In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Atlas operates on the ground, and how Mickey, who’s from New York, discovered this opportunity halfway across the globe-The challenges to building a company in West Africa, and why it was critical that the team lived there when they first were getting started-Mickey’s childhood growing up in Westchester, and …

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Andela’s cofounders, Christina and Jeremy Johnson, came together over shared values and vision about the opportunity in Africa-What it was like pitching to early stage investors, and why it was critical that they accompanied them to Africa to see the magic firsthand-The company’s headquarters in Lagos and New…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Electric was born from Ryan’s own frustrations with IT in his previous company, and why he was on the look out for hardships during that time-Why Ryan decided to start his next company in NYC vs SF, where his former company Swarm was headquartered, and the big takeaways he learned from running his past startu…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-The autonomous vehicle stack, and why companies aren’t building everything in house-Why Carmera decided to build its headquarters in New York versus the Bay, and the benefits of doing so-The entrepreneurial genes that run in Ro’s family, and why his parents ended up leaving India to come to the States-When Ro sta…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Loftium was inspired by Yifan’s own experience when she and her husband moved to Seattle and started renting out a spare bedroom-The new market Loftium has created for home buyers, and the company’s initial traction since its recent launch-The pros and cons to growing a real estate, and fintech, focused start…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How May’s travels to Asia while living in Abu Dhabi inspired the creation of Qordoba, in addition to growing up as a non-native English speaker-Why the company is named after the historic Spanish city Cordoba during the time of the Enlightenment, and examples of how language has continually unified people-How bei…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Rebecca’s time spent living in Lima, Peru working with female entrepreneurs, and why she left to go to Kellogg School of Management-How Rebecca’s friends’ experiences with “mom guilt” inspired the idea for Wise Apple-Why Wise Apple chose to go after the consumer segment of the problem rather than the B2B side (i.…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-The story behind ShieldPay’s origin, and why the company isn’t targeting the friends and family transaction space-How many UK startups use the country as a testing ground for ideas before scaling out into alternative markets such as the U.S.-Why Pete decided to enter the Techstars Barclays accelerator, even thoug…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How the Pioneer Square Labs model works, and why the team views the people that eventually run the company as the true founders-What qualities PSL looks for in these founders, and why domain knowledge is key-The startup ecosystem in Seattle, and why the big tech incumbents are largely to thank for it-How Taunt cu…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Tovala controls the entire end-to-end experience of each meal, from sourcing the ingredients to creating unique recipes with its in-house chefs-David’s background in the food industry, and how he found himself creating Tovala shortly after arriving at Chicago Booth-How the advice David received from the found…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-The opportunity Tia sees in the market for women’s health, and why the company is focused on millennial women-Carolyn’s perspective on raising funding as a female founder of a women’s healthcare company-How Tia is a hybrid of both her parents, particularly her mother, whom she grew up attending Planned Parenthood…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why simulations have advanced in recent years, and why enterprises should utilize them for more scenarios than ever before-How Simudyne plans to first go after the financial services market while other sectors’ technology catches up-Why London has the best ecosystem for startups with a financial focus, even over …

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Lattice sprung from the growing pains Jack and his cofounder felt while working together at Teespring, and how Lattice has evolved from their original vision-Growing up in St. Louis, and why Jack is grateful that his formative years took place in a Midwestern suburb-The influence Jack’s older brothers had on …

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Mantas uncovered this opportunity and the initial applications Accelerated Dynamics is focusing on-Mantas’ response to people who might have concerns about unmanned drones that are programmed with artificial intelligence applications-Why Accelerated Dynamics is based in London, and how being in a top rated ac…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Automata’s product progression and the early surprises Mostafa and his cofounder uncovered when Eva was first introduced-The most common use cases Automata sees and how companies evaluate whether a robot could be useful for its business-Why London is the ideal location to create a company, particularly for highly…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why Fred and his cofounder Russell decided to leave Europe and come to San Francisco to create their company -Fred’s family tradition that inspired him to think creatively about problems, even when he was a child-How Rainforest tries to incorporate diversity in its culture, and why it’s important not to reward of…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Ezza stores plan to operate, and the thought process that went into the details behind the customer experience-The benefits of starting a business while obtaining an MBA, and how Chicago Booth’s New Venture Challenge helped make things happen-What it’s like to work inside of 1871, Chicago’s technology and ent…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Charlie’s own experience trying to put in vacation time at Google inspired Merlin Guides-The value Charlie sees in the New York startup scene, and why the American market is extremely attractive to founders-How Charlie is really the perfect blend of both of his parents’ backgrounds, and why he always knew he …

