Shows
The Ambitious Broker PodcastMindset Series - Steve Pfrenzinger - Personality TypesSteve Pfrenzinger is a longtime coach to highly-ambitious professionals, execs, entrepreneurs, innovators, and change agents, most starting in their 30's (many at turning 30). And a successful businessman himself and a Hall of Fame investor in entrepreneurs. And an introvert. And a Forbes Coaching Council member and author, with high-profile coaching clients at Sony, Disney, Broadcom, PwC, Tesla, Oracle, and SpaceX. He has been published or interviewed many times in Forbes.com, AccelerateOC Podcast, Softwaremag.com, Computerworld.com, and many more. Please like, comment, and subscribe!
2021-02-2341 min
Accelerate OCLarry Armstrong - Chairman, Former CEO of Ware MalcombLarry Armstrong joined me on Accelerate OC at a time that his industry, commercial architecture and building, is undergoing the greatest disruption and change of his multi-decade career. It was such an engaging and compelling conversation! He is Chairman of Ware Malcomb, an international design firm providing planning, architecture, interior design, branding, civil engineering and building measurement services to commercial real estate and corporate clients, from its 25 office locations throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and Panama. They’ve been recognized as an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private company and Best Firm to Work For by Zweig Group. The...
2020-06-1944 min
Accelerate OCNick Zasowski - Director of Global Startup Studio Network (GSSN)Nick Zasowski joined me on Accelerate OC to discuss the recent rise of startup and venture studios globally. Speculation by those following the industry puts the number between 250 and 500 global studios, and Nick and I discussed the role they play, why they are important in the startup community, and some examples of studios that are thriving (many of which are friends to us at OC4).Nick is currently the director of the Global Startup Studio Network (GSSN), where they have built a highly curated global community of Startup Studios and Venture Builders that create and...
2020-06-1743 min
Accelerate OCDavid Friedman - President of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), Orange County chapterDavid Friedman is a longtime angel investor, and he became President of Tech Coast Angels’ Orange County chapter just recently. He’s has a plan to increase TCA’s engagement and member base, and we talked more about that in our conversation. He’s also been a businessman and executive for technology, software, cloud, and service companies, with a passion for customer loyalty and building a success culture that makes employees enjoy working there. He also has developed what he calls “customer jujitsu” while helping companies bridge technology and business into an innovation mindset.David has co...
2020-06-0349 min
Accelerate OCFred Haney - Investor, Author, Former Venture Capitalist & CEOFred Haney joined me on Accelerate OC and class was in session. He covered some important points for startups, such as what makes a fundable startup, the importance of strong management teams, and even how entrepreneurs need to understand they are competing for investment dollars.He is a private investor and venture capitalist, as both a fund manager and individual investor. He is also an entrepreneur, as a multiple time co-founder of companies such as NovaDigm Therapeutics, Dynamic Reconfigurable Computing and PulSentry. As a VC, Fred was the founder and manager of 3i Ventures, California...
2020-05-2148 min
Accelerate OCNeal Polachek - Founder, ThinkLikeAnAppNeal Polachek is the founder of ThinkLikeAnApp, a methodology and program for companies to better anticipate the future so they can succeed today. Neal recognized that we are increasingly using devices to help us get things done more easily and effectively, and are expecting other businesses to better recognize that in how we want to do business with them. Consumers expect authenticity, transparency and immediacy in their customer experiences, and businesses who recognize this and implement improvements will be the winners. We talked a lot about the modern consumer today, as well as how this crisis is a...
2020-05-2042 min
Accelerate OCPaul O'Brien - CEO of MediaTech VenturesPaul O'Brien is currently the CEO of MediaTech Ventures, based in Austin. They are a leading venture development group at the intersection of media and technology. They also run an incubator called Collective, which Paul and team run as part of MediaTech. He’s also been Director of the Founder Institute Texas for the last few years. Paul also founded a group called Funded House a year and a half ago, which is designed to be a place where Venture Capital Firms connect directly with startups at their Series A or B rounds at conferences or online in virtu...
2020-05-1450 min
Accelerate OCDerek Herrera - Founder of Spinal SingularityDerek Herrera is the founder of Spinal Singularity, a medical device company that develops products to improve lives for those with spinal injury. He started the company in 2015 after working for another startup medical device company to learn a bit of the ropes. We discussed his path to becoming an entrepreneur and journey so far.Derek graduated from the Naval Academy and was a Marine Corps officer for many years. He was shot and injured while on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and was paralyzed. He has been a very active advocate for Marines and veterans and...
2020-05-1151 min
Accelerate OCSpencer Rascoff - Founder of dot.LA, Former CEO of Zillow Spencer Rascoff and I had a lively conversation about many of the exciting things happening in the LA and Southern California startup community. Spencer has fully immersed himself here and is helping to build it as the next global innovation center, and I couldn't be more excited to have him here! We discussed the many advantages we have here, such as diversity of economy, creativity in abundance, and quality of life that is second to none.He has done a lot so far in his career. He has co-founded two businesses that became household names, Z...
