The Accelerator with Michael Conniff

Michael Guastamacchio Co-Founder / CEO at MediaZilla talked to Michael Conniff about his revolutionary company.

MediaZilla empowers organizations and individuals to communicate powerful information and experiences through video. MediaZilla specializes in making sure your important recordings remain confidential. The company has put specialized security protocols to ensure the videos remain private. What sets the company apart is the fact that they are customer-focused

Adam C Grant is a venture partner at Republic. He is currently investing with a venture firm called Overlooked Ventures. This is a venture capital firm focused on transparently supporting and investing in early-stage companies with one or more historically ignored founders.  The community is made up of minorities, women founders, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. They work with winners and disruptors who have the vision to change the world.

Adam’s dream is to change the world through investing. He also believes in good and authentic leadership.

He Worked in medical software for 14 years, first as an employee and then as a consultant. He began his investor journey soon afterward. He primarily focuses on C-stage startups. He shared with us some of the great companies he has invested in. When the pandemic struck, he started looking for a hobby that wouldn’t be affected by lockdowns and that is how his blogging journey began. His blog is called tremendous. blog. The blog is an angel investor's take on life and business.

He is Russian by Nationality and has Tatar origins. He works for Starta VC where is the Head of African Track. This entails creating an African Accelerator business for Starta VC which has its Headquarters in New York. Starta VC is a global accelerator that helps international business founders scale their businesses irrespective of their origins.

He talks to us about his experience working with African start-ups and how the Start-up scene compares to Russia where he is from and New York. One of the ways that Starta VC empowers business founders is by offering communication workshops and one on one sessions with the founders where they are taught how to pitch their business to international clients and investors.

Andy Gibbs is the CEO of Fidotek Corporation. Fidotek enables pet owners to speak with their pets via a smart speaker. The company achieved this by acquiring dog data, using AI to determine dog behavior, and converting it into a human voice played into a smart speaker in the home which enables the pet owner and the pets to communicate.

Andy has a wealth of experience in starting and running businesses. So far, he has started six companies. He started his first start up venture when he was 14 years old.

Tune in to today’s episode to learn more about Fidotek, the game-changing data-driven enterprise, and tips on running a successful business enterprise.

She is a sought-after brand strategist, entrepreneur, and investor. As an investor, she thrives at helping start-ups thrive.

She is also the founder of Brandprenuer, Brandfluencer a marketing agency that supports visionaries and change-makers, and pioneers to gain traction and acquire new clients. Dr. Irene Kilubi uses her background in corporate influence strategy to achieve this.

Huey Ching is an aspiring entrepreneur doing amazing things while in university. She is the founder and CEO of Chingspire Webdesign Solution. This is a company that creates websites for businesses for the purpose of marketing and identifying potential leads and bringing revenue to the business. She is currently majoring in International Business at Sunway University where she has won the Outstanding Leadership Award and Commitment Service Award.

Huey has always had a passion for business since she was young. When her friends were busy reading comics, she would be reading books on business. She strongly believes in lifelong learning, being inspired, and to never stop creating.

Giannandrea Giammanco is the CEO of FVTURA. This is not your typical start-up incubator. Giannandrea describes the company as a venture builder rather than a start-up incubator

A typical start-up incubator usually offers just funding and mentorship. What differentiates Fvtura from other incubators is that they give more. In addition to funding and mentorship, they offer support in terms of operational support. They have the capability in terms of manpower to support the different functions of a start-up, be it coding, marketing, design, etc. All this is done through the in-house Fvtura team.

Andrea took this path from personal experience. As a start-up founder, he initially struggled to find the right operational support for his business. The few he found were very expensive and were not trustworthy. Fvtura does not charge start-ups for operational support. They offer investments for the start-ups in return they get equity. This ensures that Fvtura and the start-up are aligned. The team have to make sure the start-up succeeds in order for them to get a positive return on their investment. The company has team members from across ten countries. They target the most under-served communities which they believe have great entrepreneurs which can be used in the larger and greater cities if only they get the right guidance early on in the start-up stage.

James Spurway is a purpose-driven, impact-focused, angel lead investor who helps first-time sustainable business model founders navigate their external fundraising journey.He is also known as the fundraising angel. He is originally from Australia. He comes from a rural setting in Queensland Australia. In his own words, he was born in a very poor family. His family was literally dirt poor. This phrase had a whole meaning to him since their floor was even made of dirt! With such an upbringing, he learned very early in life the importance of working hard, that hard work gets you to where you want to go. His upbringing also conditioned him to be someone who always gives back. He believes it is important to give back not just when you have plenty but also when you have little.

His first company is Indochina Consulting Pte. Which was in existence for 23 year up until 5 years ago. He left his corporate job in the early 90s and moved to Vietnam to set up his company. Years later during his entrepreneurial journey, he discovered he was really good at making money and deep down he was motivated to see other people succeed. As an angel investor, he derives a lot of joy in helping young and upcoming start-ups overcome the hurdles that are there at the beginning and helping them stand on their feet.

Bjorn Ekeberg is the Chief Commercial Officer at Recharge Health. The company offers a revolutionary technology called the FlexBeam which is targeted red light therapy. The technology offers an alternative way of managing pain without using painkillers. The target user of the device is people who are keen on trying new technology and people aged between 35 to 55 years. The technology is still evolving and they are now targeting people who are in sports, fitness and active recreation since they are more prone to pain and injury. Bjorn is a screenwriter by profession and was approached by the co-founder of the company to join him in launching a new technology that is revolutionary. He was worn over by the possibility of coming up with a solution to manage pain that does not involve using painkillers. This made him switch careers