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-The opportunity Alex saw for humans to amplify the results of machines, and how Scale API plans to act on it-Growing up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the Atomic bomb, and how its emphasis on science impacted Alex’s childhood-How working at Addepar and Quora before college influenced Alex’s career, …

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-CMG’s evolution from its initial site, Who What Wear, to the conglomerate it’s become today-How Katherine ensures CMG remains close to the consumer, and why its critical to the company’s success in light of fashion’s globalization-Katherine’s early entrepreneurial endeavors that included putting on (paid) shows f…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-The state of innovation in Chicago, and how the startup ecosystem has changed since Sean built his first company-Sean’s transient childhood, and the hardships he saw his parents endure as Taiwanese immigrants who tried to be restauranteurs-Why hard work is not enough to be successful, and why it’s important to sp…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why constant work chatter is actually detrimental to progress, and how to avoid the FOMO that comes from not immediately responding to messages-How Basecamp’s maintained steady growth over the past 13 years, and why rapid growth is not necessarily synonymous with success-Ideas for creating connections amongst rem…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Who the ideal Fossa customer is, and why enterprise companies are not the only ones who care about code quality and security-The evolution from TLDRLegal to Fossa, and the opportunity Kevin saw to create a sustainable business-How attending the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy boarding school shaped Kevin…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Bitnami evolved from a side project in 2008 to become a full fledged company in 2013 when the founders saw an opportunity surrounding the deployment experience-The pros and cons to raising outside funding, and why the Bitnami team choose to wait until the point where not raising would impede the business-Grow…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Critical advice on how to bring new products to market, and how to find your ideal customer-Why business is fundamentally creative versus competitive-The strategy and decision making process as to why Sir Kensington’s is headquartered in New York City-How Scott’s childhood growing up in the Bay area influenced hi…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-100 State, the largest coworking space in Wisconsin, and how it aims to be the center of gravity for the budding Madison entrepreneurial scene-How creating seven healthcare startups made the founders realize the need for Redox, and how the team solved the classic “chicken-and-egg” platform problem-Why his parents…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-The beginnings of Ionic, which originated from Codiqa, a drag-and-drop tool for jQuery mobile that stemmed from the desire (and frustration) to quickly build great apps-Why the pair feels so strongly about building Ionic from Madison, and the cabin (aka garage) phase of the company-The private messaging forum / b…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why Boxed surprisingly has very little customer overlap with the traditional brick-and-mortar discount clubs-Why seasoned entrepreneurs go after different markets than first-timers, and how to look beyond just solving a problem-The culture behind Boxed that has made it such a publicly lauded company (see here and…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How the idea for Pressbox started from Vijen’s aim to simply make life easier, and the other ideas he entertained before settling on dry cleaning-Vijen’s experience in high school reselling Cubs tickets at a lofty margin, and how that sparked his urge to be an entrepreneur-Why math was the center of Vijen’s life,…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Tradesy’s beginnings, and the little hacks Tracy did to build up both sides of the marketplace-Tracy’s transition from artist to entrepreneur and how she dealt with all of the responsibility that came with it-Why it’s important to pick activities that force you to learn-as-you-do them, and how Tracy took that to …

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why Danielle and Michael decided to focus solely on younger founders, regardless of whether or not they attended university-How starting a venture fund increased her empathy for entrepreneurs, particularly through fundraising efforts-Danielle’s experience starting a charter school in San Diego, and why it was eas…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Popular Pays evolved its product since its inception based on the feedback it got from its initial customers-Why building a company on a mission is more important (and challenging) to Corbett that figuring out ways to simply make a profit-His father’s own work on a startup, and how that helped Corbett learn m…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How one customer with over 5,000 employees saved $48M in savings in a year from offloading these everyday tasks to Zoom-Why Toronto is the ideal location for creating a machine learning / AI company, and how it’s become the 3rd largest technology hub in North America-How being an only child raised by a single par…

In this episode you’ll hear about:-The struggles of content marketers today, and why media startups need to be especially scrappy and resourceful to succeed-The present opening Rachel sees in media companies and who the Love Stories TV’s typical user is (it may surprise you)-Rachel’s childhood growing up in suburban Detroit, where she was a competi…