2020-05-0737 min
Accelerate OCJohn Bradley Jackson - Investor, CSUF Professor, Author, Startup AdviserIt was a pleasure to welcome John Bradley Jackson to Accelerate OC. JJ, as his friends call him, is an Investor, Professor at Cal State Fullerton, Author and Startup Adviser. He is the Director of the CSUF Center for Entrepreneurship and he’s also the Director of CSUF Startup Incubator. The CSUF Startup Incubator helps startups validate business models. JJ is a Professor at CSUF where he teaches Social Media, Entrepreneurial Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Commercializing Technology, New Venture Creation and Launch. He is the Founder of Titan Angels, an Angel and Pre-Angel investment fund based in O...
2020-05-0536 min
Accelerate OCNicole McMackin - President & CEO of Irvine Technology CorporationNicole McMackin is currently the CEO of Irvine Technology Corporation, an award-winning Information Technology Solutions and Staffing provider with roots in Southern California. For over 20 years they have helped local and national companies with technology personnel needs, provided through their seasoned technologists, recruiters and support team. Consistently ranked as one of Orange County’s Best Places to Work, ITC focuses on the quality of our people, commitment to customer service, and exceptional performance. ITC is also a Women Owned and Certified (WBENC).Nicole is a leader who loves to develop others on her team and hel...
2020-05-0257 min
Accelerate OCDr. Wallace Walrod - Chief Economic Adviser of Orange County Business CouncilDr. Wallace Walrod is currently the Chief Economic Adviser for the Orange County Business Council and he’s led research there for over 20 years. During that time he has done strategic projects with most of the biggest companies and cities here, such as Toshiba America, Irvine Company, First American, as well as the cities of Anaheim and Santa Ana.Wallace is also the Founding President of the Center for a New California, which plays a key role in shaping the state’s economic future by focusing on Workforce Development, Economic Development, Infrastructure, and emerging trends in c...
2020-05-0136 min
Accelerate OCSteve Pfrenzinger - Serial Entrepreneur, Hall of Fame Angel Investor and Executive CoachSteve Pfrenzinger is a successful multi-time entrepreneur, hall of fame angel investor and long-time executive coach specializing in self-awareness and how it can become your X-Factor for success. Currently he is the head coach of the self-awareness mastery series that he’s developed, as well as his own mastermind to work with executives and entrepreneurs. Steve has been coaching for over 3 decades with hundreds of successful clients at companies like Sony, Disney, Broadcom, Oracle and beyond. Along with that he was also the founder of 2 very successful technology services companies. He’s built and sold these fi...
2020-04-2942 min
Accelerate OCNiall McSheffrey - Managing Partner of Elementz Ventures Niall McSheffrey is currently Managing Partner at Elementz Ventures, a new VC fund here in SoCal. He is a successful entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in startup investment, product management, application development, and creating digital product strategies and solutions. He moved to Orange County in 2019 and is in the process of raising capital for his first fund. Hear how he's navigating this current environment.Niall excels in developing digital product strategies with clients, leading sales and marketing efforts, and defining the vision and direction of a company. He is an expert in creating long lastin...
2020-04-2531 min
Accelerate OCDean Kline - Senior Managing Director at USC Rossier EdVenturesDean Kline is the Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of a newer group at USC called Rossier EdVentures, which is an education ecosystem at USC. We talked a fair bit about it and the exciting things they're doing to support innovation across the education landscape. He’s also Co-Founder and Managing Director for Penn Venture Partners, a VC fund for primarily for early-stage tech companies in business services, edtech, life sciences, media, specialty manufacturing, and workplace learning. He’s been a venture investor for over 20 years and has had IPOs and many other acquisitions among his investments....
2020-04-2042 min
Accelerate OCCarson Lappetito - President of Sunwest BankIt was very timely to have my friend, Carson Lappetito, on the show. He is currently the President of Sunwest Bank, an OC-based business bank started 50 years ago by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Sunwest is active in Orange County and works with businesses from startups to multi-national corporations. Carson is also innovative in how he thinks about technology in the banking industry and even rolled out an online application for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ahead of almost every other bank in the country. We discussed that as well as how the bank is responding to the current COV...
2020-04-1551 min
Accelerate OCSpecial Episode - with Bill Carpou, CEO of OctaneBill Carpou, CEO of Octane joined me again on Accelerate OC for a special show, to discuss what Octane is doing to help businesses here navigate the challenges presented by COVID19, updating us on how the Octane team is doing at this time, and what he's seeing and hearing from our business community. Bill sits in the middle of innovative startups, many of the professional services providers, and a number of large life sciences and technology companies here, as well as investors locally and around the country. So he gets perspective from a number of places.O...
2020-04-0631 min
Accelerate OCMike Gentile - Founder, CEO of CISO ShareMike Gentile is the founder and CEO of CISO Share, which provides on-demand professional services in the information security space, including their unique “security program as a service.” He has been a leader in the infosec (as it’s known) space for a long time. Mike has been doing security research and program development for all kinds of organizations, from bootstrapped startups to globally recognized billion-dollar companies. He holds patents and has written books on the subject, and he has successfully founded, funded, grown, and sold multiple businesses in the service and technology industries.Mike has deli...
2020-04-0635 min
Accelerate OCMatt Case - President of BionatusMatt Case joined me on Accelerate OC to talk about his company, Bionatus, where he is President. It functions as a venture studio here in Irvine, so we had a lot to discuss. Matt, his partner and team have worked with innovators to launch several companies, with a focus on leveraging futuristic science into next-generation businesses that benefit the planet. I have seen their approach and companies firsthand and have always been super impressed. They have launched companies such as Bluon and Luminas, which we talked about on the show.Matt is native of Kentucky a...
2020-04-0244 min
Accelerate OCSpecial Episode - Non-profit leadership during a crisis with Dawn Reese of The Wooden FloorDawn Reese, CEO of The Wooden Floor, joined Paul and me for a special virtual and distributed episode of Accelerate OC. We had a great conversation about leadership during a crisis, how she is collaborating with her fellow non-profit CEOs during this time to support, encourage and innovate together, and how we'll see long-term benefits from that here. She also reminded me of her experiences (like my own) in prior economic or other disruptions. She has some great perspective for anyone to reflect on their current situation, how we can all grow and contribute at a ti...
2020-04-0133 min
Accelerate OCSinan Kanatsiz - Founder and CEO of KCOMM, Founder of Internet Marketing AssociationSuper connector and entrepreneur Sinan Kanatsiz joined me on Accelerate OC recently. He is currently the CEO of KCOMM, a PR and marketing agency he started over 20 years ago. He’s worked with many of the largest and most prominent companies in Orange County, as well as some of fastest growing and innovative ones. Sinan also founded and is currently Chairman of the Internet Marketing Association, a global organization that connects and supports marketing professionals with leading experts, ideas and insights.Sinan recently spun off a senior executive and leader group called International Executive Council, whi...
2020-03-2441 min
Accelerate OCSpecial Episode - Intro to OC4 Venture Studio with Kyle Kamrooz & Carey RansomMy partner, Kyle Kamrooz, and I broke in our new studio at OC4 and shared some thoughts on why we started OC4 Venture Studio, our excitement for the future of building great companies in SoCal, and working with amazing founders, our studio team, investors and partners in the community. We got real and raw - and we welcome feedback and follow up conversation.As we think about the time that we're in right now, a lot of uncertainty is in front of us, yet we know that most of us will make it to the...
2020-03-2326 min
Accelerate OCMatt Hayden - Founder of Sea Purity Investments, Chairman of MZ GroupMatt Hayden joined me on Accelerate OC and we covered a lot of ground. He is currently the Chairman of MZ Group, a leading corporate communications and investor relations firm globally. Matt has been in the industry of company investing for a long time and I believe it provides him with such an amazing perspective on how investors think, the importance of positioning and story, and how markets work.He is also the founder and owner of Sea Purity Investments, an investment firm that emphasizes socially responsible businesses and founders or operators with strong alignment...
2020-03-1946 min
Accelerate OCHicham Semaan - President of Tech Coast Angels, Orange County ChapterHicham Semaan was a great guest on Accelerate OC. He had such actionable advice and insights for startup company founders with regard to fundraising and investment, among much additional wisdom he shared.He is currently the President of the Orange County chapter of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), one of the largest affiliated groups of angel investors in the country, with 5 chapters from Santa Barbara to San Diego. We talked a lot about angel investing and how TCA works.Prior to becoming a member of TCA, Hicham was CEO of QuickStart Intelligence, an e-learning c...
2020-03-1044 min
Accelerate OCJeff Bocan - Partner at Okapi Venture CapitalJeff Bocan is currently a Partner at Okapi Venture Capital, which is his second stint in Venture Capital. Prior to Okapi, he joined one of his investments, Mophie, here in Orange County, and helped lead it from $10MM to over $250MM in revenue and an eventual strategic sale in 2016 to a publicly listed company, ZAGG. Before Mophie he was a VC for 13 years at a firm in Michigan called Beringea, where he sourced, led or managed the investments across their large portfolio.Jeff has invested in over 40 companies and sat on over 30 boards. He...
2020-03-0646 min
Accelerate OCDoug Wilson - Founder & Chairman of CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange CountyDoug Wilson is the founder, and currently the Chairman, of the CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County, formed as a group of CEOs from some of the biggest companies here, working together to “build a thriving Orange County for all.” We talked a lot about the formation and work of CLA (as it’s known today). Doug is also an Executive Fellow at The Center for Higher Ambition Leadership, an honor he’s received as a thought leader on the topic. He’s also been the CEO of Next Solutions for over 30 years. It is a consulting...
