo Cabs- Europe’s BIGGEST startup, which is now valued at over $1Billion.
There’s ups, there’s downs, and a whole lot of comedy in-between.
So sit back, strap in, and enjoy the journey!
2016-04-1935 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 9: Are good leaders born or made? How I learnt to manage- with 500 Startup's Matt LernerMatt Lerner, London Distro Parnter of world's largest VC fund- 500 Startups- talks us through his experiences on learning how to manage people. Highlighted topics we discuss:
1) The secrets to becoming a great manager
2) What’s a more effective way to guide your business- by human feeling or by numbers
3) The types of people he invests in
Enjoy the episode!
2016-03-2651 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 8: The Complete Guide on How To Do Your Own PR- with GeekGirl Meetup's Cathy WhiteToday me & Phil get a complete guide on how to do our own PR from Seedcamp's Communications & Marketing Manager, and host of Geek-Girl Podcast, Cathy White. With her background in leading PR agencies, and getting press in the likes of Techcrunch, she is the ideal candidate to answer all of our lingering PR questions. We discuss:
1) Should you do your own PR vs hiring a PR agency
2) How to catch a journalists' attention and build a relationship
3) How to create a story that the world will share
2016-03-0856 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 7: How we raised £15 million & why it was a mistake- with Conrad PoulsonToday me & Phil speak to serial founder of multiple million-dollar companies and techstars mentor Conrad Poulson about:
1) How he raised £15m for Xtempus
2) Why it was a terrible mistake and his learnings
3) How to win high-hitting partnerships
2016-02-2827 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 6: App marketing masterclass with Moshi Monster's Ed RelfIn this episode we learn:
1. Conducting a kpi-centered approach to marketing
2. The most efficient marketing channels
3. How to know when your mvp is ready for launch.
Ed gives pure marketing gold guys, enjoy the episode!
2016-01-3150 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 5: Starting a business abroad with 91Springboard's Varun ChawlaIn this episode we talk to Varun Chawla, founder of the incubator 91Springboard about starting a tech business abroad, and how to streamline & hack your way to success in an international market.
2016-01-2331 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 4: Life of a Serial Entrepreneur with Oleg FomenkoIn this episode, we talk to serial entrepreneur Oleg Fomenko, about creating an entrepreneurial career path, and bouncing back from setbacks.
2015-12-2339 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 3: Catching a VC's attention with Anton DerlyatkaIn this episode, we talk to Venture Capitalist Anton Derlyatka about common mistakes while raising investment, and strategies to catch the interest of the top VC firms.
2015-12-2343 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 2: The late introSo usually introductions come first, but as Tai Lopez says, there's nothing wrong with eating the desert first. This episode is all about us, Ranbir, Phil & Teej, and our lives leading upto this podcast. (Viewer discretion: Innuendo Abundancy).
2015-12-2231 min
Startup HandMeDownsEpisode 1: How I won 18 grants to get my Augmented Reality business off the ground- Silas AdekunleSilas Adekunle launched his business Reach Robotics while still in University, and is today poised to disrupt the games industry by bringing Augmented Reality to physical toys. In this episode we discuss:
1. How he secured 18 grants to launch his business
2. How he got press in the likes of Bloomberg and the Financial Times before even launching
3. How he managed being younger than all of the people he employs
2015-12-2136 min
Proverbious | David LindnerNickname of Infamy – Proverbious – Day 27 – Proverbs 5:12-14There was one day in my freshman year of high school that would be forgotten (or blocked out) as most of them are if I had listened to my sister’s advice. And after I experienced this day, I really wish I had listened. Really, really.
If you grew up in a family without a lot of money as I did, you are undoubtedly familiar with handmedowns. Of course, you need to remember that this was the mid 1990’s. It was not yet cool to wear secondhand clothes. To set your mind at ease, I feel like you...
2013-01-2800 min