Somewhat Frank

On this episode of the Somewhat Frank Podcast, Frank Gruber and John "Johnny Goodtimes" Guidos discuss the Washington Nationals historic World Series victory and a brief recap of the 2019 Startup of the Year Summit which was held in Memphis, Tennessee. The discussion was loosely based on the latest newsletter which is shared below.

This past week I was in Washington, D.C. to take in their first World Series since 1933 and to attend the NextGen VP conference. What an electric week to be in the capital city! Congratulations to the Washington Nationals on bringing home the first World Series championship in franchise history as they "finished the fight" with their Game 7 victory last night. Also, congratulations to my regular sleep schedule as I will no longer need to burn the midnight oil to watch these intense games. More sleep is in my future!

We also wrapped the 2019 Startup of the Year program a couple of weeks ago in Memphis by hosting our annual Summit (check out the sizzle reel) where we narrowed thousands of startups to 100 and then to five and then named re:3D the Startup of the Year. Re:3D offers a 3D printer solution that recycles plastics to turn them into 3D printed products large and small. If this company sounds interesting to you, and you'd like to get involved in supporting startups like this one, please let me know.

Celebrating (Friends In My Network)

—Sarah Lacy on selling Pando to Todd Garland of BuySellAds.

—Steve Case, Anna Mason, David Hall, Mary Grove, and the rest of the Rise of the Rest team for their second $150M Rise of the Rest Fund.

—Amanda Slavin on the launch of her book, The Seventh Level: Transform Your Business Through Meaningful Engagement with Your Customers and Employees.

—Chris Cunningham on raising his $10 fund for investing in startups.

Inviting

I'm headed back to Chicago in a couple of weeks to speak at NASA iTech's Ignite the Night CHICAGO event on November 14th. These events are to connect NASA with cutting edge startups and innovators who may have technologies that NASA could leverage in their missions. If you know of any, encourage them to apply by November 4th. And for everyone else, attendance is free.

Reading

We live in public.

—How Photos of Your Kids Are Powering Surveillance Technology

Kids these days are incredible!

—15-Year-Old Scientist Invents Gadget That Detects Pancreatic Cancer In Early Stages

Hugs and cuddles matter.

—Babies Who Are Cuddled More Seem To Have Their Genetics Altered For Years Afterwards

A case for rural communities.

—Why Life Is Better In Countries Economists Hate

Oh my…

—Banks Are Not Able to Handle A Downturn

It's happening.

—Wing, A Google Affiliated Project Is Starting to Make Drone Deliveries

Historic computations.

—Google Claims A Quantum Computer Breakthrough That Could Change The World

Keep moving!

—Study: A surprisingly short period of inactivity can damage your health

Walkability.

—What Happened When Oslo Decided To Make It's Downtown Basically Car Free

Seventy degrees every day could help.

—A Year-Long Roadtrip for 70-Degree Weather

These are delicious.

—What's in an Impossible Burger?

This is inspiring.

—Female Architect Invents Refugee Tents That Collect Rainwater and Store Solar Energy

Fascinating projection maps show what will be underwater in 2050.

—Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows

Happy 50th birthday, Internet!

—The internet was supposed to be a utopia. 50 years on, what happened?

And… Russia is signing off.

—Russia Is About To Disconnect From The Internet: What That Means

We are ALL African!!!

—The ancestral home of all human beings discovered by scientists

Watching

I finally got a chance to watch the film Long Shot with Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron, which premiered at SXSW this past year. I was on a flight somewhere when I saw it, and I laughed out loud to my row neighbors' dissatisfaction.

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Over the past year, electric scooter startups have erupted as the next set of startups with billion-dollar valuations and unicorn status. Companies like Bird, Spin, Lime, and others have taken on large investments from Alphabet, Uber, Lyft and more. The problem that electric scooters are solving is very clear, they are helping ridesharing companies to cut down on the short two to three block trips which cost more to take on with an automobile. They are also providing rideshare companies with more transit data on people moving around cities. Hence the electric scooter has hatched up like cicadas in cities like Austin, Los Angeles, and San Francisco among others. With this new transportation option comes safety challenges as safety equipment like helmets is not provided.

On episode 9 of the Somewhat Frank Podcast, I share my thoughts on the electric scooter startups that have been taking over cities with their offerings. My "Safety Frank" alarms have gone off and I dive into the safety concerns and points to possible solutions like the helmet startup Park and Diamond as well as other safety helmet options. Park and Diamond was a top 5 finalist in the 2018 Startup of the Year program. Listen in as I share my perspectives and offers up a few ideas that are startup opportunities for anyone looking to startup and dive into a hot industry.

Accomplishing the things you want to in life and ultimately being happy can sometimes seem overwhelming. Many people overcomplicate things and end up chasing the wrong things. How do you simplify the pursuit to make sure you accomplish your goals? How do you know you're taking the right approach?

Serial entrepreneur and author Miki Agrawal has a few tips and ideas on how accomplishing your goals as she explained in her first book, Do Cool Sh*t: Quit Your Day Job, Start Your Own Business, and Live Happily Ever After. Miki Agrawal is the co-founder of THINX and hellotushy.com, start-ups collectively valued at more than $150 million. She has a unique perspective on life which has led her to continue to start interesting companies that tackle problems that some may see as taboo topics with innovative solutions – that doesn't slow Miki down.

On episode 8 of the Somewhat Frank Podcast, Frank sits down with Miki Agrawal for a fireside chat in Denver as part of Denver Startup Week presented by Chase for Business. Listen in as Frank and Miki discuss starting up, entrepreneurship, life, and her new book, Disrupt-Her: A Manifesto for the Modern Woman, a rallying cry for women to radically question the status quo.

Innovating at a large corporation or at a government agency can be difficult. It means doing things differently, introducing new concepts and embracing failure. The larger you are, the harder it can be to change the way you do things – even if it's for the better. To combat that, the U.S. Air Force decided to create a new program dedicated to solving some of the toughest problems it faces via collaborations between the nation's top intrapreneurs, industry experts, academic professionals, entrepreneurs, and non-traditional contributors. It's called AFWERX.

On this episode of Somewhat Frank, I talk with his Established counterpart Jen Consalvo about the work that AFWERX is doing to innovate on the United States Air Force "fixed wing helmet" through an open AFWERX Challenge called the Helmet Challenge. We share some highlights of the 30+ innovators that convened in Las Vegas to showcase their solutions which are competing to for contracts to develop an entirely new helmet. Some of the companies we discussed include:

• Bell Racing – Aerospace grade carbon fiber pilot helmet featuring energy absorbing liner with integrated attachments
• Corsair Innovations – Fiber Energy Absorption Material
• Devali – Oumen Air: Helmet-Based Biometric Data Collection
• Hedgemon – Hedgehog-Inspired Impact Protection Liner
• Sempulse – Peak Performance Physiological Solution
• Somatic Labs – Zorb Touch: Haptic Feedback for Helmets
• Sonitus Technologies – Molar Mic
• Specialized – Mindset Micro-Adjustable Size/Volume Fit System
• Vozz Helmets' Go Strapless – Rear entry helmet

I also talk with AFWERX Marketing Director Bobby Mack as he shares some of his thoughts on the challenge and the opportunity for some of the startups and known brands that came together as part of the program.

Listen as I talk with Jen Consalvo to showcase some of the innovators which range from haptics to biometrics to communications and more – part of one on the interesting open innovation programs being done in the U.S. today.

When you travel, especially by air, you have to make some tough packing choices. Usually, my hardest decisions come down to which shoes I'll bring – because you can't bring them all, and they take up a ton of space in my carry on bag. When picking the perfect shoe (or shoes) for travel you have to weigh such factors as weather, length of trip, the purpose of the trip, and travel destination. Not to mention if you are doing anything that might require a special type of shoe, like golfing, hiking, or biking. If you are a frequent air traveler and don't like to check a bag then you probably know this problem well. Many times the purpose of the trip helps to guide my choices but with such an overlap between work and life, the more versatile shoes end up more appealing, but not always the most stylish.

