If Not Now Wen Podcast

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Cara McCarty. Cara is the Founder & CEO at Betterleave, the leading platform built to support organizations and families as they navigate grief and loss. Prior to Betterleave, Cara co-founded Code Pilot, one of the fastest growing training & recruitment platforms for developers. Code Pilot was acquired by AngelL...

The name Wen actually means “rainbow in the sky” in Chinese. I was born and raised in a tiny mountain village in the southeast part of China. Where I grew up is a beautiful town where people are born there, live there, and die there happily. But I never saw that for myself and always dreamed that one day I would go and see the world.   Now, here I am in Austin, Texas running a global accelera...

My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Justin Siegel. Justin is an entrepreneur and investor, and he is the co-founder and CEO of two successful mobile entertainment companies. The first company, JSmart Technologies, was a pioneer in mobile games. It was acquired by the SK Group in 2004. The second company, JNJ Mobile, backed by General Catalyst Partners and Softbank Capital, bui...

Today we’re celebrating the 100th episode of If Not Now Wen. Thank you to all the listeners. Your support truly means the world to me.   In this episode we’re switching things up a bit, and I’m passing the mic to my dear friend Wendy Shew. People often ask to hear more about my story, so I thought it would be fun to have a conversation and dive more into my journey.   You may already kno...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Jason Scharf. Jason is a bio strategy leader and active early-stage investor in the life science and digital health sectors. He has built and led teams in strategic planning, market intelligence, and innovation at large biopharma, genomics, and medtech companies. In addition to his roles within the corporate environment...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Wendy Shew. As a first generation Asian American, Wendy experienced firsthand how education can ultimately become the equalizer in anyone’s life. At an early age, she experienced the tragedy of losing her mother, which has become her catalyst for 25 years in social impact work. Determined to break through gender barrier...

My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Igor Vainshtein, a serial entrepreneur from Australia. Igor started his entrepreneurial journey at age 16 building websites in 1996, when most people didn’t even know what a website was. When Igor was a child, his parents migrated from former USSR (Moldova/Ukraine) to Australia in search of a brighter future. Following in his father’s steps,...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Marc Nathan. Marc is an experienced leader in the technology startup community with a talent for connecting entrepreneurial business owners to customers, employees, investors, and partners. Marc is the Vice President of Client Strategy of a law firm based in Austin, Texas where he helps his clients discover appropriate...

My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Deanna Brown. Deanna is an early-stage innovation specialist and start-up strategist. She is recognized for delivering extraordinary growth and innovation for some of the world’s most influential brands such as Yahoo and AOL. Today Deanna is a managing partner for PMC Venture, a venture fund based in Austin, TX. Deanna is passionate about su...

My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is my friend and mentor, Satish Kambalimath. Satish is a serial entrepreneur who has over 25 years of experience in a vast array of leadership roles at IBM, AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent, Cadence and Niksun.   Satish has held senior leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies as well as startups, and he has a proven track record in taking e...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Heather Emerson.  Heather is a founder of Prep To Your Door, a food business serving Austin, TX and beyond organic, farm-to-table meals in zero-waste packaging. Heather is passionate about the impact food has on human health as well as on the environment. Her mission is to change food through strengthening local fo...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest and serial entrepreneur Daran Herrman. Daran is the founder and CEO of Goboto, a full-service marketing firm that brings efficiency to the online real estate marketplace. He is the host of the Establishing Your Empire show which is a podcast that inspires entrepreneurs, creatives, and future business owners to pursue th...

My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Brian Beck. Brian is the Managing Partner and co-founder of Sabio Tech Partners, an Austin-based technology advisory firm focused on helping middle market private equity firms achieve greater investment valuation with reduced risk. Sabio has developed an innovative approach and toolset, called “Quality of Technology”, specifically designed t...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re excited to talk with special guest Joshua Lee. Joshua is a serial entrepreneur who has built 16 companies throughout his career. Today he is an expert on LinkedIn and is proud to have earned the nickname “The Dopamine Dealer of LinkedIn”.   Joshua is the founder and CEO of StandOut Authority where he works with entrepreneurs to help humanize profess...

In today’s episode of If Not Now wen, we’re talking with special guest Shawn Flynn. Shawn started his life as a business owner founding and growing a successful company in Beijing China before returning to the US to work with companies ranging from fast growing Silicon Valley startups to established overseas public companies. He brings his international experience working with all stages and secto...

My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen is Rajesh Gopi. Rajesh is the co-founder at TWO12, an Austin-based FinTech SaaS company providing equity management and fund administration solutions.   Rajesh is passionate about supporting founders to build great companies by sharing valuable lessons learned from his experience being part of multiple successful startups.   In this e...

Welcome to today’s episode of If Not Now Wen. We are talking with special guest and serial entrepreneur Henrik Johansson. Henrik co-founded and built the product company Boundless into a $100M company. Currently he is the co-founder and CEO of Gembah, a product development platform and marketplace with a vision to democratize product innovation. Henrik specializes in technology-enabled services, m...

We’re so excited to be talking with special guest Jaclynn Brennan in today’s episode of If Not Now Wen. Jaclynn is a creative executive and expert on connecting between business and branding. She has over a decade of experience as a creative director for a variety of luxury fashion brands. Jaclynn has helped lead twenty-two major corporations in executing their branding strategies, and she is also...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re talking with special guest Joel Trammell. Joel is a serial entrepreneur and lifelong learner who is super passionate about building great organizations. His leadership has led to multiple successful exits and exceptional investor returns over his 30-year career. Joel is the owner of Texas CEO Magazine, which reaches more than 10,000 CEOs across the state...

Today we’re talking with special guest and serial entrepreneur Christine Prydatko. Christine is a founding partner in Simple Vodka, a fully sustainable product with a social impact model. She is the co-publisher and SVP of business development at James Lane Post, a media company and publication on the East End of Long Island, New York. She has also joined Ethereal Global which is a web3, blockchai...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re talking with special guest Juan Ignacio. Juan was born and raised in his beautiful country, Costa Rica. He has extensive experience in country development strategy, as well as in the investment, wealth management, and real estate development sectors, where he has served as a general manager and director of expansion and marketing for Central America and...

My special guest in today’s episode of If Not Now When is Rena Pacheco-Theard. Rena is the CEO of Boutiq, which is building a trusted vacation rental brand and real estate investment engine. At Boutiq they use data science to acquire and manage luxury vacation rentals. They believe that time is precious, and special memories will last a lifetime. Prior to launching Boutiq, Rena came from a corpora...

In today’s episode of If Not Now Wen, we’re talking with our special guest Chris Fronda. Chris comes from a corporate background with years of experience in software development. Today he is a chief logic officer at Logictry where they are helping organizations overcome knowledge transfer and software development challenges and streamline their business for success. Chris loves continuous learning...

My special guest in today’s episode is Brooke Bains. Brooke has over 20 years in sales, go-to-market operations, and consulting for businesses, whether publicly traded, privately held, or venture-backed companies.  She is passionate about the customer experience and believes that this is where the journey to creating valuable partnerships ultimately begins. Brooke founded the company Bombshel...

In today’s podcast we’re speaking to Chris Beaman who is a software developer, product designer, growth marketer, and serial entrepreneur. Over the past 10 years, Chris has built several companies, as well as mentored dozens of early-stage founders. A natural super connector, Chris is most passionate about introducing great people. In his current role as CEO at Astronomic, Chris is building softwa...