Four Insights With Matthew Parker

Welcome back to the Stretch Four Podcast. This is Episode 16 of the podcast! This week, we're coming to you from San Francisco instead of the NBA Summer League in Vegas. We'll discuss the importance of having urgency, inspired by a recent podcast I listened to with Frank Slootman as a guest and how I am using July to set a high focus to keep my team motivated, as well as the realities of remote work as a CEO.

We'll also dive into the life of being a founder and how it relates to fatherhood inspired by Draymond Green of all people, and share some insights from other podcasts and LinkedIn posts that got me thinking about fatherhood versus work as the wifey and I move into the third trimester.

Don't miss out on this all-encompassing life of being a founder and what that entails.

* The episode features a discussion on the importance of maintaining urgency and intensity to keep people focused on their goals.

* Matt talks about his podcast and what it is and how it takes an inside baseball approach to the venture capital industry from a founder's perspective.

* The episode includes a segment on fatherhood and parenting, including insights from NBA player Draymond Green and a LinkedIn post by Jordan Nichols.

* The importance of having a support system in place to execute the founder's vision is emphasized.

* The challenges of remote work and the need for hard conversations in an engineering-focused company are discussed.

Links and References

* my LinkTree Account

* My Threads Account

* Stretch Four Podcast

* Start With Why

* Jordan Nichol’s LinkedIn post

* No Priors Ep. 23 | With Snowflake's CEO Frank Slootman

Sponsors

* ModernTax

In this episode of the Stretch Four Podcast, I cover a range of topics, including founder insights and the importance of building relationships and understanding the nuances of different geographies. Specifically, I discussed my recent trip to the OnRamp insurance conference in the Midwest (where I met our guest Yoni Rubin in the wild), and also where I learned about the critical importance of relationships in specific industries and geographies.

Tune in for this and more on the Stretch Four Podcast, available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don't forget to leave us a review if you enjoy the show!

* 2:14 — I shared my insights on being ruthless with your time, particularly as it relates to attending events, conferences, and other work-related things. I provided a four-step framework for approaching events, including assessing every possible interaction ahead of time, having a team that can help with deep outreach, prioritizing 100 meetings, and doing a deep debrief after the event.

* 11:13 — I also recommended the book 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals for founders and business people looking to be more efficient with their time.

* 16:19 — Finally, I shared my takeaway from attending the OnRamp insurance conference in the Midwest, highlighting the importance of relationships and the differences in communication and interaction in the midwest compared to Silicon Valley.

* 23:39 — Finally, I welcomed back Yoni Rubin, founder of MRGN, as a guest to discuss his experience and insights on entrepreneurship and his company.

Links:

* Yoni Rubin, founder of MRGN

* OnRamp insurance conference

* 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Follows:

* http://twitter.com/mattaparker

* https://www.instagram.com/mattaparker/

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewaparker31/

* https://substack.com/@stretchfournba

* https://www.tiktok.com/@mattaparker

Guests

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonirubin/

* https://twitter.com/yrubinucf

Follow the pod:

* Apple Podcasts

* Spotify Podcasts

* Youtube

Happy Tuesday,

Welcome back to another episode of the Stretch For Podcast!

Reporting live from Saint Paul, Minnesota, as I am here for a conference.

In this week’s episode, I cover a variety of topics, including the recent news about Mistral AI, a company that raised $130 million in seed funding. I share my thoughts on why it's a smart move to raise a large amount of capital and take dilution upfront, especially in the AI and machine learning space. The pedigree of Mistral AI's founders, who come from Google DeepMind and Facebook's meta teams, is a major factor in attracting investors.

I also talk about the importance of having solid reference customers and the impact it can have on a startup's success. I share my struggles with reference customers and how not having them can be detrimental to a business. It's crucial to have social proof to close new deals, and prospects tend to talk to other prospects, so having reference customers is a must.

Additionally, I discuss an upcoming panel I'm hosting on embedded insurance at the Onramp conference in Minnesota. I'm excited to be leading this panel and sharing my insights on this topic with the audience.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Stretch For Podcast! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment on Apple or Spotify, and check out the show notes for more details on the topics covered in this episode.

Show notes

* [04:53] Mistral AI raised $130 million in their seed round and we discuss why taking that dilution is a good move for them. I also share a story from my business where being active led to great results.

* [08:50] I talk about hosting a panel on embedded insurance at the OnRamp Conference in Minnesota and share some of the things I'll be discussing.

* [10:11] I share my progress with intermittent fasting using the Zero app and how I'm setting it up.

* [10:51] I discuss bringing back an executive assistant to take away some of my workloads.

* [11:17] I share a personal milestone of celebrating my two-year anniversary with my wife at the Indian Springs Resort in Calistoga.

* [12:03] I interview James Hawkins, the founder, and CEO of PostHog, an open-source product analytics company that came out of YC a few batches ago. James talks about growth hacking on Hacker News, dealing with his daughter having cancer, raising consecutive rounds of funding, and more.

Links to everything mentioned in the episode can be found in the show notes. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and comment on Apple or Spotify, and check out the Stretch For YouTube channel for even more content.

Links:

* Mistral AI

* Lattice CEO

* Never Lose a Customer Again book

* OnRamp Conference

* PostHog

* Stretch Four YouTube (Subscribe Now)

* Apple (Write a review)

* Spotify

In the latest episode of the Stretch Four Podcast, I shared my experiences at LA Tech Week and SF Tech Week. Over the course of two weeks, I attended a variety of events and met some amazing people in the industry. I highlighted two events in particular: the Stox Times a16z Demo Day for generative AI companies and a snowflake event for early-stage startups. I also attended events hosted by Culture House and Mantis VC, among others, and shared insights into the industries and people I encountered, including b2b enterprise, content creation, and data infrastructure.

As always, please like, subscribe, and comment on all of our channels across Apple Music, Spotify, and Substack. Thank you for tuning in to the Stretch Four Podcast!

Matt recaps my experiences at both the San Francisco and Los Angeles Tech Weeks.

[00:09]

Matt attended several events during the SF Tech Week, including the Stonks x a16z Demo Day for generative AI companies, and a BTV event featuring a panel with two founders from the BTV portfolio. Matt also attended a Snowflake event geared toward early-stage startup

[03:48]

In LA, Matt attended the Culture House event, which is primarily focused on a diverse group of tech, content, and media professionals that gather at events like SXSW, The Essence Festival, and now Tech Week. He also highlights an event he attended hosted by Mantis VC, the venture capital arm of The Chainsmokers family office.

[06:16]

Matt notes that the LA tech scene is very focused on content creation, media, and gaming, whereas the San Francisco tech scene is more focused on enterprise and AI.

[09:38]

Matt also discusses the importance of self-care and mental health in the tech industry, noting that burnout is real and that it's important for companies to prioritize their employees' well-being.

[12:05]

As always, listeners are encouraged to like, subscribe, and provide feedback on all of the podcast's channels across Apple Music, Spotify, and Substack.

Links:

* Stretch Four YouTube (Subscribe Now)

* Apple (Write a review)

* Spotify

* CultureHouse

* Stonks

* Tech Week

In this episode, Matthew Parker talks about MoonPay's $150M secondary and Plaid's screen-scraping empire. Matt also interviews T. Scott Patterson, Founder & CEO of Tumble, a laundry service serving multi-family properties.

Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode with Matt Martin, CEO of Clockwise, now available on Youtube. And make sure to head over to our new YouTube channel to check out the video version of this episode and clips from previous episodes.

We appreciate your support and can't wait to bring you more exciting content in the future!

I enjoyed discussing MoonPay's $150M secondary and Plaid's screen-scraping empire this week. If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, and leave reviews on Apple or Spotify.

Show Notes

* I attended three events in San Francisco's tech week — and plan to attend two in LA later this week. The SF recap got cut but I will be sure to recap both SF and LA with a special guest.

* T. Scott Patterson, CEO of Tumble, talks about how he built his company through the pandemic.

* The Information reported that MoonPay's co-founder and his team cashed out substantially on a big round in 2021, and the deal is already been devalued by large investors.

* Plaid, a screen-scraping company, is valued at $13 billion, and it has 8,000 FinTech apps using the platform today. Plaid has laid the foundation for many companies to scrape financial data.

* Plaid's screen scraping has made open banking a real thing, but it has also paid the price for screen scraping.

* Plaid has partnerships with 45 financial institutions and is used by one in three US bank account holders.

* Mark Zuckerberg's Memorial Day fitness challenge is also discussed.

Links:

* Stretch Four YouTube (Subscribe Now)

* Apple (Write a review)

* Spotify

* The Information Article on MoonPay

* Plaid

* Tumble

* Chris Bosh's former waterfront Miami Beach mansion

* ModernTax

* The Bloomberg article on Plaid

Welcome back to the Stretch For Podcast, where we talk about the highs and lows of being an early-stage startup founder, as well as fitness, health, and parenting. In this episode, I share my experience at the FinovateSpring conference and discuss the importance of getting your product out to market.

I also talk about the bankruptcy of Plastiq, a B2B payments business, and the challenges of serving small business owners.

In addition, we have a guest interview with Matt Martin, co-founder and CEO of Clockwise. Clockwise is a productivity app that helps you make time and get your calendar organized. We discuss their innovative new scheduling software and their recent launch of a Clockwise AI feature. We also talk about Matt's experience as a parent to daughters and his journey in raising over $50 million in venture funding for his business from top VCs.

Finally, I share my own fitness journey and discuss the benefits of running as a parent. Don't forget to follow and review our podcast and provide feedback to help us improve.

Thank you for listening!

Founder Learnings (02:38 - 13:15)

* Shares experience at Finovate conference and importance of getting the product to market

* Discusses struggles of working with customers in stealth mode

* Talks about the bankruptcy of B2B payments company, Plastiq, and the struggles of serving the small business market

* Emphasizes the importance of revenue in payments businesses and moving upmarket

* Offers personal insight on running and fitness as a father

Kids Corner (13:16 - 16:22)

* Discusses an interesting substack related to being a parent and staying in shape

* Talks about his own personal training for an upcoming half marathon

Interview with Matt Martin, co-founder and CEO of Clockwise (16:23 - 31:10)

* (16:23) Introduction of Matt Martin, co-founder and CEO of Clockwise

* (16:58) Discussion about Clockwise and its productivity app

* (20:02) Matt's life in San Francisco as a parent and CEO

* (22:42) Discussion on the development of the Clockwise AI feature

* (25:43) The benefits of using Clockwise for scheduling

* (27:53) The future of Clockwise and its plans for expansion

* (29:44) Matt's advice for early-stage startup founders

Outro (31:11 - 32:00)

* Thanks, listeners for tuning in and teasing upcoming episodes, church announcements, and travel schedule

* Encourages listeners to leave a review and subscribe to the podcast

Podcast Links

* Apple

* Spotify

* YouTube

Show Links

* Finovate

* Plastiq

* New Fatherhood Substack

* David Goggins

* Clockwise

On this episode of the Stretch Four Podcast, Tanvi Surti, founder of Luca, joins the show to discuss e-commerce, AI, and YCombinator. Before that, I start the show off by discussing the bankruptcy of the Newchip Accelerator with former mentee and founder Yoni Rubin. He shares his experience with the program.

I then interview Tanvi who shares her journey from big tech to entrepreneurship, including her experience building pricing algorithms at Uber. She also explains how Luca is helping retailers optimize their pricing strategies using AI and shares her insights on the future of AI.

Tune in to learn more about the power of AI to solve real problems and how to succeed as an early-stage founder.

Links

Luca

Podcast Links

* Apple

* Spotify

Check out the episode on Apple and Spotify.

Summary

* 0:10 Intro to the show.

* Welcome back to the Stretch Four Podcast.

