Tech Startup Network Podcast with Ashley DiBiase

As Platform Manager of Innovation Works (IW), Jordan Marinkovich supports the growth of software, hardware and health-tech startups throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania. She has a passion for creating innovative, equitable opportunities and a community of support to advance entrepreneurs to their next stage of growth. Jordan works closely with IW’s portfolio companies to help them leverage resources and networks to promote their growth and profitability. Prior to overseeing IW’s Platform offerings, Jordan worked in marketing and communications across several industries including legal, non-profit, and healthcare fields.

Jordan serves as the Co-President of getWITit Pittsburgh and is an active member of VC Platform, V.I.A (Venture.Influence.Ambition) and the Old Girls Club. In her free time, she enjoys mentoring with the Pittsburgh Tech Council’s L.A.U.N.C.H program which supports high school girls interested in STEM careers.

Jordan, her husband, and daughter live in the North Hills of Pittsburgh and enjoy spending their time exploring the city and traveling.

Jordan holds a BS from Carlow University and an MBA from Point Park University.

During this episode, we discuss:

• Jordan’s role at Innovation Works and what the organization does
• Why Pittsburgh is an underrated startup hub
• Her focus on post-investment founder support
• The importance of community
• Why being coachable and deeply obsessed with the customer is important
• What Innovation Works offers
• Jordan’s own path into venture capital

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things venture and economic development!

Rebecca Pino, MBA, BFA™, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Inertia and the Founder of Money Her Way. As a financial advisor and behavioral coach, she is deeply committed to empowering people through financial literacy and behavior-based financial planning. With a background in wealth management and a passion for simplifying money, Rebecca helps people understand their money relationships, build confidence, gain clarity, and create lifelong financial independence.

During this episode, we discuss:

• How Rebecca originally never wanted to go into finance
• The way behaviors impact finance
• Inertia’s “Duolingo for finance” component
• How Inertia uses gamification
• Rebecca’s plans for partnering with financial planners
• How she’s been able to juggle her full time role with Inertia
• Her experience as a non-technical founder
• Why Rebecca waited 3 years before acting on her idea
• What she’s learned along her founder journey

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things money!

Anna Steffeney is the Executive Director of FamTech.org, leading the only national technology association dedicated to innovators, partners, and policymakers transforming the $648B Care Economy.

Their mission is clear: to connect, amplify, and champion the builders creating solutions that make care more accessible, equitable, and sustainable.

Anna’s path here began personally. After the birth of her two children—one in Europe, one in the US—she saw firsthand how inadequate family leave policies in the US are compared to our peers abroad. That experience inspired her to found LeaveLogic, a family leave management platform that scaled to serve some of the largest US employers before being acquired by Unum Group. At Unum, she continued to innovate as part of the Digital Ventures and Transformation team.

Today, Anna brings more than a decade of entrepreneurship, fundraising, and business development experience—and 15 years of global corporate leadership—to the work of advancing care innovation. She’s passionate about building coalitions, amplifying founders’ voices, and advocating for systems change.

During this episode, we discuss:

• How FamTech is the intersection of femtech, parent tech, baby and kid tech, and aging tech, all viewed through the caregiver’s perspective.
• Anna’s story that led her to found LeaveLogic
• What inspired her to lead FamTech.org
• The benefits that the organization offers
• Anna’s focus on policy strategy in 2026
• Key trends shaping the future of the sector

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things care economy!

Shruti Shah is General Partner at Symphonic Capital, an early-stage venture fund investing in technology that works for everyone — not just the privileged few. Symphonic's thesis is built on a simple but consequential observation: AI is collapsing the cost of serving a customer in ways that make it possible to reach communities that legacy systems were never built to serve. That's not an efficiency play — it's a structural shift in who gets access to essential services. Shruti co-leads the firm alongside Founder & GP Sydney Thomas, where she developed Symphonic's climate resilience investment pillar.

A founder turned investor, Shruti brings a rare combination of operating experience and mission clarity. She co-founded Move Loot, a Y Combinator-backed online marketplace for secondhand furniture, where as COO she helped raise $22 million and scale the company nationally — earning coverage in Forbes, TechCrunch, Bloomberg Businessweek, and CNN. Earlier in her career, she invested in early-stage EdTech companies at the New Schools Venture Fund and taught in Baltimore public schools through Teach for America.

Shruti has also served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Nike, advising on sustainability and circular economy strategy, and at Silicon Valley Bank, where she supported early-stage founders on strategic partnerships and fundraising. As an advisor, investor, and fractional COO, she has helped dozens of startups navigate scaling, operations, and capital strategy.

