Looking Beyond With Michael Sikand

In Episode 92, futurists get access to the mind of education technology entrepreneur, Andrew Sutherland, the Founder & CTO of Quizlet, the free online study platform that revolutionized the way students prepare for exams. Andrew started the company at age 15, when his French teacher made him memorize the names of over a hundred animals, and he still runs the business today! The startup story of Quizlet is one of building something great that people love to use, and then iterating and expanding over time, which was a guiding principle when tech companies were popping up in the mid-2000's. As a long-time user of Quizlet, it was a real honor to chat with Andrew, and I had a blast running through the narrative of a great company and an awesome founder.

In Episode 91, futurists learn from Jackson Riegler, a fellow student at the University of Michigan and 20-year old founder of sustainable clothing brand Oshki (meaning "fresh" in Native American Ojibwe). Jackson has always been passionate about protecting the Great Lakes, and when he realized how environmentally destructive the fashion industry was, he endeavored to create a business turning plastic waste from U.S. waterways into stylish, durable apparel. I was lucky enough to meet Jackson in my freshman orientation at UMich and it's been inspiring to watch him scale his vision for sustainability and business.

Check out Oshki's website: https://oshki.us/?variant=31257798148229

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In Episode 90, futurists hear from Dylan Hopen, a student at the University of Michigan and an Incoming Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Cowen, a leading Investment Bank that is known for its disruptive outlook, having invested early on in Amazon.com, pushing some of the first financial research on the Cannabis industry, and leading Nikola's SPAC merger. Dylan tells us why he's excited to be working in IB, how he began the networking process, the resources and strategies he used to prepare for technical interviews, the importance of a personal story, and his advice to other students considering a career in banking.

Connect with Dylan on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-hopen-22752a134/ or email him at [email protected].

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In Episode 89, listeners hear from Ari Elkins, TikTok Star, Gen Z Music Curator, and one of my first friends at the University of Michigan. When his music internship got cancelled in the wake of COVID-19, Ari dropped a TikTok video highlighting the "songs you miss most from your frat basement" which instantly went viral. Since that first clip, Ari has grown his TikTok audience to over 500K and has collaborated with brands like GrubHub, Uber, and Tilly's. He was also recently featured in a Rolling Stone piece highlighting the future of music journalism, and he's committed to providing a new way for both young people to discover new music, and for new artists to get discovered.

Follow Ari on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arijelkins/?hl=en

Follow his TikTok @arijelkins

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In Episode 88 and the official YouTube launch of Our Future, I sit down with Greg Sullivan, Director of Mixed Reality at Microsoft, who throws on the HoloLens 2 to show off Microsoft's cutting edge virtual reality tech as he analyzes a wind farm and interacts with various objects so be sure to check out the YouTube below. In addition to the live demo, we discuss how Microsoft sees AR/VR as part of the same continuum, choosing to term their tech under "mixed reality", when VR will become mainstream at the consumer level, and Greg's career advice to young people looking to make an impact on Our Future.

WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shzbC6o7Q18&feature=youtu.be

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In Episode 87 on the Our Future Careers series, I chat with Marcos Aull, the first student at University of Cincinnati to land into Boston Consulting Group (BCG) one of the world's top consulting firms. He discusses trading dining halls for networking talks as a scrappy young networker, how you can prepare for case interviews to crush them, and the mindset necessary to land your dream job. This was an inspiring conversation with a smart, focused, and victorious young leader who overcame the odds to plant his stake in the consulting industry.

Connect with Marcos on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcosaulluc/

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In Episode 86, listeners hear from Shamin Abas, President & CEO of Shamin Abas Communications, one of the world's leading marketing agencies for ultra-luxury brands and high net worth clientele. Her company collaborates with clients who manufacture "big toys" like helicopters, sports cars, and yachts, to deliver exclusive experiences.

Connect with Shamin on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamin-abas-08a8031/

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It happened! In Episode 85, I'm honored to be joined by one my greatest role models, fellow Michigan Wolverine, and business barista, Alex Lieberman, CEO & Co-Founder of Morning Brew, the famed business newsletter that educates over 2.5 million young professionals every day. Alex recently made history when he and his co-founder, Austin Rief (also a Michigan man), sold a majority stake in the Morning Brew to Business Insider in October, valuing the business at $75 million dollars and setting the company up for its ambitions to transition from a newsletter company to a media company. The origin of the Morning Brew lied within Alex's realization that young people didn't enjoy reading the Wall Street Journal when he was a senior at Michigan Ross, so he decided to build a better news product for an audience of college students (I like to think of Our Future the same way for podcasting). Alex is a huge inspiration to me as I look to build my own business media brand delivering value to young people, and this podcast was made possible by a big ask I made when publicly auditioning for the Morning Brew Talk Show in August, which is one of the core themes of this episode. The business barista himself also discusses his new life of podcasting through the Founder's Journal and the future of the Morning Brew in this new post-acquisition phase.

Subscribe to the Morning Brew: morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=4a151e27

Alex's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-lieberman/

Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/businessbarista?s=20

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LIVE FROM PALM SPRINGS! In the second-ever live episode of Our Future, I talk to world-class entrepreneur, business builder, and family man Dan Kellogg, who I was lucky to randomly meet by the pool during my recent vacation to palm springs. When he was 19-years-old, in a stroke of luck + fate, Dan won the "Price is Right" Game Show in 1985, netting over $30,000 in earnings (more like $70K today), which served as the impetus for his career in building hotels. My friends and I were lucky enough to meet the entire Kellogg crew (awesome family), and in my own weird stroke of luck, I decided to pack my laptop and microphone to the poolside that day, and the result was an amazing in-person podcast conversation! This awesome episode is a testament to the fact that crazy stuff happens, you just have to be open to new opportunities and position yourself to get lucky.

Follow Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/priceisright85/?hl=en

Connect with Dan on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-kellogg-ab9289b/

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In Episode 83, futurists learn from Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, Former Head of Global Marketing at Peloton, the $40B fitness startup that revolutionized at-home exercise. Carolyn brings us back to 2016 when Peloton had almost no brand awareness and the founders were still struggling to convince the world of their vision to combine fitness hardware, software, and content into one company. She dives into the differences of her marketing roles, starting at an agency and then moving to Pepsico's Mountain Dew division before joining a small, unknown fitness upstart, and reflects on the successes in marketing Peloton, how it rode into the mainstream, and how other companies can apply those lessons. Further, she dropped some awesome career advice throughout the podcast, emphasizing the circuitousness nature of one's career and the perks of starting out at a big company.

I used an audio clip in this interview from an Superbowl ad Carolyn worked on for Mountain Dew Kickstart, and I do not own it.

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Connect with CTB on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyn-tisch-blodgett-661a615/

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