Sidra Qasim created the internet’s favorite sneaker. In getting there, she has lived a life that no one could have predicted.

Born and raised in rural Pakistan, Sidra clawed her way out of a system that afforded her no opportunities. Through sheer will, she made it to America and started a company that no one believed she could run.

But now, at 39, Sidra is the founder CEO of Atoms — notoriously the world’s most comfortable sneaker brand, with over 1,000,000 pairs sold, worn by celebrities from Malala to Marques Brownlee, funded by Silicon Valley’s greatest minds.

Join us for a deeply sentimental conversation about what true courage looks like, how things go viral, and how just about every founder deals with depression at one point.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Sebastian Fischer is a different kind of Silicon Valley engineer. He’s not a coder. He builds physical objects that move fast, blow up and generally bring about shock and awe. 

Sebastian started by building tiny rockets in his parents' backyard with his little brother. But those rockets eventually took him to NASA, Lockheed Martin, Amazon Prime Air and Cruise Self Driving. 

Now, he's onto his most wildest project yet, Wardstone — building satellites that detect missiles and shoot them down before they reach America. 

Join us for a fast-moving conversation about the ethics of building defense tech, whether America’s military is falling behind, what happens if we get lose the threat mutually-assured-destruction and the tiny California town that's building the future of war. 

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Skyler Chan wants to make humanity intergalactic and he's not entirely sure why anyone would want to work on anything else. 

At 22, Skyler has already lived a life. He flew airplanes with the Canadian Air Force, started a company, worked at Tesla, NASA and every major space organization, got into YC and had a dozen brushes with death all before he could legally drink. 
Now, he's sure. He knows what he wants to build: the first hotel on the moon. And that's just step one. 

Join us for a soaring conversation about why space is worth working on, the strange but common experience of being a 22 year old founder in SF and how Skyler wants to die.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

A message from Chai.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Congressman Mike Lawler holds a seat that no other Republican had held since the year he was born (he is a 39-year-old Republican from deep-blue New York).

The reason he was able to win — and keep — that seat is the same reason he's been ranked one of the most bipartisan members of Congress: he understands the assignment. He knows politics is about persuasion, not purity. It's about talking to people you disagree with and finding areas of agreement so you can make progress.

Join us for our final conversation of the season about Americans' love of flipping off the president, the worst part of campaigning, whether bipartisanship is even a virtue worth aspiring to anymore, what President George W. Bush is proudest of, and why you shouldn’t give up on America just yet.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Matt Flannery’s work has uplifted over six million families across a hundred countries.

That’s because Matt is one of the godfathers of microfinance. His creations, Kiva and Branch, have delivered billions of dollars in small loans to some of the most forgotten and overlooked people in the world.

But Matt doesn’t see himself as a philanthropist. In fact, he’s pretty down on the concept of nonprofits altogether.

Join us for a deeply honest conversation about Matt’s religious childhood, how he had over $8,000,000 stolen from him, how his board betrayed him, the strange magic of Bill Clinton, and why Matt keeps on going.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Nick Tommarello has probably helped fund more American founders than almost anyone alive.

But Nick’s not a businessman — he’s a founder. That distinction matters a lot to him and it defines everything about him. 

See, Nick loves risk and he thrives on uncertainty and chaos. He’s good at helping founders because he literally can’t imagine having a regular job.

Join us for a loose conversation about Nick’s childhood working at his dad’s nightclub, how his dad became a millionaire and went broke over and over, how Nick got congress and President Obama to sign a bill and what Nick wants his tombstone to read.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Ethan Agarwal is the youngest and strangest candidate running for Governor.

Ethan’s not a politician, he’s a founder. And a very successful one. He grew his first company to $100M in revenue, and then sold it. He then raised $50M for a second company — which he then also sold in 2025

Within months of that exit, he launched a run for governor as a proud capitalist and meritocrat (his words) to restore the entrepreneurial dream of California.

Join us for a freewheelin’ conversation about how what went wrong in CA, Katie Porter’s mashed potato controversy,  how Ethan raised millions, and what it takes to succeed as a founder.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Todd Masonis makes the best chocolate in America—but he took an unexpected path to get there.

Todd co-founded a startup with Sean Parker (yes, that Sean Parker from The Social Network). After selling it for over $150 million, he walked away from Silicon Valley to make chocolate in his friend’s garage.

Seventeen years later, that experiment became Dandelion Chocolate—considered by many to be America’s best chocolate maker (not just a chocolatier, mind you).

In this conversation, we talk about:
– Building fast vs. crafting slow
– What makes good chocolate truly good
– Chocolatiers Vs Chocolate Makers
– Why Chai thinks that Dandelion is the "Mike Tyson of chocolate makers"
– Why thinking in centuries, not weeks, might be the secret to building truly big things

If you love stories about craftsmanship, purpose, and the pursuit of excellence—this one’s for you.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

fnnch is San Francisco's Banksy; the most loved and hated artist in the city. 

People who love him believe that he made the city a more joyous, beautiful place to be. His haters think he is an outsider who helped gentrify the city.

One thing is for sure — fnnch is opinionated and controversial. He is also thoughtful, whip-smart and incredibly prolific.

Join us for a whirlwind conversation about the purpose of art, getting death threats for painting honey bears, and how he might just be the Andy Warhol of his generation.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things. 

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities 
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.