Forward Thinking Founders

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat talks with Bryan, a fourth-year business student at Carnegie Mellon University, about what it's actually like to build inside one of the country's most technical campuses. Bryan co-founded 996 Ventures, a student-run effort that helps connect standout CMU founders with VCs — born out of his own frustrating experience trying to raise capital for his first startup.

The conversation is as much a tour of the CMU ecosystem as anything else: the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association, the CMU SigmaPod entrepreneurship fraternity, and CMU Foundry, the student-run accelerator that's helped campus startups raise over $11M across two cohorts and land spots in YC and other top programs. Bryan explains why he built 996 specifically for CMU students who might not know these programs exist or don't get in — and why he thinks being physically on campus is the only way to really catch founders early, before they're on anyone else's radar.

Also covered:

• What Bryan actually screens for before referring a CMU founder to a VC — customer discovery, industry experience, founder-market fit
• Why he thinks a campus-embedded model (à la Dorm Room Fund) beats VCs parachuting in from the outside
• His honest read on why breaking into VC as a current student is nearly impossible without an exit under your belt — and why he's leaning toward starting another company instead
• The outreach tactics behind his unusually high (~40%) response rate from investors
• Why being a student is an underrated card to play when asking for help
• The most exciting company he's come across on campus right now

A fun window into how one corner of the CMU startup scene is organizing itself — and a reminder that great founders are often hiding in plain sight on their own campus.

Connect with Bryan: 996ventures.com | [email protected] | X: @Bryanbuildsss

On this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, I talk with George Lampropoulos — a 19-year-old non-technical founder who's built a suite of combat sports apps (including WrestleAI, which has crossed 100,000+ downloads) entirely using AI tools like Rork, without writing a single line of code himself.)

George breaks down how he went from losing his savings on a failed app at 15 to building FightAI (his first hit, made with an AI coach that analyzes training videos), then WrestleAI, a boxing app, and now an upcoming MMA app — all powered by computer vision and AI analysis that critiques your form in real time, like having a coach in your pocket.

We get into:

• How George went from paying developers (and losing everything) to building full apps solo with AI
• The story behind Fight AI, WrestleAI, and the new boxing/MMA apps
• Why he thinks Rourke beats Claude Code for non-technical builders
• How AI-powered computer vision analyzes your stance, movement, and technique — and coaches you live
• His growth playbook: influencer partnerships vs. paid ads, and the real math behind viral content
• Why "apps are dead" is wrong — the Cal AI example and Apple's $40B app store business
• His goal to make $1 million before turning 20 — with 8 months left on the clock

If you've ever wondered whether you need to know how to code to build something real, this episode is proof you don't.

🔗 Follow George Lampropoulos and the combat sports apps he's building

Joey AI wants to kill the dating app — and replace it with a phone call.

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat talks with Carly Malatskey, founder and CEO of Joey AI, an AI matchmaker that lives entirely in your phone contacts. No app, no swiping, no profile — you call Joey, it gets to know you through an ~8-minute voice conversation about your everyday life (not a highlight reel), and then it texts you a match with context on why. Carly walks through how Joey acts less like a dating app and more like a wingman: telling you who should text first, coaching you through first-date logistics, and debriefing with you afterward to learn and improve the next match.

Carly also shares the origin story — from obsessing over relationship science and evolutionary psychology as a Stanford freshman, to working as chief of staff to Ann Miura-Ko at Floodgate, to the fall-2024 voice-AI phone call that convinced her dating was about to change forever. She and Mat dig into go-to-market via trusted communities (alumni networks, professional groups), how she's hiring in the age of AI-assisted coding, and what she's learned from Floodgate's Mike Maples and Ann Miura-Ko about betting on founders and timing.

Topics covered:

• What Joey AI actually is and how the call-to-match flow works
• Why Joey requires a phone call instead of just text
• The "wingman" layer: pre-date coaching and post-date debriefs
• Carly's path from Stanford → Floodgate → founder
• The fall 2024 voice-AI moment that sparked the idea
• Distribution through existing trusted communities
• How Carly is hiring engineers and PMs in 2026
• Lessons from Mike Maples and Ann Miura-Ko on evaluating founders

Links:

• Try Joey: calljoey.ai or text/call (310) 234-5639
• Follow Joey's build-in-public journey: @calljoeyai on Instagram
• Follow Carly: Instagram/LinkedIn @carlymalatskey

Scott Hickle, co-founder and CEO of Throne Science, joins Forward Thinking Founders to talk about building the world's first hands-free gut health tracker — a clip-on toilet device that monitors digestive health, hydration, and prostate health automatically with every flush. Scott shares how the idea started at a poker game in Austin, why his mom (a geriatrician) was the unlikely catalyst for the pivot, and how they went from a Raspberry Pi in a Tupperware box to a consumer product shipping today. We get into the science of stool consistency, urine osmolality, and why your prostate sounds different when it's struggling — plus the long-term vision of building the first continuous cancer screening device for six types of cancer.

