Build Mode

It’s not every week that Becca and Dom get to talk to a founder who has been building companies for the past 22 years. This week on Found, we’re joined by Eric Ly, co-founder of LinkedIn and the current co-founder and CEO of KarmaCheck  startup that is making the background check process quicker and more transparent. Ly discusses his vision for streamlining background checks, the challenges of building multiple companies, and how his entrepreneurial mindset has evolved since the early days of the internet. You’ll learn about the future of online trust and the potential impact of blockchain technology on identity verification.

00:00 - Introduction and Two Truths and a Lie 

02:00 - Introducing Karma Check: Background Checks Reimagined 

05:00 - The Evolution of Background Checks 

08:00 - Automating and Streamlining the Process 

12:00 - Demand for Faster Background Checks in the Job Market 

15:00 - Eric Ly's Entrepreneurial Journey 

18:00 - The Changing Landscape of Venture Capital 

21:00 - Leadership Evolution and Building Company Culture 

23:00 - Entrepreneurial Mishaps and Lessons Learned 

27:00 - Growing Up in Silicon Valley 29:00 - Navigating Market Cycles and Hype 

31:00 - Future Possibilities: Blockchain and Digital Identity 

33:00 - Conclusion and Wrap-up

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In this episode of Found, Becca and Dom sit down with Gavin Uberti, co-founder and CEO of Etched, an AI chip startup focusing on developing specialized chips. Gavin shares the bold bet his startup is making on transformer models for AI chips, aiming to take on industry giant Nvidia. They discuss how Etched is developing specialized chips that they claim will be an order of magnitude faster than competitors, and Uberti shares his insights on the future of AI hardware as models continue to rapidly scale up in size and capability.

[00:00] Introduction to Etched and AI chips 

[03:46] The bet on transformer models

[05:08] Competition with Nvidia 

07:45] Environmental impact of chip manufacturing

[10:13] Etched's chip development progress

[12:35] Customer demand and strategic investors

[14:06] Fundraising journey

[15:23] Dropping out of Harvard

[21:25] Building the company and hiring

[24:01] Leadership philosophy

[31:05] Future outlook for Etched and AI 

[32:31] Wrap-up and reveal of the "two truths and a lie"

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HR software is big, big business. And no one understands that better than this week’s guest, Parker Conrad the CEO and co-founder of Rippling, a global HR company that offers global payroll, onboarding, time tracking, benefits management and more. In this episode he talks about what goes into building a leading HR tech company—from what it’s like building out features companies love, to dealing with fierce competition in this ever growing landscape. Conrad also gets into the power imbalance that can arise between VCs and founders and the drama at his previous company that inspired him to build Rippling. 
 

(0:00) Introduction

(2:48) Parker’s previous startups

(6:09) Leaving Zenefits and starting Rippling

(9:08) Horizontal integration in HR software

(11:57) AI skepticism for software

(20:58) Managing the competition

(26:34) Growth marketing strategy

(29:36) What a founder should focus on

(35:02) VC-founder power imbalance

(40:23) Host discussion

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 There is a whole marketplace for used tech, it isn’t just a good deal for the customer, but it also helps curb waste that can lead to soil contamination, non-pot able water, and dangerous living conditions.  On this week’s episode of Found, we’re talking to Thibaud Hug de Larauze from BackMarket, a global marketplace for refurbished devices.

In this conversation they cover:

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Despite the fact that water covers 71% of the Earth, there is still so much we don’t know about the ocean floor and  today’s founder is looking to change that. Joe Wolfel is the co-founder and CEO of Terradepth, the company that is working towards increasing ocean knowledge through autonomous, high resolution, scalable data collection in the deep ocean. On this week’s episode of Found, Becca is joined by guest co-host, Tim De Chant to discuss why mapping geological features at the bottom of the ocean isn’t just something worth doing for curiosity’s sake, it’s important to a variety of players from companies looking to install offshore wind farms to the Navy. They also get into who is buying this kind of data, how Wolfel’s experience as a Navy Seal prepared him for entrepreneurship, and the trend of deeptech founders needing to find revenue streams early on as they’re developing their technology.  

(0:00) Introduction

(2:07) Robotics role in mapping the ocean

(8:49) Scaling maritime data collection

(15:47) Fundraising challenges for hardware companies

(21:57) Transitioning from Navy to entrepreneurship

(24:13) Data-driven decision making

(29:43) Finding the right customer base

(35:14) Host discussion

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The higher education system isn’t working. Students pay way too much, professors don’t get paid enough, and many community college students that aspire to go on to get a Bachelor's degree aren't able to. But one startup thinks they have the solution. Today Becca is talking with Tade Oyerinde, the CEO and founder of Campus, a fully accredited online community college. They discuss how Tade found a school that was willing to come on board and align with his mission, the challenges of getting investors on board, and what he thinks it will take to make the higher education system more equitable. 

(0:00) Introduction

(2:15) The current issues facing community colleges

(8:28) Serving both Students and professors with Campus

(11:17) Developing the curriculum

(16:06) Finding VC partners

(19:09) Why Tade is drawn to High Education

(24:48) What inspired Tade

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What is the right way to regulate AI? There appears to be as many different answers to that as there are regulators. In this week's episode of Found, we're bringing you a live interview from TechCrunch's recent Strictly VC event. Becca Szkutak talked with Helen Toner, the director of strategy and foundational research grants from the Center of Security and Emerging Technology and a former board member of OpenAI. Although she's not a founder herself, this conversation centers around topics crucial to every founder building today as AI continues to impact nearly every industry. 

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Today on Found, we’re talking to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of Masterclass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a variety of topics, from baking to screen writing to developing empathy. Before David launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC. Through his connections there received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company. That was nearly a decade ago, and today Dom, Becca and David talk about how he’s built the company since.

They also talked about:

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It probably doesn’t come as too big of a surprise that cowboy boots aren’t typically sold online. So where is the modern cowboy supposed to shop? This week we’re talking to a founder who carved out a DTC market for western wear.  Paul Hedrick, the founder of Tecovas,  joins Dom and Becca to discuss the marketing strategy they came up with to change the perception of shopping for cowboy boots online and how the company has expanded to brick and mortar stores. 

In this conversation they cover:

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This week on Found, we have an interview from TechCrunch's Strictly VC event in DC. Becca sat down with Steve Case, the founder of AOL to discuss policy, innovation, and AI. Case, now the founder of Revolution Ventures, told the live audience that open access not only helped his company back in the 90s but is also why the internet was able to progress in the way that it did. Regulators should aim for the same goal with AI policy despite the potential risks. He  argues that opening  up access to horizontal AI players like OpenAI and Google would also help expand AI away from being concentrated on the coasts.

(0:00) Introduction

(1:29) AI regulation compared to the internet’s early days

(6:20) Supporting AI startups outside the traditional hugs

(11:49) AI Policy and the innovation economy

(16:40) Entrepreneurship and job creation in the US

Found posts every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts to be alerted when new episodes drop. Check out the other TechCrunch podcast: Equity . Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each

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