Startup Wins: Founders, VCs & Builders

Send us Fan Mail   Startup Wins Podcast, Season 2, Ep 6, Part 2 of 2   The cold email is dead—or is it? In Part 2 of our conversation with John Forbes, Principal at Julian Capital and operator of Deep Checks, we go deeper into how VCs actually think, what's really happening to software in the age of AI, and why Austin might be the most underrated startup city in America.  Plus, John gets pers...

Send us Fan Mail Hey Startup Wins family — and thank you, genuinely, for listening. If you've noticed we've gone quieter than usual, you're not wrong. And you deserve a real explanation, not a vague "we'll be back soon." This is my second serious podcast, and it's been one of the most rewarding creative journeys I've taken — full of unexpected highs, a few h...

Send us Fan Mail Startup Wins Podcast, Season 2, Ep 6, Part 1 of 2  What do venture capitalists actually look for—and why do most founders get it wrong? In this episode of Startup Wins, host Brandon Na sits down with John Forbes, Principal at Julian Capital and the operator behind Deep Checks—the world’s largest deep tech funding platform. From building startups in high school to investing in cutt...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when two Cuban-American brothers from a Miami farm get snowed in at college and can't get a decent pizza delivered? They build one of the largest car-sharing platforms in North America — and that's just the beginning. In this episode of Startup Wins, Brandon sits down with Matthew Vega-Sanz, the twin co-founder and CEO of Gail , the world's most advance...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Startup Wins , host Brandon Na sits down with his friend Bill Mastin , CEO of Cadient , for a candid and fascinating conversation on startups, resilience, and how AI is transforming the future of business faster than most people realize. Bill shares his journey from early education technology work and corporate experience to building and leading high-growth soft...

Send us Fan Mail A MUST watch Podcast:  Today's episode graces us all having 4 of the Top "Under the Radar" Founder Superstars in US history share:  how to build the "perfect" or imperfect team (Dan Shapiro, Kevin Henrikson) how to build 1 of the most important parts of startups: the cap table (Kim Kovacs) what are the keys to finding your perfect technical/engineering tal...

Send us Fan Mail The "Everything On The Line" Story of Chili Piper How do you go from selling your house and every personal possession to leading one of the most innovative companies in B2B SaaS? In this episode of Startup Wins , we sit down with Alina Vandenberghe , Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Chili Piper . Alina takes us behind the scenes of her radical journey—from her childhood in commu...

Send us Fan Mail What if every business you touch is both a product and a service—and treating it that way unlocks the results you’ve been chasing? Startup Wins sat down with product veteran Liz Hunt & healthcare technologist Michael Lee, co-founders of 8 Bit Spark, to pull back the curtain on how real innovation happens inside messy constraints, heavy regulation, and shifting incentives. Star...

Send us Fan Mail Xania Wong shares her 13 year journey founding 4 Startups that are not always about building a Unicorn.  Read her LinkedIn profile and find she's won or final'd 16 different Startup competitions from the Chivas' the Venture Competition HK where we met [winner (2016)]to Google's Empowering Young Entrepreneur competition [winner (2014)].   Host Brandon Na explore...

Send us Fan Mail Shaun Gold —VC (Venture Comedy), top 1% ghostwriter for VCs & founders, best-selling author, speaker, and former nightlife ninja—joins Episode 11 of Startup Wins to share sharp, unconventional insights for founders looking to break through in today’s noisy startup landscape. Host Brandon Na dives deep with Shaun, exploring his unique path from Miami nightlife to advising VCs,...

Send us Fan Mail Ellie Sarmadi , CEO of Thravos in Ep 9 (Season 1) of Startup Wins shares keen startup tips for succeeding in almost any industry.  And host Brandon Na ⁠dives deep with Sarmadi with her years of experience on Wall Street to her investments in Startups to her current efforts to level the playing field for the benefit of everyone in the sports ecosystem.  Brandon is Managing General...

Send us Fan Mail Part 2 of Serial Startup Founder & Senior Research Fellow at the Wharton School's Generative AI Lab Dan Shapiro gives some of the BEST actionable advice for future startup founders hoping to reach the $100 mill Revenue mark. On his fourth startup after exiting to Google in 6 months with Sparkbuy, Dan gives anyone wanting to truly build a impactful company in Hardware the...

Send us Fan Mail Serial Startup Founder Dan Shapiro provides some of the best 0 to $100 mill revenue tips w/ Startup Wins Host Brandon Na .  Dan shares his personal journey across 4 startups & many more cos that have helped him w/ his latest Seattle based 3-D Printing co Glowforge .  Brandon is Managing General Partner of Good People Ventures , former radio show host, previously produced 3 sea...

Send us Fan Mail Reusable Food Packaging Startup CEO of Ozarka, Beth Massa (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethmassa/), shares how one tries to grow a companyta company in Europe (specifically the Netherlands) with Startup Wins Host Brandon Na (⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonna⁠ / ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-wins⁠) as an American. Beth tells the dramatic and interesting entrepreneu...

Send us Fan Mail Payments Processing Startup Founder Mike King, CEO of Moneta Market joins Brandon Na & Startup Wins (⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-wins). Mike provides wisdom gained over many years building more than 20 businesses and truly honing in on how to start the perfect startup by brewing it slowly. Don't be surprised if Mike is creating the beginning of another Paypa...

Send us Fan Mail 7 Time Startup Founder & Startup Financing Expert Kimberly Kovacs joins Brandon Na & Startup Wins . Kimberly not only impresses us with Startup Financing knowledge better than Brad Feld's Venture Deals or The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital by Andrew Romans, but she shares her rich experience having helped build the predecessor to Carta.com and many other imp...

Send us Fan Mail 8 Time Startup Founder & VC David Yi joins Brandon Na & Startup Wins to Share INCREDIBLE Startup Tips from Southeast Asia.  David blows us away with impressive career spanning over many education startups with the latest one raising close to $200 million in venture. His real world startup counseling will help you build the next incredible company that will last many genera...

Send us Fan Mail Startup Wins Podcast Interviews LinkedIn Branding Expert String Nguyen in Ep 3 | Founder Tips  Social Media Branding Expert & Fried Chicken Queen String Nguyen who has more than 100k of followers joins Brandon Na & Startup Wins . String helps smart people with easy marketing and content tips, but in today's episode, String shares never before told secrets and tips on...

Send us Fan Mail Startup Founder & Engineering Thought Leader Kevin Henrikson joins Brandon Na & Startup Wins .  Kevin shares his impressive experience co-founding the startup that eventually became Outlook; Scaled Engineering Teams at Microsoft and Instacart as large as 2000+ engineers & gives some of the most amazing actionable advice on building unicorns.   Brandon is Managing Gener...

Send us Fan Mail Hyper-Growth Marketing Expert & CMO Olga Denisova joins Brandon Na & Startup Wins to Coach Startups and everyone who wants to build multi-generational companies that Jim Collins would be proud of. Denisova, the marketing sarcasm & truths queen knows every acronym under the sun from CMO, IPO, & AI and has leveraged them to build Unicorns including SEMrush, Veam Soft...