Daniel Zakowski is the CEO of Ready, Set, Food!,  a daily supplement that gently introduces your baby to peanut, egg, and milk, the three most common childhood food allergens. Studies have shown that this approach helps reduce the risk of developing allergies by up to 80%. Their system is simple: a pre-measured, allergist-developed daily packet that mixes in with breast milk, formula, or baby's first solid food, containing just three organic, non-GMO ingredients.

Ready Set, Food!'s team is a group of physicians, scientists, and parents who are passionate about ending the food allergy epidemic. Motivated by their own experiences, they set out to make it easy and safe for families to prepare their babies for food. The science is clear: early and sustained exposure to allergenic foods is needed, and the timing and amount matters! Ready, Set, Food! developed their system of early and sustained consumption of allergenic foods to allow busy families to give their infants the best chance to avoid developing food allergies.

Connect with Daniel Zakowski

• Ready, Set, Food!
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Ready, Set, Food! on Amazon
• LinkedIn
• [email protected]

Some of the Topics Covered by Daniel Zakowski in this Episode

• What Ready, Set, Food! is and why Daniel started it
• The first steps Daniel took to get Ready, Set, Food! off the ground
• Onboarding allergists
• Raising awareness around the issue of allergy prevention
• Cultivating credibility
• Their experience on Shark Tank and the sustained growth that came from that
• Having Mark Cuban as an investor
• The unique challenges for Ready, Set, Food! going through the fundraising process
• The structure of their original friends and family round of fundraising
• How Daniel views, manages, and prioritizes partnerships
• How they've developed and adapted their product over time
• How they've approached marketing and customer acquisition
• The biggest challenges in growing Ready, Set, Food!
• Creating educational content
• Ready, Set, Food!'s current traction
• How Daniel's prior entrepreneurial experience has been helpful in running Ready, Set, Food!
• How COVID has affected their business
• Daniel's book recommendations
• How Daniel recharges away from work
• The story behind Ready, Set, Food!'s name

Links from the Episode

• Advocate Aurora Health
• Mark Cuban on Shark Tank
• Shark Tank
• Ready, Set, Food! on Shark Tank
• #91: Jiake Liu, Co-Founder and CEO of Outer, on Building the Casper of Outdoor Furniture
• Ready, Set, Food!'s donation program
• PLG Ventures
• Amplify.LA
• Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health
• Y Combinator Safe Financing Documents
• Danone
• GIBLIB
• Osmosis
• #158: Zubin Bhettay, Co-Founder and CEO of Fuzzy Pet Health, a Subscription-Based Pet Health Company, on the Challenges of Fundraising, Building a Mission-Driven Business, and Finding Balance as an Entrepreneur
• #134: Zuleyka Strasner, Founder and CEO of Zero, on Building a Convenient Zero-Waste Grocery Delivery Service, Becoming the Largest Sustainability Platform in the U.S., and Growing 15X in 5 Months
• Strategic Intuition by William Duggan
• Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock
• The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith

Ed Vincent is the founder and CEO of Festival Pass, the world’s first festival and live events subscription marketplace providing access to thousands of experiences around the globe across music, film, food and wine, art, sports, theater, lifestyle, and tech & innovation experiences. Enjoy thousands of events & festivals locally and globally for one monthly fee. Festival Pass is a story about community and creating experiences that change you. We as humans need connection - it’s in our DNA, as strong a need as food, water and warmth. The team at Festival Pass, that spans the globe from Bali to NY to Detroit to Lisbon, is bringing its members the only place to make accessing, discovering and attending festivals the most user friendly, frictionless, affordable and valuable member experience possible.

Ed Vincent is an entrepreneur with over 25 years of business, technology and management experience including 6 years banking and valuation experience. He founded an e-commerce business in 1999 which was sold to a competitor in 2001, and is a repeat founder including SimplyEngage, myProducer, & Predict Ventures. Ed's passion for festivals, and the interpersonal connectivity fostered at festivals led him to found Festival Pass.

Connect with Ed Vincent

• Festival Pass
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Snapchat
• Invest in Festival Pass on Wefunder
• LinkedIn

Some of the Topics Covered by Ed Vinecent in this Episode

• What Festival Pass is and how Ed's 20 years as an entrepreneur led to him founding it
• Ed's experience at Movie Pass and where he thinks their model went wrong and how it could have succeeded
• The credit-based model of marketplace businesses
• Determining the pricing model for Festival Pass
• The value of data
• Ed's vision for Festival Pass
• How Ed raised capital early on and why Ed eventually decided to crowdfund for Festival Pass through Wefunder
• The virtual Festival Pass team
• How Ed views growth for Festival Pass moving forward
• The business model for Festival Pass
• Evaluating partnerships versus paid media
• What makes Festival Pass unique and why it hasn't been done before
• How COVID has affected Festival Pass and how they're approaching the return to live events

Links from the Episode

• Airbnb
• ClassPass
• Uber
• Wefunder
• Townsquare Media
• SeedInvest
• Republic
• StartEngine
• Ticketmaster
• StubHub
• Live Nation
• HomeAway
• Vrbo

Dejan Pralica is the co-founder and CEO of SoleSavy, an exclusive community that brings together sneaker enthusiasts and collectors and helps them acquire limited-edition sneakers directly from retailers. A SoleSavy membership provides you the tools and resources you need to successfully purchase the products you want for retail. SoleSavy’s co-founders have over 20 years of experience in the sneaker industry, both in retail and online. Their connections and experience in the sneaker industry allow them to provide members with unparalleled knowledge and access you won’t find anywhere else.

Connect with Dejan Pralica

• SoleSavy
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Dejan on Instagram
• Dejan on Twitter

Some of the Topics Covered by Dejan Pralica in this Episode

• What SoleSavy is and why Dejan founded it
• The first steps Dejan took to get SoleSavy off the ground
• Going to NBA All-Star Weekend
• Early reaction to the company and feedback
• SoleSavy's business model
• Customer acquisition and growth
• Their 500-person first-day signup
• How SoleSavy's product system works
• Building an authentic community
• The team behind SoleSavy
• Being scrappy and resourceful
• Dejan's experience going through the LAUNCH Accelerator
• The fundraising battle
• Dejan's thoughts on expansion into other niche communities
• Dejan's personal sneaker collection
• How Dejan got interested in sneakers
• Dejan's first experience as a founder, starting and building Kicks Deals
• How Dejan approaches content creation
• Why Dejan started a podcast and the benefits of podcasting
• What's next for SoleSavy
• Dejan's book recommendations
• How Dejan recharges and how he views the work-life balance

Links from the Episode

• NBA All-Star Weekend
• Nike
• Foot Locker
• Kith
• V.One
• #126: Christian Peverelli, CEO & Co-Founder of WeAreNoCode, an Educational Platform Empowering Non-Technical Founders Through No-Code Technology
• Webflow
• Slack
• LAUNCH Accelerator
• Bevy
• Kicks Deals
• Complex
• #59: Austin Rief, Co-Founder and COO of Morning Brew, on Growing to Over 1 Million Newsletter Subscribers
• Tim Ferriss
• Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Alec Thomson is the co-founder and CEO of Riskcast Solutions, a productivity and forecasting tool for the construction industry. They provide a way for project managers to track labor, material, and equipment, without the need to maintain multiple fancy spreadsheets. Riskcast Solution's mission is to enable the construction industry by unleashing the power of data to reduce risk in all areas of performance while putting project teams first in all that we do.

Alec has twenty years of experience in the construction industry, working in various capacities. He started out as a field engineer and eventually worked in procurement before moving to Skanska's corporate office in New York. His final position on a business strategy team made it evident that he needed to find a way to pursue his passion for helping project teams solve the job site related problems.

Connect with Alec Thomson

• Riskcast Solutions
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Some of the Topics Covered by Alec Thomson in this Episode

• What Riskcast Solutions is and how Alec and his co-founder Reggie Arichabala got started
• Early customer acquisition for Riskcast
• Leaving their corporate jobs
• Making sacrifices to bootstrap Riskcast and determining when it was time to fund raise
• Product development and the technical aspect of Riskcast
• The business model for Riskcast and navigating different iterations for pricing
• Participating in Newark Venture Partners' Lab Program
• Focusing on the sales engine of a B2B SaaS company
• How Riskcast finds interns and using a draft board to manage hiring
• How Alec views competition
• Where Riskcast stands today in terms of traction and how they've been affected by and adapted to COVID
• The big vision for Riskcast Solutions
• Digitizing an archaic industry
• Alec's book recommendations

