Shows
ONE The Come UPRachel Mercer from JPMorganChase on One the Come Up PodcastJoining me on today’s episode of One the Come Up is Rachel Mercer, MD of Design and Customer Experience at JPMorganChase. Mercer started her career at Northeastern University, where she obtained her Bachelor’s in Design and Interactive media. A unique part of Northeastern University is the co-op program which rotates 6 months of full time work with 6 months of coursework. In 2011, Mercer started at CP+B as a UX Designer where she worked on various projects such as Domino’s Pizza Tracker. In 2014, Mercer made it across the pond to London, working for digital consultancies Made By Many and Th...
2025-12-2129 min
ONE The Come UPMatthew Rooda from SwinTech! One the Come Up PodcastFor one of the most fun conversations I’ve had on the podcast so far, today I was joined by Matthew Rooda, the CEO and Founder of SwineTech. Rooda’s career began at Hawkeye Community College, a time in which he worked on a pork worked on a pig farm caring for sows and delivering piglets - perfect preparation for med school. It was also at Hawkeye that he met his co-founder. The two would then transfer to the University of Iowa, a place where Rooda would learn that he was not meant to be a med student after all...
2025-12-0840 min
ONE The Come UPNathanael Ren - Former Co-Founder of Buoy Health; Trading PalsToday I was joined by Nathanael Ren, former co-founder of Buoy Health (2014-2022). Ren’s career began at Harvard, where his first assignment was an unlikely destination for an 18 year fresh out of high school: go undercover to an iPhone factory in China. Returning to the States, he completed his degree in 2012, when he began working on Buoy Health. After building in a cave for the first three years (a move he says he wouldn’t repeat) Buoy launched to the public in 2017. Buoy was the avant-garde brain child of three Harvard graduates, who imagined a ChatGPT for the heal...
2025-11-3032 min
ONE The Come UPBlue Latitudes - One the Come Up PodcastFor this episode of One the Come Up, I was honored to be joined by Emily Hazelwood and Amber Sparks, the co-founders of Blue Latitudes, a certified women-owned marine environmental consulting firm. Before starting Blue Latitudes in 2015, Hazelwood and Sparks started their careers on opposite sides of the country. Hazelwood’s career began at Connecticut College where she obtained her B.A. in environmental science. In 2011, she worked on the BP 252 Oil Spill where she witnessed firsthand the devastation and destruction of oil spills. It was here, however, that she learned of a unique silver lining in this mercurial in...
2025-11-2330 min
ONE The Come UPHristo Tenchev - XS Software and Software UniversityToday I had the pleasure of speaking with Hristo Tenchev. Tenchev, for my international listeners, is the CEO and founder of the company that probably makes your favorite video game - XS Software. Tenchev began his career when he was 18, creating a web-based video game that quickly went viral in Bulgaria. Pursuing his education at the Technical University of Sofia, Tenchev wanted to study computer science but the only thing he ended up learning was that the Soviet style curriculum of Bulgarian higher education was out of date for 21st century concepts (to say the least). So, not one...
2025-11-0936 min
ONE The Come UPMatthew Simmonds - Speakset, The Meaning of Work, and ENTOCYCLEI’m starting to lose count of the episodes, so I’ll ditch the tradition of saying it’s such and such number of episodes, and instead I’ll resort to saying it’s n and n+1 episodes. But then I’ll exhaust n and lose track of counting again, so I think I’ll just stop counting altogether ;)
For this episode of One the Come Up, I was honored to be joined by Matthew Simmonds. Simmonds' career began at the University of Oxford, where he graduated with a degree in engineering in 2012. There, he met his co-founder...
2025-10-311h 00
ONE The Come UPTeasha Feldman-Fitzthum from Commonwealth Fusion SystemsFor the thirty third episode of One the Come Up, I was honored to be joined by Teasha Feldman-Fitzhum. Feldman-Fitzthum’s career began at MIT as a physics major. Originally intending to pursue graduate school, she pivoted to entrepreneurship after enrolling in MIT’s 13.366 entrepreneurship class, where she and her cofounder successfully launched EverVest. Originally known as Cardinal Winds, and a company a little bit beyond my understanding to explain, EverVest used copula modeling to predict wind in order to calculate the revenue of future wind farms, and was acquired by UltraCapital in 2016. Currently, Feldman-Fitzthum works at Commonwealth Fusion Syst...
