Magic Minds

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

Today's episode is with Ben Witte. He's the founder and CEO of Recess. You might not have heard of Ben or Recess but it is perhaps the fastest-growing beverage in the country over the last year.

You can go to www.takearecess.com to check out their product which is amazingly well done from the brand to the taste of the drinks.

I often have a weird quirky drink that I share with a guest on each episode and Recess was one of the first. I remember Justin Kan loved it so much that he asked for some afterward.

It is a CBD drink, that is for me, instead of having a beer at night or Saturday afternoon or day drinking, just have a Recess.

I really love the taste more than anything else and second to that is the brand, and the kind of universe that Ben has designed around the drink. If you go check out their site or their Instagram, you'll see what I mean. It's really unique.

I think what's most interesting about the conversation is that Ben is about a year into the journey. This isn't a conversation of someone that's 10 years on the other side of multiple exits. He's right in the middle of it and shares openly what it's like. It's a different type of below the line perspective, from a creators vantage point that is currently in it all.

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

Today’s episode is with Vlad Magdalin, co-founder and CEO of Webflow. We sat down and chatted about his insane story of failure that spanned for 15 years before getting it right, his early experiences that shaped him as a founder, and what he thinks about that he rarely gets a chance to talk about.

Webflow raised $75 million from investors a few months ago and was one of the largest Series A's of the last few years. We talked about the debt he went into financially and personally, including with the most important of co-founders, his spouse, almost ten years before this milestone.

He shared with us what he thinks about today as a leader, and we also talked about the r-word (religion!) openly and publicly! It's an in-depth conversation, and it is one of my favorites to date. I think you're going to enjoy this very different kind of conversation and founder story.

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

Today on the program, we've got Sarah Tavel. She’s a venture capitalist at the legendary and enigmatic venture capital firm, Benchmark Capital, which is one of the most renowned firms in the world.

We covered a whole range of topics like, how her partners work together, how she chooses an investment, examples of what made her pass and then later invest in a company that she now loves, and the dynamics with a founder in that situation.

We talked about the Gartner Hype Cycle and its implications for what the psychological journey in creation is like, whether it's launching a new company or launching a new feature. We also talked about the stories that have helped shape who she has become (and what has made her so damn impressive). Listen in for all this and more.

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

Today's episode is another deep-dive (meaning it's a little bit different than the regularly scheduled episodes), and it is with a founder, Diego.

This was recorded as we met and chatted about his startup.

About three minutes into meeting / him pitching me his company, I said, “Hey, hold on, hold on. Could we record this? Could we actually sit down and record this as a podcast episode and just release it to the world so that people could see what it was like to have an angel investor coffee.”

Many people think that these things are like a shark tank pitch — and that it's adversarial or that the investor sits there wanting to poke holes to fluster the founder.

But for angel investors and very early stage investors, even through series A or B investors, they want people to understand that they're not trying to poke holes to try to undermine the founder or try to catch them in a crazy scenario. Great investors want to imagine what the world could be like with that founder. That was what I loved about my favorite angel investors, like Naval Ravikant or Sean Parker, and it's how I approach meeting with founders as well.

So I thought, “Man, I've never come across an actual investor founder conversation. recorded before so I would love to record this” and because of time and not wanting to condense the coffee down to around 30 minutes that day, I invited him to do this episode with the right podcast equipment the next day. Diego was really kind enough to do this and to allow it to go out into the world publicly.

This was recorded six months ago because he asked for it not to be released until they had formally launched their company, Panchama. You can read about their eventual public launch here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/03/pachama-launches-to-support-global-reforestation-through-carbon-markets/

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

Today's episode is another deep-dive (meaning it's a little bit different than the regularly scheduled episodes), and it is with a founder, Diego.

This was recorded as we met and chatted about his startup.

About three minutes into meeting / him pitching me his company, I said, “Hey, hold on, hold on. Could we record this? Could we actually sit down and record this as a podcast episode and just release it to the world so that people could see what it was like to have an angel investor coffee.”

Many people think that these things are like a shark tank pitch — and that it's adversarial or that the investor sits there wanting to poke holes to fluster the founder.

But for angel investors and very early stage investors, even through series A or B investors, they want people to understand that they're not trying to poke holes to try to undermine the founder or try to catch them in a crazy scenario. Great investors want to imagine what the world could be like with that founder. That was what I loved about my favorite angel investors, like Naval Ravikant or Sean Parker, and it's how I approach meeting with founders as well.

So I thought, “Man, I've never come across an actual investor founder conversation. recorded before so I would love to record this” and because of time and not wanting to condense the coffee down to around 30 minutes that day, I invited him to do this episode with the right podcast equipment the next day. Diego was really kind enough to do this and to allow it to go out into the world publicly.

This was recorded six months ago because he asked for it not to be released until they had formally launched their company, Panchama. You can read about their eventual public launch here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/03/pachama-launches-to-support-global-reforestation-through-carbon-markets/

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

Today's episode is with Kamal Ravikant, the author of the best selling books “Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It”, “Live Your Truth”, and “Rebirth”.

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It”, a self -published book that became a phenomenon (selling over 400,000 copies world-wide, all without a publisher), is now reprinted, updated, and re-released this month. If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it.

This episode talks about where Kamal was in his life right before writing the book, the stories that shaped him, and his experiences that then shaped what became “Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It”.

There’s a phenomenal message within the book, and it might sound like you've heard something like this story before — or that it is just another book in the self-help section — but this one is really special, and you'll get to hear a little bit of why during this episode.

So go check it out after listening to this episode. It is very rare for a self-published book to become a best-seller that sold over 400,000 copies. And it can only happen if the book’s message resonates so strongly with people (like it did with me and like it has with others around me here in San Francisco).

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

Today's episode is another deep dive with Dr. Peter Carnochan, who the coach to some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. He spent 25+ years as a psychologist and psychoanalyst before becoming an executive coach.

I love getting Peter's key takeaways from the psychological side of things from recent guests. So today we covered Dr. Andrew Weil’s episode and the topic of death, Paul Austin on psychedelics, Cal Fussman on storytelling, Ann Miura-Ko on investing, Joseph Emmett on yoga for the intellect, Justin Kan on the inner journey of being a founder and creator, and many other areas where Peter shared his insights. Enjoy.

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC.

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

Today's episode is with an anonymous guest. We're going to call him John Doe. John and I talked about the “below the line” version of the story of being a police officer. We also covered what has changed in San Francisco, some for the better, some for the worse, over the years.

There's no doubt there are many good things that have happened in San Francisco in the last few decades. There are also some really strange and unfortunate things in his estimation, and we talked about the root causes of that in his opinion. As a life-long San Franciscan, who has seen the underbelly while living here for 50+ years, it’s a fascinating take on the city. We also covered why he became a police officer in the first place, what he didn't expect to see and experience, and a whole lot more.

This is one of the most interesting conversations we've had on the podcast. And we certainly talked about a world you don't get to hear much about — So I think you're going to enjoy this one.

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author

Today we have another deep dive and this one is a really hot topic in the startup ecosystem and yet so little is written, discussed, researched, and talked about when it comes to how to build marketplace businesses.

You can email James questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC.