Bright IDEAs

Incredibly excited to welcome Mackenzie Siren, a longtime product management professional, co-founder of Chicago Climate Connect, and co-chair of Chicago Climate Week. We talk about her role at Aurora Solar and the current state of the solar industry, the value of community-building in catalyzing climate action, and her thesis for the inaugural Chicago Climate Week. Chicago Climate Week will offic...

So excited to welcome Casey Goldstein, an investor at MCJ and Boston native. We talk about MCJ's portfolio-building approach, the place of climatetech startups in energy supply chains, burgeoning subsectors, how students can leverage AI for career positioning, and the role of impact in his professional/personal mission.  Casey also offers essential advice for young professionals at the precipice o...

Welcome back to Bright IDEAs podcast! I've decided to make the theme of this season's first episode (VC in the Green Transition) into my focal series as host; with a major geothermal IPO this past week and recent announcements of big tech companies contracting with moonshot climate startups, it's clear that clean energy innovation is emerging as vital to the future of the grid. I intend to host gu...

Welcome back to Bright IDEAs podcast! In bringing back the podcast, the aim for this season is to cast a wide net across the landscape of entrepreneurship, facilitating diverse conversations which will offer perspective into the startup space, wherever your interests may lie. Today, we welcome Mary King, a NU alum and VP at Aligned Climate Capital. She gives incisive insight into the clean energy...

Madison Rifkin is the CEO and founder of Mount. Her journey began at 15 when received her patent for a retracting bike lock. That same lock was the beginning of Mount's story, and the inspiration for the IOT company that Mount is today. Mount leverages a smart lock data analytics platform to track mobility patterns, locate lost vehicles and provide a holistic approach to mobility asset management....

Join Rachna Lewis, President of The Entrepreneurs Club, as she walks us through her journey and experience with the Husky Startup Challenge. In this podcast, she tells us how to navigate through HSC, and succeed at Demo Day. Rachna manages a team of 29 members and a community of 2000+ members. Her team oversees ~50 events per year across 5 programs. She tells us about her journey through E-club, a...

Introducing our new host - Ananya Shah! We will be speaking to the best and brightest founders, innovators and leaders within the Northeastern community to learn from their journey.  Tune in to be inspired, influenced and educated.  New episodes weekly! 

Join Neil Bhammar, President of Entrepreneurs Club, as he walks us through how he is able to manage a team of 23, a community of 1000+, and oversee ~50 events per year across 4 programs while being the Head of Ops for BusRight, a startup founded by a previous E-Club President, a Partner at Dorm Room Fund, and a busy college student. He dives into the topic of networking, as he is instrumental in o...

A. Elizabeth Cavallo is the 11th Altschuler-Meyer CEO of IDEA Venture Accelerator for the 2020-2021 year. She's a senior at Northeastern University and has been heavily involved with the NU entrepreneurial ecosystem for several years. This episode touches on Elizabeth's experiences of integrating into IDEA, ultimately taking charge, and leading our 50 member team during this virtual climate.

If you're an entrepreneur, finding a co-founder has probably crossed your mind at some point. On the show today, we have Josh Belinsky, who co-founded Slate Milk (one of IDEA's 80 launched ventures) with his partner in crime, Manny Lubin. Josh and Manny, after attending Northeastern University, decided to come together to found Slate Chocolate Milk — a company that is revolutionizing chocolate mil...

To wrap up 2020, the Bright IDEAs podcast is proud to present: Rachel Domb! Rachel is the Founder of Rooted Living — a mission-driven, eco-friendly, plant-based snack company — and a young, award-winning Set Stage IDEA venture that is making waves in the Northeastern entrepreneurship community. We interviewed Rachel about how she is building Rooted Living as a 19-year-old college student, how she...

Eliana Berger is the Co-Founder & Director of Envision Accelerator — providing equal opportunity for underrepresented student founders and entrepreneurs. From founding a non-profit in high school, to creating WISE on campus, to building her own venture accelerator, Eliana is a rising star that proves that you're never too young to change the world — having just turned 20. We interviewed Eliana abo...