2025-10-2534 min
ONE The Come UPKostapanos Miliaresis, One the Come Up PodcastKostapanos Miliaresis and I covered a lot of ground on the thirty-first episode of One the Come Up, so I suppose I’ll go in chronological order. Miliaresis' journey began in the Boy Scouts, where he first discovered a passion for volunteering. The idea of volunteering continued with him to Athens University of Economics and Business, where he was involved with AIESEC (an opportunity that brought him to Taiwan to teach for three months) and served as an event curator for TEDx. It was in college as well that he and his co-founders started GloVo (later to become ethelon) in...
2025-08-1732 min
ONE The Come UPAnton Toll Hakånson from DayCape, One the Come UpFor the 30th episode of One the Come Up, it was my fortune to be joined by Anton Toll Håkanson, the CEO and founder of DayCape. Toll Håkanson’s career began somewhere far away from entrepreneurship or user experience: scuba diving. After being a scuba diving instructor for a year, he decided to head off to Hyper Island, where he got his first taste of entrepreneurship, and where he developed his idea for DayCape. After completing his time on the Island, and subsequently following that up with a year at Berghs School of Management, it was time to l...
2025-07-2531 min
ONE The Come UPFerdinand Grapperhaus from NextsenseThe first Dutchman on the Podcast!, Ferdinand Grapperhaus is the CEO of Nextsense, a company aimed at decarbonizing real estate. Grapperhaus’ career began at Delft University of Technology, where, when pursuing his MSc, he made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery: a substance to be used in windows to convert natural light into energy. Recognizing the potential of this innovation, Grapperhaus and a co-founder started Physee in 2014 (Physics + Seeing = Physee). In 2024, they merged with EDGE Next, the daughter company of Edge Technologies, becoming NextSense. Pivoting to AI and software, their new technology aims to reduce energy consumption of real estate through data in...
2025-07-1229 min
ONE The Come UPMatthew Rastovac from Salesforce and RespellFor the 27th episode of One the Come Up, I was fortunate to share the time with Mr Matthew Rastovac. The former CEO of Respell (now acquired by Salesforce), his career began at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Here, Mr Rastovac was co-president of Founders, the university’s entrepreneurship club, where he doubled the group’s budget and grew from 5 to 60 members. During this time, he also landed internships at NASA and Facebook. One semester shy of completing his four years, he landed a job at Cameo (who can turn down a startup soon-to-be Unicorn?) where he designed and impl...
2025-07-121h 01
ONE The Come UPMilagros Barsallo from the City of Denver One the Come UpFor the 26th episode of On the Come Up, I was honored to be joined by Ms. Milagros Barsallo, who currently serves as the Outreach Director for the Denver Mayor’s Office. Her career began at Cornell University, where she studied Government and International Relations. After college, her first role was as a bilingual third and fourth grade teacher through Teach For America in Colorado, working to support underserved students. Afterwards, seeing the persistent barriers between families and the education system, she founded RISE Colorado in 2012. The mission of RISE Colorado is to bridge gaps between underserved families and pu...
2025-07-0530 min
ONE The Come UPPeter Hazlehurst from Synctera One the Come UpFor my first guest outside of Forbes 30 Under 30, I was fortunate to be joined by Mr Peter Hazlehurst. The CEO and founder of Synctera, a platform that provides the technology infrastructure, compliance tools, and banking partner connections to enable FinTech companies and other businesses to build and launch financial products like bank accounts, debit cards, and lending services. Originally from Australia, Mr Hazlehurst landed in North Carolina in the early ‘90s, where he started his career at Phoenix International. It’s hard to imagine a time before mobile email, and in part we have Mr Hazlehurst to thank for that...
2025-07-0532 min
ONE The Come UPCommu! Karolina Kauhanen on "One the Come Up"For the twenty-fourth episode of One the Come Up, I had the fortune of speaking with Mrs Karoliina Kauhanen – twice. Unfortunately (or, maybe, fortunately) the first go around had issues with the recording (and prompted new measures on my part), so I had the pleasure of a second interview. Mrs Kauhanen joined me all the way from Finland, where her career began at Humak University of Applied Sciences and the University of the Arts Helsinki, where she obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Arts and Events Management. During this time, she worked at the Classic Floorball Academy [Floorb...
