21st Century Visionary

Joe Wehbe is a facilitator, working on innovating education, non-linear & exponential career pathways, self-awareness, and accelerating the next generation of mission-led founders, writers, and creatives. Joe is the co-founder of the Constant Student Community, Author, and Project Leader of the book '18 & Lost? So Were We. He also hosts the Joe Wehbe Podcast and Blog, which explores introspection and self-awareness.

In this episode, we talk about Joe's experience dropping out of college to build a non-profit in Nepal, feedback loops in learning, running a real estate business, alternative education paths, the idea behind his book, running a retreat for the authors, Joe's podcasting process, building community, advice to his 18-year-old self, and his vision for a simpler life.

Yash Tekriwal (@tekondeck) is the Ed-tech entrepreneur behind Lectureless, a collective of the best learning designers, no-code tools, and coaches to 10x the impact of cohort-based courses. Yash is also the chief of staff of High Output, which provides performance coaching for entrepreneurs. Prior to that, Yash built and ran upskilling programs for college students in data science and other technical skills, was a coach for Akimbo, and taught CS and entrepreneurship at a high school.

Show Notes:

(01:18) - Yash's elevator pitch

(03:00) - Teaching a data science course in college

(06:20) - The decision to start a company right out of college

(12:23) - Views on education

(15:00) - How a major car accident shifted his perspective (or didn't)

(17:23) - His interest in cohort-based courses

(22:15) - Improving the CBC experience

(26:33) - Starting and pivoting his company Lectureless

(31:00) - Advice to his 18-year-old self

(31:00) - Recommended programs/resources to learn hard skills like data science

(35:23) - Becoming an expert at using no-code tools

(36:52) - Favorite resources (eg. Refind)

(39:00) - Finding community

Today's guest is the insightful Proby Shandilya. Proby is an incoming undergraduate student at New York University studying sports management and he has authored two books on basketball front-office strategy, analyzing the factors, decisions, and management strategies that drive success for NBA teams. He has also done sports analytics research on player valuation and worked with the Houston Rockets on projects in their business strategy department.

In this episode, we talk about the value of writing to crystallize thinking, why athletes and employees performance is based on their team, the importance of having conviction in your innovation, The story of the Phoenix Suns and the 3 point shot, the Missionary vs Mercenary distinction, being intentional about company culture, Nadella's revival of Microsoft, Proby's experience working with the Houston Rockets, his intense writing process, note-taking systems, mental models, and more!

Today's episode features the amazing Anthony Mooz. Anthony is the Founder and CEO of AGE-LESS AI, an AI healthcare company with a suite of products and services that are designed to assist neurologists and multi-care teams through remote rehabilitation and assessment of patients suffering from movement disorders such as Parkinson’s and Stroke.

Prior to founding AGE-LESS AI, Anthony conducted research at Stanford Psychology and Donner Lab at UC Berkeley. Tony was also technology lead and data scientist for several Fortune 100 companies in technology, finance, supply chain, and industrial agriculture.

In this episode, we talk about Anthony's motivation behind building Ageless AI, his origins as a hacker, working on Wall Street, breaking into tech without a conventional CS background, networking, self-awareness, education, mentors, the impact of COVID on biotech, challenges they faced building Ageless AI, raising funding, favorite resources, and more!

Connect with Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonymooz/

Follow Ageless AI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/age-less-ai/

Learn more about the AGE-LESS AI - Wyss Institute Collaboration: https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/wyss-institute-announces-industrial-participant-program-ipp-to-accelerate-the-development-of-urgently-needed-diagnostic-capabilities/

Today's episode features NYU Professor Cynthia Franklin. Cynthia is the director of entrepreneurship for the Leonard N. Stern School's W. R. Berkley Innovation Labs at New York University. At the Berkley Innovation Lab, she serves hundreds of students, alums, and other aspiring entrepreneurs through venture competitions (which awards more than $200,000 in cash and services), venture mentor network, conferences, speaker series, and technical assistance programs.

Prior to joining the Berkley Innovation Lab, Cynthia was executive vice president of KIP Communications, b-to-b marketing, and media company she cofounded. For her work with startups and small businesses and promoting entrepreneurship and economic development in urban communities, Cynthia has received numerous honors and awards including from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the NYC Mayor's Office, and many others. 

In this episode, we talk about traits of successful entrepreneurs, why Cynthia deemphasizes seeking funding early, when and how to raise capital, whether you should work in your industry before starting a company, the future of media, the unique value of formal education, her top book recommendations, podcasts and more!

Today's episode features the renegade VC and author Zak Slayback. Zak is a principal at the 1517 fund, where he invests in and works with dropouts, renegades, and deep tech scientists at the earliest stages. He also writes about personal and professional development on his website and hosts a long-form newsletter on society, tech and exploration called Slayback to the Future. Zak is the author of How to Get Ahead and The End of School. 

