Startup Mindsets

Startup Mindsets

By Dan GonzalesBusinessEntrepreneurship
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Startup Mindsets episodes

  • Serendipity Meets Tech? Clyx CEO - Alyx Van Der Vorm
    Clyx was founded by Alyx while she was at Harvard during the pandemic. She saw that it was hard to hang out with friends because it felt like "having to machine gun text" everyone. Alyx also recalls a moment scrolling on social media thinking why isn't my social life as good as some peers? Their motto STOP SCROLLING START LIVING has catalyzed serendipitous meetups in Miami, Harvard, and Yale University as young people have taken part in the movement. 
    Alyx tells Dan how the team is making this a reality and how she manages the tasks getting Clyx off the ground.
    Find all your friends’ plans in one place by making sure to follow Clyx on social and download the app to try them out.
    33 min
  • Founding Freefuse - Mike Liu on Lessons Along The Way From PhD to SASS Startup

    Mike Liu started freefuse off an idea when a good friend called him about a breakup. Mike wanted to help his friend’s music career and started creating software to do so. Today we learn about how his time at UC Riverside and Texas A&M shaped his career path.


    Register to use FreeFuse and tell them Startup Mindsets sent you. 

    Connect with Mike on Linkedin

    50 min
  • Rami Essaid CEO of Finmark on Being a Serial Entrepreneur, and Financial Modelling for Startups/SMBs
    Happy 4th of July folks! Today's podcast features Rami Essaid, founder of Finmark. 
    Rami had a goal of helping founders have a better sense of what their company's future financial picture looks like. 
    Finmark integrates with your accounting software and CRMs to give a better understanding of current expenses and allows for accurate forecasts of growth. 
    Rami details pitching 120 investors before getting Finmark's first check and eventually raising a seed round with Bessemer Venture Partners and Draper Associates. We also hear about early entrepreneurship tales like selling shoe polish as a kid and creating a startup with friends. 
    If you're a founder tired of managing your financial projections with spreadsheets, sign up for Finmark.
    36 min
  • Being a Lawyer and Entrepreneur- Brian Potts: Partner at Perkins Coie, Founder of Goods Unite Us & Creator of Legal Keyboard
    Brian Potts, partner at and named top 100 lawyers in America at Perkins & Coie, shares what it's like launching multiple products like his own keyboard for lawyers, an ETF called $DEMZ traded on the Nasdaq, writing a book called The Jobless Lawyers Handbook, and accelerating growth for his own startup, Goods Unite Us. 
    I stumbled upon Brian's work on Linkedin when I saw a post he wrote about having 200 job rejections out of law school to becoming a partner at the law firm that once rejected him. I had to reach out to find out the full scoop. As we all know getting rejected from jobs is all too common. In the podcast, Brian details what advice he has for people trying to leap over career hurdles and how he's able to achieve so much in multiple aspects of entrepreneurship. 
    Be sure to check out his book: The Jobless Lawyers Handbook
    Download Goods Unite Us to know where brands donate politically and the $DEMZ ETF on your brokerage. 
    Also feel free to DM Brian about career advice in the legal profession. On Twitter he's @brianhpotts
    Shoutout to Incued for being our sponsor: Experience Data Driven Investor Relations for your VC/PE portfolio
    55 min
  • Thoughts on the Economy, Startups, and Podcast
    We chose to vent on this episode from a personal standpoint. So much is changing we noticed with the economy that affect startups and entrepreneurs. We used this opportunity to do a solo pod to get some motivation out there and to be cognizant of what's going on in the world. 
    Introducing our new startup partner, Incued. If you're at a VC firm and want better investor relations, look no further. Learn more https://incued.com/ 
    The only complete Investor Relations CRM from deal sourcing to portfolio management.
    20 min
  • Mental Health is Wealth: Tamar Blue Founder of Mental Happy YC'18
    Mental Health is talked about more nowadays than ever and we wanted to know why. We have the pleasure of bringing on Tamar Blue Founder/CEO of Mental Happy joins us and guest host Brandon Warren on the podcast today.
    Tamar talks about what led her to create Mental Happy and what truly taking care of your emotional wellness looks like using Mental Happy's platform. We hear how support groups are a solution to people's mental struggles and why they are worth exploring. 
    If you're interested in trying Mental Happy, they have a 14 day free trial and can be found: https://www.mentalhappy.com
    Tamar also tells us how she prioritizes her mental health with the demanding role of CEO of a startup, why the demand for mental health care has risen recently, being part of YCombinator, and where she wants to take the company in the future. 
     Become an investor in Mental Happy for as low as $500 via https://www.startengine.com/mentalhappy
    44 min
  • Invest in Startups via Wefunder with VP of Fundraising Jonny Price
    Welcome back to another amazing episode of Startup Mindsets! Hope your year has been great so far! - Dan
    Investing in startups was traditinally reserved for the rich or people with access to capital such as VCs. But enter Wefunder, founded by Nick Tomarello in 2013 in an apartment in Noe Valley. 
    Today we sit down with Jonny Price VP of Fundraising at Wefunder and learn what it's like helping startups raise Community Rounds, persevering internally at Wefunder despite growth challenges. We also learn more about how the public can invest as low as $100 in startups on the platform. Notable companies who've raised on Wefunder include Mercury, Checkr, and Zenefits to name a few. 
    If you're a startup thinking about a community round, DM Startup Mindsets and we can consult you for free.
    45 min
  • Northstar: Enabling Employee Financial Wellness with Will Peng Founder/CEO