2025-06-0625 min
ONE The Come UPAza Steel from CoDream and GoGuardianThe Podcast is back!! After a little hiatus (Thank you AP Exams ;), I was excited to debut the podcast again with Mr Steel! Starting his career at UCLA, where he majored in Sociology, Mr Steel started his first company (GoGuardian) in a different direction. After his friend’s backpack was stolen (and in it was his personal computer), Mr Steel decided to create a Chromebook tracker to recover the device in case of a robbery. Posting it to the Chrome Store, it quickly generated traction. Listening to his customers, his prowess soon expanded and he began creating other features mo...
2025-06-0625 min
ONE The Come UPYoussef El Kaddioui from Scalelist on "One The Come Up"Joining me all the way from Hong Kong, as my first guest from Asia Forbes, for the twenty-second episode of “One the Come Up” I was excited to have Mr Youssef El Kaddioui as my guest. The CEO and Founder of Scalelab, a venture-building studio and lead generation agency based out of Hong Kong, Mr Youssef began his career at Rouen Business School. Here he acquired his Masters degree, before going to Zhejiang University and Wharton to further his studies. Immediately after college, he began working for Google in Dublin as an Associate Account Strategist. After that, he worked at M...
2025-03-2127 min
ONE The Come UPErnest Owens From Ernest Media Empire on "One The Come Up"For episode twenty-one of “One the Come Up,” I was honored to have Mr Ernest Owens as my guest. What’s to say about him – what’s not to say about him? – where to even start – where will it end? – fortunately the story’s been given to me, for I’m no writer, myself. A Renaissance Man is the only character in my story, but I have quite the story to tell. I suppose the best way to tell a story is to tell it from the beginning – for that’s how it was told to me. Born in Chicago, raised in Housto...
2025-03-1833 min
ONE The Come UPIva Tsolova from JAMBA on "One the Come Up"For episode number 20 – wow! That’s a lot of episodes – I was honored to have Ms. Tsolova as my guest – the CEO and Founder of JAMBA, a company that provides educational and employment opportunities for those with disabilities in Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Starting in high school where she volunteered at an orphanage, Ms Tsolova has always had a passion for meaningful causes. She obtained her education from the University of National and World Economy for her Bachelor’s and TU Wien and the Vienna School of International Studies for her Master’s. It was also during this time that she sta...
2025-03-0730 min
ONE The Come UPStephanie Michelsen from Jellatech, One the Come UpFor the nineteenth episode of “One the Come UP,” I was joined by Ms Stephanie Michelsen – the CEO and Founder of Jellatech, a biotechnology company based out of Raleigh, North Carolina that seeks to create highly valuable proteins in a scalable, efficient, and sustainable way. Her career began in Denmark, where she attended the University of Copenhagen, and then the University of Denmark. It was also during this time that she partook in a scholarship where she interned at biotech startups in the Bay Area for 6 months. After realizing most biotech companies were focused on recreating animal agriculture, she decide...
2025-03-0123 min
ONE The Come UPAmaury Hayat from Ecole des Ponts,For the 18th – or maybe 17th, it’s starting to get hard to count – episode of “One the Come UP,” I was fortunate to have Professor Amaury Hayat as my guest. A researcher in mathematics at Ecole de Pont, I’m sure he could help me keep track of my episode numbers – that, and a little bit more. His academic career began in Classe Preparatoire at Lycée Sainte-Geneviève, before he continued on to obtain his PHD from Sorbonne University and his Masters from Cambridge. His first work in AI began with a collaboration with Meta, where he created a neural...
2025-03-0122 min
ONE The Come UPChoë Downes from WeSHFT on "One The Come UP" PodcastFor the Seventeenth episode of “One the Come UP” I was excited to have Ms Chloë Downes as my guest. The CEO and Founder of SHFT, an influencer talent management agency based in the UK, she seeks to bring genuine inclusivity to an industry of smoke and mirrors. While many companies have an inclusive work culture on paper, Ms Chloe has seen firsthand that doesn’t always translate to the real world. After graduating from Bournemouth University, she worked for 2 events companies where she was underappreciated. The only person of color, and from a working class background, she worked and suc...
2025-02-2229 min
ONE The Come UPRichman Neumann from Modumate and Yelp on podcast "One the Come UP"For the 16th episode of “One the Come Up,” it was a pleasure to have Mr Richman Neumann as my guest. An architect, a businessman, an acapella singer, a mathematician, a man of many hats – some have been led to call him a human podcast. Mr Neumann got his start at Carnegie Mellon University where he studied architecture – the art of “frozen music” that perfectly blended his interests in math and design. Upon graduating in 2013, he worked for Solomon Cordwell Benz, a large multi-family firm where he designed high rises in San. Fran., Honolulu, and Seattle. Larger (and limitless) than the sky...
