The Shobeir Show

How do you get 8 Billion views on TikTok? The Co-Founders of Obviously Social, CEO Mae Karwowski and CTO Maxime Domain, and their platform have the secret sauce!

It was a treat to have the Co-Founders of Obviously Social, CEO Mae Karwowski and CTO Maxime Domain, as my next guests on The Shobeir Show. Obviously Social is a full-service influencer marketing agency platform and an INC 5000 company that was ranked as one of the Fasted-Growing Private Companies in America in 2021.

Mae Karwowski, Co-Founder, and CEO of Obviously Social, came up with the idea of the company based on her managing brand accounts on social like Real House Wives Facebook pages, Coke Zero Twitter account, and the early days of brands trying to figure out social media, and why it’s essential. She saw an opportunity to connect brands to give products to social media influencers with a community to build a story around their products. Mae was Social Media Manager at Gilt City, Community Manager at 360i, Strategy and Operations at Betterfly, and was the Owner of Chapel Hill Vintage Books, bought and refurbished out-of-print books and sold them to collectors.

Maxime Domain, Co-Founder and CTO of Obviously Social, focusing on product and development of the platform that connects brands with social influencers. Previously, Maxime was Web/API Architect of Focal Labs, co-designing and developing the next generation of mobile sharing apps acquired by RadiumOne, and became Chief Architect of their entire platform. 

Please join me in hearing Mae and Maxime’s stories on this episode of The Shobeir Show!

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My next guest is Dr. Nitin Gupta, PhD., who was bold enough to place a brand new VR headset that had porn playing on the head of a well-known venture capitalist one year during CES.

Dr. Nitin Gupta, Ph.D., is the Co-Founder and VP of Product at Dori AI. Previously, Nitin was the Technical Product Lead that Led various product development and commercialization efforts for Daydream AR/VR Computer Vision software and hardware product lines, Senior Embedded Developer at Pebble, working on firmware and commercialized groundbreaking wearable products, including the Pebble, Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel, and Pebble Time Round, and started his career as co-founding the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) development team within Qualcomm.

Nitin received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Computer Science from The University of Manchester. 

Please join me in hearing Nitin’s story on this episode of The Shobeir Show!

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I'm excited to host my next guest, Touraj Parang, who's been a serial entrepreneur, investor, and lawyer working in Corporate Development. Currently, the COO of Serve Robotics is shaping the future of sustainable, self-driving delivery. Serve designs, develops, and operates zero-emission robots that serve people in public spaces, starting with food delivery.

Touraj also is the author of a new book called "Exit Path: How to Win the Startup End Game" Doing startups is hard, but there are ways you can tilt the odds in your favor as an entrepreneur, especially when it comes to the highest-stake event in your startup's life, its sale to an acquirer. Touraj has distilled the hard lessons learned about startup acquisitions sitting in almost every seat around the table in Silicon Valley since the late 90s in my forthcoming book. The release date is August 2, 2022.

Touraj previously was VP of Corporate Development at GoDaddy, Founding COO of UpCounsel, VP of Strategy & Corporate Development at Webs, Founder COO and Board Member of Jaxtr that sold to Sabse Technology, Corporate Transactions Attorney at O'Melveny & Myers, Venture Partner at Amidzad, Principal at Earlybird Venture Capital, and Associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Please join me in hearing Touraj’s story on this episode of The Shobeir Show!

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US & China are two superpower economies that have grown together over the last 20 years. 

How did this happen, especially in tech? I’m honored to announce my next guest is Matt Sheehan, a Fellow in Asia Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  

Matt is the author of The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for our Future, which was named an Amazon Best History Book for August 2019. The book and its chapters dig into China-California ties in Silicon Valley, Hollywood, real estate, education, FDI, immigrant communities, and climate policy.

During the podcast, we highlight the recent history of US-China relations in technology, Chinese students studying in the US, the FAANG vs. BATX companies, chip manufacturing, TikTok, WeChat, shared bike startups, digital payments, and the cultural integration of technology. 

Please join me in hearing Matt’s story and the US & China tech background on this episode of The Shobeir Show.

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You rarely hear a story of a company that generates $100 million in revenue to pivot the business strategy for a more significant opportunity in the same sector. My next guest of The Shobeir Show, Nick Greenfield, CEO of Candid, and his team did that recently, after five years of a pioneer in the clear aligner industry.

