Duos The Co-Founders Podcast

In this episode we sit down with Jason Goodman and Travis Talmadge, co-founders of Bathhouse, a new Brooklyn based wellness space that combines the vibrant, social elements of bathhouses from around the world alongside an array of treatments for the modern athlete and lifestyle enthusiast.

Jason and Travis walk us through their early years first meeting in Montauk, the ups and downs of transforming the old Dr. Brown’s Soda Factory into a spectacular oasis of lively calm and why finding their north Star and vision from the get go has allowed them to navigate and thrive during these trying Covid times.

Bathhouse

Travis Talmadge was born and raised in the greater New York area. Prior to co-founding Bathhouse, Travis founded Triplet Acquisitions, a real estate investment sales company based in Manhattan, which he still actively manages. In addition to his background in real estate, Travis actively invests in a variety of spaces including technology, men’s grooming, wellness and cannabis. He resides with his family in Tribeca and can usually be found on the golf course when he’s not working or spending time with his family.

Jason Goodman is an entrepreneur living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with his family. Prior to co-founding Bathhouse, Jason operated companies in the hospitality, real estate and education sectors. Jason was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and has a deep passion for fitness and nutrition.

In this episode we sit down with Joe Du Bey and Kyle Wilkinson, co-founders of Eden, the all-in-one workplace management platform that makes it easier for companies to run their offices.

Joe and Kyle walk us through their early years launching out of Y Combinator in 2015, the challenges they faced when they decided to pivot to a completely different customer base and business model, and how in the midst of Covid-19, they launched their new SaaS suite that empowers office teams to safely return to work and streamline their operations.

Eden

Founded in March 2015 by Joe Du Bey and Kyle Wilkinson, Eden’s the all-in-one workplace management platform that makes it easier for today’s most innovative companies to run their offices. The company’s best-in-class Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) suite empowers workplace teams to safely return to work and streamline their operations through its COVID Team Safety, visitor management, modern ticketing, room booking, facilities management software, as well as facilities services marketplace. Based in San Francisco, Eden’s investors include Y Combinator, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fifth Wall, S28, Reshape & JLL. Eden’s mission is to create a better place to work, for everyone. To learn more, visit eden.io.

In this episode we sit down with Adam Small and Jake Moses of My Music Music Masterclass, a global web-based platform that features videos, lesson packs and detailed advice from some of the best musicians in the world.

Adam and Jake walk us through meeting on a session in Los Angeles, how they conceived, bootstrapped and coded the platform from scratch and what it feels like each day to give back to the music community that has given them so much, especially in these trying times for the creative arts amid Covid-19.

My Music Masterclass, Inc.

Founded in 2012, My Music Masterclass, Inc. (MMMC) is a Los Angeles and New York based company created by professional musician Adam Small. It was conceived in order to help “hungry” musicians get the advice, tips and tricks of the world’s top professionals without the high cost of private lessons. MMMC’s model consists of giving its artists the majority of the sales revenue, which is why so many world-class musicians are passionately involved with the website. My Music Masterclass is very committed to supporting the professional music community and providing a much-needed service to musicians around the globe.

In this episode we sit down with music producer/songwriter/engineer, Steve DeAcutis as well as world class singer/songwriter/guitarist, Doug Henthorn. These two longtime friends and frequent collaborators walk us through meeting in the mid 90’s when their band POD was signed to Sony records by John Kalodner, how they each picked up the pieces carving out successful careers in the music business writing, creating and touring after their record deal unfortunately went south, and how the loss of Steve’s mom inspired the writing of his new album, Torn From the Pages, which features Doug and legendary Living Colour vocalist, Corey Glover.

Stephen DeAcutis

Stephen DeAcutis has been working professionally as a mixer, producer, engineer, writer, and performer since the early 1980’s, having honed his skills and training under such studio heavyweights as Andy Wallace (Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana), Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith), and Max Norman (Ozzy Osbourne) amassing credits that include such acts as Vanilla Fudge, Gladys Knight, Travers and Appice, Corey Glover, and Cyndi Lauper, to name a few.

He has been contracted by Sony, Interscope, LaFace, Miramax, Columbia, MTV, The Speed Channel, ESPN, Discovery, and numerous others. From hard hitting rock and pop to death metal and country, you’ll find few more experienced and musically intuitive than Stephen DeAcutis.

The achievements of mixing and production specialist Stephen DeAcutis have spanned decades, taken on several roles, and manifested into a diverse number musical genres. But the common thread throughout these accomplishments has been the artist-friendly attention to detail and dedication of the man collaborators affectionately call “Stevie D.”

