Nancy Lublin feels very strongly about law school - "it's where ideas go to die". Yet NYU Law School is exactly where she came up with the idea for Dress for Success, now a global nonprofit that promotes the economic independence of women by providing professional attire and career support. When Nancy turned 30 and Dress for Success was thriving, she left to join DoSomething.org to help them survive at a time when their existence was touch and go. While at DoSomething.org Nancy's team began using text messages to reach their constituents. Unexpectedly people began texting back about their personal problems, some of which were very harrowing. After receiving a particularly harrowing message from a young woman, Nancy conceived the idea for Crisis Text Line which provides free crisis intervention via text message 24 hours a day every day. According to Nancy, Crisis Text Line is more than a nonprofit- it's a tech company problem solving through products, not people. Today, Crisis Text Line engages with thousands of crisis counselors and has fielded tens of millions of text messages since 2013. Tune in this week to learn how Crisis Text Line is using AI to help people in need.

This week we are thankful for all of the badass women out there changing the world through entrepreneurship. We're bringing back this interview with the Agrawal sisters who have worked together on a number of interesting businesses including: Wild, a farm fresh, gluten free pizza restaurant, Super Sprowtz, a children’s nutrition education program that harnesses the power of storytelling, music and the arts to educate and inspire children to be more active and choose healthier foods to fuel their bodies, and Thinx, a patent-pending, leak-resistant, stain-resistant, anti-microbial and moisture-wicking pair of underwear for women dealing with their periods, to name a few. This episode just skims the surface of all the Agrawal sisters have accomplished and what is on the horizon. Download now for the rundown on all of their companies and hear about how the Agrawals aim to build communities and break taboos.

Dane Atkinson is a serial entrepreneur with lots of great stories to share. We're bringing his interview back this week as part of our "Best of" tag. Dane was the COO of a company at the age of 18, owned a bar in Williamsburg for 3 years, and was the CEO of Squarespace from 2007-2011, among many other things. Today Dane is working on his company SumAll, which democratizes data and analytics for small businesses, pulling from over 40 platforms and synthesizing the data in a simple visualization tool.

We're bringing back and oldie, but a goodie! Listen to our interview with Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Co-Founder of Gilt Groupe and current CEO of Glamsquad, an on-demand, app-based beauty provider delivering professional and affordable hair, makeup and nails services to your home, office, hotel, or wherever you may be. Alexandra gives Jeremy the inside scoop on what she learned while building Gilt Groupe and what's it's like to be the matriarch of the "Glam Fam" at Glamsquad.

Ben Uyeda has always been a builder. From building swords out of car suspension leaf springs as a child to starting an architecture firm directly out of college, his passion for design has been motivated by necessity and accessibility. Ben’s first company, Free Green, creates free energy-efficient house plans and HomeMade Modern, his DIY resource for homemade furniture, gives the average person the skills to build something of their own. When he’s not creating businesses, Ben’s a teacher at Northeastern University, a real estate developer, a startup advisor, and much more. Tune into this week’s episode to hear how Ben created such a thoughtfully and personally driven career path and how he almost went into martial arts full-time.

In this episode Jeremy Shinewald, along with guest host Miles Lasater, interviews Dan Porter - former teacher and CEO of Teach for America, serial entrepreneur, and current Board Member of Venture for America. Dan may be most well known for serving as the CEO of OMGPOP, where he created Draw Something, an app that had over 100 million downloads and is one of the most downloaded games ever in the history of the iPhone. Dan sold OMGPOP to Zynga for $180 million in 2012. Listen to Dan tell his story and how he landed his current role as Head of Digital at William Morris Endeavor.

Olga Vidisheva was born in Kyrgyzstan and moved to the US to attend Wellesly College. Her story is the quintessential 'American Dream'. Olga learned english while working in a Japanese retaurant (of all places!) and put herself through college by modeling. While she was at Harvard Business School Olga discovered her passion for boutiques and saw an opportunity to help small clothing stores develop a digital presence. Enter Shoptiques.com, a website that started with only 25 stores and now represents thousands of boutiques across the globe. Download this week's episode to hear about Olga's journey and what it was like to be accepted to Y Combinator as the first single non-technical founder.

Martin Keen comes from a long line of craftsman. Martin's father was known to build furniture and both his father and grandfather made shoes. It is no surprise that Martin followed in their footsteps. After going to industrial design school and experiencing many injuries in a sailboat, Martin designed a sandal with protective toe gear for sailors. His successful design led to the creation of Keen Footwear, a company that still exists today. While Martin was working as a designer and a consultant for other companies, he realized that his creativity suffered when he was sedentary. He began tinkering in his barn and built an upright seat device that kept him energized by correcting his posture. The first prototype was created in 1995 but Martin didn't launch Focal Upright until 2012. Today Martin and his wife, Mary (who appears as a surprise guest in this episode!), continue to build Focal Upright Furniture with the help of Venture for America Fellows. In total, Focal has hired 6 Fellows and continues to be an amazing partner to VFA. Tune in to this week's episode to learn more about Martin's journey from shoe designer to furniture designer and why standing isn't the answer.

This week Jeremy sits down with Jon Stein, Founder & CEO of Betterment, an automated investing service that helps clients better manage and grow their wealth through smarter technology for a fraction of the cost of traditional financial services. Download this week's episode to hear Jon's journey as a Columbia Business School grad passionate about using technology to better align customers with their financial institutions and why the New York Times named Betterment one of the next "startup unicorns".

Ellen is a remarkable young woman who spotted a problem in her home country, Malawi; women have fewer opportunities for education which limits their employment opportunities and keeps them homebound for most of their adult lives. Inspired by one of Mohammed Yunus's books, and the example her mother had set as an evolving entrepreneur, Ellen knew she wanted to help Malawian women to start their own businesses. After attending the Global Changemakers Global Youth Summit at just 18 years old, Ellen raised enough money to start Tiwale. Tiwale began as a microloan program and has grown into a center for entrepreneurship for women in Malawi. Today Ellen is finishing her senior year at Mount Holyoke College while managing Tiwale from afar and setting up her team for long term sustainability. Download this week's podcast to hear Ellen's remarkable story and what happened when she presented famous musician, Bono, with an award that he gave right back to her.