The Thread Podcast

Nichole Powell , CEO and Founder of Kinfield , joins the show to talk about Nichole's decision to make a professional pivot out of big tech to building clean, sustainable,consumer products for the outdoors. Nichole's experience appearing on Shark Tank, swimming with the sharks and receiving four different offers from investors to build Kinfield. How Kinfield has approached building produ...

Joe Pompliano , Co founder and CEO of Huddle Up , joins the show to talk about Two Billion social impressions, 25M YouTube views, and the journey to building one of the most successful content platforms for the business of sports. How Joe landed podcast guests like Ice Cube, Troy Aikman, Lance Armstrong, and others. How Joe evaluates the companies he invests in, and his perspective on working with...

Henry Shi, Co founder of Super , joins the show to talk about Building a savings super app focussed on the everyday American, and Super's approach to customer segmentation. Henry and Hussein's approach to finding product market fit for their consumer focused startup, and Henry's thoughts on how this differs from finding PM fit in building a B2B company. Super's initial focus on...

David Booth , CEO of On Deck , joins the show to talk about: How On Deck helps founders get leverage on their time and lean into community to build exceptional companies, as well as how On Deck differs from traditional accelerators like YC and 500 Startups. David's "three edges" framework to evaluate On Deck's founder candidates, and evaluating the mindset that many founders ha...

Jacob Jaber , Chairman and Co founder of Philz Coffee joins the show to talk about: The founder's story behind building one of the industry's most successful specialty coffee brands. Creating a culture of "Grandma's house hospitality" and a personalized approach to building product and delivering service to customers, one cup of coffee at a time. How Philz harnessed initia...

Justin rounds out the week with a quick recap from the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and talks about The future of fan engagement and personalization in sports. The evolution of the athlete, player empowerment, and the "look at me" generation Leadership lessons from WNBA legend, Sue Bird, Miami Heat VP of Analytics, Shane Battier, and Celtics GM Brad Stevens.

Ben Emmrich , CEO and Co founder of Tusk joins the show to talk about: Disrupting FedEx and UPS with a better way to ship. The process Ben went through to sell and establish Tusk's first network partners. Diagnosing customer pain by checking the labels on the purchases we make every day. Ben's hustle selling dry ice and his approach to constructing monopolies. 

Jesse Lipson , CEO and Co founder of Levitate and ShareFile , joins the show to talk about Bootstrapping his SaaS company, ShareFile, to a $93M acquisition by Citrix . What the acquisition process looked like during the sale of ShareFile to Citrix. The keys to building successful companies with and without venture capital. Becoming the diagonal aSaaSin and dominating in categories that cut across...

Stephanie Bowker , Co Founder and CMO of Ourspace , joins the show to talk about The "people puzzle problem", and the biggest challenge individual contributors face as they transition to managers of people. The rise of the marketing aSaaSin and why marketers make great founders. Brand building and positioning during the stage of going from 0 to 1. The growth of the international tech sce...

Bryant Chou , Co founder and CTO of Webflow , joins the show to talk about Bryant, Sergie and Vlad's journey to building a unicorn, and the three signals that gave Bryant conviction they were on to something really big with Webflow Bryant's suggestions for entrepreneurs looking for a technical co founder and traits of what makes an exceptional founding CTO Webflow's origins as a sel...

Bryan Tublin , Owner and Co Founder of Kitava , joins the show to talk about Taking the leap to leave a stable tech job to start a restaurant. How Bryan validated the concept for his restaurant by bringing soup to house parties. His process for gathering customer and employee feedback to inform his menu and dining experience Bryan's decision to expand Kitava to multiple locations and how he u...

Howard Lerman , CEO and Co founder of Roam and Yext joins the show to talk about Building Yext, pivoting after $20M in ARR, and replacing the Yellow Pages Whether or not remote work is here to stay, the impact of the Zoom meeting boom, and the death of the recurring meeting with Roam. The importance of founder stock and making employees founders.