Links from the Episode

• Newark Venture Partners
• NVP Labs
• Rutgers University
• New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Y Combinator Online Classes
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
• Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman

Nate D'Anna is the co-founder and co-CEO of Dumpling, which provides the tools, technology, and support people need to run their own local businesses - powering thousands of grocery shopping, delivery, and personal service entrepreneurs throughout 50 states. By pioneering a new approach to local entrepreneurship, dumpling offers communities a more personal, ethical solution to the essential household services that keep homes running. Since its founding in 2017, Dumpling has quickly become the trusted, reliable pathway to starting a local, service business in the United States. Dumpling is built by a diverse and passionate team of change makers, entrepreneurs, and former gig economy workers - all dedicated to ushering in a future where everyone who works can control their own fortune. The company is headquartered in Berkeley, Seattle, and homes across the country.

Connect with Nate D'Anna

• Dumpling
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Some of the Topics Covered by Nate D'Anna in this Episode

• What is Dumpling and how Nate started it with his co-founder Joel Shapiro
• How they approached customer discovery and what they learned from it
• The initial version of Dumpling and how it has evolved into what it is today
• Bootstrapping and knowing when it was time to fund raise
• Early ups and downs and narrowing down the problem to solve
• Early feedback and using it to adapt the business
• Roles and responsibilities among the 3 co-founders
• Customer acquisition for Dumpling
• The process of fundraising for the first time, from a pre-seed round to a series A
• How Dumpling was able to grow after fundraising
• Dumpling's business model and how it has evolved
• Managing short-term execution with long-term vision
• How COVID-19 has led to incredible growth for Dumpling and the challenges that came with having to unexpectedly scale so quickly
• How Nate views competition
• Reality versus expectation of being an entrepreneur
• Where Nate finds support and how he recharges away from work
• Nate's book recommendations

Links from the Episode

• Walmart
• The Home Depot
• Uber
• Instacart
• Target
• DoorDash
• Postmates
• SAFE
• TaskRabbit
• Floodgate
• Ann Miura-Ko at Floodgate
• #134: Zuleyka Strasner, Founder and CEO of Zero, on Building a Convenient Zero-Waste Grocery Delivery Service, Becoming the Largest Sustainability Platform in the U.S., and Growing 15X in 5 Months
• The Innovator's Dilemma by Clay Christensen
• The Innovator's Solution by Clay Christensen

Jared Pope is the founder and CEO of Work Shield, the only full-service independent solution to effectively prevent, deal with and solve workplace harassment and discrimination, thus empowering employees, lowering corporate risk and preserving company culture. Work Shield helps companies manage all types of workplace harassment and discrimination from start to finish, providing comprehensive and impartial solutions. Whether it's managing an incident internally or facing litigation, eight out of ten companies will deal with harassment issues every year. Work Shield partners with your company for a better reporting solution and more efficient and effective incident management. Protecting employees and employers from costly legal fees, low morale, bad press and more. The Work Shield team believes that everyone has the right to feel safe and protected at work.

Connect with Jared Pope

• Work Shield
• [email protected]
• LinkedIn
• Reach Jared at (469) 358-7673

Some of the Topics Covered by Jared Pope in this Episode

• What is Work Shield and why Jared started it
• The issue with how workplace harassment is currently handled
• How Jared originally envisioned Work Shield to address some major issues in society
• Early customer acquisition
• Failing successfully
• Figuring out the technical aspects of the business and incorporating the human element
• How Work Shield has developed and expanded over the years and where they stand today
• How businesses can ensure safe company culture
• What resolutions look like through Work Shield
• Raising capital for Work Shield and what it meant from their team and business
• How Jared is approaching growth for Work Shield
• Building out the team for Work Shield
• Jared's book recommendations
• Jared's advice for entrepreneurs

Links from the Episode

• Me Too Movement
• The Plexus Groupe
• How I Built This with Guy Raz (NPR podcast)
• Webflow
• Wix
• Squarespace
• Brene Brown
• The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw

Paul Dashevsky is the co-founder of GreatBuildz, a free service currently operating in Los Angeles that connects homeowners with reliable, pre-screened general contractors. They connect each client with three contractors who are individually selected for their specific project; then provide ongoing support to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Paul is a serial entrepreneur, real estate investor, active Angel investor and member of Tech Coast Angels.

