From Scratch with Jessica Harris

Panda Express is an American Chinese food chain with 2,000 restaurants located in airports, malls, universities, military bases, amusement parks, among other locations. Andrew started Panda Express with his wife Peggy in 1983. Panda’s first restaurant was located in a mall in Glendale, California.

Andrew speaks with Jessica Harris about how he built Panda Express, from scratch.

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Lyft is a transportation network company with a peer-to-peer mobile app that enables passengers to request rides with their smartphones. Prior to starting Lyft, John co-founded Zimride in 2007, a carpooling ride-share company available predominantly in college communities. Zimride was sold to Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 2013. Lyft is available across the United States and through partnerships with ride-sharing companies throughout Asia.

John speaks with Jessica Harris about founding Lyft, from scratch.

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littleBits is a hardware company that aims to put the power of electronics in everyone’s hands. The company sells electronic modules that snap together with magnets, making them accessible to both adults and children. Ayah earned a degree in computer engineering from the American University in Beirut, Lebanon and has a Masters from the MIT Media Lab. She is also an interactive artist.

Ayah speaks with Jessica Harris about how she built littleBits, from scratch.

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Waze is a crowd sourced traffic navigation app. Drivers share real-time traffic and road information to help other users on the same route. Uri founded Waze in Israel in 2007 and the company was sold to Google in 2013 for $1.1 Billion. Uri is also the founder of FeeX, which also uses crowd sourced information— this time to uncover hidden fees in people’s financial accounts.

Uri speaks with Jessica Harris about how the public is building maps around the world using Waze, from scratch.

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Fresh Direct is an online grocer that disrupted the traditional food supply chain by sourcing food where it’s produced and delivering it to consumers without going through additional retailers. Fresh Direct launched in 2002 from its headquarters in a former paper plant in Long Island City, Queens.

Jason speaks with Jessica Harris about how he launched Fresh Direct, from scratch.

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Essie started her eponymous brand in 1981 with $10,000 after working in the hosiery business. When Essie launched, there were very few companies making nail polish, and nail salons were rare. Essie nail polish is now available in roughly 25,000 salons in more than 100 countries. The company was bought by L’Oreal in 2010.

Essie speaks with Jessica Harris about how she launched Essie, from scratch.

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Walker & Company makes beauty and health products for people of color. Prior, Tristan was the first African American entrepreneur in residence at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is also the founder of Code2040, a program that connects Black and Latino coders with Silicon Valley startups for summer internships.

Tristan speaks with Jessica Harris about how he built Walker & Company, from scratch.

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Luis is an inventor and computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon. He is one of the creators of CAPTCHA, a system that allows websites to determine whether you’re a human or a computer. CAPTCHAs are wavy, distorted words that people need to type out when they’re submitting a form to a website. Luis’ company ReCAPTCHA proved users were humans while also digitizing books. The company was sold to Google in 2009. He also founded the language learning app Duolingo, attracting over 150 million users in its first four years. Luis won a Macarthur Genius Grant in 2006.

Luis speaks with Jessica Harris about how he launched ReCaptcha and Duolingo, from scratch.

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Robert Stephens started making computer tech-support house calls on his dirt bike while he was a college student at the University of Minnesota in 1994. He’d arrive to a customer’s house on time, take off his shoes, wear a clean uniform, and fix the problem. His cheeky “law enforcement” marketing theme caught people’s attention, and the company grew from one employee to now over 20,000. Geek Squad was acquired by Best Buy in 2002, and there are over 1,000 Geek Squad “precincts” across the United States, Canada and China. Robert tells Jessica Harris how he turned his tiny tech support business into a customer service giant, from scratch.

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Martine is a pioneer in the satellite industry, launching companies including Geostar, PanAmSat, and Sirius Satellite Radio.

Martine is a helicopter pilot and a parent of four children. She also used to be a man named Martin.

Martine speaks with Jessica Harris about her experience transforming gender, satellites, and life duration, from scratch.

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