Nick Greenfield, is CEO of Candid, is redefining oral health by using modern technology to deliver human-focused care. Before Nick was COO of Paribus, their platform allowed consumers refunds from stores, and CapitalOne acquired Paribus. VP of Marketing and Growth at Washio and Special Operations at Lyft.  

Please join me in hearing Nick’s story on this episode of The Shobeir Show.

You can follow Candid on social media:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/livecandid
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livecandid/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/livecandid

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Ever want to take a sabbatical from school to do something unique like be a performer in Cirque du Soleil? My next guest is Maika Isogawa, a Japanese 🇯🇵 American  🇺🇸 who is the Founder and CEO of Webacy and a Forbes 30 Under 30, who enjoyed this unique experience during their years at Stanford.

Maika is the Founder and CEO of Webacy, a platform that helps you secure your digital assets for the unexpected. Previously, Maika was at Microsoft working on security and cybersecurity solutions.

Please join me in hearing Maika’s story on this episode of The Shobeir Show.

You can follow Maika Isogawa on social media:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/maikaisogawa
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maikaisogawa/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maikaisogawa/
• Website: https://maikaisogawa.com/

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My next guest on The Shobeir Show is Jared Steffes, who goes by EPICPOWER, FakeBusy, and JaredVIP. Jared convinced his college, the University of DePaul, to start a Video Game Degree program and a fun Gaming Lan center in The Loop in Chicago.

Jared Steffes is a farm boy near Chicago who became a gamer early and made his very first game in kindergarten. Jared also worked on gaming for severe matters like anti-terrorism.

Jared is the Co-Founder and CRO of Muxy, a platform that has powered interactive experiences for over 160m viewers on Twitch. Muxy concentrate on building the tools necessary for game developers to add audience interactivity to their games. Jared previously was a Producer of the Team NVIDIA Twitch.TV channel, Product Manager at GetBetz, Project Manager at Furywing Inc, Producer of Nibletz.com, and Co-Founder of Tap Me, a VC-backed mobile in-game advertising solution.

Jared and I enjoyed talking about gaming, memes, Austin, studying stories during college, critter hunting, and massive hog (AKA huge 3rd leg). Enjoy listening to the full podcast.

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Have you ever had the nightmare of getting stuck in a foreign country with no money?

My next guest on The Shobeir Show is Elias Bizannes, Founder of StartupBus, who lived through that experience in 2005 in Iran.

Elias Bizannes is a Greek 🇬🇷 Australian 🇦🇺 entrepreneur, Founder of StartupBus,  an entrepreneurial ecosystem through unique experiences and inspirational connections. StartupBus has been active in North America, Europe, Africa, and StartupBus alumni started companies like Segment. 

Elias was previously CEO of ZoomSystems, acquired by Swyft, Inc, Founder of StartupHouse, Director of Charles River Ventures, Analyst of Vast, and started his career as SeniorAccount at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

I had a lot of fun with this episode and enjoyed listening to the full podcast.

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I'm excited to have Natasha Pecor, Product Advisor for Web3 Projects, as my next guest on The Shobeir Show. Natasha is working on several web3 projects in the NFT & DeFi gaming spaces, advises & consults on product UX & strategy, hiring/org development, and user research for a number of startups, including Americana.io, Cana/The Production Board, Landing, Jubilee Media, LeadIQ, and Hawthorne Effect.

Natasha previous was VP of Product at Eaze and led the product vision and strategy at Eaze (Series D, ~200 employees), the largest cannabis e-commerce platform in the US. The product suite included: consumer web and consumer mobile apps. Natasha has various experiences working as Head of Platform at Yelp, was the first Summer Associate, continued working for the fund remotely throughout the second year of the business school at Freestar Capital, and started her career as a Business Technology Consultant at Deloitte.

Feel free to follow Natasha Pecor on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashapecor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NPecor

IG: https://www.instagram.com/natashapecor/

I hope you enjoy this episode of The Shobeir Show.

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Did you ever forget to leave your homework inside the school desk during elementary school? 

Bobak Emamian, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Debut Capital, vividly describes this experience as his first moment of being an entrepreneur.

I’m honored to host Bobak Emamian, an Iranian American entrepreneur and investor, sharing his story publicly for the first time as my second guest on The Shobeir Show. 

Bobak Emamian is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Debut Capital, investing in Black, Latinx, and Indigenous founders creating an influential business that will shape our future into the revolutionary world it’s meant to be. He previously Co-Founded Prolific that launched over 100 products on iOS, Android, and web and got acquired by WeWork.

Enjoy listening to the full podcast episode!

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