Applying for government benefits is a slow, tedious process that often leaves applicants in limbo for several months.  Advocate looks to help. Today on Found Becca and Dom are talking with Advocate’s founder Emilie Poteat, the company that helps Americans engage with federal benefits programs through its technology-enabled services platform. In this episode they discuss how the Advocate team is using AI to automate advocacy and get the wait time for people seeking aid to nearly nothing.They also talked about:
 

(0:00) Introduction

(4:16) the status quo of applying for government aid

(8:56) Automating government services

(13:13) using AI to automate advocacy

(18:29) Finding the right investor fit

(24:13) Hiring for a social impact company

(30:00) Collaborating with government agencies

(32:00) Host discussion

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Do you know what brand your bedsheets are? Probably not. Today’s guest Ariel Kaye has been working to change that with Parachute, a DTC bedding and home goods company. Kaye started Parachute in 2013—the hayday of DTC brands. She joins Dom to talk about what it was like building as a solo founder while she’s established a well-known brand and expanded beyond bedding. 

They also talked about:

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This episodes dives into the massive web of the wedding industry with Shan-Lyn Ma, the co-founder and CEO of Zola. Ma talked about why she decided to launch the business after trying to buy a gift for a friend and realizing that wedding registries were still living in the past. Ma spoke about how the company navigated changes in the digital and competitive landscapes over the last decade and how the company powered through the pandemic's impacts on the industry.

(0:00) Introduction

(3:33) Creating a better wedding planning experience

(8:45) Building in the wedding industry

(13:45) Inclusivity in the wedding space

(18:35) Personalizing wedding planning

(23:11) Adapting to the pandemic

(33:08) AI-generated thank you notes

(43:00) What's next

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Is it time for the resume’s reign to come to an end? Tigran Sloyan is the co-founder and CEO of CodeSignal, a skills assessment platform used by many tech companies to hire engineers based on their engineering chops rather than their keyword-packed resumes. In this episode, Becca, Dom, and Tigran talk about how traditional resume-based hiring perpetuates biases and limits opportunities for individuals without extensive networks or prestigious credentials and how skills assessment lead to more equitable hiring. They also get into the CodeSignal team’s plans to go beyond assessment to skills development, how AI will play a role in building out these courses, and the way Tigran thinks about equitable hiring on his own team. 

(1:32) Solving the "talent problem" in hiring and skill development

(4:55) Math competitions to MIT

(10:42) Resumes, skills assessment, and AI in the job market

(14:50) AI's impact on jobs and learning

(20:05) Personalized learning with AI tutoring

(24:47) AI tutoring platform for education and career development

(28:57) Personal growth as an entrepreneur

(32:42) Strategic hiring 

(37:08) Company culture, transparency, and AI development

(40:35) AI tutoring platform and its potential impact on job requirements

(42:34) Tech industry skills training and apprenticeships

(44:16) AI-powered tutoring and personalized learning

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Not many businesses start with a seemingly incurable case of Bacterial Vaginosis but today’s guest, Beatrice Dixon, found a company and a cure all in one. The Honey Pot is a plant-based vaginal wellness brand that was co-founded by Beatrice after she launched by selling her products at hair shows. On today’s episode, she tells Becca and Dom how those hair shows lead to the Honey Pot hitting shelves in Target.

They also talked about:

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It’s hard to remember a time when newsletters weren’t flooding every inbox but today’s guests were on the forefront of bringing easily digestible news directly to their audience. Today on Found, Becca is joined by Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, co-founders and co-CEOs of theSkimm which is a digital media company, dedicated to succinctly giving women the information they need to make confident decisions. They talked about how they’ve navigated the digital media industry for over a decade, how they pitched this to investors when they were new to the game, and the importance of building a team that aligns with your vision.

They also talked about:

(0:00) Introduction

(1:35) being on the forefront of millennial media companies

(6:08) the power of email marketing

(8:35) the early days and bootstrapping

(14:07) Not fitting the silicon valley mold

(17:34) the co-founder relationship

(23:11) Leadership styles and growing a company

(29:31) Prioritizing growth

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Gut health might be having a moment on TikTok but Ben Goodwin the co-founder and CEO of Olipop knows first hand the monumental impact a healthy microbiome can have on your mental and physical health. Today on Found. Becca and Dom are joined by Ben to talk about how he led the gut-healthy soda brand to amass $200 million in gross sales just five years after their launch.

They also talked about:

(0:00) Introduction and two truths and a lie

(2:12) Olipop introduction

(5:42) Researching the microbiome

(11:34) The industrial diet in America

(15:03) Transitioning from research to product development

(17:49) Product nostalgia and marketing

(20:29) Market share in the beverage industry

(23:26) Olipop’s 200 million dollar year

(25:44) Targeting food deserts

(27:36) Time management as CEO

(31:06) Fundraising and pitching investors

(33:32) What’s next

(36:03) Host commentary

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Grab your spoon and a carton of milk because today on Found we’re talking to Magic Spoon co-founder and CEO Gabi Lewis. Magic Spoon creates cereal flavors that play on our nostalgia for Fruit Loops and Cocoa Puffs with a grown-up high-protein twist. Dom and Becca talk with Gabi about how he and his co-founder prioritized product-market fit and found investors who didn’t think cereal was dead. They also talked about:

(0:00) Welcome Gabi Lewis

(1:45)  Magic Spoon TLDR

(3:38) Innovating in the food industry

(11:40) Managing DTC and IRL retail

(24:00) Acquisitions and competition

(28:15) Entrepreneurship, product development, and leadership evolution

(35:32) Outro with Becca and Dom

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On today’s episode of Found, Dom and Becca talk to Markus Witte, co-founder of Babbel, a language learning app that had been operating since 2007. Babbel has become one of the most prominent language-learning apps but their first product was essentially just a vocab game and they quickly discovered that a multi-modal way of learning will always be more effective. Markus also talked about why he decided to step down as CEO and take on the role of chairman and how all four co-founders have worked together to stick to the original mission of Babbel even after nearly 20 years. 

They also talked about:

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This week Found is going down under. New Zealand-based TechCrunch reporter Rebecca Bellan talked with Alex Zaccaria the co-founder and CEO of Linktree about how they've scaled the freemium model to grow the social media reference landing page startup. Alex also talked about the challenges and benefits of fundraising internationally, the upside to raising in a more difficult climate, and how they see Linktree changing the way creators curate content for their audiences.

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