In this episode you’ll hear about:-The origins of Kylie.ai, and why it’s entrepreneurs should always listen to prospective customers when developing new products -How his mother’s blend of math and psychology, and his father’s 30+ year tenure working at GE, inspired him to be an entrepreneur-Sinan’s experience as a professor at Johns Hopkins’ (afte…

In this episode you’ll hear about:-When Taylor first saw the opportunity for Tiz, and why he decided to work at -Drizly before striking out on his own-The benefits of launching a startup in Chicago over San Francisco, and why top universities are critical to the ecosystem-How Taylor broke the family occupational mold by being an entrepreneur (he co…

In this episode you’ll hear about:-Why innovation tends to happen at the cross-section of disciplines, and how Sparrho is helping foster that innovation-Vivian’s childhood growing up in Australia (with parents working in education and publishing) where she discovered a love for science-The “contained chaos” that happens when getting a PhD at Cambri…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-The genesis of Aire, the vision Aneesh sees for the next 20+ years, and how to show value to investors along the way-His own transient childhood as the son of the diplomat (and a journalist), and how the “start, restart” mindset led way to entrepreneurship-Aneesh’s early activism, starting with an angry letter he…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why it was important for Cleo to have a personality, and the opportunity Aleksandra sees in the space-Growing up in Poland and how her father helped foster her early interest with -technology -How, as a child, computer science felt like wizardry, where scripts were spells and programs were magic-Why Aleksandra wa…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How the idea for Occasion was born out of frustration from being unable to reserve tennis court time in Chicago-Aksh’s view on how AI will transform his industry-The long lineage of entrepreneurship in Aksh’s family, and how it molded his childhood dreams-Why Aksh works at his mother’s store every six weeks, and …

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why being EIRs at Social Capital before officially starting Renzu helped the founders substantially add initial value when fleshing out ideas-How Renzu got potential customers to be angel investors before landing capital from venture firms like Redpoint-His childhood living all over the world due to his Dad’s dip…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why cryptocurrency is more easily adopted in the developing world-How James’ first foray intro entrepreneurship at age 12 led to a series of different ventures (and why the passion is still the same regardless)-James’ perspective on education and skipping college, and why it’s not always the best choice for every…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why Brian’s thinks entrepreneurship is a means to an end, and why acquisitions that grow your business can be more gratifying than doing it on your own.-How his childhood independence was due to his “submarine” parents (i.e. the opposite of today’s helicopter parents).-Brian’s lack of interest in science as a chi…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How Andy’s cofounder Danielle convinced him to stay in the Valley to build what would later become Mattermark-Why a company’s data tells more of a story than its press releases-The pivotal moment for Mattermark, where publishing an article on Zombie VCs turned into finding a product / market fit-Why Andy finds st…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Why Marc prefers to build startup ecosystems outside the major cities in the U.S., and why entrepreneurship can thrive anywhere-The genesis of Startup Weekend, and when the lightbulb went off for Marc that these events were where great ideas begin-Marc’s childhood living with exchange students from all over the w…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-The travels her family did each summer growing up, alternating between India -and new locations, and how this influenced her curiosity-How even as a child, Gowri aspired to be a doctor, rocket scientist, and professor rather than the typical “princess fairy”-How the violin taught her the importance of practice an…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-Surfset’s appearance on Good Morning America, and how Sarah’s scrappiness made it a success-The decision to get funding from Shark Tank versus a traditional venture route or entirely bootstrapping-How Surfset avoided being a trend-driven fitness activity to become a sustainable business-How Sarah changed her typi…

In this episode, you’ll hear about:-How the company originally focused on residences rather than offices before realizing there was a better opportunity in the latter-Why it’s all about the company’s narrative during a startups early phases-The sustainable infrastructure program Dan created while at Hopkins that is now one of the most robust univer…

In this episode you’ll hear about:-How Hubble got its name from the Hubble Space Telescope, which actually needed a contact lens to correct its vision.-Jesse’s experiences starting a movie club and a mentoring group that showed him he could build something from nothing.-How his experience investing at Bridgewater gave him and his co-founder Ben a n…

In this episode you’ll hear about:-How SkySpecs was born out of the University of Michigan’s incubator after building a drone for a senior design project.-How his years running a landscaping business in high school with a friend built his foundation for entrepreneurship.-Why a strong network is key to building a company.-How his Dad’s “let’s build …