Innovation with Mark Peter Davis

On today’s episode I chat with Brian Levine, the Founder and CEO of Nodal.

Nodal is a marketplace that matches surrogates with families that want to have children. Their mission is to significantly reduce the time and cost required to secure a surrogate by cutting out the middlemen who currently control the market. If they succeed, they will help more families have children. 

There’s a lot of nuance in this market. We discuss stigmas, the impact of Roe v Wade being overturned and challenges caused by profiteering in the overall healthcare system. If you’re interested in healthcare, this is a great one for you. Enjoy.

Show Links:

• Follow us on Twitter: @nodalhealth, @mpd
• Guest Links: Nodal
• Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

We’ve been at this podcast thing for a few years now. I’ve had some amazing conversations and have learned a TON, but we’ve decided that it’s time to try something new.

I get some of my most trusted and valuable updates from the partners at Interplay, so we’ve decided to try to capture some of those convos and share them with you.

Introducing, the Partner Meeting.

I’m going to have a quick one on one chat with four partners from Interplay about their area of expertise.

Segment 1: Mike Rogers - partner of our venture capital vertical - will come on to chat about VC and startup trends.

Segment 2: Chris Zhang - partner of our Family Office - is going to cover global macro trends.

Segment 3: Brett Palatiello - partner of our blockchain vertical - is going to fill us in on the latest in the world of blockchain, crypto and web3.

Segment 4: Phuong Ireland - partner of our incubator - is going to share a business tip of the week.

So without further ado, let’s dive in.

PS we need better names that segment one, two, three and four, so if you have any ideas, please share!

On this week's episode I chat with Gregory Galant, the Co-Founder and CEO of Muck Rack and the Co-Founder and CEO of The Shorty Awards.

Muck Rack is a Public Relations management platform that helps organizations find the right journalists to pitch, report on media coverage and prove the value of their work.

Greg has been in the NY startup game for a long time.He famously launched The Shorty Awards where they gave out awards for the best tweets in the early days of Twitter. Along the way he tinkered with a dozen business ideas until Muck Rack finally hit and took him to the moon.

During our chat we talk about Muck Rack, the PR industry and his wisdom about entrepreneurship. Enjoy.

Show Links:

• Follow us on Twitter: @gregory, @mpd
• Guest Links: Muck Rack, The Shorty Awards, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
• Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

On this week's episode I chat with Freddie Huynh, a veteran data scientist in the credit risk space. Most notably, Freddie oversaw the development of the FICO Score from 1996 to 2015.

It was really before analytics and data is what it is today. In a way, Freddie is one of the OG data scientists, one of the original guys out in that space. During our chat we discuss how the FICO Score works, we break down some of the urban myths about how scores are calculated, and we chat about the evolution of the data science industry. Enjoy.

Show Links:

• Guest Links: LinkedIn
• Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

On today’s episode I chat with Jose Bonilla, Co-Founder and CEO of Chiper. Chiper is the leading B2B distributor of consumer goods to corner stores in Latin America. They’re moving hundreds of thousands of products every month across Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.

Corner stores are prominent in some cities in the US, but in other places around the world they have a massive market share of grocery sales. In India it’s around 90% and in LATAM they account for about 50% of groceries.

Jose is more than the founder of Chiper, he’s one of the godfathers of the Colombian startup scene. He’s a cofounder of Imaginamos, a development shop that became a startup studio. His partner Simon spun Rappi out of their studio and it’s now a mega-unicorn in the region that has raised over $2B. Jose spun out Chiper. Collectively they’ve trained thousands of future entrepreneurs.

We talk all about Chiper, tips for founders and entrepreneurs, and the start up scene in latin and south America. It’s a fascinating chat. Enjoy!

Show Links:

• Guest Links: Chiper
• Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

Hey everyone,

It’s that time of year again - the pod’s second summer!

Like last year, we’re not going to release any new episodes for July and August, so I just wanted to let you know that we’re not leaving you hanging.

We’re going to focus on recording new interviews and ideate on some other content ideas.