2020-03-0340 min
Accelerate OCToby Corey - Stanford Lecturer, Former President of TeslaToby Corey joined me on Accelerate OC and we explored so many areas - his time working with Elon Musk, his passion for working on critical climate change issues, how to build a thriving startup ecosystem and inspiring people to be bold and excellent. It was a fun conversation with so much wisdom packed into it!Toby is the Former President of Tesla, Former President of Global Field Operations, and Former Chief Revenue Officer at Solar City, which merged into Tesla a few years ago.He successfully managed three $1b+ businesses (one as c...
2020-02-2925 min
Accelerate OCMarinela Gombosev - CEO of Evoke NeuroscienceMarinela Gombosev is currently President and CEO of Evoke Neuroscience, a medical diagnostic technology company focused on memory loss and other cognitive disorders. They have twice been ranked in the Inc. 500|5000 fastest growing private companies. I was excited to talk with her about it and it's exciting prospects. She described the company's initiative to create the equivalent of a "blood pressure cuff for the brain."Previously she worked in other regulated industries outside of medicine (such as aerospace) in senior operational roles. She’s been recognized for his leadership and achievements - named to the Hot 2...
2020-02-1938 min
Accelerate OCSergey Sundukovskiy - CTO & CPO of CertemyI was happy to have Sergey Sundukovskiy on Accelerate OC. Sergey is currently founding CTO and Chief Product Officer of Certemy, a startup here building a software platform for professional certification, licensing & compliance. Prior to Certemy he was CTO and CPO of Raken, a software company in the construction industry. He also was CTO of a company acquired by Capital One about 5 years ago.Sergey has been around this area for awhile and been in early stage tech and Internet companies since even the dot-com era, so he’s seen a lot. I always appreciate his p...
2020-02-1550 min
Accelerate OCAndy Fathollahi - Founder/CEO of The Kanvas Company; Founder/Chairman of Incipio GroupAndy Fathollahi joined me on the show and immediately delved into the reality of being a founder and longtime entrepreneur. He’s a serial one and done it here in Orange County. He foundedIncipio here over 20 years ago and is still Chairman of its Board. He’s also founder and CEO of his latest venture, The Kanvas Company.He is currently the founder and CEO of the Kanvas Company, a cannabis technology company. We talked a lot about how to start and build a second company after a super successful one, with different pers...
2020-02-0534 min
Accelerate OCTom Baine - President of Landsea HomesTom Baine joined me on the show to talk about the homebuilding industry, which he's been in for 30 years in Southern California. That’s a lot of change he's seen in both our area and his industry! I looked up before the show the population change over those 30 years here in Orange County - 2.4MM in 1990 vs. 3.2MM in 2020 (a nearly 33% increase in people here)Tom is currently the division president of Southern California for Landsea Homes, where he oversees planning, development and implementation of their communities here. He previously spent a considerable amount of his...
2020-02-0339 min
Accelerate OCNick Smoot - Founder & CEO of Innovation CollectiveIt was so fun to have my friend, Nick Smoot, join me while traveling in from Coeur d'Alene, ID. We discussed his amazing initiative, Innovation Collective (IC), the education and human development company he started there and is expanding to communities around the country. We also did it in front of a live audience of some of OC's most active and committed innovation community builders and everyone came away inspired. About IC: Their work is driven by a belief that human potential is underactivated and through community they can inspire and cultivate innovation. It is a culture of innovation, perpetuated thr...
2020-01-2951 min
Accelerate OCSue Parks - CEO of Orange County United WaySue Parks became the President and CEO of Orange County United Way in 2017, after a 15 year history of volunteering and working with the organization, including being the Chair of its Board. Before she signed on as CEO of United Way, she was an entrepreneur and business executive. She co-founded and was CEO of a corporate wellness company, iCount Wellness. She also held senior roles in innovative companies like Kinkos, Gateway and USWest. Both Kinkos and Gateway had storied founders, I’d even call “characters”, so I’m sure she has great stories! She has not just made imp...
2020-01-2741 min
Accelerate OCReynolds Bish - CEO of KofaxI was super excited to have Reynolds Bish on Accelerate OC. He’s had an illustrious career in the technology industry, mainly here in Southern California, and we had a lot to discuss. He is currently the CEO and a Member of the Board of Directors of Kofax, one of the largest software companies in Orange County, and he also has employees in 35 countries and over 25,000 customers. He’s on his second tour of duty with Kofax, and we talked about that and the fun world of private equity. In an incredibly unique story, he shared how Kofax w...
2020-01-2339 min
Accelerate OCCharles Antis - Founder & CEO of Antis Roofing & WaterproofingCharles Antis possesses energy and passion like few people I've ever met. It just makes me want to hang out with him more. We spoke about his leadership and life philosophies, his company and its mission and purpose, and the amazing other work he’s doing in Orange County.He is the founder and CEO of Antis Roofing and Waterproofing, a company he founded here in Orange County over 30 years ago. Charles describes them as "a shepherd in the community, purposed by helping healthy families to have safe, dry homes." He has firmly embraced and liv...