Connect with Paul Dashevsky

• GreatBuildz
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Some of the Topics Covered by Paul Dashevsky in this Episode

• What is GreatBuildz and why Paul founded it
• How Paul developed the idea after years of flipping homes and how he began to build it with his co-founder and nephew John Grispul
• GreatBuildz' business model
• The challenge of customer acquisition and navigating the world of digital marketing
• Bootstrapping and why Paul hasn't decided to fund-raise yet
• The big vision for GreatBuildz
• The process of vetting and onboarding contractors
• How Paul views growth and expansion
• Paul's experience flipping over 350 homes with Westcliff Realty and how he knew when it was time for something new
• Where Paul got his entrepreneurial spirit from and what he has learned from his failures
• Paul's experience joining the Entrepreneurs' Organization

Links from the Episode

• Entrepreneurs' Organization
• Entrepreneurs' Organization Accelerator

Adam Jackson is the co-founder and CEO of Braintrust, the world’s first user-controlled talent platform-- one that aligns incentives, removes expensive middlemen and gives value and control back to talent and organizations. Braintrust’s unique network model allows talent to retain 100% of their market rate, while enabling organizations to pull together flexible teams of highly-skilled technical and design talent, no matter where they’re located. Organizations ensure budgets go 2-3 times further by cutting out unnecessary, expensive middle men. This new business model of minimizing fees and enabling users to control the network is uniquely enabled by a blockchain token.

Adam is a serial technology entrepreneur and investor that has spent his career creating and deploying capital into software systems that make complex tasks simple and intuitive. He has founded 4 VC-backed companies and an asset management company over the last 16 years.

In August, 2017 he co-founded Cambrian Asset Management, a blockchain asset management company.  In 2012, he co-founded and served as CEO of Doctor On Demand, a healthcare service that provides video visits with board-certified physicians and psychologists. Doctor On Demand delivers services through employers, health systems, health plans, and directly to consumers and has raised $165M in VC.

Adam's previous business, DriverSide was founded in 2007 and was acquired by Advance Auto Parts in September of 2011. His first venture-backed business, MarketSquare, founded in 2004, was the first online local shopping destinations on the Internet. It was acquired by Intuit in September of 2006.

Adam is an angel investor in 45+ companies/projects, including: Bolt, Placer, Aktana, Skale Labs, Protocol Labs, JCTurbo, Apero Health, Rapportive, MyTime, Automatic, Womply, Superhuman and Zenefits.

Connect with Adam Jackson

• Braintrust
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Medium
• LinkedIn
• Adam on Twitter

Some of the Topics Covered by Adam Jackson in this Episode

• What is Braintrust and how Adam came up with the idea
• The problem with two-sided marketplaces
• How Braintrust is inverting disastrous marketplace economics and the complexities that come with building a new model
• Using their own marketplace to hire freelancers to build Braintrust
• Braintrust's business model
• Acquisition on the enterprise side of the business
• How COVID has led to incredible growth for Braintrust
• Adam's advice for building marketplaces
• The challenge of fundraising for Braintrust
• Adam's experience founding Doctor on Demand
• Adam's entrepreneurial spirit and being "unemployable"
• How Adam approached his exits and transitions
• Adam's experience as an angel investor and deciding to be an LP
• The big vision for Braintrust
• Why Braintrust is Adam's passion and how he manages his time

Links from the Episode

• eBay
• Uber
• Airbnb
• Lyft
• Postmates
• DoorDash
• Amazon
• Blockchain
• Craigslist
• Nestle
• Porsche
• Deloitte
• 99designs
• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Bank of America
• NASA
• BlueCross
• TaskRabbit
• Bitcoin
• Ethereum
• Nextdoor
• Doctor on Demand
• Dr. Phil
• The Doctors
• Intuit
• Superhuman
• Zenefits
• Jack Dorsey

Sarina Richard is the Founder and CEO of HERdle, India's first private women's one-stop healthcare expert. HERdle.health provides Indian women power over their sexual and mental health in a safe, anonymous, fast, and convenient way. They aim to give women the care they need without judgment or stigma, from the comfort and privacy of their mobile phone.

25% of the world’s cervical cancer deaths come from India, and 4 out of every 10 women in the world who commit suicide are from India. There is a lack of access to information and resources and a massive social stigma against sexual and mental health. HERdle hopes to bridge this gap and remove Indian women's health hurdles by providing access to non-judgy experts, resources and technology.

