Startup Stories with Silicon Florist

Menus haven't fundamentally changed since they first appeared in France 200 years ago—and PDF QR codes didn't make them any better. Now, this Emmy winning founder is looking for ways to improve the ancient document. Dru Holley, cofounder of MenuMingle, discusses how "menu anxiety" affects 1 in 3 diners (and 9 out of 10 Gen Z diners), why flat text menus hurt restaurant profit mar...

Peter Kirwan, co-founder and CEO of mebot ai, joins me on Startup Stories to discuss the evolution of AI digital twins, what it takes to scale human presence, and the gritty realities of entrepreneurship in the age of rapid AI acceleration. We dive into how mebot pivoted from early VR experiments into identity-bound digital twins that can collaborate 24/7, why building software moats has completel...

In this episode of Startup Stories, Rick Turoczy sits down with Tarek, the founder of Prdikt, an AI co-pilot designed to help product managers bridge the gap between requirements and execution. With over two decades of experience in program management, Tarek shares his insights on "failing fast," the importance of strong advisors, and how AI tools are becoming essential thought partners...

Angel Medina, the founder of TODOS Media and cofounder of Republica & Co, joins me to discuss her journey from the culinary world to building a cinematic media platform. Angelina shares how her background in Mexican culture and high-end hospitality informed her approach to storytelling and why she believes the future for creators lies in owning their content and controlling their own distribut...

Patrick is the CEO and cofounder of ViddyScribe — one-click audio description in 52 languages, plus a realtime version for live YouTube — and we go from his LA video-agency days to why he moved to Portland and fell into accessibility. There's some genuinely good founder advice in here (keep your company as small as possible for as long as possible — a lesson he learned the hard way, comparing...

Building a startup mindset is essential for navigating the uncertainty of launching a new venture. Learn how self-belief impacts success. Regan Delaney, founder of Capfora, joins us to discuss the role of optimism in the startup world. This conversation focuses on the psychological demands placed on entrepreneurs and why maintaining confidence is a core component of the business process. We break...

Transcribbit is an application designed to support students by transcribing lectures and allowing for more accessible teacher-student communication. Born out of the digital learning era, Transcribbit brings the flexibility of online learning into the physical classroom. https://www.transcribbit.com/

Every parent knows the moment: your kid comes home with a scrap of paper — a drawing, a name, a phone number — that basically says "let's hang out," and you're standing there thinking, I don't know this kid, I don't know these parents, I don't know anything. That exact scene is why Jeremy "Fresh" Roberts built funnr — a way for parents to actually schedule a...

Lee Harding calls Proxylity "a weird little company here in Portland that does serverless UDP" — and by the end of this conversation, you'll understand why that's a bigger deal than it sounds. The web runs on HTTP, the tooling around it is great, and building a new web API has never been easier or lower-risk. But a lot of applications don't actually fit that mold. Teams reach...

Conello founder Kyra Boveda was a remote software engineer who'd sometimes log off at the end of the day and realize she hadn't had a single real conversation with anyone. It can be a lonely way to work. So she started throwing virtual game nights and happy hours to fix it — and that little instinct to bring people back together turned into Conello. LINKS:Conello — https://getconello.comPortland S...

Ever catch yourself wondering where your people are, which corners of town actually feel like yours, where the third spaces and the good local food and the ways to pitch in even live…? Finding all of that organically can take years. It can take a fair amount of luck. That's the gap Our Place is built to close. Our Place is a single place to discover local events, food, volunteering, and the ex...

Tellagence has been working on AI for 15 years. Matt Hixson co-founded Tellagence in Portland in 2011 — back when Twitter was still called Twitter and "we do AI" got you weird looks instead of a meeting. Fifteen years later, the company is having its moment, and Matt is sitting across from me telling me he's too stubborn to have let it die. Living proof, he calls it.https://www.tellagence.ai/FIND...

