The Thread Podcast

Travis Schoen, Founder of NW Golf Guys joins the show to talk about:

• How Travis moved from scoring free golf to starting a golf league and growing its member base to more than 7,000 members.
• How the game of golf has evolved over the past 20 years, and how NW Golf Guys thinks about their target demographic and approach to member acquisition
• What goes into putting on a great golf tournament, the greatest golf movie of all time

Sahand Dilmaghani, Co founder and CEO of Terra Kaffe, joins the show to talk about

• Building the worlds most beautiful and intelligent espresso machine, and the process that went into prototyping a better coffee experience.
• Balancing development for the software user interface and the human machine interface, and the two journeys people take when brewing their coffee.
• How Terra Kaffe thinks about the competitive landscape in coffee, and how Sahand is approaching partnerships in the coffee category.
• How Sahand and team are helping reduce ecological waste and helping customers "kick the pods", one cup at a time.

Jordane Giuly, CEO and Co founder of Defacto, joins the show to talk about

- Jordan'e experience building a Unicorn at Spendesk and the decision to walk away from the successful startup he co-founded.

- The three bets that Jordane and team are making to go big with Defacto.

- Building his startup in Paris vs. Silicon Valley, and the benefits of building outside of the US.

- Lessons learned from fundraising for Defacto vs. Spendesk, the importance of balancing transparency and confidence when going through challenging times, as well as the importance of remembering to find joy in what you're building.

Martin Pannier, Co founder and CEO of Primo joins the show to talk about

• Lessons learned building product at Gusto that led to solving for the "accidental IT Manager"
• The decision to launch a free product SKU, PLG, and considerations to make before launching a free product
• The pros and cons of building your startup pitch with your VCs. 

Parker Gilbert, Co founder and CEO of Numeric, joins the show to talk about

- How going through a challenging financial audit led to the insight of founding Numeric.

- The character traits that Parker looked for in his co founders for Numeric.

- Parker's experience closing is $10M Series A and what it took to close a round from Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures and how he iterated to build a pitch that ultimately landed.

- Signing customers that can help Numeric accelerate partner growth, and the "why now" answered for Numeric.

Carin Luna-Ostaseski, Founder of SIA Scotch Whisky, joins the show to talk about

• The process Carin went through to kickstart the SIA brand, and being the first hispanic woman to found a Scotch brand.
• The state of the spirits industry and how SIA positions itself and competes with other liquor brands in the beverage category.
•  The "bonsai tree" method of building your company, and the importance of "starting in your own backyard" when launching a brand.

Adam Katz, CEO of Sightly, joins the show to talk about

• Adam's journey from IC to becoming the CEO at Sightly and leading from the front
• The evolution of the marketing tech category and generating an authentic brand voice in the era of AI.
• How Kobe Bryant inspired Sightly's Brand Mentality vision and narrative.
• Caitlin Clark and the future of the WNBA brand and women's sports.
• Defining your brand through what you say AND what you do.

Andrew Firestone, CEO of Mermaid Chart, joins the show to talk about:

• The venture studio model and building Mermaid Chart out of Open Core Venture Studio.
• Stepping into the CEO role at Mermaid and building an open-sourced approach to the diagramming and creator tools industry.
• Unlocking go-to-market and investing in channels that create accumulating advantages for Mermaid.
• Lessons learned from raising capital and taking 300 meetings in four months for Mermaid Chart (and eventually closing a round with Sequoia, Microsoft and OCV)

Matt Wadiak, Co founder and former COO Of Blue Apron, and CEO and Co founder of CleanUp joins the show to talk about

- Founding Blue Apron and being one of the first movers in meal planning and e-commerce ingredient market. 

- The importance of capital planning and cash flow and the importance of picking markets.

- Key ingredients to succeed as an entrepreneur in the food space.

- How customer acquisition has evolved in the D2C space and what founders can do to ensure the cream rises to the top. 

Harry Tannenbaum, Co founder of Mill,  joins the show to talk about.

• Harry's experience at Nest and building products that are really good for that planet.
• The Mill process of finding PM fit as a hardware startup.
• Harry's decision to go DTC, "core vs. context", and how he thinks about evaluating BD and partnership collaboration opportunities 
• Lessons learned from Harry as a first time founder and the importance of ideating tactfully.