Build Mode

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Build Mode episodes

April 02, 2024Making healthy food accessible to everyone with Nick Green from Thrive Market
Between the rising cost of groceries and the all too common food desert, access to healthy and affordable food in America is getting harder to find. Today’s guest, Nick Green is the co-founder and CEO of Thrive Market, a membership-based online grocery store that focuses on natural and organic food and household products. Thrive Market isn’t just focused on offering healthy options, they want to ensure everyone has access to them so they’ve become the first online grocer to accept SNAP and EBT benefits. In this episode, Green discusses how it’s possible to build a business that is a shareholder-driven business and a business that cares about the stakeholders.
They also talked about:
The logistics of running a grocery company sustainably from the beginning
Their unusual path to funding
How they organized the leadership team with four co-founders
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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47 min
March 26, 2024Only AI can prevent forest fires with Allison Wolff from Vibrant Planet
Every wildfire season seems to be getting more intense than the last but today’s guest is here to tell us that wildfires actually have a good side. Today on Found, we’re joined by Allison Wolff, the co-founder and CEO of Vibrant Planet, a cloud-based planning and monitoring tool for adaptive land management. Wolff discusses why the wildfires we’re seeing today are hotter and spreading more quickly than we can contain and how proper land management can help create the environment needed for the lower, slower burning fires forrest need.
They also talked about:
How Wolff’s previous experience working with leaders at tech giants like Facebook and Netflix helped shape her leadership style
The importance of working with indigenous groups to learn how people have been managing the land for centuries
The key role AI places when it comes to monitoring land management and creating adaptive planning

(0:00) Introduction
(2:07) Vibrant Planet is modernizing land management
(11:31) Adapting land management to climate change
(16:45) Scaling nature-based climate solutions
(20:16) The benefits of a for profit company
(30:00) The importance of Indigenous knowledge in land management
(35:01) Host discussion
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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43 min
March 19, 2024Finding longevity in Fintech with Eric Glyman from Ramp
Of all the work tasks you could automate with AI, submitting expenses would probably be high on the list. Today on Found, we’re talking to Eric Glyman, the CEO and cofounder of Ramp, a spend management platform that is building AI tools to make financial workflows easier for employees and employers. In this episode they talk about what Glyman and his co-founder learned from their first startup and how they see AI changing fintech forever.

They also talked about:
What Glyman and his co-founder learned from their first startup and from their time working at Capital One
The white space that still exists in fintech
How Ramp is implementing security measures while ramping up their use of AI
(0:00) intro
(2:20) SImplifying financial processes
(8:41) Automation expense management
(13:46) AI could take over tedious work tasks
(19:10) Security and privacy with financial data and AI
(23:45) Taking a lower valuation
(31:54) What's next for Ramp and fintech
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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39 min
March 12, 2024Training AI-powered recycling robots with Rebecca Hu from Glacier
Recycling is one facet to solving the climate crisis, but most of us are doing it wrong. Today on Found, Becca and Dom are talking with Rebeca Hu, the CEO and cofounder of Glacier, an AI robotics company that is building robots to accurately sort recycling. They talk about how many of us are wish-cylers who hopefully throw non-recyclables into the bin and how Glacier’s robots are sorting the recycling and making sure all of our recycling mistakes are corrected.

They also talked about:
What it takes to train an AI-powered sorting robot
What the reception has been like in recycling facilities
How the robots are tracking the kind of waste we’re creating as they sort
How Rebecca told this story to fundraisers who have very likely never stepped foot in a recycling center.
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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47 min
March 05, 2024AI could be the solution for bureaucracy with Emilie Poteat from Advocate
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:
Where Poteat ultimately found fundraising success
How the government has reacted to a small startup seeking to automate such an embedded bureaucratic process
Why AI is the best tool in the technological shed to work with the mass amounts of rules and data required to navigate the social security system
How the team is implementing the security measures needed when dealing with such sensitive information
(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
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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42 min
February 27, 2024Building in the DTC hayday with Ariel Kaye from Parachute
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:
Why parachute hasn’t raised as much capital as you might think
How Kaye’s branding expertise has driven the company’s identity
Kay’s best advice to avoid burnout and be the best leader possible as a solo founder
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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34 min
February 20, 2024Bringing the wedding industry into the 21st century with Shan-Lyn Ma of Zola
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
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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48 min
February 13, 2024Closing the talent gap and mitigating bias in hiring with Tigran Sloyan from CodeSignal
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
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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50 min
February 06, 2024Bootstrapping until the business finds a home with Beatrice Dixon from The Honey Pot
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:
How Beatrice knew it was time to stop bootstrapping
The importance of finding investors who understand your mission and the intentional culture of your company
The downside to having a fiercely loyal customer base
Trusting the process and making decisions with the your consumers in mind
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

Connect with us:
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46 min
January 30, 2024Navigating media's ups and downs with theSkimm co-founders
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:
The importance of having a direct line to your audience and the benefit of building on your own platform, not on social media
Their grassroots marketing in the early days
How one thing they nailed from the beginning is having a unique voice.
(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
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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33 min

About Build Mode

From the publisher's feed

On Build Mode, TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield Editor Isabelle Johannessen cuts through the startup mythology to uncover how founders survive the brutal early days, navigate impossible funding…