Today we're talking with Stephany Lapierre, founder and CEO of Tealbook headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and also a portfolio company of Refinery Ventures. In this episode, we're going to dive into how Stephany discovered the problem in supply chain procurement and it's all about the data. The biggest theme or so what, I hope you take away from this conversation is the importance of finding the right market positioning. It takes time to get everything moving in the right direction. And how do you articulate your position in a way that makes everyone's hand go up in the air, wanting your solution?

Today we're talking with Adam Sharkawy. Adam is the co-founder and managing partner at Material Impact a venture fund located in Boston, Massachusetts. Material Impact focuses on deep tech innovation, and we share an investment in Folio Photonics. We get a bit geeked out on chaos and complexity theory, and nonlinear systems, and discuss that some of the most interesting innovations come from the convergence of technology and business models. And that's where the cool stuff happens. The biggest theme or so what I hope you take away from this conversation is that whether you're pulling technology and intellectual property out of research universities, or corporate innovation processes or startups, they're all hard to do well, but when done correctly can be extremely disruptive and successful.

Today we're talking to Elaine Bryant. Elaine is a 20-year Air Force veteran and currently holds dual appointments as executive vice president for Aerospace and Defense at the Dayton Development Coalition and managing director for the Military and Federal Installation Sector at JobsOhio. In this episode, we're going to dive into how economic development activity relates to the military, as well as research and initiatives like the Air Force Research Lab, which are a treasure trove of uncommercialized technologies. The biggest theme or so what I hope you take away from this episode is that there is so much innovation available, you just need to know where to look. Our military has invested countless dollars in technology. There's so much to discover and cultivate in our own backyard, so let's go window shopping.

Today we're talking with Sarah Anderson, Founder and Partner of Vault Fund. We're going to dive into what makes a venture studio? Sarah will help us differentiate between a typical venture fund, venture studios, accelerators, and incubators. She dives deeper into the various venture studio models that we are seeing in the market and includes her thoughts on how a studio should be set up with fair and incentivized equity structures. The biggest theme or, so what? I hope you take away from this conversation is that venture studios are a unique and viable way to start companies by facilitating the zero to one stage company creation, backing experienced hyper-growth entrepreneurs with domain expertise.

In this episode, we're talking with Jeff Bloomfield, founder and CEO of Braintrust. Braintrust helps individuals and companies transform their sales and marketing systems by understanding the power of neuroscience on everyday communication. In this episode, we're going to dive into the reasons why Jeff started Braintrust. The biggest theme, or so what I hope you can take away from this conversation is that it's all about communications. The determining factor of success for a person or an organization is how successful they communicate. If you can't communicate effectively, you're sunk, in every area of your life.

Today we're talking with Alex Frommeyer, co-founder and CEO at Beam Dental in Columbus, Ohio. Beam Dental was founded in 2012 by three engineers at University of Louisville, who saw the opportunity to modernize the dental insurance industry by using technology. The first product was the Beam Brush, which was one of the earliest examples of the Internet of Things in healthcare. We had a great conversation about the power of OKRs, Objectives and Key Results. The important thing about OKRs is clearly stating your goals and intentions, and making sure it relates to every single person in your organization so that you can articulate and re-emphasize, and re-state, and reminding everyone, at all times, what they're doing and why they're doing it. If you want a high performance team, you need to master the art of OKRs.

Today we're talking with Kimberly Reed, the former chairman of the board of directors, president, and CEO of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. We're going to talk about Kimberly's roots and values that were formed while growing up in West Virginia, where she learned the importance of reaching out, taking a risk, picking up the phone. You just never know who may have an impact on your life. We also get a masterclass on understanding how the Export-Import Bank works, its purpose, and how small businesses and startups can utilize these resources.

In this episode, we're talking with Brian Hopcraft, Managing Director at Lewis & Clark ventures in St. Louis. An early stage venture firm managed by former founders and operators, investing in late seed through series B companies between the coasts. We're going to dive into the origin story of Lewis & Clark, and talk about the value of having venture investors with operating experience, that can help entrepreneurs understand the importance of raising the right amount of capital and from the right firms.

In this episode, we're talking with John Nottingham, Co-President of Nottingham Spirk, the longstanding design collaborative and innovation center located in Cleveland, Ohio. We're going to dive into the unique, vertical innovation approach that Nottingham Spirk uses to partner with companies to create new products. And we will talk about their new partnership with EY that will house their Global Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Mobility.

In this episode, we're talking with Roy Bahat, head of Bloomberg Beta, an early stage venture firm backed by Bloomberg LP, focused broadly on the future of work. We're going to dive into how COVID has accelerated that future of work and how some of the trends that we're experimenting with today will continue.