Rajat Suri , CEO and Co founder of Presto and previous Co founder of Lyft joins the show to talk about: The customer insight that led to starting Zimride (aka Lyft) "Fork in the road" moments that have defined Raj's career as an entrepreneur. The thought process that led Raj to drop out of MIT to wait tables in a restaurant, and ultimately found Presto. Raj's decision to take P...

Roger Obando , CTO at Loyalsnap and Co founder of Baker Technologies (acquired by TILT Holdings ), joins the show to talk about The evolution of the cannabis space, customer segmentation in weed, and the customer profile of the Chardonnay mom! Roger and team's experience raising capital for Baker, and his experience authoring his book, "The Highest Common Denominator",  The differen...

Bill Clerico , Founder and Managing Partner at Convective Capital , and Co founder and CEO of WePay , joins the show to talk about Building companies in a recession and Bill's model for evaluating investment opportunities. How Bill and his team uncovered PM fit for WePay, and the signals that helped WePay make the transition from a consumer to B2B company. Current state of the payments indust...

Brian Wang , founder and executive coach at Dashing Leadership joins the show to talk about: The similarities and differences of starting a venture backed startup and a coaching and services business. How early stage startup founders and leaders can get the best out of their people, specifically creating an environment that encourages risk taking and setting a clear short term AND long term vision...

Cam Doody , Co founder and GP of the Brickyard , joins the show to talk about: Cam's first successful venture, Bellhop , and how he scaled one of the fastest growing companies in the moving industry.  Brickyard's approach to accelerating and "insulating" great companies The benefit of relocating your early team to an island and the importance of physically working together in t...

AJ Forsythe and Jordan Barnes , Co founders of Coop , join the show to talk about Building the world's largest decentralized food network. The future of AgTech and putting automated agriculture systems on the moon. Pros and Cons of raising (and then being asked to spend) Venture Capital. Most importantly, unpacking what a cheese factory is all about.

Stefan Seltz-Axmacher , CEO and Co founder of Polymath Robotics , joins the show to talk about The importance of timing when tackling an emerging category. How Polymath thinks about customer segmentation and the customer profile(s) it's solving for. Finding the right technical co founder and building a strong engineering team. Opportunities for automation in specific verticals and the future...

Troy Vosseller , Co founder of the Gener8tor accelerator and Co founder of Sconnie Nation joins the show to talk about Troy's experience founding a startup accelerator, and the similarities and differences of being an entrepreneur and investor. The story behind Sconnie Nation and how Troy established a meaningful and lasting brand. How Troy got into the business of selling his own brand of be...

Alan d'Escragnolle , CEO and Co Founder of Filmhub , joins the show to talk about How Filmhub approached the BD and enterprise sales process to secure distrubtion deals with incredible partners like Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and The Roku Channel. The importance of focusing on partners that have high growth potential, versus only focusing on partners with the greatest market share. The future...

Anu Shukla , Co founder and Executive Chairman of Botco.ai , joins the show to talk about: - The keys to finding product market fit as an entrepreneur, and her experience finding product market fit, multiple times, in various market conditions. - Anu's experiences as a pioneer in the marketing automation space, as well as the ups and downs of building on someone else's platform.  - Anu&a...

Matt Danna , CEO and Co Founder of Boulevard , joins the show to talk about:  - How Matt uncovered product-market fit in the salon category - Boulevard's approach to customer segmentation and targeting, and the company's decision to build a vertical SaaS business versus horizontal SaaS business. - Matt's approach to fundraising, and how he closed a 70M Series C during one of the mos...

Rob May, Serial entrepreneur and CTO and Cofounder of Dianthus joins the aSaaSins Podcast to discuss: - His decision to start a company that wasn't SaaS first, and how Rob and his team are disrupting eCommerce.  - The evolution of AI and automation in the workplace, and what's missing for the space to really take off. - Industries that are ripe for disruption through practical applicatio...

Jen Abel , Co founder and Partner of JJELLYFISH joins the show to talk about: The importance of having the founder involved in the sales process when going from 0 to 1.  The point at which founders should hire their first full-time sales person. The signals that companies and founders should be looking for to know when they've hit Product-Market fit. Using customer feedback to inform how your...