Just Raised

Odeko is a mobile payments and supply chain platform for cafés and indie coffee shops. CEO and Founder Dane Atkinson joins the show to talk about AI that can predict when and where you will buy a croissant, taking on juggernauts like Starbucks, acquiring startup Cloosiv over zoom, and building a fleet of delivery trucks to streamline the coffee shop supply chain.

This breadth of challenges Odeko is taking on is astounding. From consumer-facing payments and mobile ordering to predictive AI and a supply-side marketplace that reaches individual farms, Odeko's aspirations are massive. All within the niche of coffee shops and cafes.

Open Roles!

Try Odeko!

Highlights on Twitter

Miguel Larrea is the founder and CEO of Capchase, a fintech company focused on non-dilutive funding for SaaS companies. Miguel and his team just raised $4.6 million from Caffeinated Capital, Blink Capital, and SciFi VC. This episode will be particularly relevant to founders interested in financing alternatives to venture capital.

We dive into why the API economy makes alternative financing possible, why a downturn is a fantastic time to start deploying capital, and the role debt and alternative financing have to play in the maturation of SaaS as a market.

www.capchase.com

Updates on Twitter

Taylor Nieman is the founder and CEO of Toucan, a language learning platform built on Google Chrome. Taylor talks about why Chrome extensions are the most overlooked tech distribution strategy of the past decade, "building in public", and her $3M raise from GSV. 

Check out Toucan: https://jointoucan.com/

Thanks for listening!

Tania A. Coke is the founder of Tellus, a radar-based digital health company focused on eldercare. Tania just raised $7M from the University of Tokyo, DOCOMO Ventures, and past podcast guest Phil Libin of Mmhmm.  Tania talks about first launching her company in Japan, managing teams across continents, raising corporate venture capital vs institutional VCs, and the potential for digital health far into the future.

https://tellusyoucare.com/

New! Open Roles:

Today’s guest is Di-Ann Eisnor, CEO and Founder of Core, a labor marketplace for construction. Prior to Core Di-Ann was the Head of Growth at Waze where she opened the first US office in 2009 and led the company’s meteoric rise until 2013 when Waze was acquired by Google for $1B. At Core, she’s raised $4M from GV (Google Ventures) and NFX to transform the construction industry.

On the show Di-Ann talks about why she’s launching nationally instead of city by city, the potential for Core and other vertical marketplaces to build SaaS for their industries, and what she’s learned from a decade studying cities at Waze and Google.

Crews By Core App on the AppStore or Google Play

www.byCore.com

Shoutouts: 

A16Z Blog Post on "Deep" Job Boards

Di-Ann and Lupe Fiasco's Neighborhood Start Fund

Fresh off a $10M Series A round from Founders Fund and Lennar Alexis Rivas joins the show to talk about his company Cover Technologies. Alexis and his team are building the future of modular homes, starting with ultra-modern backyard studios. Alexis talks about the challenges of moving home building into the factory, the massive potential for software to upend the home design process, and how he's navigated the politics of housing. Plus how you can put a studio in your backyard.

https://buildcover.com/

Updates on Twitter

Following up on a $4.5M Seed round from Sequoia, Phil Libin join's us to talk about his new interactive video venture Mmhmm. Phil is the former founder and CEO of Evernote, Founder of the All Turtles product design firm, and now the CEO and Founder of Mmhmm. We talk about product design, decision making using intuition vs data, and insights from 27 straight years of fundraising.

Shoutouts:

Mmhmm Demo

Mmhmm Demo 2 - Phil's Philosophy on Naming

Unscaled by Hemant Taneja

Igor Naming Guide

All Turtles Podcast

Updates on Twitter

Following an $11M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund, Run the World Founder Xiaoyin Qu joins the show to talk about her vision for virtual events. As CEO and Founder of Run the World she has scaled her team from 10 to 50 in the past three months and now has employees in Portugal, Brazil, Singapore, China, and the US. She talks about how the company has accelerated since COVID began, how she manages a team fully remote, and how Run The World uses product design strategies from social media to build more interesting online events.

https://www.runtheworld.today/

Updates on Twitter

Fresh off a $12M Series A led by Coatue we host Josh Browder, CEO and Founder of DoNotPay. Josh shares his vision on building the general counsel for the consumer and how DoNotPay helps people fight corporations, beat bureaucracy, and sue anyone at the press of a button". This show is a lesson in horizontal product strategy and the power of a strong company mission. If you've gotten as many parking tickets as I have, this show is for you.

Shoutouts: The A16Z Podcast on GPT-3

https://donotpay.com/

Updates on Twitter

Welcome to our very first episode! Matt Martin is the founder of Clockwise, a smart calendar assistant that helps teams focus on work that matters. Matt and his team just raised an $18M Series B round from Bain Capital following up on a Seed round from Accel. On the show, Matt dives into how he tracks viral adoption of the product, the B2C2B SaaS business model, what he's looking for in new hires, and more. Thanks for listening!

Matt's Techcrunch article on raising capital fully remote during the pandemic

For updates on the show can follow Joe on Twitter here or send me an email to [email protected]