Studying Success

In today’s episode, we are joined by Frank Licea, founder and CTO at Howdy, the service that allows US tech companies to hire and manage software developers in Latin America. Beginning as a Y-Combinator students, Frank Licea and his co-founder, CEO Jacqueline Samira, have grown Howdy from an idea to a $105M valuation. In this episode, we discuss how Frank and his co-founder built Howdy’s network of software engineers, how Y-Combinator influenced his startup process, and what insights the Y-Combinator experience gave Howdy and Frank. Stick around to the end to hear what Y-Combinator thinks is the biggest cause of company deaths, and it’s not a bad business strategy. 

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In today’s episode, we are joined by Elie Seidman. Elie is the interim CEO of Fast Growing Trees where he is leading the scale up. Elie is the former CEO of Tinder where he led Tinder’s hyper growth scale-up and internationalization with revenue growth from $350M/year to $1.3B/year. Prior to Tinder, he was the CEO of OkCupid where he led a turnaround - focused on reinventing the product and brand. Elie also sponsored and co-led Match Group’s acquisition of Hinge. 

Before OkCupid and Tinder, Mr. Seidman was an entrepreneur for 15 years. In 2007, he founded Oyster, an online travel business acquired by TripAdvisor in late 2013. At the start of his career, Elie was the co-founder and CEO of Epana, a telecom and money remittance business that he led through hyper growth. 

He is a member of the Advisory Board of Cove Hill Partners, L.P., a private equity fund. He has previously served as an advisor at both General Atlantic Partners and Lime Rock Partners. He is a member of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University.

Elie received his BSE in Materials Science Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an active supporter of Penn’s school of engineering where he has lectured on entrepreneurship and leadership. 

In this episode, we discuss Elie’s biggest learnings from his time at Fast Growing Trees, the keys to Tinder’s fast growth, Elie’s philosophy on consumer marketing, and how Elie was able to make Tinder an international brand. Stick around to the end to hear Elie’s advice for young people who want to be successful in business. 

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Es un honor tener mi primer podcast en español con alguien tan impresionante e inteligente como Peter Lozano Alcolea. Peter es el cofundador de Imascono, una empresa que ayuda a otras empresas con su transformación digital mediante tecnologías como la realidad virtual y la inteligencia artificial. Después de tener una carrera destacada en el fútbol, jugando para el Real Zaragoza, sufrió una lesión que puso fin a su carrera profesional. No obstante, justo después, fundó Imascono, que en ese momento era una empresa que vendía ropa profesional. Sin embargo, después de conocer a su cofundador, cambió la orientación de su empresa para enfocarse en la realidad extendida. Ahora, Imascono cuenta con clientes como Adidas, Disney y Marvel, y gracias a su trabajo en Imascono, Peter ha sido reconocido como una de las 100 personas más creativas en los negocios por Forbes. Hoy hablaremos sobre su experiencia como jugador profesional de fútbol, cómo fundó Imascono y cuáles son las cosas más importantes a tener en cuenta al hacer marketing. 

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In this episode, we are joined by Piers Thackray, founder and CEO at Theone, the AI content creator and manager for businesses. After seeing his mother work tireless hours trying to promote her different small businesses, Piers wanted to build a solution that would help smaller businesses with the marketing. So, after founding and building a marketing agency when he was just 19 years old, Piers started his new venture, Theone. In this episode, we discuss actionable steps for building a superstar startup team, how Piers was able to validate the idea for Theone before launching, and the marketing strategy responsible for $100k in pre-orders after just one week. 

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In today’s episode, we are joined by Matt Pru, co-founder and managing partner at Stackmatix, the startup and scaling growth partner. Prior to co-founding Stackmatix, Matt was the Head of Sales at MightyHive which he helped grow from 10 to more than a hundred employees and which ultimately sold to S4 Capital for $150M. In addition, Matt has worked as a startup advisor to a number of companies including a company called MovingLake, a YCombinator startup. In this episode, we discuss how Matt ran a $30M sales operation at MightyHive, how Matt built Stackmatix, and the tactics Stackmatix uses to grow a startup’s sales. Stick around to the end to hear what most startups get wrong and how Matt suggests to fix this. 

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For our 30th episode, I am honored to be joined by the Amanda Hesser, Founder and Executive Chair at the Food52, the online culinary community. After working at the New York Times as a food reporter, writer and editor, and columnist, Ms. Hesser felt that she was missing something in her life – entrepreneurship. Shortly after leaving the New York Times, Ms. Hesser used an advance on a book that she was writing to launch Food52. Now, 14 years later, Ms. Hesser discusses with us how she built a customer experience, what she thinks the key to Food52’s growth was, and what she would do differently if she were to start all over again. Stick around to the end to Ms. Hesser’s biggest takeaways from her startup journey with Food52. 

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Today, we are joined by Abby Miller Levy, Managing Partner and Founder at Primetime Partners. After realizing the lack of opportunities for retired people when her father retired, Abby set out to build a business or businesses to give retired people a more vibrant and healthy life. After writing out several business plans, Abby realized that she would not be able to start all of these businesses herself, and pivoted to thinking about starting a venture fund. Partnering with her co-founder, Alan Patricof, the two founders launched Primetime Partners, a venture fund dedicated to investing in early stage companies that cater to older adults. Prior to Primetime Partners, Abby was a senior executive at SoulCycle and the co-founder of Thrive Global which she started with Arianna Huffington. In this episode, we discuss how the startup industry for older adults is a growing and exciting industry, how Abby started Primetime Partners, and what Abby looks for when she invests in startups. Stick around to the end to hear Abby's advice for those looking to do big things in business. 

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In this episode, we are joined by Paul Hedrick, Founder and Executive Chairman at Tecovas. In 2015, after having worked more traditional business roles at private Equity firm L Catterton and consulting firm McKinsey, Paul took the leap to build the direct to consumer, western-style boot brand, Tecovas. After launching the original Shopify store in 2015, Tecovas has sold at least one boot everyday, and has grown into a 9 figure boot empire with almost 30 stores nationwide. Today Paul tells us how Tecovas went from a small boot shop located in the back of Paul’s Toyota Forerunner to the massive brand that it is today and what advice he would have for those trying to build a brand and a customer experience. 

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Today we are joined by Kathryn Cavanaugh, founder and managing partner at Capstar Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage startups. In this episode we discuss how Kathryn raised the first fund for Capstar, what it was like to go through COVID with Capstar, and what Kathryn looks for in founders. Stick around to the end to hear Kathryn’s advice for anyone looking to pursue a career in VC.

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In this episode we are joined by Brian O’Malley, Managing Partner at Forerunner, a venture capital firm that invests in consumer businesses such as Away, Chime, and Glossier. In this episode, we discuss what businesses make Brian most excited to invest, how to market to the consumer, and Brian’s biggest challenges both as a VC and at Forerunner. 

Please subscribe to Studying Success to hear more from the best entrepreneurs and investors!

Also check out our website at www.studyingsuccesspodcast.com.

And follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube – @studyingsuccesspodcast