Inc. Founders Project with Alexa von Tobel

After meeting as freshmen at Georgetown, Jonathan and his two-cofounders set out to open a healthy fast food restaurant in a 500 square feet storefront. From those quaint beginnings, Sweetgreen has grown into a massive food platform, with over 100+ locations and 200+ outposts. Jonathan shares why authenticity is core to the brand, why their inexperience actually enabled innovation, and how he thinks about falling on the right side of this equation: as companies get bigger, they either get better or worse.

What if every American were an investor? At Robinhood, Vlad Tenev is on a mission to make the financial system work for everyone. He co-founded the company in 2013, and the fast-growing brokerage has become an investing giant. With over 13 million users and $1 billion in funding, it's no surprise incumbents have been influenced by Robinhood's model, which drove an industry-wide shift toward commission-free trades. Vlad shares why he decided to build Robinhood as a mobile-first platform, how Covid helped to accelerate user growth, and why waking up to an analog alarm clock is a critical part of his routine.

Welcome to Business Brainstorm Podcast. Today's guest is Stephen Mathai Davis. Diversifying our investment might be easy in hindsight, but understanding the benefits and caveats requires an expert of Stephen's caliber. With his relentless pursuit of finding new investment themes, this intriguing episode is a must-listen for people interested in investments! You are going to love this episode.

Growing up, David's grandmother instilled an important lesson: that the only thing someone can't take away from you is your education. So when a mentor of David's offered to back him as an entrepreneur, he decided to bring the joy back to education and build a school that everyone would want to attend. In 2015, he launched MasterClass, which now provides classes from 100+ of the world’s best practitioners (from Serena Williams to Martin Scorsese). MasterClass has grown into one of the largest online learning platforms in the world and was most recently valued at nearly $3 billion dollars. David shares why a childhood stutter impacted his entrepreneurial ambitions, why starting with the best teachers was critical to his business strategy, and the importance of getting two opinions (and no more) when making a hard decision.

In 2012, Vishal Garg and his wife tried to buy a home and quickly realized how inefficient the mortgage process was. As Vishal puts it, the mortgage industry acted as though the internet didn't exist. So in 2016, he founded Better to build an all-in-one platform to take customers through the entire home-buying process, from finding an agent, to securing a mortgage, to shopping for insurance. Five years in, Better has funded over $30.9B in home loans and last year alone, the company grew revenue by 850%. Vishal shares why his first move was applying for a mortgage nearly everywhere, why he believes home ownership will shift to a fractional model, and how the best way to grow is to center your customer relationship on utility.

After watching his wife—a Nurse Practitioner—struggle to keep up with patient notes, Andrew Hines had an idea. What if he could apply his engineering training to architect a better EMR (electronic medical record) to power our healthcare system? In 2015, he started Canvas Medical to shift the paradigm of what an EMR can and should be. Today, Canvas is the only complete software platform for value-based care. Designed to empower clinicians, administrators and even software developers building the next generation of healthcare platforms, Canvas is a simple solution to a complex problem. Andrew shares why he tries to maintain a student's mindset, how Canvas is equipping developers with game-changing APIs, and how he launched his first startup (a surfboard company) as a teenager.

In 2007, Kristo and his friend Taavet were two Estonian friends living and working in London. They quickly realized how expensive it was to exchange money between Pounds and Estonian Euros. Their hack to this problem ended up becoming the foundation for their startup, Wise, which they founded in 2011. Today, Wise allows people to hold 56 currencies, move money between countries, and spend money abroad. Not only is Wise one of the world's fastest-growing tech companies, it was recently listed on the London Stock Exchange in a direct listing that valued the company at $11 billion. Kristo shares why demand for Wise is still growing at a rapid clip, why he's personally eager to get back to the office, and why saying thank you is critical.

Joe Ariel went to college in Nashville, where he fell in love with local delicacies like Nashville hot chicken. Living in New York, he had a craving and wondered if his favorite restaurants could ship food to him. Thus, the idea for Goldbelly was born. Founded in 2013, Goldbelly is an ecommerce platform that empowers the best restaurants and small food makers to ship nationwide. Recognized as one of the top 50 websites in the country, Goldbelly now works with over 850 restaurants and covers all 50 states. Joe shares how Covid accelerated Goldbelly's growth, why restaurants are excited to open up a new online sales channel, and why a phone call from chef and restaurateur Jose Andres was Joe's most meaningful moment to date.

There is a major nursing shortage plaguing the US healthcare system. By 2024, we're on track to be short over one million nurses. Yet, for working nurses looking for a new job, the industry average job search lasted 90 days. Incredible Health, co-founded by Iman Abuzeid in 2017, has brought that search time down to under 20 days. Incredible Health is the fastest growing venture-backed career marketplace for healthcare workers. The company has partnered with over 500 hospitals to offer its proprietary matching software and play an integral role in supporting nurses throughout their careers. Iman shares why she picked the entrepreneurship path after graduating from medical school, how her grandfathers' experience as founders make her comfortable with risk, and why a CEO support group is essential.

In 2014, Mathilde Collin moved from France to California to take part in Y Combinator and to bring her vision for a better email platform closer to her target customers. Today, Front is the leading Customer Communication Platform that serves more than 6,5000 customers, including Shopify, Airbnb, and Hulu. Mathilde has raised over $138 million in funding, and through it all, has taken an open-book approach to sharing her journey of entrepreneurship—including making all of her fundraising decks public. Mathilde shares why she obsessively communicates Front's revenue metric across the company, how she's worked to build a low ego culture, and why she has no work apps on her phone.