We recently welcomed Aytekin Tank, the Founder and CEO of Jotform, from his home base of Turkey, to The Look Back with Host Keith Newman. For those not aware of the amazing backstory, Jotform is one of the great SaaS app success stories, having recently crossed the 25M users plateau - and more than 600 employees - and what's as impressive (almost) is he has done it all with No Funding (VC or Debt). He has some great Founder lessons for Super Founders in SaaS, Software and almost any bootstrapper looking to blitzscale! Give a listen and share with a few friends! 

Back in the day #GameStop CEO Gary Kusin opened one of the first software only stores in a brick and mortar world. He brought his deep understanding of marketing and retailing with a slim background in software and took the plunge. Hundreds of millions in sales, hundreds of stores and hundreds of stories followed. We chat up everything from the good and bad at the helm of what would become the icon for a meme stock era along with his stories running an innovative cosmetics co and a turnaround of the iconic Kinko's brand only to sell to Fedex. Gary has also written a fantastic new book: "Always Learning" - some great stories along with lessons from a savvy business leader. #Babbages #GameStop #Kinkos #LauraMercier 

Welcome back to the podcast @Tiffani Bova - My first encore guest! Tiffani, a former exec at @Gartner and @Salesforce, who has met with seemingly every top CMO/CEO in the Fortune 500, has just dropped a new book “The Experience Mindset” (changing the way you think about growth) and I found it so kool and insightful I had to bring her on the program to discuss the ideas of working to break down silos, making it easier for employees to have success and taking a bigger view of Go To Market. 

A chat that every co can find value. Please enjoy and let me know what you think. 

Introducing our new series, The Look Forward. Have a listen to hear what's next for the podcast.

-Keith

The Fox in the Hen House > I just finished a great chat with former Apple and Cisco executive Keith Fox. Keith walks us thru his journey from the growth daze at both Co's and how that led him to a late career in philanthropy and mentorship. Great lessons shared and special attention to his new project https://www.civiltalk.com/ - wow, love to see this get some support!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-fox/id1560219589?i=1000609583610

The Look Back welcomes Mitch Kapor -- Founder of Lotus Development and CEO of the groundbreaking spreadsheet 1-2-3. Kapor converted his early software success into building the Kapor Center and Kapor Capital. Now, he is an advisor and investor to 150+ under-represented founders and rocking his mission of creating an Inclusive & Equitable Technology Sector. And while a successful venture fund isn't as easy as 1-2-3... Mitch, his wife, and team have built an impressive organization HQd in Oakland, California.

Taking Startup Shots with Lean and Mean Steve Blank. 

Steve Blank is an Adjunct Professor @Stanford and co-founder @Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. He’s also been described as the Father of Modern Entrepreneurship and Credited with launching the #Lean Startup movement, Blank has changed how startups are built; how entrepreneurship is taught; how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate. We had an awesome convo covering the #History of Silicon Valley and lots of insights for Founders and Startup leaders. 

Steve blogs at www.steveblank.com.

In the Startup Dictionary with the definition of "entrepreneur" is a picture of Mark Goldstein. An old friend who always cuts to the quick and tells it straight even if it hurts....An old friend who I met way back when post college Mark was at Apple and while there caught the startup bug - which manifested into RealityTech, BlueLight, Loyalty Lab and a slew of other businesses that took the bleeding edge and added a sales pitch and it was off to the races.....and he has been rolling out new ideas nearly non-stop with thoughtful breaks at real world - like now where he's Partner at  Builders Venture Capital  www.builders.vc and a super impressive 501c3 called the Digital Health Foundation. Check out his formal background at www.markgoldstein.com  Watch Digital Health Hub Foundation Awards Grand Finale @ HLTH https://youtu.be/0WicV5xO0_Q?si=EzwC7QGgEd6aqM7n

The Look Back welcomes the head of Plug and Play, Saeed Amidi, who takes us thru the 20+ year evolution and the new model @ PnP as an innovation platform. The VC firm-incubator with major companies and sponsors has touched 50,000 startups, 500+ world-leading corporations, and hundreds of venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies across multiple industries. Learn from the man himself how to climb aboard this rocket ship and leverage its power platform.