On this episode of Somewhat Frank Podcast, I sit down with my Established partner Jen Consalvo, along with the Think Global team of Steve Haase and Amy Scerra, to talk about this shoe dilemma and the search for the perfect travel shoe. We discuss the shoe startup Allbirds and how they have sprung onto the scene, which almost solves my shoe problem – until summer comes. While they have launched a summer shoe or two, they haven't been easy to secure as demand was higher than production. We also talk about New Balance and Nike as well as another newcomer to the shoe scene, Ross & Snow, who have a number of styles for men and women. But that being said, there's still not a single shoe that can do it all. Or is there?

Have you had this same shoe dilemma? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

Over the past couple weeks (and I'm sure many others) I have had to fight the urge to send out tweets expressing my opinions on the latest happenings. While I support "freedom of speech" some of these tweets may have been offensive, so I went with the age-old saying:

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

I'll be sure to make an impact in other ways (e.g., November elections are coming). That said, I'm sure we've all sent tweets we've had second thoughts about later. Or you've decided not to send a tweet only to file it into a note on your phone never to see the light of the Internet. Enter Brizzly, the website for getting thoughts out of your head by sending them into the ether. My old friend and longtime product leader Jason Shellen created the site recently as he resurrected Brizzly from its early social web past.

In addition to his strong product leadership experience, Jason Shellen is an entrepreneur. He built and sold Brizzly which was previously a third-party Twitter and Facebook interface. It was unveiled at one of TechCrunch's events in 2009 and was acquired by AOL in 2010. Shellen went on to run AIM at AOL until moving on to work for Pinterest and then leading products at Slack. In that time he stayed in touch with his friends at AOL and eventually got an opportunity to buy back the brand. So today you can go to Brizzly and post whatever is on your mind only to never be seen by anyone.

Aside from Brizzly, Shellen recently shared a very personal blog post about his struggles with chronic pain. He's had a long road to get to this point of sharing – it was a journey that had some very dark moments. We're glad to hear he is on the upswing and appreciate his honesty as I think it will help others also suffering from similar chronic pain.

I should also mention, pain management startups are of interest to me. That's why I loved Oska Wellness our 2017 Startup of the Year so much. They've created the Oska Pulse, a pain relief machine to help others with this struggle. Their non-drug approach uses Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (PEMF) to boost the body's ability to repair injured cells to relieve all types of pain.

So take a listen to episode 5 of the Somewhat Frank Podcast as I talk with Jason Shellen about both his chronic pain and buying back his old company Brizzly to relaunch it. This interview was done over the internet so apologies if my audio has a slightly more reverb and "voice of God" quality. We're only on episode 5, so we're still working out the initial kinks, and we'll get better with time, so appreciate you hanging in there. I hope you enjoy this episode with product leader and entrepreneur Jason Shellen.

As a kid growing up in the rural Midwest surrounded by cornfields, I was well supplied with lumber and the tools necessary to create things with that lumber. So, as soon as I saw Marty McFly in Back to the Future turn a handmade wooden scooter into a skateboard, I was hell-bent on creating my own skateboard by hand. I spent countless weekends carving a 1×6 board into the right shape for a skateboard and hours searching for the right rollerskate to disassemble and add to the bottom of my platform. It didn't quite work as expected. I was not a very good skateboard maker or skateboarder, but I enjoyed the process and created my own product from scratch with "Skate or Die" as my battle cry.

So you might understand how elated I was when I got a chance to talk with skateboard legend and maker Tony Hawk about how he blazed his own path. His story is very different than mine but our themes and passions were aligned so many years ago – he just did it better. Quite a bit better.

