The Thread Podcast

Matt Wadiak , Co founder and former COO Of Blue Apron , and CEO and Co founder of CleanUp joins the show to talk about - Founding Blue Apron and being one of the first movers in meal planning and e-commerce ingredient market.  - The importance of capital planning and cash flow and the importance of picking markets. - Key ingredients to succeed as an entrepreneur in the food space. - How customer a...

Harry Tannenbaum , Co founder of Mill ,  joins the show to talk about. Harry's experience at Nest and building products that are really good for that planet. The Mill process of finding PM fit as a hardware startup. Harry's decision to go DTC, "core vs. context", and how he thinks about evaluating BD and partnership collaboration opportunities  Lessons learned from Harry as a f...

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...

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 w...

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 prioriti...

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 ver...

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 ho...

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 e...

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 c...

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...

Albert Gozzi , CEO and Co founder of Aleph joins the show to talk about.  The insight Albert got from his time in consulting at Bain, specifically the pain in and around FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis), that led him to founding Aleph. How CEOs should be thinking about balancing "relationship building" with VCs vs. building the business.  The mentality of company building aft...

Nora Jones , CEO and Co founder of Jeli , joins the show to talk about How Nora's experience at Jet, Netflix, and Slack led her to founding Jeli. Chaos engineering, quantifying the impact of burnout in an "always on" economy, and the human side of incident management.   Selling Jeli to PagerDuty and the process Nora went through to sell the company (when to bring in outside help)

Tracy Young , CEO and Co founder of TigerEye , joins the show to talk about Building Tracy's first successful company, PlanGrid, and how the Autodesk acquisition of PlanGrid led to Tracy uncovering the opportunity for her current venture, TigerEye (launching this year in 2024!) Tracy's decision to start another company and how she evaluated her options after her time at AutoDesk. Balanci...

Anna Believantseva , COO and Co founder of Esper Bionics joins the show to talk about  - Human augmentation and using bionics and technology to extend our human potential. - The human technology stack, and the potential of embedded hardware in humans.  - The role of a COO at an early stage startup, B2B2C business model challenges and fundraising for a bionics, robotics, and hardware startup. 

Hedda Båverud Olsson , CEO and Co founder of Lassie , joins the show to talk about The Pet insurance and pet ownership space, the major insurance incumbents, and Lassie's focus on preventative veterinary practices. Chicken problems and how different cultures view pet ownership.  Hedda's experience closing out her €23M Series B round from Balderton Capital, and best practices on how to cl...

Rachel Blank , CEO and Co founder of Allara Health , joins the show to talk about The evolution of women's health care and how improvements are being made through digital health. The importance and advantages of a "direct to consumer" health care model. Raising $10M from Google Ventures, balancing cash conservation with growth, and how Rachel is thinking about scaling quality of car...

Mike Weiland , Co founder and CEO of Govly , joins the show to talk about Why selling to the government is really hard and how Govly makes that easier for businesses contracting with the government. Raising $9.5M Series A from Insight, fundraising for a government tech startup, and the advantages of picking a more unique venture vertical that is recession proof. Raising the bar and challenging emp...

Navneet Dalal , CEO and Co founder of Matic joins the show to talk about Being an early mover and pioneer in computer vision and deep learning. Moving beyond an interface and a good product to build a lasting, sustainable business. Being acquired by Google, working for Tony Fadell and with the Nest team, and the insight that led to Matic. The "human sensor stack" and how it intersects wi...

Sam Chaudhary , Co founder and CEO of ClassDojo , joins the show to talk about Where early stage education is falling short, and Sam's experience building the largest community for teachers, parents, and kids to thrive in the educational system.  The process Sam and his co founder Liam went through to unlock PM fit for ClassDojo. The jobs left to be solved in education, reflecting on the COVI...

Siva Namasivayam , Co founder and CEO of Cohere Health , joins the show to talk about Starting companies in chaos and a family full of MDs. The inefficiencies that exist in the operational side of Health Care. Identifying early adopters and the nuances of doing that in a more conservative market like Health Care. Raising capital in health care and the traction you need and expectations you need to...

Mallory Greene , Co founder and CEO of Eirene Cremations , joins the show to talk about "Death tech" and growing up in a family business centered on death. Why death is a great business, and the metrics that matter when raising capital in the Death Tech space Building an "honor based" mindset to servicing the families who have lost loved ones.

Tony Jamous , Co founder and CEO of Oyster , joins the show to talk about Globe trotting from Lebanon to France to Cyprus, and the pains of starting a globally distributed business and the founding story of Oyster. The assumptions and excuses of an in-person office culture A purpose driven approach to company building, and why Tony built Oyster as a B Corp. Hiring the right people for the C-suite,...

Farzad Rashidi , Co founder of Respona , joins the show to talk about: The process Farzad went through to calculate customer acquisition costs and find the channel that ultimately led to founding Respona. A brief history of SEO, and a few hacks that founders can apply to grow their business. Tactics for podcasters to grow their own listener base + how Farzad landed an interview on this show. Balan...