Connect with Sarina Richard

HERdle

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

Some of the Topics Covered by Sarina Richard in this Episode

How Sarina’s background in healthcare and women’s development led to her funding HERdle

The issue of access to healthcare and sexual health education for women in India

Understanding the problem and the business models Sarina came up with

Deciding between for-profit and non-profit

The first steps Sarina took to start HERdle

How Sarina went about customer discovery and understanding pain points from the supply side

HERdle’s services and how it works

From bootstrapping to pre-seed and seed round fundraising

What Sarina values in building a team

How Sarina has been resourceful while bootstrapping

Sarina’s takeaways from previous founder experiences and applying them to HERdle

Customer acquisition, partnerships, and creating an organic community

How Sarina currently structures her day and distributes her time and finding work-life balance

How Sarina recharges and stays active (for free!)

Sarina’s advice for other entrepreneurs

Links from the Episode:

Five Whys

#108: Rob Mather, Founder and CEO of the Against Malaria Foundation, one of the World’s Top-Rated Charities

#48: Candice Lu, Founding Partner of OnPrem Solution Partners, on Scaling from 4 to 200 Employees, Solving Problems, and Running a Remote Company

#137: Cole Zucker on His Remarkable Journey from $0 to $60M in Revenue, Selling a Company, and Starting the Influencer Platform Hey Hero

#126: Christian Peverelli, CEO & Co-Founder of WeAreNoCode, an Educational Platform Empowering Non-Technical Founders Through No-Code Technology

Webflo

Jetboost

Memberstack

Airtable

Girl Up

Sheroes

Sairee Chahal

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

Peloton

An award-winning designer and MIT alum, Christine is the CEO of Everydae, the world's smartest digital tutor. Previously she was the Chief Product Officer at Veritas Prep (sold in 2018) where she incubated and launched the adaptive learning platform, ORION (33% MoM growth). Prior to this, she led the product and design team at DogVacay (sold to Rover.com) and the innovation department at Deutsch. She also invented the electric bike, the Copenhagen Wheel, a TIME Magazine Best Invention. 

Everydae is an online SAT digital tutor that gets you top scores without the stress. Affordable, effective, and fun, Everydae's secret is their revolutionary bite-size online micro lessons that match short attention spans and busy schedules. Everydae's team believes that a lack of money shouldn’t stand in the way of realizing your potential, which is why they're democratizing access to affordable, personalized learning so that anyone can level-up in life.

Connect with Christine Outram

• Everydae
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

Some of the Topics Covered by Christine Outram in this Episode

• What is Everydae, where the idea came from, and how it got started
• Christine's background in product and digital design and interest in tech and education
• The steps taken to actually develop Everydae
• Christine's role as CEO
• Marketing and sales as a direct-to-parents product
• Customer acquisition and launching during the COVID-19 pandemic
• In-house versus outsourcing for running paid acquisition
• Relationship and email marketing
• Their experience with Wefunder, why they decided to go the crowdfunding route, and what they did to ensure its success
• "Mom and pop angels"
• Everydae's team
• Distribution of funds post-fundraising
• Their approach to content creation and breadth versus depth
• Collecting and incorporating consumer feedback
• Balancing short-term and long-term plans and goals
• The business model and pricing structure for Everydae
• Christine's background as an architect, her time at MIT, and inventing the Copenhagen wheel
• Christine's advice and book recommendations regarding product development
• What's next for Everydae
• What fuels Christine
• The biggest challenges Christine and her team have faced in building Everydae
• How Christine recharges away from work

Links from the Episode

• Veritas Prep
• MonkeyLearn
• HubSpot
• Buffer
• #139: Jesse Horwitz, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Hubble, an E-Commerce Contact Lens Company That’s Raised $73M+, on Building a Standout Direct to Consumer Company
• Upwork
• Wefunder
• Caribu
• Angels and Entrepreneurs run by Neil Patel
• Startup Camp
• #126: Christian Peverelli, CEO & Co-Founder of WeAreNoCode, an Educational Platform Empowering Non-Technical Founders Through No-Code Technology
• MIT Senseable City Lab
• DogVacay
• Measure what Matters by John Doerr
• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
• Superhuman