Take a listen at this quick interview with skateboard legend, philanthropist and entrepreneur Tony Hawk on the latest episode of Somewhat Frank, where he shared how to blaze your own path. I caught up with Tony Hawk in Las Vegas where he was speaking at an accounting conference. We were connected by the great team behind the Chase Ink credit card.

Sometimes I feel like we are living in a Neal Stephenson novel with companies like Amazon making it's so darn easy to flip through their app on your phone, ordering whatever you need and having it arrive almost instantly (or at least within a few hours). It's amazing. Remember, it was not too long ago that you'd have to run from store to store searching for an item! Now your "wild goose chases" can happen right from your glowing 4 inch screen. That said, when I'm shopping and there are a bunch of similar products out there I find myself relying heavily on reviews as my guide to finding the best product. I've spent hours looking at reviews and deliberating.

After chatting one day with my friend Matt Hirschmann of Lucid Creative, a D.C. area based full-service design firm, about Amazon, we hit upon a really important topic; the legitimacy of reviews. There was a time that we felt pretty confident referencing the number of reviews with the strength of the review to make a quick decision. But spoiler: bad apples are ruining this for all of us. There are services out there that specifically help get your product positive reviews on Amazon – good for the products, bad for consumers. In this episode, Matt shares his latest insights with me as we try to save the Amazon review system by offering up a potential startup idea for anyone willing to take it on.

We recorded this episode from a pool in Key West, Florida while on brief summer holiday, so you may hear a pool waterfall or a bird chirping in the background. Please don't try this at home, you'll never sound as good as a bird and you could drop your recording gear. Not to mention, you'll want to strive for better work life balance.

Sunshine and beaches might be first thing you think of when you think of the Tampa Bay, Florida region. And rightly so, it's gorgeous and has a handful of the top beaches in the country if not the world. But there's more than crystal clear ocean water in the upcoming startup community. Tampa is a rising city for starting and running a business but is coupled with a solid work, live, and play lifestyle.

On this episode of Somewhat Frank, I talk with Lakshmi Shenoy the CEO of innovation hub in Tampa Bay, Florida about her newly launched initiative called Embarc Collective. Embarc Collective was spearheaded by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, and it continues to garner support from others in the community under Shenoy's leadership. Embarc Collective will be located just north of the Water Street Tampa neighborhood in downtown Tampa, where Vinik has partnered with Cascade Investment, LLC to transform the area into an urban, mixed-use waterfront district. As a central physical hub for the region as it will bring together startup companies, venture capitalists, academic resources, and startup-focused partners to help open opportunities, inspire iteration, push progress, and put Tampa Bay on the map as a prime destination for diverse startup talent both locally and globally – and did I mention the beaches?

Find out what's behind Embarc Collective, from the CEO herself as she asks the community for feedback via a survey as a guide to helping the Tampa Bay startup ecosystem.

Have you ever asked Apple's Siri for a hand with something only to find yourself doing more work to try to get what you're looking for? We've all have been there. Artificial intelligence is not quite as intelligent as a scene from the popular HBO series Westworld yet.

I recently had a situation where I asked Siri to call my "Gym" via my Apple Watch and AirPods. Siri kept trying to call "Jim Bankoff" the CEO from Vox Media and could not figure out how to find the "Gym". Finding my way to the gym has also been an issue for me as of late but in all fairness it was insulting for my Apple Watch to point this out. And… I was out for a run while asking Siri for this help with this phone call to the gym. So I think that counts for something.

Side note to Jim Bankoff:

Hi Jim,

Apologies, I didn't mean to have Siri dial you repeatedly, as I breathed heavily and possibly swore like a sailor at Siri. If any of my calls actually did go through, I'm sorry. That said, I do hope you're doing well and having a great summer. We should catch up. Are you headed to Maine or Las Vegas anytime soon? 🙂

Thanks, Frank

On this episode of Somewhat Frank, I sit down over breakfast in Tampa Bay, Florida with the Established team of Jen Consalvo and Joe Corbett to discuss the serious Apple's Siri and how it works or sometimes doesn't work the way we all expected.