Future Optimist

Martin Schichtel is the CEO of Kraftblock, an energy storage system that is able to decarbonize industries like steel, glass or ceramics.

Martin leveraged unique industry insight to build a business that captures the enormous amount of waste that so many industries blast out without giving it a second thought.

He patented energy-storing blocks that can store 1.2MWh of thermal energy at a temperature level of up to 1,300 °C.

This means that we can store the heat byproducts of tons of heavy industries, which can translate into cost savings, decarbonizing entire industries, and generally making our whole society much more efficient. He had a brilliant idea, he executed on that idea, and he saw near immediate success bringing his brilliance into the world. I love crazy, out of the box solutions like this, and I know you will too.

➡️ https://kraftblock.com/en/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/martin-schichtel

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

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Johnny Palmer is a tech entrepreneur, the founder/co-founder of companies, and activist in the UK who has accomplished an incredible amount in both business and activism. He’s built a virtuous cycle with his businesses and greater mission, proving that money and resources used well can be the path towards building a better, more sustainable future for us all. His career is at the intersection of money and meaning, and his north star is evident in all of his many ventures. We’ll learn how seemingly different ventures can all be linked by the same guiding principle.

➡️ https://johnnypalmer.co.uk/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/johnny-palmer

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer

Khatantuul Zorig is an Investor at Innospark investing in AI/Robotics companies. She led/co-led investments in Neurable, Javelin, Encora, and she’s been an MIT-backed CEO/founder herself, all as a 1st generation Mongolian immigrant. In short, Khat is one of the coolest, most inspiring people I’ve ever met. She’s actively shaping neurotech, AR/VR, and even fashion, by merging her native Mongolian culture with the tech of tomorrow. She’s a fashion designer making wild, futuristic east-meets-west clothing, and she envisions an optimistic future where AI will automate all of our mundane, repeatable tasks, leaving our brains and creativity to soar. If you’ve listened to even one episode of this show by now, you’ll know how excited I am about this talk.

➡️ https://gotzorig.com/

➡️ https://khatzorig.com/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/khat-zorig

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer

Pablo Navarro is the co-founder of a $26 million VC fund in Colombia, and his latest project is cocora.io. Pablo's life story is remarkable, coming from a humble beginning to being heavily involved in the start-up scenes of both the US and South America. In this interview, we discuss Pablo's strategy for investing in LatAm startups, his advice for young entrepreneurs, and more. Today he is building Cocora, a platform that connects leaders in Latin America to coaches, and he’s passionate about transforming the business climate of his home country and beyond.

➡️ https://www.cocora.io/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/pablo-navarro

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer

Joining us today is Mike McFall, the Co-Founder/Co-CEO of BIGGBY Coffee. Mike’s story is truly fascinating: in 1995, he and his friend decided to make a coffee chain, and their simple agreement has blossomed into one of America’s largest coffee chains, a franchise operation with over 350 locations. It’s clear that Mike is an “entrepreneur’s entrepreneur”, and in this episode, he tells me something I’m truly envious of: that he doesn’t suffer from crippling anxiety at 3am and rather has an innate sense that everything will always work out. I’m sure you’re just like that. No? Must be nice, right? Well, even though his path has been slow and steady, everything has appeared to work out for this remarkable human, and he’s documenting his unique, human-forward approach to business in a series of books. I know I’m about to get schooled in this conversation, and if you and a buddy ever thought about building something cool, you are too.

➡️ https://www.biggby.com/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/mike-mcfall

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer

John Walsh is the Founder & CEO of Endera, a company pioneering a sector of the electric vehicle market you probably haven’t thought much about: shuttles and buses. No, they’re not JUST for pub crawls, although it is Friday, so why not green up your booze tonight? Rather, it’s a sector with profound implications anywhere short-distance travel is needed. Their EVs have exceptional performance and range, and they represent a huge potential benefit for a wasteful and important part of our society. His company Endera has raised millions in funding, and John has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 as well as on Shark Tank. Buckle up for a fascinating conversation with someone who really has his vision locked on building a better future for us all.

➡️ https://www.enderamotors.com/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/john-walsh

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer

Jhillika Kumar is the Founder & CEO at Mentra, a neurodivergent-friendly talent platform that intelligently matches neurodiverse individuals with employers that value their strengths. Traditional talent and employment platforms tend to prioritize a certain kind of candidate, which can leave many highly-capable people without meaningful work. As our world changes, we have to realize that neurodivergence is not a weakness, but rather a strength for many mission critical roles. Mentra puts recruiters in front of candidates rather than forcing them to navigate through the challenging process of finding a job. How? Through humanistic AI and community-driven design. It’s an awesome concept whose time has most certainly come.

➡️ https://www.mentra.com/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/jhillika-kumar

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer

Alison Hirukawa, PhD is the Co-founder and CEO of DropGenie. DropGenie is a groundbreaking start-up in the tech bio space making gene editing cheaper and lowering the amount of donor cells required. They’ve made a little plastic tray not much larger than the size of a playing card that makes molecular surgery affordable and scalable. The card itself looks like a maze, where a single droplet can be moved from one square to another via a revolutionary system of electric gates, which means that they can miniaturize experiments using way less input material, down to a single droplet scale. This is truly at the very cutting edge of technology that will soon impact us all, as gene editing has the ability to cure a range of genetic diseases by directly manipulating our DNA. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this episode, soon this tech will improve all of our lives.

➡️ https://www.drop-genie.com/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/alison-hirukawa

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer

Sharon Kan is the CEO & Co-Founder at Pepperlane, a start-up that helped mothers transform their ideas, skills, and passions into businesses that fit into their busy lives. They raised millions with her brilliant concept. Alas, like so many others, COVID had a massive negative impact on her business, and she had to make the difficult decision to shut it down earlier this year.

In my conversations, I’m keenly aware of survivorship bias—that only talking to people who’ve won the lottery can give us a false impression about what it’s like to play the lottery. Or as Mitch Hedberg said: “You know when you see an advertisement for a casino, and they have a picture of a guy winning money? That’s false advertising, because that happens the least. That’s like if you’re advertising a hamburger, they could show a guy choking. “This is what happened once.””

Today we talk about life after a start-up, and how this unpleasant aspect of the journey led to Sharon finding a new voice and a new passion. Now she’s mentored hundreds of women CEOs and business owners, and she’s building a new life behind the scenes. If you’ve ever tried to build something ambitious, this episode is for you.

➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon2016/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/sharon-kan

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer

Adam Molnar is the Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships at Neurable, the beautiful office in historic downtown Boston where we filmed this episode live. Neurable was gracious enough to lend me one of their conference rooms to meet inspiring local founders & entrepreneurs, and I got a first-hand look at their upcoming tech. Neurable makes brain-control interfaces or BCIs, and their tech is so discreet and non-invasive that it can literally fit into a pair of normal headphones. That’s right, just by wearing a normal pair of headphones, information from your brain can be captured, allowing you to do truly futuristic things like control Spotify using only your mind or better understand your focus and natural cycles to optimize your productivity in ways we never dreamed of. With their ground-breaking tech, it’s possible that in a few years every pair of headphones you buy will have Neurable baked in, ushering in a new era of both computing and self-awareness.

➡️ https://neurable.com/

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/adam-molnar

➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

➡️ Subscribe on YouTube: @therosspalmer