As the founder and operator of Sound Spa Productions, Stephen has applied his craft as a mixer, producer, engineer, composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist to help guide and realize the visions of some of the industry’s most elite artists and musicians. He has always told his clients that his goal as a mixer/producer is to take the vision of the artist and bring it to its highest musical and emotional levels – to serve the integrity of that vision and not impose his own. “It is my purpose in this lifetime,” says Stephen, “I love the work, and it doesn’t feel at all like work.”

While it may not “feel” like work to him, that doesn’t change the fact that Stephen has worked hard for more than three decades lending his expertise to a countless number of ambitious projects – and in the meantime building a tremendous skill set, not to mention a collection of gear that rivals that of any studio on the planet.

Doug Henthorn

In this episode we chat with Steven Rosenblatt, Josh Rahn & Glenn Handler, Co-Founders and General Partners at Oceans, a new kind of venture capital firm helmed by a team of early stage investors and mentors focused on giving start-ups the hands on support they need to succeed. These NYC tech legends take us through their collective experiences at Apple, Facebook and Google, where they saw a deficiency in the standard VC ecosystem and how their unique people first approach has already put them far ahead of the curve.

Oceans

Steven RosenblattCo-founder, General Partner

With more than 20 years of experience scaling startups and building technology companies in the digital and mobile ecosystem, Steven Rosenblatt co-founded Oceans, a new kind of venture capital firm, in 2018 where he currently serves as General Partner.

Steven has been passionate about building early stage companies and has finally fulfilled his life long goal of starting his own company. Prior to Oceans, Steven was President of Foursquare. During his six-year tenure at the location intelligence company, he was responsible for transitioning the company from a purely consumer-facing location platform into an enterprise business, building a multi-product strategy and growing revenue by more than 70x. This entailed overseeing all aspects of strategy and implementation of the company’s revenue streams along with overseeing its biggest customers. During his time, Foursquare won numerous awards, including being named in CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list as one of the most disruptive tech companies in the world, Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 as one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America, and won Ad Age’s Best Places to work. Steven worked closely with his investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, DFJ, and Spark Capital, and has spoken at nearly 100 events.

Before joining Foursquare, Steven launched iAd, Apple’s advertising platform for brands and developers, where he managed sales, agency relations, and the creative and strategy team. Steven led the opening of Apple’s New York office and worked closely with leadership teams to build a presence in New York. Prior to this, Steven served as Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales at Quattro Wireless until it was acquired by Apple in January 2010. He is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan. You can also find Steven playing sports with his two sons Aidan and Nate, listening to U2 and Pearl Jam, or on the beach with his wife Loren.

Joshua RahnCo-founder, General Partner

In this episode we sit down with Tim Jackson and David Kahn, Co-Founders of Jackson Kahn Design, a premier golf course design firm who have worked on world renowned projects including Scottsdale National GC and Monterey Peninsula CC.

These fellow mid-westerners walk us through their foundational years working together in the field, designing and moving dirt under Tom Fazio, the challenges they faced starting their company in the middle of the 2008 recession and what it’s like to have their childhood passions become reality where “the work” doesn’t feel like work at all.

Jackson Kahn Design

Tim Jackson and David Kahn cofounded Jackson Kahn Design in 2009. Our educational backgrounds in Agronomy and Landscape Architecture, coupled with over $600,000,000 in completed project experience, and a direct hand in many award winning designs allows us to bring a confident ability to excel on projects both large and small. Having completed $100,000 remodels to $35,000,000 new constructions, and worked in nearly every type of varied environment and condition, Jackson Kahn has brought a wide range of projects from conception to completion.

Our focus on the needs of the client drives our philosophy and directs our efforts. Our abilities in communicating design concepts coupled with our passion for refining and improving those ideas in the dirt has been the core of our success at JKD. In the ten years since our founding, we have been blessed, fortunate, and grateful to be a part of many extraordinary projects.

In this episode we sit down with Nick Romito and Ryan Masiello co-founders of VTS, commercial real estate’s leading leasing and asset management platform that brings landlords, brokers, and tenants together to make deals happen.

These life-long friends, surfers and New Jersey Natives walk us through their early years hustling in the hyper competitive NYC real estate market, how their first run at building a video product sparked the idea for the VTS platform, and what it feels like to disrupt a legacy industry that by all accounts could not and would not ever change.

VTS

Nick Romito, Co-founder and CEO, VTS

Nick Romito is the co-founder and CEO of VTS, commercial real estate’s leading leasing and asset management platform. Under Nick’s leadership, VTS has grown to manage more than 11 billion square feet of office, retail, and industrial assets across 35 countries by 700+ landlords and brokerage firms including Blackstone, LaSalle Investment Management, Hines, Boston Properties, JLL and CBRE.

