We are so excited to air the 50th episode of Smart People Should Build Things: The Venture for America Podcast with VFA Fellow Founder Mike Wilner! After a summer internship in finance, Mike realized that he wanted to work at a company where he was able to measure his own impact and build up skills that would help him start his own company. When he learned about Venture for America, Mike knew it was the perfect way to achieve his goals. Mike spent his two year VFA fellowship at a startup in Detroit, learning project management from Google and jumping into the areas of the business that needed his attention. At the end of his Fellowship Mike and two other Fellows joined the VFA Accelerator where they co-founded Compass, a company that connects customers to talented freelancers who can help them build a website. The Compass team has spent the past year growing the business while honing their sales techniques and relationship building skills. Listen to our 50th episode to hear about Mike's journey building Compass and why he is responsible for a ban on front row seating at Washington & Lee basketball games.

This week Jeremy sits down with dermatologist, entrepreneur and reality show star, Tabasum Mir to talk about developing her personal brand and founding her skincare line, MirSkin. Tabasum was ambitious from an early age, enrolling in high school at only 12 years old, going on to attend NYU medical school directly after graduating from college. After building up her medical practice for 10 years, Tabasum knew she was ready to build her web presence and start her own skincare line, which caught the attention of Bravo TV producers and landed her a spot on The Singles Project in 2014. Tune in to this week's episode to hear Tabasum's scrappy road to success and why she hasn't relied on her fame to continue building her brand.

In an effort to avoid having to get a "regular" summer job while studying at the University of Texas, Phillip Krim identified companies that would drop ship products that he marketed online so he could make a few bucks. Within no time Phillip was running a $10 million business with 40 employees including his mom, dad and sister! After winding down his college business and dabbling in some other sectors, Phillip met his 4 co-founders at a coworking space and found himself commiserating about the horrible consumer experience purchasing a mattress. Even though he had vowed not to get back into the mattress space, Phillip and his 4 co-founders created Casper, a company disrupting the mattress industry with a proprietary mattress design that ships mattresses direct to consumer in a box the size of a mini fridge. Listen to this week's episode to hear more about Casper's growth and how Phillip and his co-founders have created an awesome company culture.

Mike Rothman built his career at communications and media companies including Digitas, Hachette and Thrillist. After spending 7 years at Thrillist growing the company from $0 to $100m, Mike yearned to go back to the days of wearing many hats while growing a nascent business. Several months after leaving Thrillist, Mike and his co-founder began incubating Fatherly, a parenting resource geared towards men who want to be great fathers without turning into cliches. Fatherly bootstrapped for a year and a half and has raised $2m to date while become the go-to resource for new fathers and even some mothers! Download this week's podcast episode to hear more about Fatherly and how Mike became the godfather to the child of one of his first cold call recipients.

Nadia Boujarwah went to Harvard Business school with the express goal of starting her own company. When she dove into the plus size market for women and saw how underserved this market was, she knew she had discovered her customer. After surveying hundreds of influential bloggers, Nadia co-founded Dia&Co, a company that, based on an online style survey, mails each subscriber a hand-picked box of garments to try on in the comfort of her own home. Today, Dia&Co has over 50 employees and has raised over $6 million. Listen to this week's episode to find out how Nadia and her team are inspiring radical self-acceptance through style and transforming the shopping experience for plus sized women.

Brian Brackeen didn't know he was an entrepreneur until much later in life. He was adopted at an early age by loving parents who supported his decision to drop out of college, leave a big job at Apple, and eventually start his own company. Despite having strong ties to Philly, Brian determined that the cost of living, cost of doing business, and access to capital made Miami the most compelling place to relocate his facial recognition and emotional analysis technology company, Kairos. Kairos is a VFA Company Partner in Miami with strong ties to the Miami entrepreneurial ecosystem. Kairos has managed several acquisitions and has over 9,000 customers around the world across a variety of sectors including medicine, events and retails. Listen to this week's episode to learn more about the fascinating world of facial recognition technology and how Kairos has helped reunite abducted children with their families.

The Agrawal twins are a force to be reckoned with! As each others' self proclaimed biggest cheerleaders, Miki and Radha 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.

This week Jeremy chats with Heather Hartnett and Megan O'Connor of Human Ventures, a startup studio that co-founds and incubates companies in house with exceptional humans. Human Ventures is building and supporting five new companies in their first year (they are a year old this month) and focuses on partnering with individuals who have innate characteristics rather than specific technical skills. Both Heather and Megan have a variety of experiences including backgrounds in the nonprofit space. Listen to this week's episode to learn all about exceptional humans and why Megan and Heather take referrals over resumes

In this episode of Smart People Should Build Things, Jeremy sits down with Avi Millman, Founder & CEO of BobbyPin, a company that has created an easy way to keep track of and share your favorite spots with trusted friends. Avi's first job out of college was at Steve & Barrys, a now defunct retail clothing chain whose training program he likened to a "private version of Venture for America". Just before Steve & Barry's shut its doors for good, Avi went on to do a variety of things including selling Tonic door to door and a brief stint at a small company in the British Virgin Islands. In 2008 Avi co-founded Stray Boots, a mobile scavenger hunt company that gamifies walking tours. Avi is currently in the process of building BobbyPin and candidly shares his progress on this week's episode. Tune in to hear Avi's honest take on growth, experimentation, and walking away from some very cushy situations.

Matt Brimer started his first company selling antique furniture while he was a student at Yale University. If you've been listening to the #vfapodcast this may sound familiar. Matt co-founded Aloysius and General Assembly with previous guest, Brad Hargreaves! Matt has worked on several companies throughout his career, most recently Daybreaker, an alcohol free morning dance party that has gained traction all over the world. Tune in to this week's episode to hear more Matt's varied career and his mission to create more mischief in the world.