Though there won’t be new episodes, we’ll be releasing some snippets and highlights from past episodes on Twitter, YouTube, and our brand new TikTok account.

The username for our TikTok is Interplay.vc

Last but not least, I just wanted to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s been tuning in to the pod. I truly appreciate the support.

I hope you all have a great summer and we’ll see you on the other side!

Until then,

MPD

On today’s episode I chat with Dan Porter, Co-Founder and CEO of Overtime.

Overtime is the leading brand for the next generation of sports fans. Dan and his team at Overtime identified that the traditional sports media players were (and still are) heavily invested in the old infrastructure like cable deals. That left an opportunity to create an agile sports media brand that would cater to the younger generation utilizing new technology such as social platforms.

What started as an app turned into a community and has now morphed into creating and managing sports leagues. They currently operate two leagues OTE and OT7, one basketball and football.

Dan is a startup guru. He’s sold a few companies before starting Overtime and teaches entrepreneurship at NYU. If you’re interested in media, the business of sports or entrepreneurship this episode will have something for you. Enjoy.

Show Links:

• Follow us on Twitter: @overtime, @tfadp, @mpd
• Guest Links: Overtime, OTE
• Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

On this week’s episode I sit down with the CEO of Grayscale Investments, Michael Sonnenshein.

Grayscale is one of the biggest heavyweights in the world of crypto investing. They offer investors direct access to crypto. Their premier product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, is a long-bitcoin offering that anyone can access like they would a normal stock. You can simply buy the ticker. This is big, especially for folks looking to invest their money that exists in certain portfolios, like retirement savings accounts. With over 20b of assets across 17 investment vehicles they facilitate many people’s first interaction with crypto and Michael is at the center of it.

Crypto is currently down, the market is taking a hit seemingly in-line with the state of the broader stock markets so it was great to hear Michael’s perspective on the market and the future of crypto applications. Enjoy.

Show Links:

• Follow us on Twitter: @Sonnenshein, @Grayscale, @mpd
• Guest Links: Grayscale Investments
• Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

On today’s pod I chat with Richard Harris, the Founder & CEO of Black Crow AI.

Black Crow is a no-code, real-time machine-learning based predictive software that helps companies understand likely customer behavior.

Richard’s a veteran entrepreneur and has been involved in tech since the 90s. He cut his teeth in the world of consulting, was involved with Travelocity during the dot com boom, then has continued to be a serial founder.

As you’ll hear him explain, the world is turning into a browser. Between mobile devices, computers, wearable tech, self driving cars - real time data will be streaming from every part of our lives. He’s using this insight to build a company to help startups and brands collect and understand their first party data so that they can increase revenue and margins.

In addition to discussing how Black Crow operates and the machine learning industry, we also talk about some strategies for how founders can navigate down market cycles - like the one we’re entering now. He’s been through three of these cycles and has some very helpful wisdom. If you started your company after 2010, then I definitely recommend that you give this one a listen.

Show Links:

• Follow us on Twitter: @blackcrowai, @mpd
• Guest Links: Black Crow AI
• Referenced Content: Waking Up app
• Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

Please note, Interplay is an investor in Black Crow.

On this week’s episode I chat with Andrew Gazdecki, Founder & CEO of MicroAcquire. MicroAcquire is a marketplace that helps software companies match with interested buyers.

Andrew is a serial founder with a clear passion for entrepreneurship - which I obviously love. After selling his last company, he embarked on his current mission to help founders sell their companies more easily. He’s making a ton of progress. A significant number of companies are being sold through MicroAcquire every month.

During our chat we went well beyond MicroAcquire. We discussed Andrews’s tips for being a solo founder and dove deep into how to sell a company - where we covered important strategies to consider, the M&A process and market dynamics.

Show Links:

• Follow us on Twitter: @agazdecki, @microacquire, @mpd
• Guest Links: MicroAcquire
• Referenced Content: Andrew’s skateboard petition from when he was a kid, MPD’s article about M&A
• Podcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

Please note, Interplay is an investor in MicroAcquire.