Prior to VTS, Nick was a tenant rep and landlord broker at Murray Hill Properties. From there he went on to oversee a 3-million square-foot office and retail portfolio at AM Properties before co-founding VTS in 2012. Nick has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Entrepreneur Magazine, and was recently named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2019. He is a regular speaker at conferences around the world, including RealComm, MIPIM, and ULI. He is actively involved with STOKED, a community of mentors that helps underserved youth reach their full potential through action sports. In his spare time, Nick can be found surfing, boxing, or cooking dinner for his family and friends.

Ryan Masiello, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, VTS

Ryan Masiello is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of VTS. He brings more than 12 years of experience in Midtown Manhattan commercial real estate – the world’s most competitive office market – to the table and is charged with leading VTS’ international expansion. Ryan started his career at Cushman & Wakefield, before getting recruited by JLL to help lead the firm’s business development efforts in New York. During his seven years at JLL, Ryan became Senior Vice President and brokered over 2 million square feet of office deals with Fortune 500 and high-growth technology companies, earning him honors as a four-time global top-producer. Ryan frequently advised on corporate technology and growth strategies for JLL.

Ryan has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine and the Commercial Observer. When he’s not in the office, he can be found surfing,

In this episode we sit down with Anthony Collias and Jacob Wedderburn-Day, co-founders of Stasher, the world’s first luggage storage network.

Stasher’s on-demand booking platform connects global travelers with hotels and stores that can keep your luggage safe in secure storage rooms while you enjoy your time in a city.

 

Jacob and Anthony walk us through meeting at Oxford University, how and why their first start-up idea failed and how a strategic product pivot allowed them to expand to 250+ cities around the globe while building key partnerships with firms including booking.com, hotels.com, Premier Inn and Accor Hotels.

Stasher

Anthony Collias

Jacob Wedderburn-Day

In this episode, we sit down with James McGoff, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of TemperPack, a materials engineering and packaging company disrupting the cold chain shipping industry.

James takes us through the highs and lows of being a first time founder, what it was like landing their first major client and how he, along with fellow co-founders Brian Powers and Charles Vincent, are on a mission to solve the worlds’ packaging problems by building revolutionary insulation products that have zero environmental impact.

James McGoff

James McGoff is an entrepreneur from the Washington D.C. area. He currently serves as the president and cofounder of TemperPack, a quickly growing packaging start-up dedicated to helping the world waste less. Prior to TemperPack, James worked in the Advanced Material Analysis group at Boeing Defense. Armed with a formal education in materials engineering and a few ideas about how packaging could be improved, James ventured out with two friends in early 2015 to start TemperPack. Since then, TemperPack has grown tremendously due to great timing, a great team, hard work, lots of coffee, and an exceptional product / market fit.

In this episode, we sit down with Stefani Greenfield, Co-Founder of MY NEXT ACT, a global consulting agency focused on the creation, ideation and “storytelling” of brands. This creative legend takes us through her early years as a latchkey kid, navigating the NYC streets and dance clubs, what it was like working on the ground floor at DKNY and Esprit and how those experiences lead her to co-found the internationally acclaimed SCOOP NYC stores, which she is credited for pioneering a new way for consumers to shop at retail with her trailblazing merchandising concept – “The Ultimate Closet”.

Stefani Greenfield

Stefani Greenfield co-founded the internationally acclaimed SCOOP NYC stores and is credited for pioneering a new way for consumers to shop at retail with her trailblazing merchandising concept – “The Ultimate Closet”. After selling SCOOP in 2008, Greenfield created and still currently hosts the first ever fashion/lifestyle show on HSN – “Curations Caravan”. Greenfield was a judge on Bravo’s “Launch My Line”, appeared in a monthly segment, “Fashion Roadmap” on TODAY and hosted “Unracked with Gilt Groupe”, an innovative web series of interviews with fashion luminaries and legends. Greenfield served as the Chief Creative Officer of The Jones Group for 2 years, leading design, merchandising and marketing of their portfolio of brands.

In 2013 she founded MY NEXT ACT, a global consulting agency focused on the creation, ideation and “storytelling” of brands. With Project Runway creator Desiree Gruber, Greenfield launched the accessory brand Theodora & Callum. Greenfield was the Creative Brand Director on the E! docu-series “House of DVF”. Greenfield is a Co-founder of Love Heals – The Alison Gertz Foundation for AIDS Education and a Board Member of GOOD+ Foundation and ACRIA.