2020-01-2139 min
Accelerate OCIke Kavas - Founder & CEO of EphesoftIke Kavas joined me on Accelerate OC to share his story, leadership philosophy and current company, Ephesoft, where he is the founder and CEO. It's a company he founded here in Orange County nearly 10 years ago. They have built the first document capture platform for the cloud and serve global customers in areas of automated data entry, compliance and document processing. Before Ephesoft he was a senior technical architect and professional services manager at Kofax, a longtime technology company based here as well. Ike is a technologist through and through and has committed to becoming a gr...
2020-01-1735 min
Accelerate OCPeter Polydor - Founder of Eureka Building & Eureka Hub; President of Ergo HoldingsPeter Polydor is the founder of Eureka Building and Eureka Hub, a 3-acre event, office and creative campus that many of our community has enjoyed and visited in the last 6 years since it opened. Peter’s vision was to support the startup community here with it, and it has. Eurekafest is an annual celebration of entrepreneurship that is one of the few can’t miss events in Orange County.Peter joined me for our first remote conversation on Accelerate OC, in front of an audience of several dozen of our friends - this one at the O...
2020-01-0330 min
Accelerate OCNeel Grover - Founder & CEO of IndiNeel Grover is currently the founder and CEO of Indi, a software as a service video platform to help brands engage their customers and enable "individual commerce" (where the name Indi comes from). He shared more about Indi and how the opportunity came to him in our conversation. Before Indi he was CEO for a couple well-known e-commerce companies, Bluefly and Buy.com, and he’s been a board member for several other companies and advisor to both companies and private equity firms. Neel started his career as an attorney, and we talked about his trans...
2019-12-2039 min
Accelerate OCLori Torres - Founder & CEO of Parcel PendingIt was a lot of fun to welcome Lori Torres to Accelerate OC to share her amazing journey with Parcel Pending, a company she founded in 2013. She was the founding CEO and remains in the role today, and I could hardly imagine anyone else ever replacing her!Lori grew the company to over 150 people and thousands of customers around North America. She sold the company in January of this year to Neopost, a global company based in Paris. Prior to Parcel Pending she was an executive at The Irvine Company, where she oversaw a huge ap...
2019-12-1835 min
Accelerate OCDan Heinfeld - President of LPADan Heinfeld is currently the President of LPA, a leading national architecture firm, and he has been there for over 30 years. He leads their design and sustainability initiatives as well. LPA has more than 400 people in 6 offices in California and Texas. Their Orange County office, in Irvine, is right in the middle of one of the "innovation" areas here - University Research Park - and right next to Acorns, CloudVirga, Ready at Dawn, and the Beall Center for Applied Innovation at UCI, to name a few of his neighbors.Dan is an architect with a str...
2019-12-0536 min
Accelerate OCKurt Johnson - Founder / CEO of FreightPopKurt Johnson is currently the founder and CEO of FreightPop, a cloud-based software that makes logistics simple. They give one login for all transportation management, including inbound and outbound freight management across all different freight types.Kurt is a grizzled startup veteran, with six startups. He’s gone from his garage to $100M in revenue. He’s had 2 two exits and two acquisitions. He’s received the E&Y entrepreneur of the year award. And he tells me that with FreightPop, this is his last one. And to him, his most important. He founded Ho...
2019-12-0435 min
Accelerate OCScott Duffy - CEO, SD Media Holdings; Top 10 SpeakerScott Duffy is driven by one simple idea: helping people live their dreams through entrepreneurship. He uses his media channels, speaking and best-selling books, to help people breakthrough in their lives and businesses. He’s worked with many of the world’s top entrepreneurs and innovators, and he lives in our back yard here in Orange County. Scott started his career working for Tony Robbins, and went on to work for companies that became big media brands like CBS Sportsline, NBC Internet, and FOXSports.com. He then founded Smart Charter, an online booking tool for priva...
2019-12-0442 min
Accelerate OCDawn Reese - CEO, The Wooden FloorDawn Reese joined me for a great Accelerate OC conversation, and we explored her early career in the technology industry and then her transition to helping establish the Software Council of Southern California (now Technology Council Southern California) and eventually joining amazing non-profit, The Wooden Floor in Santa Ana.She is an author, consultant, mentor, and national speaker in the areas of board governance, strategic planning, fundraising, and creative youth development. For the last 10 years she’s been with The Wooden Floor, with most of those years as CEO. She shared much more about this organ...
2019-11-2539 min
Accelerate OCMike Daniel - Regional Director, Orange County & Inland Empire Small Business Development Center NetworkMike is the Regional Director of the Orange County and Inland Empire Small Business Development Center Network, which assists aspiring entrepreneurs and current business owners throughout Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Before this role he was the director of an SBDC office in Long Beach for 5 years.He has been and is a business owner and entrepreneur himself. He started with a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store in LA, and then opened a second location in Long Beach, eventually employing 20 people including managers at both locations. He eventually sold the LA store and took mi...
2019-11-2232 min
Accelerate OCLawrence Greaves - Co-founder & CEO of OPKIXLawrence Greaves is both an entrepreneur and investor, as well as a board advisor. Prior to being an entrepreneur he had roles in boutique advisory firms and large national consulting firms, advising on a number of large international M&A transactions.Lawrence invested in and co-founded OPKIX in 2016. He is the CEO and on the Board today. OPKIX makes the smartest, smallest, simplest, and most powerful little cameras and camera accessories, and as Lawrence described it, it's changing consumer habits for capturing life's moments by allowing people to be in those moments (and not looking a...
2019-11-2035 min
Accelerate OCDon DiCostanzo - Founder & CEO of Pedego Electric BikesDon DiCostanzo has a really cool current company, Pedego, which is also his passion. That's clear in how he talks about it. Don is the co-founder and CEO of Pedego® Electric Bikes, the number 1 electric bike brand in the United States, according to Navigant Research. They are sold at more than 100 Pedego-branded stores in the United States, plus in Canada and Europe. The bikes have electric motors that help riders over hills and through headwinds, and traveling up to 60 miles on a single battery charge.The company was founded here in 2008. I love the...
2019-11-1627 min
Payments InnovationHow One Man Is Using Fintech to Clarify Financial Services for the Rest of Us w/ Carey RansomFinancial services make plenty of sense. If you are a financial services professional. But what about the rest of us? On this episode of the Payments Innovation Podcast, our guest Carey Ransom joined us to discuss his passionate belief that financial services should revolve around the average human’s life. What we talked about: People in financial services understand the financial game. But what about the rest of us? Customer-focused product dev vs. profit-focused profit dev The 1 product Carey is particularly proud of — Payoff The 1 problem Carey is waiting for a founder to solve: AI & ML in fintech Checkout these resour...
2019-11-1224 min
Payments InnovationHow One Man Is Using Fintech to Clarify Financial Services for the Rest of Us w/ Carey RansomFinancial services make plenty of sense. If you are a financial services professional. But what about the rest of us? On this episode of the Payments Innovation Podcast, our guest Carey Ransom joined us to discuss his passionate belief that financial services should revolve around the average human’s life. What we talked about: People in financial services understand the financial game. But what about the rest of us? Customer-focused product dev vs. profit-focused profit dev The 1 product Carey is particularly proud of — Payoff The 1 problem Carey is waiting for a founder to solve: AI & M...
2019-11-1224 min
Accelerate OCNick Kovacevich - Co-founder, Chairman & CEO of KushCo HoldingsNick Kovacevich is the Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of KushCo Holdings, a publicly-traded company providing ancillary products and services to businesses operating in various industries, including legal cannabis and CBD. It was formerly known as Kush Bottles.Nick became CEO 5 years ago and has grown the business dramatically – from under $2M to nearly $150M in sales and the team from less than 12 to more than 250 people, as well as diversified the business into five categories and operations in multiple states and countries. For a non-tech company, that is still tech company growth rates!Pri...
2019-11-0935 min
Accelerate OCPeter Nguyen - founder, CEO of Ad Exchange GroupPeter Nguyen is the founder and CEO of Ad Exchange Group, based in Irvine. It is a leading direct-to-consumer digital performance-based agency, reaching $100M in revenue in less than 2 years in business. Both Peter and the company have received many awards for growth and entrepreneurship from people like Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Ernst & Young, and the Orange County Business Journal.He’s also the founder and CEO of Push Innovation, a leading logistics and service provider to direct-to-consumer brands. Push has over 100 employees and ships tens of thousands of products every day. Another of his ventu...
2019-11-0139 min
Accelerate OCLori Seal - CEO, BlythecoLori Seal has an amazing story, incredible leadership philosophies and such thoughtful perspectives on life, business and people.She is currently CEO of Blytheco, a leading national reseller of software that she took over from the founder, Steve Blythe, at the beginning of this year. He had been CEO for almost 40 years, and he hand-picked Lori! Prior to that she was the company’s COO for 6 ½ years. Lori was also a longtime executive at Sage, an enterprise software company here, so she’s been in software and technology longer than many of our audienc...
2019-10-3140 min
Accelerate OCCary Breese - co-founder, CEO at NowRxOn this episode of Accelerate OC, we get to hear from Cary Breese and his journey from software engineer to insurance company executive to tech startup CEO, and his current venture, NowRx.Cary is currently the co-founder and CEO of NowRx, a tech startup in the pharmacy experience industry. Using improved logistics, intelligence and analytics, the company is saving the health care industry cost and improving patient adherence to prescriptions. NowRx opened its first pharmacy in Northern California, yet is led by a team from Orange County. Their latest one is about to open here.