2025-02-1523 min
ONE The Come UPValentin Meaux from Raisers Partners, "One the Come Up" PodcastFor the fifteenth episode of “ONE The Come UP,” I was excited to have Mr Valentin Meaux as my guest, for his first podcast experience!! The Co-Founder and Managing partner of Raisers Partners, a Fundraising/M&A advisory firm for African startups, they’re based out of Paris, France. Mr Meaux started his career in a program called Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles, where students go through 2 years of intense preparatory school, until taking an entrance exam for placement to their respective colleges. Receiving the highest marks (of course) Mr Meaux attended HEC Paris, where he partook in an inter...
2025-02-0734 min
ONE The Come UPAlexia Cooper from 1Solar, "One The Come UP" PodcastFor the fourteenth episode of “ONE the Come UP,” I was honored to have Ms Alexia Cooper as my guest. The Senior VP of One Solar, she used to be the CEO of Bell Solar until it was acquired. Starting her career at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she started in air conditioning before moving to Bell Electrical. Initially a sales representative, before buying the owner out, she quickly grew the company and pivoted to residential solar installation and servicing. Revenue increased 400% yearly, her vision exceeded years into the future, and was brought to fruition when she was give...
2025-02-0729 min
ONE The Come UPLiam White from Dr Will's on "One the Come UP" PodcastUnlucky 13 wasn’t unlucky at all – I was fortunate to have Mr Liam White as my guest on this episode of “One the Come UP.” CEO and Co-Founder of Dr Will’s, a condiment and beverage brand centered in the UK that focuses on a healthier – but still great tasting – alternative to traditional condiment brands such as Heinz, Hellman’s, etc. Starting his career at the University of Bristol, and landing a job at Morgan Stanley as an investment banker, Mr White initially didn’t plan on becoming an Entrepreneur. After two years, though, at one of the most prestigious invest...
2025-01-3132 min
ONE The Come UPAlexander Harmsen from Global Predictions on "One the Come UP" PodcastFor the twelfth episode of “One the Come UP,” I was excited to have as my guest Mr Alexander Harmsen. The CEO and Founder of Global Predictions, their flagship model is portfolio pilot, your personal AI financial advisor. A Loran Scholar, Mr Harsem decided to attend University of British Columbia for his degree in engineering physics. After graduating in 2015, he started his first company Iris Automation, an AI tech company that specialized in Beyond the Line of Sight capabilities for drones and other uncrewed aerial vehicles. After scaling that company to work with some of the largest fortune 500 companies in t...
2025-01-3133 min
ONE The Come UPMisha Vitels, Earth Brands on "One the Come UP" PodcastEntering into the double digits now, the tenth episode of ONE the Come UP, a big milestone for the podcast, what better way to celebrate than to have a big Man with an even bigger Dream: Mr Vitels, with Earth Brands, and his goal to take down the plastic, red solo cup that plagues college campuses across the nation. Mr Vitels and his Co-Founder started this company in 2021 in his junior year at Williams College, where they were star varsity tennis athletes. A tough start for a party accessory company, Covid was a big challenge for the young duo...
2025-01-2429 minONE The Come UPOscar Walter from Stockly on "One the Come UP" PodcastJoining me all the way from Paris, for the eleventh episode of “One the Come UP,” is Mr Oscar Walter. The co-founder and CTO of Stockly, a retail technology company that creates a network of shared inventories for partners to sell items they don’t have in stock. The company was conceived in 2016, albeit slightly differently, and officially launched in 2018, a time in which they were a part of the Techstars accelerator. Through several rounds of funding, and keeping up with the latest development in technology, Stockly has proliferated throughout most of Europe. Though the network is not quite as lar...
2025-01-2428 minONE The Come UPAhana Banerjee, CEO of Clear: Skin Social on "One the Come UP" PodcastFor the ninth episode of “One the Come UP,” I was honored to have Ms Banerjee as my guest. The CEO and Founder of Clear: Social Skincare – a free skin care routine tracking app – Ms Banerjee has always had one goal in mind: to bring a positive value to the world. A never ending pursuit, it started from the culture shock she experienced moving to India from the UK. There, she saw the dual realities of life: luxury and poverty. Questioning why she had the privilege of being born into the former group, she took it as her responsibility to give b...