Use code FTF for $100 off at thronescience.com.

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat Sherman sits down with Meaghan Franks, founder of Sport Sitters, a marketplace that connects college athletes with families for high-trust, high-energy babysitting.

What started as an accidental idea at Arizona State quickly became a powerful new way for student-athletes—especially women and non-revenue sport athletes—to earn income through NIL while inspiring the next generation of kids. Parents get vetted, elite athletes in their homes. Athletes get meaningful income, brand-building, and real community impact.

Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction to Meaghan Franks and Sport Sitters
01:10 – The origin story: athletics, parenting, and NIL colliding
03:00 – How Sport Sitters works for parents (matching, safety, experience)
05:00 – Why parents don’t choose the sport—and why that matters for kids
06:40 – Athletes as role models, not just babysitters
09:00 – NIL explained: why Sport Sitters couldn’t exist before
12:00 – The challenge of international athletes and NIL restrictions
14:30 – Meaghan’s journey as a first-time, non-technical founder
17:00 – Building the platform, tech bottlenecks, and lessons learned
19:30 – Why overusing AI slowed development instead of speeding it up
22:45 – Strong demand, scaling pressure, and “good problems”
23:45 – Pricing, payments, and how parents actually book
28:00 – The long-term vision: Sport Sitters as “first-class” babysitting
31:00 – Where to learn more and how to get involved

This is a must-listen for founders building two-sided marketplaces, anyone curious about NIL beyond brand deals, and parents interested in a new, elevated approach to babysitting that blends athletics, role models, and community.

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat chats with Kosuke July Hata, the founder behind the ROC Camera — a groundbreaking device built to take verifiably real photos in the age of AI.

He shares how his background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, and flying cars at Kitty Hawk shaped his belief that “impossible things are buildable with enough time,” and how that mindset led him to create a camera that can cryptographically prove an image was captured by a real sensor, in a real moment, by a real human.

We dive into:

• Why AI-generated “image slop” is eroding trust online
• How ROC uses sensor attestation + zero-knowledge proofs to verify authenticity
• Use cases from journalism to robotics to combating “this is AI” accusations
• What it takes to build hardware in a world dominated by software
• Why early adopters include cryptography engineers and AI-conscious creators
• July’s thoughts on SF, outrageous ideas, and building hard tech today

If you care about the future of photography, data provenance, or restoring trust to the internet, this is a must-listen conversation.

Learn more at roc.camera and follow July at @0xjuly.

In today’s episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat sits down with Bo Shaffer, founder and CEO of Playswise, a startup using computer vision and AI to unlock deep basketball analytics straight from broadcast footage. Bo played basketball at Duke, and she saw firsthand how much of the sport still relies on slow, manual film review. Playswise is her attempt to change that — bringing NBA-level insights to any team, coach, or player by automating detection, tracking, and advanced breakdowns using modern AI models.

In the conversation, we get into Bo’s path from college basketball to tech, how AI can transform scouting and player development, why legacy tools like Hudl and Synergy are ripe for disruption, and what the future of automated sports analytics could look like. We also talk about AI agents, staying on top of rapid AI progress, and what it means to build an AI-native company in an industry that hasn’t kept up.

If you’re interested in sports, AI, or the intersection of the two, you’ll enjoy this one.

Timestamps:

00:01 – Intro + Welcoming Bo Shaffer

00:30 – What Playswise is and why it matters

01:19 – Bo’s background at Duke + how she got into AI

02:42 – Discovering tech and realizing the basketball world is still manual

03:55 – How the internet (Twitter, open source) helps her build

05:13 – Staying focused while AI evolves so fast

07:06 – How she trains the models and improves accuracy

08:19 – What training looks like behind the scenes

09:41 – Coaches’ reactions + existing tools in the space

10:57 – Thoughts on AI agents and future tech

12:24 – Are agents real or still early hype?

14:02 – College years, Zoom era, and seeing AI rise

16:17 – Her big goals for Playswise over the next few years

17:35 – Why legacy systems like Hudl/Synergy are outdated

18:21 – The accuracy problem in today’s sports tools

19:08 – Where to find Bo + Playswise online

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat Sherman sits down with Gulmohar Ahluwalia, founder & CEO of Nyxara — a company building a next-generation space-to-ground communications system using cloud-piercing lasers capable of delivering terabits per second. Imagine downloading all of Netflix in five seconds. That’s the world Nyxara aims to unlock.

Gulmohar walks through her path from aspiring astronaut to electrical engineer to telecom expert, and how seeing firsthand the limits of today’s 5G and RF-based networks pushed her toward free-space optical communication. She breaks down, in simple terms, why Starlink and other systems can’t get laser signals through clouds, why RF spectrum is physically tapped out, and why optical frequencies represent the next uncongested frontier for 6G-class internet.

She then explains Nyxara’s core breakthrough: using an ultra-high-frequency ground laser to create a “hollow channel” through cloud and fog layers, allowing satellites to send and receive massive data loads reliably — effectively creating a portable, dynamic, distributed network layer in space.

Mat and Gulmohar explore:

• How she broke a world-changing vision into buildable steps
• Why she left Australia for San Francisco, and how the pace, talent density, and serendipity changed everything
• The hardware and optics ecosystem inside Founders Inc
• What a typical day looks like for her — ultramarathon training, deep focus mornings, customer calls, and fundraising
• How Nyxara fits into her broader belief that humanity needs four pillars (vessels, fuel, food/water, and communications) to eventually leave Earth
• Why she hopes one day fiber optic cables will be remembered like floppy disks

Gulmohar closes by sharing where to follow her work: X, Substack, LinkedIn, and the Nyxara newsletter.

If you’re into frontier tech, laser communications, AI-ready infrastructure, or ambitious founder journeys, this is one you’ll want to hear.

Mat Sherman catches up with Connor Waslo, co-founder/CEO of Caddy, a desktop voice interface that keeps you in flow by turning spoken intent into real work across tools like Linear, Slack, Calendar, Gmail, and Notion. Connor shares the origin story with cofounder Rajiv, hard pivots, and craft standards for their private beta. They compare SF’s tech gravity with New York, reflect on learnings from Loom through acquisition, and talk about how YC’s time pressure reshapes execution from September to Demo Day. You’ll hear concrete use cases—function-key capture, automatic screenshots and tickets, calendar creation—plus takes on context, tone, and why video + AI is earlier, better, and scarier than most realize. They close with founder routines, community, and a billboard-ready reminder: who you work with matters most.

Time Stamps:
00:00 Introduction and Backstory: How Mat and Connor First Met  

01:05 What Caddy Is and How It Works  

03:15 The Origin Story: Loom Pain Points, Prototypes, and Pivot Hell  

05:41 Lessons From Loom and Transitioning to Founder Life  

08:25 Moving to SF for Y Combinator  

09:53 SF vs. NYC: Tech Density and Culture  

12:49 Inside YC: Speed, Pressure, and Company-Building  

15:12 Building in a Fast-Moving AI World  

16:59 Current Use Cases, Private Beta, and Product Direction  

19:52 Long-Term Vision: Context, Tone, and the Future of Work  

26:07 What’s Emerging in SF: AI Video and New Frontiers  

28:15 A Day in the Life of a YC Founder  

32:05 Launch Plans: Waitlist, Beta Access, and Community  

34:00 The Billboard Question: Connor’s Final Message  

36:08 Closing Thoughts

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat Sherman chats with Jared Lerner, co-founder and CEO of Nappr, a marketplace redefining hotel stays by letting travelers book rooms for short, flexible durations. Jared shares how his own struggles with sleep sparked the idea, what it takes to build trust with hotels, and how Napper attracts both travelers and partners. They dive into Napper’s booking experience, marketing approach, and the differences between building in New York versus San Francisco. Jared also teases what’s next — from expanding hotel partnerships to launching a consumer hosting platform.

00:00 Introduction to Nappr

02:28 Understanding the Nappr Experience

05:05 The Founding Story and Mission

07:56 Navigating the Booking Process

10:49 Marketing Strategies and Brand Awareness

12:57 The Startup Scene: New York vs. San Francisco

18:31 Future Growth and Expansion Plans