2019-10-2332 min
Accelerate OCGrant Van Cleve - CEO Buy It Installed; Chairman Tech Coast AngelsI was super excited to have my friend Grant Van Cleve join the conversation on Accelerate OC. We got to hear about his amazing journey and he shared his wisdom about both investing in startups and leading one, as well as his thoughts on Orange County as an innovation community. Grant is currently the CEO of Buy It Installed, an exciting and fast-growing company that automates the process of getting a professional installer to a consumer around a purchase that requires it. In our conversation he shared how he got involved.He’s also...
2019-10-1737 min
Accelerate OCBeckham Thomas - Founder / CEO of Dealer Credit ResourcesBeckham Thomas is the Founder and CEO of Dealer Credit Resources, a Software as a Service business in the commercial equipment financing industry. Think about a small business buying a truck or piece of equipment for their office, that they’d like to get payment terms to break up the cost, usually from the dealer or manufacturer. It's a trillion dollar per year market in the US - yes, it's that big!Beckham started the company last year after continuously seeing the need from the market. He’s been a partner in a commercial lending busines...
2019-10-1532 min
Accelerate OCFauad Hasan - CEO of Ornovi, former CEO of BontiFauad was most recently the CEO of Bonti, a biotech startup that he co-founded in 2015 in an area of biologics where he saw a key need. He was right, as the company had great success and was acquired by Allergan about a year ago. Before Bonti, he was an executive at Allergan in biologics development and manufacturing.He’s had a very successful career in biopharmaceuticals, and was at both Baxter and Regeneron before Allergan. Fauad has developed quite a reputation as an innovator and leader in the industry, and he’s already at work on his...
2019-10-0226 min
Accelerate OCTravis Lindsay - CSUF Startup Incubator, Professor, Titan AngelsTravis Lindsay is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Cal State Fullerton, manager of the CSUF Startup Incubator, and the co-founder of Titan Angels, an angel and seed investment fund based here in Orange County. He also has multiple degrees from Cal State Fullerton in areas of business and entrepreneurship.Travis serves the community of students and entrepreneurs around CSUF to mentor and grow them and support the next generation of companies and business leaders here. He is a great example of a servant leader for innovation activity in Orange County.
2019-09-2326 min
Accelerate OCRichard Sudek - Executive Director of UCI Beall Applied InnovationRichard Sudek is the Chief Innovation Officer at UC Irvine, and Executive Director of UCI Beall Applied Innovation. Over the last 5 years there, he’s firmly established the center as a key part of the innovation ecosystem here, connected it to the OC community and what he calls an “innovation district”, and accelerated UC Irvine’s efforts in commercialization of its research and IP, and created an entrepreneurial energy and activity at the school that’s at an all-time high. He also teaches entrepreneurship at UCI.He was previously at Chapman University as both a professor of...
2019-09-2139 min
Accelerate OCDick Gochnauer - Co-founder, CEO Leadership Alliance, Orange CountyDick Gochnauer is an amazingly busy guy. He is the co-founder of the CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County, which he and Doug Wilson created to become the clear venue for leaders of Orange County’s largest companies to collaborate on the most strategic issues facing the county. They are working together with the goals to build both a competitive ecosystem and higher quality of life for this region. Their mission is “to create a thriving OC for us all” and I think everyone here in Orange County can support that mission.Dick has also been inv...
2019-09-1636 min
Accelerate OCTony Smith - Co-founder, CEO of Restaurant365 Tony is the co-founder and CEO of Restaurant365, which he started in Orange County in 2011 and over the last 8 years has built the company into a leading back-office solution provider to restaurants. Earlier this year the company raised $88 million in a series C funding round. His world class investors include ICONIQ Capital, Tiger Global Management and Bessemer Venture Partners.The company won the best ERP SaaS Award last year and has been recognized in a number of other industry awards as well. Tony has been a finalist for Ernst & Young’s entrepreneur of the year, as wel...
2019-09-1427 min
Accelerate OCScott Hamilton, CEO of Executive Next Practices Institute (ENPI)Scott Hamilton is the President and CEO of Executive Next Practices Institute, which he started here and over the last 10 years has provided advisory and thought leadership to thousands of senior executives around the globe. ENPI is a partner with universities such at UC Beall Applied Innovation, Pepperdine, and ASU, research organization Gallup, and corporate members in over 2000 companies. Scott is also a board member for many other for-profit and non-profit companies. He’s also CEO of Nextworks Strategy, which provides innovation programs to align organizations and leadership teams for peak performance and revenue growth.
2019-09-1330 min
Accelerate OCSean Conrad, CEO of Internet Marketing Association (IMA)Sean is the CEO of the Internet Marketing Association or IMA, which since 2001 has been one of the largest organizations for professionals across business disciplines in marketing, creative and development, and has been an active network, with over 1 million members!Sean is also a principal at Epic Insurance Brokers, where he provides business insurance products and consulting, while also helping to foster a culture that’s been recognized as a best place to work both regionally and across the insurance industry.He’s also a founding member of the International Executive Council, which came...