* The Newchip accelerator is bankrupt.

* Presenting at the Finovate Spring Conference in San Francisco.

* 3:17 Yoni Rubin’s experience with the new chip accelerator.

* Jani's experience with Newchip accelerator.

* How Yoni got involved with the program.

* Mentorship experience as a mentor, bleak and best case scenario.

* Offering equity to mentors.

* 7:47 Where things went wrong with the recruitment process.

* Pay-to-play model vs pay to play model.

* Shrink wrap agreements.

* Getting back to them about the equity and fees.

* Researching the price point.

* 12:11 How did you get into the space?

* Accelerators can be scrupulous. They want to cover their ass.

* The company went bankrupt.

* Accelerator took a legal document and mixed it into their handbook.

* Pricing and fees.

* A compelling story for founders.

* 18:26 Introducing Tanvi Certi and How we met?

* The first time they met and what it was like.

* The rollercoaster journey.

* Getting out of his comfort zone in 2022.

* The early stages of the journey.

* Luca is an AI-based pricing copilot for large retailers.

* Pricing is a multi-dimensional chess game.

* 24:47 How did you get into this space?

* Early days of uber pool and building the product.

* How he landed at uber.

* Why uber was losing copious amounts of money.

* How luca came about.

* 30:46 The retail side of the house.

* How retailers think about these types of offerings.

* My John Elliot example of flash sales.

* Behind the scenes of pricing and marketing.

* 34:18 The revolution of AI.

* AI is happening in real-time.

* How the AI revolution has happened.

* The power of AI to solve real problems.

* Why Luca is an AI company.

* 37:51 AI for the service of human time and decisions.

* AI is a decision-making brain that simplifies the human experience.

* Y combinator experience.

* Skepticism before applying to YC.

* Recommendation for the YC application process.

* Getting the first customer from zero to one.

* Building a playbook for acquiring customers.

* 44:49 Selling to the enterprise early.

* Selling to the enterprise early.

* Friction from the current way of growing the business.

* The money-back guarantee.

* The old-school face-to-face way of working during the pandemic

* 50:13 In-person work vs. remote work.

* A strong believer in in-person work.

* How to take care of yourself as a founder.

* The importance of a strong support system.

* Fundraising for the first time.

* Investing in the future of the company.

* Being excited in every call.

Looking forward to being back with more interviews next week.

Hey everyone,

We are back at it again with episode 008 of the Stretch Four podcast, on this week’s show, I interviewed a good friend who I have known since college. Vidal Nelson, also known as Phewchi on Instagram and to his inner circle is a lifestyle health and wellness expert and influencer.

We discussed his takes on nutrition including his five-year journey with intermittent fasting, his fitness regimen, and his wellness hacks on being and even being in better shape than he ever was as a division college football player at James Madison University. Vidal is a high performer and I felt he was a great guest on the show who I plan to invite back as a regular.

Show Outline

* (4:22) I recap an article The End of Faking It in Silicon Valley (New York Times) and how it impacts how founders have to approach the new market for venture capital and how founder ethics sometimes share friction when it relates to venture capital expectations.

* (11:39) I tell more about the viral story of Datadog’s $65M/year customer mystery solved (Pragmatic Engineer)

* (18:05) I interviewed lifestyle, health, and wellness expert, and most-recently influencer Vidal Nelson. We talked for a bit about his diet, nutrition regimen, and more.

* (25:09) Becoming an influencer in the past three months securing his first gym and ambassador relationship with a local gym as well as how he secured an ambassador relationship with Musclefeast.

* (31:16) On being a black man and demystifying health and wellness in terms of how our ancestors ate and lived at scale and the main things he trying to instill in his daughters.

Links

Musclefeast

Vidal Nelson’s Instagram

F45 Virginia Beach

Podcast Links

* Apple

* Spotify

Sponsors

ModernTax is a business intelligence platform built on top of tax information to help financial institutions make better decisions.

Hey everyone,

In this episode of the Stretch For Podcast, we have a very special guest, Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired Magazine and author of multiple books including "The Inevitable" and "Out of Control".

