Our Future Podcast

In #43, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss the founders of Halla and DeepScribe. Founded by mid-twenties entrepreneurs Henry Michaelson, Spencer Price, and Gabriel Nipote, Halla is the only human preference engine built for groceries. In other words, the trio raised $10M to build a white-labelled recommendation algorithm that powers the e-commerce storefronts of some of the world's largest grocery chains. A few months ago, Halla was acquired by Wynshop for an undisclosed amount. Next up is DeepScribe, an AI-powered clinical documentation platform started by Akilesh Bapu and Matthew Ko which has saved doctors millions of minutes taking notes when treating patients. The company has raised over $35M from investors like Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and Figma CEO Dylan Field.

0:00 Intro

01:14 Story of Halla

18:04 Story of DeepScribe

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In #42, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss the founders of Swimply and Distribute. Founded by 25-year-old Bunim Laskin, Swimply has raised $50M to be the "Airbnb for Pools". So far the platform has served over 1M bookings across three countries and is now expanding into other categories like pickleball courts. Next up is Andy Mewborn, who built and sold a Linkedin SaaS tool called Taplio within 9 months of launching and has now raised millions for Distribute, a software platform best described as Canva for GTM teams. Andy has raised millions to shrink the GTM tech stack and mash multiple different products into one killer platform.

00:00 Intro

0:42 Story of Swimply

16:14 Story of Distribute

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In #41, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss the founders of LANDED and Krepling. Founded by Vivian Wang, Landed is a recruitment platform helping fast food and retail establishments hire top-notch hourly workers faster and cheaper. So far, the platform has raised over $7M and counts 700K+ users as well as clients like Taco Bell and Chick-Fil-A. Next up is Krepling, which was started by two brothers in their early 20's, Liam (23) and Travis Gerada (20). The duo is behind no-code e-commerce software which solves for the increasing engineering complexities sellers face past the $5M revenue mark. So far they've raised $3.3M and were doing $1.7M ARR in August 2023.

0:00 Intro

0:40 Story of LANDED

19:20 Story of Krepling

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In #40, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss the founders of Zette and Vizcom. Founded by 28-year-old Yehong Zhu, Zette is best described as "Netflix for News". By installing the Zette chrome extension and paying a monthly subscription, users can bypass the article paywall on over 100+ publisher sites including Forbes. So far, Yehong has raised $2.7M+ for the company, including a recent 7-figure crowdfunding round. Next up is Vizcom, which was started by 28-year-old co-founders Jordan Taylor and Kaelan Richards. Best described as Figma for industrial designers, Vizcom is an AI-powered software that helps industrial designers at companies like Ford and New Balance use a mixture of drawing and generative AI to make the process of creating innovative mock-ups and product designs more efficient. The company recently raised a $20M Series A which included investors like Index Ventures and Figma co-founder Dylan Field.

0:00 Intro

01:27 Story of Zette

19:07 Story of Vizcom

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Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

#business #startups #podcasts

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In #39, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss the founders of Atmos and Reframe. Backed by Sam Altman, YC, and Khosla Ventures with a recent $12.5M Series A, Atmos's young co-founders (led by 25-year-old CEO Nick Donahue) are helping Americans build a custom home from scratch without spending millions. The next company discussed was started by Vedant Pradeep, the 27-year-old co-founder behind Reframe, an app valued at over $300M. 91% of Reframe's 3M users reduced their alcohol intake within their first 3 months of subscribing.

0:00 Intro

02:18 Story of Atmos

19:28 Story of Reframe

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

#business #startups #podcasts

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In #37, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss the founders of Sweetspot and Bluedot. YC-backed Sweetspot is bringing AI to the complex and outdated world of government contract discovery and bidding. Last year, the U.S. allocated over $765B to government contracts and Sweetspot is helping businesses earn more work from Uncle Sam. Next up is Bluedot, an EV charging app and fintech company backed with $7M from investors like Ford and Porsche that offers EV owners a flat rate at charging stations if they pay through Bluedot's debit card. Other features include discounts and rewards to restaurants and shops located near the charging station.

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

#business #startups #podcasts

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In #37, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Spencer Scott (@AKASpencerScott). Getting his start working his way up sales at a telecom company, Spencer quit the corporate grind to become a 7-figure, non-technical bootstrapped SaaS founder, building sales software platform Loup and scaling screen-sharing tool Median after purchasing it on MicroAcquire. More recently, Spencer has made waves as the founder of Lone Star Trash, a waste management service he started after witnessing private equity ruin the service quality of his Dallas neighborhood’s trash collection operator. Applying the same scrappy tactics that helped him grow his software startups, Spencer bought a trash truck and bootstrapped a profitable waste management operation from day one.

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

#business #startups #podcast

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In #36, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Whop and EasyA. Started by 25-year-olds Jack Sharkey, Steven Schwartz, and Cameron Zoub - Whop is "Etsy for Digital Products" - and has raised $17M from investors like Peter Thiel and James Harden. The platform has facilitated $300M of transactions for software tools, community memberships, and courses developed by an army of young hustlers pushing internet products. Next up is EasyA, a mobile app built by brothers Phil and Dom Kwok who are in their mid-twenties, that is best described as "Duolingo for Web3". The app has over 750K users who use it to learn how to build applications on various blockchain platforms like Solana and Polkadot. The startup's unique B2B2C model and hackathon strategy generates millions a year in revenue.

0:00 Intro

1:00 Story Of Whop

19:47 Story of EasyA

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

#business #startups #podcast

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In #35, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Myko AI and Lula. Started by Trevor Lee and Zheng Li, Myko has raised $2.7M from investors like Khosla Ventures to create conversational AI for sales teams. Myko syncs across all the software in a revenue organization and can surface key metrics and insights via text prompts with the ability to then execute actions based off those data points. Next up is Lula, an insurtech startup founded by two 27-year-old twins, Matthew and Michael Vega-Sanz. They built a car sharing startup for college campuses before pivoting to build "stripe for insurance," with their first market being rental car companies and trucking fleets. The co-founders claim they're on the path to $100M in revenue in the next year and recently raised a $35.5M Series B.

0:00 Intro

1:00 Story of Myko AI

22:30 Story of Lula

28:50 Michael and Simmy Brainstorm An Insurance Business

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

#business #startups #podcast

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In #34, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss Slope Pay and Rogo. Slope has raised a whopping $187M in funding led by Sam Altman to digitize B2B payments with a focus on bringing buy-now-pay-later mechanics to invoicing and was started by late twenties co-founders Alice Deng and Lawrence Lin Murata. Next up is Rogo, a fintech software setting its sights on beating Bloomberg with a platform best described as “ChatGPT for Finance”. Led by 25-year-old CEO Gabriel Stengel, the company has raised $7M from investors like Kevin Ryan’s AlleyCorp and has signed numerous deals with PE firms, hedge funds, and banks.

0:00 Intro

1:17 Story of Slope Pay

14:30 Story of Rogo 

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

#business #startups #podcast

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