Sit Down Startup

Guava is a banking hub for Black entrepreneurs, aimed at closing the wealth gap. CEO & Founder, Kelly Ifill has a virtual coffee chat with Adam about: 

• Authenticity in startups
• Guava’s customer journey
• How they are helping to shrink financial inequality among small business owners

Rapidly expanding Fintech company, Capchase, partners with startups to help them tap into upfront capital in order to grow. Zendesk’s Adam O’Donnell and Capchase CEO & Co-Founder Miguel Fernandez dive into: 

• His personal path to entrepreneurship 
• What it takes for a startup to succeed
• Customer centricity: the importance of action over words
• How Capchase raised over $500mil in equity in one year

Combining seed capital and hands-on support, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator has gained the title of NYC’s top technology accelerator and early-stage venture capital firm. We sat down with serial entrepreneur and ERA Co-Founder, Jonathan Axelrod to talk about: 

• How ERA helps founders learn, fail and succeed faster
• The need for agility and a customer-driven mindset for growth
• Stories of companies that led successful pivots   

Using AI as fuel, Ada equips companies with everything they need to make personalized customer experiences at scale. And all without the help of an engineer. Co-Founder and CEO Mike Murchison takes us behind the scenes of Ada in this discussion about: 

• How to free up live agents and focus on more creative work
• What to look at when building software
• Behavior traits among top leaders

Pachama is on a mission to remove carbon from the atmosphere — with the aim of protecting and restoring forests globally. Through machine learning, the startup monitors carbon capture and finances both conservation and reforestation projects. Zendesk’s Brad Bowery chats with Co-Founder and CEO Diego Saez Gil about:

• How to help companies and consumers navigate carbon removal and offsetting
• The importance of finding solutions to climate change
• Building trust in the marketplace with a long-term approach and patience  

Lang.ai is a no code AI platform designed to help CX teams automate repetitive tasks. This startup is breaking the stereotype that AI is built for engineers by engineers. Zendesk’s Pedro Muller sits down with Co-Founder Jorge Peñalva to discuss: 

• How AI boosts efficiency and prepares companies for the unexpected
• The importance of tagging systems in early stage startups
• Lang.ai’s role in freeing up operators to focus on creativity

In this episode, we reflect on how two startups navigated a rocky year. Our hosts, Pedro Muller and Tara McCann, handpick their favorite moments with past guests from TravelNest and Wavy. Both businesses found unique ways to grow, even during the pandemic. Find out some of their top lessons, including: 

• Switching strategies in times of crisis
• Ways to put your customers first
• How customer experience starts with employee experience

In our first episode recorded on Clubhouse, we invited the Co-Founders of OneSkin onto the show. OneSkin develops products to improve “skinspan”, and was founded by Brazilian entrepreneurs, Alessandra Zonari and Carolina Oliveira. Join their conversation with Zendesk’s Pedro Muller to learn:

• The unique challenges of growing a startup in a new country 
• Creating a business based on a love of science
• How to identify a specific customer profile

Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia is the CEO and Founder of Product School, the global leader in product management training. Since 2014, the community has grown to more than one million people. In this episode, Carlos shares his experiences from the digital product world, in a conversation with Shawna Wolverton, Executive Vice President of Product at Zendesk. Learn about: 

• The bootstrap approach to building a community-centric business 
• The role of a product manager in early stage startups 
• How to best unify the customer experience from product to service  

Christoph is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of performance management platform, Kaizo. An entrepreneur and investor with a passion for ecological innovation, he’s also kicking goals with non-profit City AI, and the revolutionary domain name marketplace DAN.COM. In this episode, Christoph is in conversation with Zendesk’s Pedro Mueller. Find out: 

• Kaizo’s journey in building tools for support heroes
• Best practices for growing in the Zendesk Marketplace—the one-stop shop for apps and integrations
• How to empower support agents to achieve goals