2025-01-2438 minONE The Come UPLouis Phillip Broze, from Spentlys. "One the Come UP."For the eighth episode of ONE the Come UP, I was honored to have Mr Louis Phillip Broze as my guest. He’s our first European Forbes 30U alumni, with his company Spentys based out of Brussels, Belgium. He’s also the first of our guests to go through a seed accelerator – both hub.brussels and BEyond Program. Mr. Broze’s company, Spentys, uses 3D modeling, scanning, and printing to create custom-made orthotics and prosthetics. They are in 20 different countries and have helped over 10,000 patients. Something else unique about Mr. Broze is that he is a Kairo Fellow, a very dis...
2025-01-1739 min
ONE The Come UPTom Shea from Adgile Media GroupTom Shea, from https://www.adgile.co/, joined me today to discuss the newest form of advertisement: mobile billboards. His company turns last mile delivery trucks into billboards, and then tracks their efficacy by collecting nearby user data. It sounds like something out of a sci-get movie — or 1984 — but it’s the way of the future.
A native of Long Island, New York, Tom started his first company while a junior in high school. He attended college at BC, graduated with a degree in Computer science, and got a job at McMaster-Carr that eventually led him to C...
2024-12-2839 minONE The Come UPShirah Benarde from Night CapShirah Benarde is the founder and inventor of Nightcap, a scrunchie-like device for users to put over their cups to prevent spiking. The idea first came to her in a dream when she was just 16 years old, after a college friend of hers was spiked. The product quickly drew national attention, going viral on Tik Tok and appearing on Fox news. In August 2020, Nightcap appeared on Shark Tank, and Shirah closed a deal with Lorrie for $60,000 for a 25% stake. Since then, Nightcap has never slowed down. They are now in 150 universities and colleges, Forever 21, Bumble, and are making their...
2024-12-2820 minONE The Come UPHenry Michaelson, Halla, One The Come UPFor episode 5 of One The Come UP, I discuss with Henry Michaelson the technological side of groceries. His company, Halla, is the search engine behind any e-commerce grocery store platform. Initially, you might not understand the importance or magnitude of this niche, but it is a big, multi billion dollar problem that many grocery chains have. Previously, the technology used by grocery store chains wasn’t up to date. This resulted in sud-par customer satisfaction, and profits being lost. But Halla has fixed that problem.
In this episode, we dive deep into what goes on behind the eve...
2024-12-2137 minONE The Come UPMitch Deforest, Ramped Careers, Episode Four, ONE The Come UPA Forbes 30 under 30 entrepreneur; a nomad that travels the world; and a surfer dude that flies first class – Mitch Deforest is a man of many hats. His company, Ramped Careers, has simplified the job search. Just enter your job preferences, add a little bit of information about yourself, and then leave it to AI to get the perfect job for you.
Maybe the most fun interview I’ve had so far, Mitch is down-to-Earth and relatable. Although to most people it would seem like he’s living the dream, Mitch knows what it’s like to be “on...
2024-12-2029 minONE The Come UPDaniel Saks from Appdirect, Landbase, Episode threeDaniel Saks has always been at the lead of technology. In 2009, Daniel recognized the emergence of the Cloud as the future of SaaS. He and his partner started Appdirect, and quickly grew to become the leading B2B commerce platform. Over the course of 15 years, Daniel grew Appdirect to a 1.5 billion dollar company. But he’s brought our current technology to its culmination – it’s great right now, could be better, but never good enough.
So he’s at it again, starting all over, and creating an entirely new technology – agentive AI. With his new com...
2024-12-2039 minONE The Come UPMr Seamus from Carabiner, "One The Come UP"On the second episode of One the Come UP, Mr Seamus and I discuss starting his creating of Carabiner, a Rev-Ops and software implementation company. We also discuss Nature vs Nurture, growth and development of a company, and about the several types of entrepreneurs there are.
2024-11-3034 minONE The Come UPCavan Klisnky from Healthie -- Interview on One the Come UPOn the first episode of "One the Come UP," Mr. Klinsky and I discuss UPenn, the telehealth industry, starting a multi-million dollar company, and the journey of an entrepreneur.
2024-11-3037 min