upside

Interview begins: 08:26 
Debrief begins: 49:12

Sebastian Seiguer is the Co-Founder and CEO of emocha Mobile Health. 

emocha is a mobile health platform that saves lives by connecting remote patients to health care providers. They improve medication adherence using video technology and human engagement. 

emocha leverages a CDC-endorsed model called Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) where healthcare workers watch patients take every dose of medication, monitor side effects, and provide critical support. 

Their technology is currently used across four continents in 10 countries.

emocha was founded in 2014 and based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Learn more about emocha: https://www.emocha.com/
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Interview begins: 04:40
Debrief begins: 1:11:09

Jon Cheney is the founder and CEO of Seek.

Seek is Augmented Reality on the web for eCommerce. SeekView allows a consumer to visualize a product in their life before they buy it. Seek has an advanced and powerful system to provide a scalable solution for AR in e-commerce on the web.

Prior to founding Seek, where Jon currently resides as CEO and founder, he provided 12 years of management over several organizations. Jon is passionate about building strong teams and inspiring them to lead their industry. He sees the potential in everyone around him and doesn't accept anything less than greatness. He is driven forward by his faith and desire to serve others.

Seek was founded in 2016 and based in Lehi, Utah.

Try it at: https://seekxr.com
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Interview begins: 08:48
Debrief begins: 1:05:44

Hunter McDaniel is the founder and CEO of UbiQD.

UbiQD is a cleantech materials company that manufactures low-hazard quantum dots (QDs) and nanocomposites. The company focuses on applications that utilize its nanomaterials to manipulate sunlight, enabling solar windows and spectrum-controlled greenhouses.

Spun out of technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, and Western Washington University, UbiQD envisions a future where quantum dots are ubiquitous in a wide spectrum of applications.

UbiQD was founded in 2014 and based in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Learn more about UbiQD: https://ubiqd.com/

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This episode is sponsored by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, a full-service law firm known for assisting entrepreneurs across the Heartland.

Learn more about or get in touch with Taft: https://www.taftlaw.com/
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Interview begins: 09:02
Insight begins: 58:13
Debrief begins: 1:01:59

Blake Lawrence is the founder and CEO of opendorse.

opendorse is the athlete-marketing platform that helps the biggest brands in sports share content on social. Founded by two former major college athletes, opendorse was built seeking to make it easy for athletes and their partners to work together to engage their fans. Today, more than 7,000 athletes use opendorse to share content with their 1.4b social media followers. 

Top sports properties including the PGA TOUR, LPGA, NFLPA, WTA, and New Jersey Devils, and college properties including Michigan, Clemson, and Nebraska Athletics partner with opendorse to send content to athletes to share through their social media channels. More than 1,500 brands also use opendorse to engage professional athletes and their audience. 

We discuss:

• Ad: What are the most important terms for an entrepreneur to be aware of when raising capital? (7:56)
• Blake's turning point on being in the social media business (11:26)
• A throwback: running a social media agency way back 2010 (14:50)
• How does opendorse maintain the authenticity of the content being shared? (20:35)
• Blake Lawrence advocacy in running opendorse full time (25:08)
• How opendorse helps in advertising (29:11)
• opendorse saves the athletes maintain a balance in the busy schedules (30:56)
• What happens to Opendorse years from now? (55:29)
• Day in the life of Braxton Miller (58:33)

opendorse was founded in 2012 and based in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Learn more about opendorse: https://opendorse.com/
Follow Blake on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Blake_Lawrence

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This episode is sponsored by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, a full-service law firm known for assisting entrepreneurs across the Heartland.

Learn more about or get in touch with Taft: https://www.taftlaw.com/
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Interview begins: 08:39
Debrief begins: 48:25

Eric Shashoua is the founder and CEO of Zive, makers of the app, Kiwi for Gmail.

Kiwi for Gmail turns native Gmail into a full desktop application, dramatically upgrading the entire user experience, & adding features like default email client, multiple accounts, multiple windows, etc. 

We discuss:

• Ad: How to fully utilize the state and gift tax? (07:24)
• How CEO Eric Shashoua learned from VC’s about backing a company. (11:48)
• Starting on Zive’s product: Kiwi for Gmail. (20:38)
• Recommendations for Kickstarters pre-marketing a business (26:55)
• How Kiwi can make money (30:13)
• Kiwi for Gmail’s marketing strategy (43:20)

Zive was founded in 2013 and based in New York City, New York.

