Engineering A Startup

Boye Hartmann is the founder and CEO of YDigital Asia, a hybrid business consulting and digital agency that's worked with clients like Ebay, Microsoft and Mattel. He started his first company in 1987 and has since been a part of building over 60 companies all over the world. As a serial entrepreneur and mentor, the number one question he asks anyone founding a company comes down to one word, or in his case, one letter: Y?

Do you understand what it means to build something on the blockchain? How do cryptocurrencies work? What about an initial coin offering? Ophir Gertner, co-founder of Stox, a blockchain prediction markets platform, explains all of this and more, including how they raised $33 million worth of cryptocurrency.

David Orban is the founder and managing partner of Network Society Ventures, a seed stage investment firm with investments on every continent except Antarctica (for the moment). David hears from startups pretty much non-stop, so he knows how startups should approach investors, and perhaps more importantly, how not to talk to an investor.

What do you do when you're bored? Adam Sheikh decided to start a non-profit. Adam heard that construction workers in the Middle East were facing serious health issues working in extreme heat, but he didn't know what to do about it, until he saw Adam Savage in an alien costume at 2am on YouTube. That's how Aegis was born.

Serge Toarca is the founder and former CEO of ParseHub. Why former? Because he is willing to go to extreme lengths to build the right team, including giving up his title. It sounds like a tough decision to make, but Serge isn't afraid to make tough decisions, he makes logical decisions, and that's what makes his story so compelling.

What if startup ideas grew on trees, or fell out of the sky? That's literally the case for Ryan Church, who is a champion of biomimetic innovation, a design philosophy for solving problems by turning to the natural world for inspiration. He happened to be watching falling maple seeds, and ended up solving one of the biggest challenges in wind turbine design.

A lot of entrepreneurs dream of their company getting acquired. Mike Brown helped build a small mobile technology startup to acquisition by a full service digital agency, became president of that company, and got acquired again. Crazy. So, what's he doing now? Starting a company, obviously!

JC is the founder of YoungLeaders, an organization that brings together teen achievers and exposes them to entrepreneurship through various events, including hacksprints where they go inside companies and develop products. He knows just about everything you can think of when it comes to entrepreneurship. Oh, and he's 17 years old.

John Pineau is the creator of TheOZZShow, a platform that creates MiniMovies to showcase corporate missions and visions in a way that humanizes them; gives them a soul. He has a vision for a concept called UniversalWealth, where corporations fund innovators to generate wealth.

Jose was a university student excited about entrepreneurship when he joined a biotech startup, ready to execute an exit strategy and become a millionaire, until the founder refused to sign his ownership papers and showed him the door. His perspective on entrepreneuship has changed since then, but his passion hasn't.