52 Founders

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-The opportunity Tia sees in the market for women’s health, and why the company is focused on millennial women

-Carolyn’s perspective on raising funding as a female founder of a women’s healthcare company

-How Tia is a hybrid of both her parents, particularly her mother, whom she grew up attending Planned Parenthood meetings with

-Where the name “Tia” comes from, and how Carolyn and her team thought of the entire persona behind “her” 

-The grand vision behind Tia and why Carolyn decided to make the initial focus on birth control

-How Carolyn’s time at Google gave her the right background to rethink how people access and engage with information platforms

Listen at the end, where Carolyn shares her favorite startup brand and, as usual, who she would like to interview and why (it’s a new one to boot).

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-Why simulations have advanced in recent years, and why enterprises should utilize them for more scenarios than ever before

-How Simudyne plans to first go after the financial services market while other sectors’ technology catches up

-Why London has the best ecosystem for startups with a financial focus, even over New York, and why it’s not just due to the close proximity to banks

-Jonathan’s experience teaching math after attending Cambridge, and why he was chosen as head of the department

-How helping others for a few months and attending hackathons built Jonathan’s London network

-The early days of Simudyne pre-Techstars and the office perils they originally endured before entering the program

After Jonathan shares some colorful stories about office life, be sure to listen to the end, where he tells me a London startup he loves and the founder he’d most want to interview.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-How Lattice sprung from the growing pains Jack and his cofounder felt while working together at Teespring, and how Lattice has evolved from their original vision

-Growing up in St. Louis, and why Jack is grateful that his formative years took place in a Midwestern suburb

-The influence Jack’s older brothers had on him and how sibling dynamics play an integral role in a person’s development

-The benefits to gaining operating experience at other startups before venturing out of your own

-Why having a company culture that inspires people to want to come to work was a major goal for Jack when starting Lattice

-Why some roles are harder to create success metrics for than others (and why it may not be the ones that immediately spring to mind)

Catch the end of the show, where Jack tells me the startup he’s a big fan (and user) of, and the person he most wants to interview and why.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-How Mantas uncovered this opportunity and the initial applications Accelerated Dynamics is focusing on

-Mantas’ response to people who might have concerns about unmanned drones that are programmed with artificial intelligence applications

-Why Accelerated Dynamics is based in London, and how being in a top rated accelerator like EF helps startups receive funding

-Growing up in Lithuania, and how studying in Spain broadened Mantas’ perspective on what he wanted to do

-Both of his parents’ small-scale entrepreneurial ventures, and how Mantas spent his childhood building and designing for fun

Hear the end of the show, where Mantas shares some startups he loves in London and of course, shares the founders he most wants to interview and why.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-Automata’s product progression and the early surprises Mostafa and his cofounder uncovered when Eva was first introduced

-The most common use cases Automata sees and how companies evaluate whether a robot could be useful for its business

-Why London is the ideal location to create a company, particularly for highly technical startups

-Mostafa’s experience growing up in Dubai, and how living there inspired him to pursue architecture

-The software component that accompanies Eva, and the “teach by example” approach Automata uses to train the product

-Why Mostafa and his cofounder Suryansh ultimately decided to leave architecture and join Entrepreneur First to pursue their dream

Catch the end of the show, where I ask Mostafa some new questions, in addition to, of course, hearing the person he’d most want to interview and why.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-Why Fred and his cofounder Russell decided to leave Europe and come to San Francisco to create their company 

-Fred’s family tradition that inspired him to think creatively about problems, even when he was a child

-How Rainforest tries to incorporate diversity in its culture, and why it’s important not to reward office politics

-Why working weekends doesn’t translate to more success, and why you have to always believe in your own approach 

-Why the main job of a founder is to endure the bulk of the stress for the company, and why employees shouldn’t always look to them for the right answers

-Fred’s main motivator, and what success will look like for Rainforest

Though it’s a longer than normal episode, be sure to catch the end of the show. Fred shares two favorite startups (one of which is a future podcast interviewee!), and how his family’s iMac inspired Fred to be a designer.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-How Ezza stores plan to operate, and the thought process that went into the details behind the customer experience

-The benefits of starting a business while obtaining an MBA, and how Chicago Booth’s New Venture Challenge helped make things happen

-What it’s like to work inside of 1871, Chicago’s technology and entrepreneurship center

-Kim’s ability to bring people together, ranging from full-scale performances when she was young to an outhouse team race in South Dakota to pizza trolleys for MBAs (myself included)

-Why Ale finds ways to continually challenge herself, even in activities not related to work

-The most surprising aspects of entrepreneurship that each woman has learned thus far

At the end of the episode we’ll chat about the startup both founders love in Chicago, in addition to the person they’d most want to interview and why (it’s a new one to boot!).

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-How Charlie’s own experience trying to put in vacation time at Google inspired Merlin Guides

-The value Charlie sees in the New York startup scene, and why the American market is extremely attractive to founders

-How Charlie is really the perfect blend of both of his parents’ backgrounds, and why he always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur

-Why Clark Kent, the journalist, not necessarily as Superman, was one of Charlie’s heroes growing up

-Why setting aggressive goals is something Charlie swears by, and why it’s important to give yourself permission to fail

-Expa Labs, the incubator Charlie joined and the locale for Merlin Guides, and the reason why he decided to join

Stay tuned for end of the episode, where Charlie shares a startup he really believes in, and the three founders he would want to interview if given the chance (very diverse answers, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the reasoning behind).

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-The opportunity Alex saw for humans to amplify the results of machines, and how Scale API plans to act on it

-Growing up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the Atomic bomb, and how its emphasis on science impacted Alex’s childhood

-How working at Addepar and Quora before college influenced Alex’s career, and how that led to his taking a leave of absence from MIT

-The thought process behind starting Scale API, and why Alex and his cofounder Lucy Guo were going to start it whether they got into Y Combinator or not (but they did!)

-What Scale API looks for when hiring, and why they feel comfortable betting on smart, inexperienced candidates

-Why having a passionate initial user base, even a small one, is critical to creating a successful company

Catch the end of the episode, where Alex shares a startup he is a big fan of (hint: it’s a London-based one) and the best advice he took away from being a part of Y Combinator.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

-CMG’s evolution from its initial site, Who What Wear, to the conglomerate it’s become today

-How Katherine ensures CMG remains close to the consumer, and why its critical to the company’s success in light of fashion’s globalization

-Katherine’s early entrepreneurial endeavors that included putting on (paid) shows for the neighborhood and creating faux restaurants with her toy kitchen

-Her previous aspiration to be a film producer, and why she doesn’t think she now could handle the slower pace of that industry

-Why Katherine decided to move to LA on her own at 16, and the decision to forgo college in favor of gaining work experience

-The path she took before becoming the West coast editor of Elle Girl at a mere 24 years old

Be sure to stay tuned until the end of the episode, where Katherine shares her favorite LA companies, why she’s a fan of Beautycon, and, of course, the founder she most would want to interview and why.