    Our guest today is Will Peng born in Taiwan and immigrating to the U.S. he went to Princeton University. It was at his first job out of college that he realized it was hard to understand compensation packages from his employer on top of his personal challenges around student debt.

    Will's worked at Red Swan Ventures an early investor in Oscar, Warby Parker, Coinbase prior to creating Northstar.  Since 2016 Will has made it his mission by founding Northstar to guide people in their financial journeys. 

    Everyone deserves the best financial advice to make the best decisions for themselves. Employers who use Northstar give their employees access to certified financial planners. There's this unique intersection of financial advice and compensation/benefits from work. 

    We talk about landing top clients like Zoom, Snap, Serviceitan, and Nerdwallet to his first customer in the early days. Will also sheds light on what it was like founding the company doing uncomfortable sales calls and how design and sales are closely related. 




    51 min
  • Bootstrapping and Selling Your Startup for an Exit - MicroAcquire CEO Andrew Gazdecki
    Serial entrepreneur Andrew Gazdecki joins Startup Mindsets to unpack his story of founding startups and leading them to several exits.  Andrew Gazdecki provides an enlightening conversation on how he as a student at Chico State created a majority bootstrapped startup, Bizness Apps, to hit 5 million in revenue and eventually selling it in offer from a private equity firm.  We go over, MicroAcquire's startup marketplace, how he build supply and demand, and when bootstrapping makes sense as a founder.  From selling beanie babies on Ebay to his successful stints creating startups, Andrew's story is proof that hardwork, timing, and doing what you love lead to noteworthy places.   We learn about his new mission of empowering startup founders to achieve liquidity by selling their startups on MicroAcquire's marketplace.  Andrew Gazdecki is a four-time startup founder with three-time exits, former CRO, and founder of MicroAcquire. Gazdecki has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine, as well as prominent industry blogs such as Mashable, TechCrunch, and VentureBeat.
    1 hr 13 min
  • Ukraine Startup Feature: Alyona Mysko CEO of FuelFinance
    Meet Alyona Mysko, CEO of Fuelfinance as she details her experience running a startup while leading her company in the middle of a war. It was humbling to speak to someone going through such a challenging time, we were lost for words trying to fully comprehend the tragedy in Ukraine. 
    Alyona describes working from a bomb shelter and managing a team while trying to move the needle forward as a founder. Alyona talks about the importance of following a mission during a crisis and what's being done to look out for the team as they navigate Russia's attack. 
    If you're a startup exec and want the value a CFO can bring without having to hire one, check out Fuelfinance's product as they were also feature #1 on ProductHunt. 
    Head to Spend with Ukraine to support Ukraine founders and businesses. 
    Follow us on Instagram @startupmindsetspod
    47 min

About Startup Mindsets

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to Startup Mindsets! Dan Gonzales is your host! Each week, we'll dive into how founders across technology and innovation leaders think about running their business and why entrepreneurship is important in today's world. Subscribe & discover your Startup Mindset today!