Kyle Dolce is an Investment Analyst at Glasswing Ventures, as well as our Venture Director at IDEA — leading a team of 12 analysts and 4 coordinators to support our entrepreneurs in taking their ventures from concept to launch. With nearly 4 years at IDEA, we interviewed Kyle about his experience in the Management Team, how he climbed the ladder from Rotational Associate to Venture Director, and h...

Mahesh Shahdadpuri is the Founder & CEO of TASC Outsourcing — one of the largest and fastest growing talent management companies in the Middle East, headquartered in Dubai and with global operations. Jenny sat down with Mahesh to talk about his early life, his path to entrepreneurship, and how he built TASC Outsourcing. We then dove into how TASC is currently dealing with the global pandemic, what...

Welcome back to the Bright IDEAs podcast, and to IDEA's 11th Year! In this podcast, we'll dive into the best and brightest leaders and innovators, both within the Northeastern community and beyond. We'll be having insightful conversations with successful global entrepreneurs, our own community of student founders, faculty, and alumni, and the people that make IDEA possible — our Management Team! L...

Much has changed in the world, but Bright IDEAs is still here with one last episode before graduation. Just as we began, we will end with talking to Abhi, the CEO of IDEA. How has IDEA adapted to the current global business climate, what has he learned, and what's the next step for all of us seniors in this new world? Jake gets the answers and says good bye in his final episode. Kyle Lin's SoundCl...

Danny loved the outdoors and knew he wanted to start something that would help him give back to the natural world. Eventually that led him to co-founding Peak State, a coffee company that brews the traditional high energy drink with functional mushrooms that provide numerous health benefits while lowering the coffee's acidity levels. Across our conversation, Danny talks about rebranding to a new n...

Aubrey Bynoe had spent much of his life in the Caribbean, and after travellign the world he knew he wanted to come back to the island of Dominca. He and his cofounder Lubitza returned to find the island devastated by a recent hurricane, and the two dedicated themselves to building a sustanbility ariculture model founding in the methods of permaculture. One year after the opening their fields, Free...

Sophie Gechijian was looking for a snack that would help her get through days of trading and investing to no avail. With nothing more than a desire to create a snack focused on fueling the brain with the best ingredients, Sophie set about baking and testing flavors with her co-workers. Today, f(x) foods is giving everyone the power they need to acomplish their goals using the simplest ingredients....

Annika Morgan was thinking she would be a photographer while studying at Northeastern University when she was introduced to a new idea to get fresh food to people in need. Between converting a school bus  to a food delivery truck, classes, and eventually running IDEA, Annika became leader in building non-profits. AboutFresh is an amazing example of social enterprise. Learn more and consider volunt...

Bright IDEAs is back with a new season for the new year! Our first interview is with Sailaja Joshi of Bharat Babies, who tells of her journey of developing a publishing house to help diversify the world of children's literature, while also giving us some insight into working with authors and illustrators. If you'd like to flip through of of Bharat Babies pages yourself, check out their website: ht...

Chris Wolfel has played a huge role in helping build IDEA into what it is today. He served as CEO when he was a Northeastern student, and is now a member fo the IDEA board. When's he's not helping IDEA ventures, Chris is giving other entrepreneurs the tools and advice they need to grow their business. He and Jake talked about the his journey through IDEA, Chris's new business, and the future of st...

It's time for Jake to show off his mastery of the electronic arts as he talks with Jack Michaud, an engineer and member of the three person team at MetaScouter. MetaScouter is a tool that gives esports tournaments (professionally played video games) access to data to create intricate statsheets for viewers. They talk about how much the field has grown over the last decade and the value MetaScouter...

What is the IDEA Community Team? Why does a venture accelerator need one? What does it do? To partly answer that last one, it produces this podcast, but Jordan Lin came into answer the rest of these questions and many more in this great episode of Bright IDEAs. Jordan is IDEA's Community Director and resident psychologist who has helped form numerous connections between different ventures and team...

Starting a business is a stressful venture, as most people in IDEA can tell you. Even if you're not an entrepreneur, life has a nasty habit of burning people out. That's what was happening to Josh Gershon when he decided to team up with his longtime friend Brian Helfman to found Startup Island, giving young people a chance to discover themselves and take control of their own business and life. Hav...