2019-09-1228 min
Accelerate OCShawn Wehan - Co-founder / CEO, GivsumShawn was one of my most energetic guests. He is the co-counder and CEO of Givsum, a startup helping charities and service clubs to embrace the digital age. He’s getting good traction and has an ambitious vision for the company, which we talked about in this episode.Prior to Givsum, Shawn co-founded Future Leaders of Our Community here in Orange County, which he built into an organization that connected thousands of young professionals with each other and inspired them to get involved with many OC non-profits. This work was very important to uncovering the oppo...
2019-09-1128 min
Accelerate OCDalip Jaggi - Vincit; OC Tech Happy Hour; Coded in OCDalip was a fun and energetic guest on Accelerate OC. He is a super active and busy guy, with a full-time job as head of business development at Vincit, a contract software development firm, as well as a startup, Eva Smart Shower, and several other volunteer efforts at OC Tech Happy Hour, Tech Coast Venture Network, YEC and Forge 54. Dalip is also involved with a new group here, Coded in OC, which is bringing together companies here who are developing software here in Orange County. Dalip is getting more member companies involved.He sold his com...
2019-09-1030 min
Accelerate OCBill Carpou - CEO, OCTANeOne of the leading cheerleaders for the innovation ecosystem in Orange County is Bill Carpou. He is CEO of OCTANe, the leading organization in Orange County for the technology and medical technology business ecosystems, by connecting people, resources and capital. During Bill’s 4½ year tenure at OCTANe, I’ve had the pleasure of serving with him on OCTANe's Board and seeing his great leadership propel OCTANe to heights never seen in its 16 year history. Bill has expanded OCTANe’s flagship annual events, expanded capital and growth services to companies here, and increased the organization’s job creatio...
2019-09-0933 min
Accelerate OCDan Rodrigues - Founder, CEO of Kareo Dan Rodrigues brought so much wisdom and perspective to our discussion today. I loved how reflective he was on his entrepreneurial journey. To share a bit about Dan –He founded and is the CEO of Kareo, a SaaS company here in Irvine in the health care industry. Kareo is providing a kind of "medical office in the cloud" for independent physician practices. He and his team have over 50,000 customers in every state and have grown rapidly over their history.Dan has raised over $100M in capital and has over 600 employees at Kareo. He recentl...
2019-09-0839 min
Accelerate OCAndrew Lyon - Founding Dean, Fowler Engineering School at ChapmanAndrew Lyon joined the Accelerate OC show and was a great guest and fun conversation. He is the founding Dean of the new Dale & Sarah Ann Fowler School of Engineering at Chapman University here in Orange County. It’s super exciting to add a new engineering school here in Orange County, and especially at Chapman, which does everything in such a world class way.Andrew had been the Dean of the College of Science & Technology there for several years, so this new engineering school is an expansion of the STEM work where Andrew is so pass...
2019-09-0732 min
Accelerate OCRay Grainger - Co-founder/CEO of MavenlinkIt was a great pleasure to welcome Ray Grainger to Accelerate OC. He is the co-founder and CEO of Mavenlink, a fast-growing software company in the services business management and collaboration space. He’s also a graduate of highly distinguished school, Harvey Mudd College, where he’s been a trustee now for many years.He was a Managing Partner at Accenture for nearly 20 years before starting Mavenlink, and that experience provided much of the idea kernels for starting the company.Ray started Mavenlink in 2009, and over the last 10 years has had an ama...
2019-09-0628 min
Accelerate OCMichael Sawitz - Fast Start StudioMichael has been an active member of the tech community here for many years as an investors, advisor, mentor, coach, cheerleader and entrepreneur. He has been one of the most active and available people to startup entrepreneurs in Orange County. He started the business incubator Fast Start Studio in 2012, which we talk a lot about on this episode.He’s active with Tech Coast Venture Network, TIE Orange County, Cal State Fullerton’s Center for Entrepreneurship, and he now teaches there as well as at Irvine Valley College.Before all of that he was a...
2019-09-0529 min
Accelerate OCScott Fox - Orange County Startup CouncilScott has a huge heart for entrepreneurs and the Orange County tech startup community. In 2018 he founded the Orange County Startup Council to provide a resource for the various pillars of the community - startup entrepreneurs, investors, partners and potential customers - with the goal to help startups thrive and grow here. He is building momentum with it and helping to Accelerate OC startups!He also hosts a regular startup founder mastermind group and is a member of Tech Coast Angels. Join the conversation that Scott and I have about the many resources here and ide...
2019-09-0528 min
Accelerate OCKyle Kamrooz - co-founder of CloudvirgaKyle is one of the most accomplished professionals in the mortgage industry, even at his young age, and he shares his experience and learning from starting Cloudvirga and growing it rapidly over the last few years. He is absolutely one of the most entrepreneurial and innovative entrepreneurs in Orange County!What's the biggest lesson Kyle has learned so far in this Cloudvirga adventure?"The people. Invest in the emotional IQ of the people. What you have is a family, treat it as such."
2019-06-3024 min