Learn more about Kiwi for Gmail: https://www.kiwiforgmail.com/

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This episode is sponsored by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, a full-service law firm known for assisting entrepreneurs across the Heartland.

Learn more about or get in touch with Taft: https://www.taftlaw.com/
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Interview begins: 06:34
Debrief begins: 49:48

Robert Zulkoski is the Chairman and Managing Partner of Vermont Works.

Vermont Works is an Independent Alternative Investment Firm Supporting Vermont’s Job & Economic Development.

Vermont Works was founded in 2016 and based in Burlington, Vermont.

We discuss:

• Social impact investing (8:54)
• Why should one live in Vermont? (16:06)
• How is Vermont Works different from other investing firms? (20:40)
• Experiencing Vermont (32:52)
• Young people needed in Vermont (41:11)
• Vermont’s measures of success (44:32)

Learn more about Vermont Works: https://www.vermontworks.co/
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Happy US Independence Day from the upside team!

Per our holiday tradition, we're keeping it short and sweet this week so we don't take you away from what really matters.

So we don't have an interview this week, we just have a conversation between the two of us recapping the update issue two, which was released on June 4, 2019.

The update is a quarterly publication featuring editorials, trends, and stories happening outside of Silicon Valley. Our second issue focuses on the future of work.

Featured Articles:
innovation hub cycles and the future of silicon valley
help wanted: we're short on more than just engineers

tilr embraces data and finds their own way to scale into 20 states
the “future of work” is here... so why aren’t more companies remote-first?
remote doesn't have to be a bad word — best practices in managing remote teams

why geography still matters
yes, there’s startup media outside the valley — here’s how to find them
second quarter podcast recommendations

Read the whole issue here: https://upside.fm/update/issue-two/

Sign up to receive the update: https://upside.fm/update
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Interview begins: 05:19
Debrief begins: 55:13

Josh Chapman is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Konvoy Ventures.

Konvoy is an early-stage venture fund focused exclusively on esports & video gaming. They are dedicated to partnering with and supporting founders in this industry at the earliest stages.

Konvoy was founded in 2017 and based in Denver, Colorado.

We discuss:

• Gaming in social context (12:03)
• Women in gaming (17:04)
• The difference between Esports and gaming (18:47)
• Esports on the collegiate league (20:27)
• Streamers rising to the challenge ( 24:29)
• Twitch vs. YouTube (27:46)
• About Konvoy (45:35)
• Three ways to invest in Esports (58:27)

Learn more about Konvoy Ventures: https://konvoy.vc/
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Interview begins: 07:44 
Insight begins: 54:30
Debrief begins: 1:06:20

Marc Bernstein is the CEO of Balto. Balto helps sales, service, and accounts receivable reps win as much revenue as possible from every phone call. Teams use Balto's artificial intelligence software to analyze phone calls in real time - live while the call is still happening - and instantly provides reps recommendations on how to communicate as effectively as possible before it's too late.

Here’s a preview on what’s in store for you on this episode:

• Ad: Knowing the right tools for raising capital. (07:06)
• The recipe for a successful sale (14:17)
• The story behind Balto (16:24)
• New sales reps should learn a methodology in order to be successful (59:37)
• Top advice for sales (1:21:25)
• How important it is to have a mentor in sales (1:22:16)
• Things to avoid during sales (1:23:54)

Balto was founded in 2017 and based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Learn more about Balto: https://www.baltosoftware.com/
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This episode is sponsored by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, a full-service law firm known for assisting entrepreneurs across the Heartland.

Learn more about or get in touch with Taft: https://www.taftlaw.com/
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Interview begins: 06:33 
Debrief begins: 51:26

Amy Nelson is the CEO of Venture For America (VFA). 

VFA is a two-year fellowship program for recent grads who want to work at a startup and create jobs in American cities. Fellows learn important startup skills at our month-long Training Camp, apply for jobs within our vetted company network, and work for two years as full-time, salaried employees in one of 14 cities. 

• About VFA (03:25)
• Is going to business school still necessary? (13:30)
• Discussing the challenges in starting a business? (15:27)
• What does it take to be part of VFA? (29:19)
• Getting to know the VFA community (32:15)
• What it's like to hire VFA fellow (33:48)

Learn more about Venture For America: https://ventureforamerica.org/
Follow Amy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmyNelsonVFA
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm