The Thread Podcast

Joel Pollick, Co founder and CEO of Percent Pledge, joins the show to talk about

• The three main challenges that consumers wrestle with when it comes to giving back.
• Building a culture of giving, shifting from paycheck to purpose, and a generation that gives more
• The importance of reinforcing your mission...over, and over again.  

David Sauers, Co founder of Royal Restrooms, joins the show to talk about:

• A porta potty mishap that led to building one of the largest and most successful portable sanitation companies.
• The explosion of the sanitation market post-COVID, and the market opportunity in public restrooms.
• Maintaining a high level of professioal services while scaling Royal Restrooms.
• Royal Restrooms franchise model and what David looks for in business partners to expand the company's footprint.

David Meltzer, author, coach, speaker and co founder of Sports 1 Marketing joins the show to talk about:

• Growing up in a family with "not-enough" to a $3.5B exit and building the most successful sports  agency in the world.
•  Losing everything (>$100M) and having to rebuild a sense of purpose in the founders' journey.
• Dave's model for prioritization and time management, as well as ways to create a better working relationship and deeper connection with your partner/spouse.

Chris "Tito" Sestito, CEO and Co founder of HiddenLayer, joins the show to talk about

- How prepared (or unprepared) companies and our government is for the evolution of AI

- Raising a $50M round from Microsoft, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, and Capital One, and Chris' thoughts around building a business with strategic capital and partnerships.

- How Tito and team think about prioritizing what HiddenLayer works on when the total addressable market is HUGE and customers want it all, now.

Tom McLeod, Founder and Executive Director of Arkive, joins the show to talk about:

• Re-imagining the art museum and the founding story behind Arkive.
• Breaking down the collectibles space and the evolution of NFT's and digital creative works.
• Lessons learned from shipping 17 iPhone apps, and measuring "speed to learning" as Tom's ultimate KPI
• Why the wave of Gen AI apps is very different than the rise of mobile apps.
• Keeping love, passion, and business separate.

Guy Kawasaki, evangelist and author, joins the show to talk about

- From Kalihi Valley to Apple.  The first bridge that Guy took to success that started in the 6th grade.

- What is a product evangelist and how should early stage founders be thinking about evangelism?

- Guy's definition of what it takes to be remarkable (and what it isn't), what it was like working for Steve Jobs, and how Steve Jobs showed him what being Remarkable looked like.

- Guy's Golden Touch, what "golden looks like", and how Guy decides to get involved in the projects he works on.

- The keys to being a successful nonfiction author and when to borrow and/or steal.

- Growth, Grit, and Grace - and his book "Think Remarkable" 

Ariel Renous, Co founder and CEO of Augment joins the show to talk about

• How Augment is disrupting the traditional MBA program.
• Fundraising for Augment and $6M from RTP Global. 
• The future of executive education, and the importance of learning and raising money from people that have actually done the thing.

Baron Davis, Founder and CEO of B.I.G (Business Inside the Game), joins the show to talk about:

• Baron's "renegade approach" in transitioning from NBA All-Star to entrepreneurship.
• The importance of investing in "multi-hyphenates", and how B.I.G is building its network around creators with these super powers.
• Who were some of Baron's early mentors and advisors as an entrepreneur, and what entrepreneurs should be looking for in mentorship.
• Baron's perspective on the future of the business of basketball, where we're at in terms of the quality of the game, and what he wishes he would have known as a rookie before entering the NBA and entrepreneurship.

Eve Halimi and Anam Lakhani, Co founders of Alinea, join the show to talk about:

• The challenges of managing money out of college & founding Alinea.
• Taking Alinea to profitability before their seed round.
• Slackers vs. trackers and how Gen Z compares to prior generations of money managers
• Ways to teach my kids how to be financially literate.
• The role of co-CEO and how Eve and Anam divide and conquer.

Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, CEO and Co founder of Samooha (acq'd by Snowflake), joins the show to talk about

- how she built two companies that helped customers "bring data to life", selling DrawBridge to LinkedIn and Samooha to Snowflake.

- Kamakshi's advantages as a second time founder.

- How Kamakshi knew it was the right time to sell Samooha and the process she went through in the acquisition with Snowflake.

- Leadership differences between the leaders of the companies that Kamakshi sold to, most notably, Satya Nadella (Microsoft) and Frank Slootman (Snowflake)

- Betting on the Snowflake platform, the importance of partnerships and dating before marriage, and the pros and cons of a single platform approach.