Kevin shares his insights on entrepreneurship, innovation, and the future, as well as his wildly viral concept of "1000 True Fans".

He also drops some parenting advice related to his latest book Excellent Advice For Living and shares some insights on how he built his personal brand.

Kevin's thought-provoking conversation will leave you inspired to strive towards becoming the only one in something and to invent and define your own version of success. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

Here are some of the main topics discussed with their timestamps:

* 04:37 - Kevin Kelly's advice on having more children and building family rituals

* 08:23 - The importance of intergenerational knowledge sharing and preserving cultural heritage

* 11:41 - The benefits of striving to be the only one in something, rather than just the best

* 17:50 - How Kevin Kelly designed his personal brand and built collaborative influencers around his work

* 20:39 - Kevin Kelly's brand of radical optimism and why he remains optimistic about the future

Podcast Links

* Apple (leave reviews and ratings)

* Spotify

Sponsors

Deel, a hiring platform that helps companies onboard global talent quickly and compliantly

ModernTax is a business intelligence platform built on top of tax information to help financial institutions make better decisions.

Ready to take the next step in your hiring journey? You’ve found the global talent but need to onboard them. Deel can help.

Our expert teams can guide you to hiring quickly and compliantly in over 150 countries at your fingertips with compliant contracts, top local legal experts, global payroll solutions, and more. And that’s just the beginning. It’s time you got your hands on our free international compliance handbook.

Hey Everyone,

Welcome back to the Stretch Four Podcast! We're excited to bring you another power-packed episode, featuring an interview with the amazing Ben Lilienthal, CEO and Founder of ScreenMeet, as well as some other hot topics that have been on our minds lately.

We're thrilled to announce that we'll be returning to our weekly podcast schedule as we move into the spring and summer months, so be sure to tune in every week for more exciting conversations with some of the most innovative and successful entrepreneurs in the world.

We love hearing from our listeners, so please don't hesitate to like, share, and send any feedback, questions, or more directly to me at [email protected].

And if you're enjoying the podcast, we'd be so grateful if you could leave us a review, share it with your friends and colleagues, and help us spread the word.

Thank you for listening, and stay tuned for more great episodes of the Stretch Four Podcast!

Show notes

(4:35) I discuss a chart produced by India in Pixels by Ashris that breaks down the median household income by ethnicity. I explain why I believe this is a call for startups from African-American and Hispanic founders, and why I think people should be focusing on the real emergency in Silicon Valley.

(10:52) I talk about how I went to see the new Air Movie with my wife and how it provided me with the inspiration to start running for my upcoming half marathon in July.

(15:18) I introduce a new segment called Kid's Corner, where I discuss my thoughts on the "Time Billionaire" concept by Graham Duncan. This idea was brought to my attention by Sahil Bloom's tweet and blog post, and it really got me thinking.

(22:15) I interviewed Ben Lilienthal, the CEO and Founder of ScreenMeet. He spoke about his experience of getting fired, running out of money, and building four successful B2B enterprise companies. He also shared his insights on parenting, which I found to be quite interesting.

(36:40) How ScreenMeet differentiates itself and he got lucky for its first large enterprise deal and now with 5% of the Fortune 500 customers.

(56:19) Thanks to our sponsors and church announcements:

* Deel

* ModernTax

* Check out the Stretch Four Insights Newsletter

* 2023 Finnovate Spring Conference

Links

* Median Household Income in the United States by Ethnic Group

* Air

* Shoe Dog: A Memoir By the Creator of Nike

* The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Graham Duncan (#362) (Tim Ferris Podcast)

* The Time Billionaire: A Concept That Changed My Life (Sahil Bloom Newsletter)

* Four Thousand Weeks Management For Mortals

* Guest Interview Contact: Screenmeet.com to learn more reach out to [email protected]

Sponsor Links

* Deel Handbook

* ModernTax Newsletter

Podcast Links

* Apple (leave reviews and ratings)

* Spotify