Allegory is an AI-native platform that helps match grantees to the right opportunities, drafts proposals with an agent system built on Cloudflare's Launchpad, and reduces the post-award reporting overhead for both grantees and capital providers. The audacious goal: application to funding in 30 days or less.https://allegory.world

Sam Titus, CEO and co-founder of DocCron, discusses how their trucking fintech company leverages "artificial intelligence" to identify additional revenue from existing trips. This highlights a significant advancement in "financial technology" within the trucking industry, showcasing the potential for "finance" and "startup banking" to evolve. It's a grea...

David Bynum spent a decade in footwear product design watching how a few component swaps could spin a shoe into a whole new product. Then COVID hit, he started tinkering, and Switchkraft was born — a Portland company making maximal modular multi-tools for adults who want their inner child back. The pitch: therapeutic play. The reality: 2 million possible configurations on the customizer, all 3D-pr...

It's not all AI for startups. UrbanForm founder Quang Truong on leaving architecture to automate zoning for cities, why technical advantages are disappearing in the age of AI, and why the founders who win next will be the ones with people skills, distribution networks, and grit — not just a clever idea. Plus: why no website or AI tool can replace a human you trust, and what Portland's phys...

Susan Bladholm has spent eight and a half years trying to put an electric passenger ferry on the Willamette River. Everyone says it's a no-brainer. Nobody's funding it. In this conversation, the founder of Friends of Frog Ferry talks about what happens when a city loves your idea but won't champion it, the $2 billion transportation shortfall that keeps new transit ideas on the shelf, a...

A conversation with Kabir Bhatia, CEO and co-founder of Hello Everyday — a startup creating a graceful solution for aging in place safely. Hello Everyday makes a small device that plugs into a wall outlet. No buttons, no cameras, no wearables. It uses smart radar to detect human activity and sends daily reassurance messages to up to five people. If something goes wrong, they'll know. In this e...

Matti Neustadt, Chief Executive Officer of V4 Final, shares valuable entrepreneurship insights. She emphasizes the critical need for startups to deeply understand customer problems. This starter story is a must-watch for anyone seeking entrepreneur motivation. TIMESTAMPS00:00 Startup stories cold open 0:15 What does your startup do? 1:48 What inspired you to work on this problem?8:05 What's on...

Chris Piercey is the CEO and founder of Decisio Media, a new app that brings dating-app-style swiping to movies and TV shows. With a patent-pending four-way swipe — left/right for seen it, up/down for want to see it — Decisio lets you curate your entertainment preferences without the algorithmic bias baked into most streaming platforms. Born from a frustrating night on the couch realizing Netflix...

Mary Williams spent 25+ years in storytelling — from the Disney Animation archives to the online creator economy. Now she's built Sasquatch Media Grounds, a boutique media production studio in Vancouver, WA, helping creators and brands make podcasts, YouTube content, and find their voice. In this conversation, we talk about her path from trained librarian to media producer, why she believes in...

In a world where AI is being shoved into every nook and cranny, one question is getting weirdly hard to answer: is this actually human? In this conversation, Kira Cleveland, cofounder of Human Intelligence, explains why authenticating real people and human creative work is quickly becoming essential—from creators trying to stand out (and protect their work) to kids getting confused about what’s re...

“A foolish man waits to make his own mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistake of others.” In this clip, David Gory (cofounder & CEO of Airbuild) shares the personal experiences that inspired his mission—using self-powered microalgae systems to capture carbon and help treat polluted bodies of water, then turning organic waste into biological charcoal (biochar) for long-term carbon storage a...

What if AI could act as a real consultant for your business—without hiring engineers, locking into one model, or paying per-seat fees? In this conversation, I talk with startup built by former Nike technology leaders. SWA Technology is a multi-agent AI orchestration platform that brings every major AI model—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, open-source models, and more—directly into the tools y...

Most people don’t read contracts. They skim, panic a little, and sign — hoping nothing explodes later. In this conversation, Eric Paxton, founder of Resplain, explains why that’s a terrible strategy — and how he built an AI tool that turns legal documents into plain English you can actually act on. Resplain doesn’t replace lawyers. It helps you understand what you might miss if you just skim and s...