Timestamps:

0:46 Zak's Intro

2:27 How Zak broke into VC

5:57 Hyper Focus and Shiny Object Syndrome

7:25 Starting cash-flow businesses

13:58 The Value of Work Experience and how to choose where to work

20:38 How being competent can help you get your foot in the door

25:07 Why Unpaid Internships are like Marshmallow Tests 

26:20 Trading Up Mentors and Opportunities

29:51 The Art of Negotiation and Knowing when to Quit

33:57 Build a Business on the Side

36:22 Startup Ideas that Zack would fund (eg. Airbnb for Homeschooling!)

42:47 Crafting your narrative without a college degree

46:20 The Future of Education

50:41 Connect with Zack

Today's episode features a personal podcasting mentor, the incredibly well-read Australian Adam Ashton! Adam hosts the top-rated What you will Learn along with Adam Jones, where they break down the key insights from the top non-fiction books in an engaging format. The podcast has received 2 million downloads to date and was ranked #6 in the Apple Business category. He is also the author of the book The Shit They Never Taught You, which covers the best bits from 115+ of the top books of all time.

In this conversation, we talk about Adam's early business ventures, how reading Dale Carnegie landed Adam a competitive IB job in college, key lessons for entrepreneurs from top business books, tactics for growing a popular business podcast, his reading, and note-taking process, struggles with writing, overcoming them and living with intention!

Today's episode features one of my personal heroes, the prominent Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist with investments in unicorns like Skype, Hotmail, Tesla, Coinbase, Robinhood, Twitch, and SpaceX... Tim Draper. Tim is also a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin, Blockchain, ICOs, and cryptocurrencies. He won the US Marshall’s auction in 2014 (where he bid on 50,000 bitcoins) and invests in over 50 crypto companies as well as leads investments in Coinbase, Ledger, Tezos, and Bancor, among others. He has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum's "Entrepreneur of the World." 

I first learned about Tim in Ep. 12 with Rohan Gupta, where he talked about having Tim as a guest speaker and developing a mentor relationship with him. So, it was surreal to finally get to sit down with Tim alongside CEO of TILE Sid Sridhar and talk about experiencing the variety of life, Bitcoin, NFT's, future disruptions, his investing thesis, Education, Why Draper University students have gone on to build over 500 companies, embracing globalization, taking bold bets, and much more!

Today's Episode features Wharton Finance Professor David Erickson. David is currently a Senior Fellow and Lecturer in the Finance Department and Co-Director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. David is also a Lecturer in Law at Penn Law/University of Pennsylvania Law School.

In addition to his responsibilities at Wharton, David acts as a consultant to both private and public companies on capital markets, corporate governance, and exploring strategic alternatives. He was also an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the leading global venture capital firms, and an advisory board member of Accompany, a relationship intelligence technology company (acquired by Cisco Systems, May 2018).

In this conversation, we talked about his early interest in finance, the dot com bubble, working with tech luminaries like Steve Jobs on taking their companies public, common mistakes companies make when looking for funding, SPAC's, key traits for success in Investing banking, and private equity, being an effective communicator, the importance of gaining operating experience for investors, opportunities to service traditional companies whose business model has been disrupted, Fintech, China and more!

"I think life is a lot longer than I realized when I was 18. I wish I could go back and elongate each stage and relish the stage I was in because at every stage you're right on time and you're right where you need to be! "- Ryan Begelman

Today's guest is the inspiring Ryan Begelman. After working in Investment Banking early on, Ryan and his partners bootstrapped Bisnow Media, an email newsletter and conference business, to over 7M in annual profit after only an initial $50,000 investment. They ultimately sold the business for over $50M, which is now the largest producer of commercial real estate news and events.

Most recently, Ryan is the cofounder of Summit, which has been called Davos for Gen Y by Forbes. Summit gathers leaders and features icons in a series of invitation-only events. Their speakers have included Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Shonda Rhimes, Jessica Alba, Reed Hastings, Brené Brown, and Al Gore.

He also acquired America’s largest ski resort, Powder Mountain, and is an early investor in startups like Uber, Warby Parker, and CoinBase. Today, he’s on the hunt for small companies to acquire.

In this episode, we talk about Ryan’s view on holistic entrepreneurship, redefining wealth using mindfulness to achieve goals, personal growth, traveling, taking a gap year, thoughts on education, using a system to track well being, bootstrapping, unique businesses opportunities for the next generation, and his "curriculum" for young entrepreneurs.

Reach out to Ryan at ryanbegelman.com and let him know you are a 21CV listener!