At Symphonic, she backs founders who are proximate to the problems they're solving — because infrastructure that people don't trust or won't use isn't infrastructure. She believes the most durable companies in health, wealth, and climate resilience are being built by founders who understand that AI isn't just about doing more with less. It's about restructuring who gets served, who can compete, and what becomes possible.

Shruti is also an Investor in Residence at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, where she co-instructs BUSI 490, an applied impact investing course centered on the ACES Student Impact Investing Fund. She is a board member of For Good (Network for Good) and an active voice in the impact investing community.

She was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Retail & E-Commerce and an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar in Reimagining Capitalism. Shruti holds a B.A. in Political Science from UNC-Chapel Hill and an M.S.Ed. in Urban Education from Johns Hopkins University.

During this episode, we discuss:

• Shruti’s background as a founder before moving into venture capital
• The investor pressure Shruti faced in her startup, Move Loot
• Lessons from being a young founder and the importance of conviction in your business model
• Shruti’s initial hesitation about entering venture capital after her startup experience
• How Sydney recruited Shruti to join Symphonic
• What a “founder-first experience” means at Symphonic
• What Shruti looks for when evaluating startups
• Symphonic’s progress toward raising its second fund
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And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things venture capital!

Samder Singh Khangarot is a global entrepreneur and fintech leader bringing a rare blend of policy, entrepreneurship and international business experience to BON Credit, where he serves as co-founder and CEO.

Before launching BON Credit, Samder helped the Government of India’s Ministry of Finance establish a $300 million fund-of-funds to support emerging entrepreneurs. He previously co-founded Absolute Foods, a venture-backed company that raised over $100 million and scaled to a team of 200 employees and later co-founded Growspace Crypto, one of India’s fastest-growing blockchain startups.

A Stanford MBA and Young India Fellow, Samder has built and scaled companies across food systems, finance and emerging technologies. Today, through BON Credit and its free AI assistant CredGPT, he is focused on improving financial literacy, fixing broken credit systems and making financial freedom more accessible- especially for the next generation.

During this episode, we discuss:

• Samder’s career as an engineer by training
• How BON automatically handles credit card debt
• What their AI agent can do with prompts
• How they have pivoted since launching
• Why founders should reach out to customers and learn from them
• What’s coming up for BON in the next year
• How BON fundraised money
• Samder’s advice for other fintech founders
• What he’s noticing in fintech this year

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things debt!

Mandy Major is a recognized entrepreneur and healthcare operator. After 15 years in media, she became a certified doula, built one of the first telehealth doula startups in the U.S., Major Care, and then exited to Assured Health Partners. In addition to a master’s degree from Columbia University, Mandy is a trained Scrum master and holds a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt from Purdue University — expertise that fuels her work in scaling companies via strategic growth, operational development and process improvement. She recently launched The Startup Doula to help founders build sustainable companies without burning out through 1:1 consulting and workshops.

During this episode, we discuss:

• Mandy’s career journey, from working in media to becoming a doula, launching and exiting a startup, and offering consulting
• How she bootstrapped and grew her startup, Major Care
• A difficult fundraising experience with her startup
• The importance of resilience as a founder
• What it was like to get acquired
• Why it’s important to prevent burnout

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things startups!

Jason Kraus is the Founder & CEO of Prepare 4 VC, where he works with early-stage founders to help them become investor-ready, sharpen their narrative, and build companies that actually last. Prepare 4 VC supports startups from pre-seed through Series A, with founders collectively raising over $480M+ in capital.

Jason is also an active investor in 20+ ventures and the author of Venture Forward: Lessons from Leaders. He’s deeply involved in the startup ecosystem as a community builder and advisor, helping founders strengthen decision-making, leadership habits, and clarity around fundraising and growth.

At the core of his work is a simple belief: fundraising isn’t just about capital—it’s about readiness, conviction, and execution.

During this episode, we discuss:

• How Jason working at early stage venture funds showed there are a lot of great founders who need support with getting in the door
• Prepare 4 VC’s support with GTM, growth, and fundraising
• What goes into crafting a perfect pitch
• Why the customers don’t always care about the product but rather what it does
• The balance between cold emails vs warm emails to investors
• Where founders should begin if they don’t even know where to start
• The proof points that show traction to investors beyond revenue
• Why Jason isn’t a fan of stealth mode
• Success stories from Prepare 4 VC
• What’s coming up for Prepare 4 VC in 2026
• Why Boston is a great place to build

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things fundraising!

Ritesh Patel is the co-founder and co-CEO of Ticket Fairy, an advanced AI-native vertical SaaS platform built specifically for the live entertainment industry. Ticket Fairy combines ticketing, fintech, AI (artificial intelligence), marketing automation, and real-time analytics to help event and festival producers across music, gaming/esports, and food & beverage increase revenue, reduce operational costs, and lower financial risk — all while tackling some of the industry’s toughest consumer challenges, including ticket scalping and resale fraud.

Since launch, Ticket Fairy has powered tens of thousands of events around the world, generating more than $300 million in ticket sales. The platform’s technology gives organizers a competitive edge by enabling precision marketing, expanding audience reach, and providing data-driven insights that improve decision-making and profitability.

The company has earned the backing of some of the most respected investors in technology and entertainment. This includes Y Combinator, early backers and founders of YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit, and leaders in blockchain innovation such as Brock Pierce (Chairman, Bitcoin Foundation), Craig Sellars (co-creator of the stablecoin), and the team behind the Polygon blockchain. These relationships reflect Ticket Fairy’s position at the intersection of live entertainment, fintech, and cutting-edge technology.

Before co-founding Ticket Fairy, Ritesh built a global reputation as an event producer. He created LOCUS, a drum & bass events brand that has been active since 2000, with shows in Bristol, UK, and Sydney, Australia. In 2022, he launched the first LOCUS multi-day destination festival in Tulum, Mexico — an event that attracted attendees from around the globe — and in 2024, expanded the concept to Bali.

Ritesh’s contributions to live music culture extend beyond event production. In the early 2000s, he was instrumental in building online communities that helped shape the global electronic music scene, including a music discussion forum called Dogs on Acid, which became the busiest dance music forum in the world at the time, and Hijack, a hub for the thriving Bristol music scene.

Today, Ritesh brings together decades of industry experience and a deep understanding of technology to push the boundaries of what’s possible in live events. He speaks frequently about the future of ticketing, the role of AI in live entertainment, and how data-driven tools can transform the economics of event production — making him a sought-after voice on both conference stages and podcasts worldwide.

During this episode, we discuss:

• How Ritesh started his company with his brother with an idea that spanned 10 years
• His own experience producing a series of events that revealed what the gaps were in the industry
• How event companies don’t have access to raw capital like tech companies do
• The use of gamification and leaderboards to get ticket sales
• How founders know if they should do launch something now or wait
• What Ritesh wishes he did differently with Ticket Fairy
• His advice to new founders
• What it’s like having a brother as a co-founder

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things tech for live entertainment!

As co-founder of MAG PR, Nina Pfister brings over a decade of professional experience helping VC firms and early-stage B2B startups find their voice in crowded markets through strategic media relations. She built the boutique agency from the ground up, led by senior-only practitioners who deliver both strategy and execution without the typical agency runaround.

Beyond PR, Nina is a published children’s author and serves as Communications Director for the Weymouth Libraries Foundation, championing community literacy and the belief that great stories should be accessible to everyone.

During this episode, we discuss:

• Nina’s background with starting MAG PR
• What inspired her to focus on tech
• When she knew it was time to start her own company
• The signals that a founder might be ready to bring in a PR expert
• What the lead time is for getting results
• Why you still need PR even though you may not be launching something new
• The shift to valuing independent newsletters and blogs
• Where AEO shows up in PR
• Why press releases are back
• What to do with coverage once you get featured somewhere
• The importance of sharing coverage with investors
• Why VC firms need to invest in PR
• Mistakes that startups make in PR
• One thing VC firms and startups can do to jumpstart PR

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things PR!

Rachel Tsui is a Partner at The Council Capital, an early stage VC firm investing in First Builders that disrupt essential industries (industrial tech and healthcare), with her focus on healthcare as one of the essential industries. She is the former Head of Customer Success at Komodo Health, a healthcare data insights platform company, where she started as the founding CS leader of a new business unit and helped scale the business unit from $1M to $40M in 4 years. Being on the front lines of CS and support is often a grind, and Rachel loves digging into what works and doesn’t work in the earliest stages of customer success, and building and scaling high functioning teams.

During this episode, we discuss:

• Why she focuses on first builders
• How her career originally started as a scientist
• What she’s enjoyed being in VC
• The three things she looks for in healthtech startups before investing
• Her predictions and opportunities for healthtech
• How concierge health models are gaining traction
• The metrics that show momentum for healthtech companies
• Where she sees the cross section of healthtech with famtech or caretech
• Her advice for any first-time healthtech founders looking to fundraise
• The value of a warm intro
• How there’s a big push on reindustrializing in the US
• Her advice for anyone looking to get into VC

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things healthtech!