The IVY Podcast

Uwe Ellinghaus is the Chief Marketing Officer of Cadillac, a position he took over at the beginning of the biggest transformation in Cadillac’s 115-year history. In a live conversation moderated by IVY’s Co-Founder Beri Meric, Uwe shares insights gained from his years at Cadillac (and previously at BMW) to inform us how to create and market world-class products — while remaining true to your roots.

Uwe’s accomplishments include moving the company’s headquarters from Detroit to NYC, executing a new communications strategy, opening Cadillac House, and showcasing the next generation of innovators in fashion, film, and technology.

When someone says “Opera,” the picture that comes to mind for most is the Valkyrie singing on a grand opera house stage. Then they may think about expensive tickets, geriatric audiences, foreign languages, and the discomfort of not being completely sure what to wear.

Brooklyn-based LoftOpera has turned these stereotypes on their heads — and is rejuvenating this 500-year-old art form in the process. Founded in 2016, LoftOpera brings 11,000 audience members every year into transformed warehouse spaces to experience some of opera’s greatest masterpieces.

Could this be the model the artform needs to jumpstart a new generation of opera buffs? IVY’s Arts and Culture Director, Phil Chan, joined LoftOpera’s General Manager, Brianna Maury, to hear about this new model of presenting Opera.

Creating legendary products and bringing them to market takes expert design conception, extensive research, thoughtful branding, and strong relationships. It's a complex process indeed, yet the innovative, husband-and-wife co-founders of Brooklinen, Rich and Vicki Fulop, seem to have it down pat. Since the company’s founding three years ago, Brooklinen has grown into the leading direct-to-consumer bedding brand.

Rich and Vicki join The IVY Podcast to share the story of their success, teaching us how we all can turn our ideas into actual products by combining tenacity, elbow grease, and a lot of passion to propel dreams into big-time business wins — while prioritizing and scaling along the way.

Real estate holdings are often your largest asset and investment, which means real estate brokers play a strikingly important role in the lives of countless people worldwide — comprising an immensely diverse community of some two million active agents in the U.S. alone.

Robert Reffkin, the Founder and CEO of the real estate startup Compass, is on a mission to empower this massive workforce — and is disrupting the multi-trillion dollar real estate industry in the process. Running on a purpose-driven mission "to help everyone find their place in the world,” the company has raised over $250 million at $1 billion valuation since their launch in 2013.

Reffkin joins The IVY Podcast to discuss his journey to found Compass, drawing on a work background spanning the White House and Wall Street. He also cues us in on the evolution of the industry, how to run a people-focused venture, and the keys to Compass’ growth. Reffkin is joined by Compass agents Howard Spiegelman and Laura Hirschman, experts from the Spiegelman-Rothman Team, which was referred to as one of the “Top Real Estate Teams in NY” by the Wall Street Journal and has garnered over $600 million in closed transactions.

Educational technology — commonly referred to as “EdTech” — is an increasingly dynamic space that fosters innovation in schools and provides solutions to some of today’s most pressing issues.

To learn more about this space and the role venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and investors can play in shaping the future of education, IVY co-CEO Beri Meric sat down with Amit Patel, an education expert and Partner at Owl Ventures. An ed tech-focused venture capital firm, Owl Ventures invests in the world’s leading technology companies, backing entrepreneurs with solutions that meaningfully drive improvement in student achievement.

Amit offered his insights on the importance of education and the challenges that educators face today. He believes the private sector plays a critical role in offering students cutting-edge tools and strategies to improve educational achievement across the board — from early learning and K-12 all the way up to higher education and lifelong learning for our nation’s workforce.

“Politics is about doing what your constituents want.”

According to CIA consultant, political scientist, and NYU Professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, that’s just how politics works. Bueno de Mesquita has built complex political algorithms based on this principle — developing mathematical analyses that draw on the logic of self-interest to predict civil wars, coup d'etats, purges, and political reforms. His upcoming book, co-authored with Alastair Smith, offers a new theory on why revolutions happen, and why politicians act the way they do.

He joins The IVY Podcast to provide clarity on the Trump administration’s current actions, and why a U.S. President may have no real political incentive to act in interest of all Americans. He also offers a solution to improving governance that would use computer programs to eliminate gerrymandering.

“Be the hero of your own adventure.”

That’s the motto that digital business entrepreneur and “Chief Dreamer” Samira Sohail lives by, and so far it’s working in her favor. Born and bred in London, Samira had already embarked on successful careers in two industries — as a financial analyst at J.P. Morgan Cazenove, and then a strategy manager for the BBC — when she became frustrated with the traditional career trajectory she was headed down. So she booked a one-way ticket to Bali, taking a nine-month sabbatical to discover the unexplored areas of her life and take a spiritual break. The results have been encouraging.

Since her time in Bali, Samira has launched the now-popular podcast “Samira Stalks” — an interview series with “reckless dreamers” who tell their personal stories of entrepreneurship and impact.

Samira joins The IVY Podcast to tell us why taking a sabbatical can be the unexpected key to advancing your career, and provides tips on how exactly to plan a successful sabbatical. She also shares advice on starting a podcast of your own and succeeding in multiple industries while being a digital nomad.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said his country’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program puts the United States in striking range. The provocation has sent shock waves around the world, drawing fiery rhetoric and doomsday warnings from U.S. President Donald Trump. What is behind Kim Jong-un’s actions, and why is he fanning the flames of hostility now?

Atul Singh, the Founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Fair Observer, joins The IVY Podcast to shed light on the tense internal struggle playing out behind the scenes in North Korea, and to attempt to answer the question — why now? He also discusses the efficacy of Trumpian foreign policy in Asia and what’s at stake for China in the region.

To help fund a life-saving vaccine or send aid in a natural disaster, all you have to do is buy wine. That’s the idea behind ONEHOPE, the California-based wine brand providing people the opportunity to do more good through everyday actions. Their wine, gourmet coffee, and gift sets each support a charitable cause — every case of pinot funds a pet adoption, while every bottle of sparkling helps fund two meals to help end childhood hunger. No one needed another excuse to pour themselves a glass of Merlot, but ONEHOPE makes it all the more appealing.

Brandon Hall, the Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of ONEHOPE, joins The IVY Podcast to talk about how he and his friends built the socially-conscious brand from the ground up, and their mission of bringing people together to celebrate and serve the world.

Naveen Jain is driven to solve the world's biggest challenges through innovation. His space company, Moon Express, is the first private enterprise to receive formal government approval to land on the moon this Fall — beating Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Naveen has also founded the companies Viome, World Innovation Institute, TalentWise, and Infospace, among others. Those companies goals range from making humanity a multi-planetary society, to rethinking the entire healthcare system from an entrepreneur's perspective, to saving us from extinction — and that’s just scratching the surface. You could say Naveen knows how to dream big.

Naveen joins The IVY Podcast to discuss how entrepreneurs can sink their teeth into today’s most complex problems in order to catalyze original thinking, pursue “Moonshot” initiatives, and create companies that make a true impact.