Gritty Frontlines: Authentic Stories on Starting a Company

Matt Carlson, CEO of Aquanta, joins the podcast to discuss his experiences leading two different startups, going through market changes, and building for a growing market. Matt also discusses how to manage effective investor relationships.

Podcast recorded on October 14, 2020

Gavin Hubbard and Austen Malczewski are currently full-time students at Michigan State University and on their second company. In this episode, Austen and Gavin discuss what it's like being a student while building a company, dealing with unexpected challenges, and planning for their first product launch.

Episode recording on October 13, 2020

Felix Brandon Lloyd had the idea for Zoobean when searching for books so his son could prepare for a little sister. Coming off a successful exit from his first company, Felix talks about his approach to hiring the right employees and pivoting. Plus, he goes behind the scenes from his experience of presenting Zoobean on Shark Tank and gaining investment from Mark Cuban.

Podcast recorded September 8, 2020

Jeff Grass, CEO and Co-Founder of Hungry, walks through what he's learned after founding or leading four start-ups. He's known for righting a strategy with market pivots. Jeff gets into how to raise money, when to pivot, and build a lasting culture.

Recorded August 12, 2020

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Charles Miller is a serial space entrepreneur with a pretty massive list of accomplishments including sending over 700 payloads to the ISS and just had a major accomplishment with his most recent space startup, Lynk. In February, Lynk sent the first text message ever from a satellite. Needless to say, Lynk is doing really profound work in connecting the world through satellites and delivering on the vision to make service and broadband available to everyone, at all times, no matter where they are. In this podcast, Charles talks about what it take to start a space startup.

Episode Recorded: June 19, 2020

Julie Basu is the founder and CEO of smartQED. Julie started smartQED around 4 years ago after seeing inefficiencies of teams solving complex problems. smartQED is an AI driven platform. Julie goes into the learnings on going from a technical founder to a business leader.

Recorded on: June 3, 2020

Tobias Reiter is a second time entrepreneur. He started VieBeg after a successful exit on his first company and looking to make a bigger impact on the world. Viebeg mainly operates in Central and East Africa and offers high quality medical equipment through its marketplace and procurement software. Tobias goes into how he's made a profitable company with a globally dispersed team.

Recorded on: June 4, 2020

Lisa Morales-Hellebo is a seasoned entrepreneur, product strategist, and creative director whose career spans 20+ years working with technology startups and Fortune 500 companies. In this episode, Lisa goes into what it takes to start a company before getting to the code, how to approach accelerators, and dives into her most recent venture: starting a fund!

Learn more about RefashionD: http://www.refashiond.com/

Recorded on: May 18, 2020

Angela Packard is the founder and CEO of Verto, a mobile application that helps pair skilled sign language interpreters with deaf consumers. She details what it takes to build a company from the ground up and how the greatest strength of their team is their ability to pivot quickly.

Recorded on: April 22, 2020

Angela Packard is the founder and CEO of Verto, a mobile application that helps pair skilled sign language interpreters with deaf consumers. She details what it takes to build a company from the ground up and how the greatest strength of their team is their ability to pivot quickly.

Recorded on: April 22, 2020