Entrepreneurial Thinkers with Rob Ryan

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by an inspiring entrepreneur from the northern border region of Mexico y United States, José Ochoa. He is an award-winning Mexican-American entrepreneur, engineer and business innovation evangelist who started successful companies in the US and Mexico, among them Global Containers & Custom Packaging Inc., a logistics and packaging company to...

In this fascinating episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by Alex González, the once banned from Instagram, Latin America Editor at Rest of World. Rest of World is an international nonprofit journalism organization. They document what happens when technology, culture and the human experience collide, in places that are typically overlooked and underestimated. Alex shares his really unique perspective...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by David Alvo, Founding & Managing Partner at Impacta VC, based in Santiago, Chile. David is as purpose driven and intentional a venture investor, and maybe, a person, as you'll ever meet. The letters "DA", the first two in his name, mean "gives", in Spanish and his life is testament that David is the ultimate "giver" and helper of others. In this con...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by the one and only Josué Delgado, the longtime CEO of INCmty, which is an annual Tec de Monterrey platform event, that connects and encourages entrepreneurs by activating the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He and Ileana discuss stories of witnessing the growth of entrepreneurship across Latin America from the beginning days of the ecosystem in Mexico and com...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana welcome the unstoppable whirlwind talent from South Florida, Jeanine Suah, Founding Partner at Rezilyent Capital and XIR at Brex. The group discusses the community, capital, racism, opportunity and the future of work. Jeanine brings her entirely unique energy to the conversation, sharing her inspired Jamaican family story, her early entrepreneurial successes and her...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by Jeff Wallace, Founder of Global Kinetics and Co-Founder of, "Silicon Valley in Your Pocket." He is a well known, very experienced entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, an active Angel investor and LP Investor into new fund managers. He is deeply passionate about entrepreneurship as an economic engine. He talks to us about his simple, but ambitious belief tha...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by Will Stringer, CEO/Partner at Chisos Capital. Will educates our audience on the truly innovative business model of their Venture Fund. He shares his story of inventing this solution, when solving his own problem, in classic entrepreneurial fashion. He posits the hypothesis that we could transform entrepreneurial economies, and create more sustainable r...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by, Martin Haiek, the dynamic young CEO/CO-founder of Around, Latin America's largest network of subscription based dedicated workspaces. He talks to us from the kitchen space of the company's Mexico City Headquarters where he shares insights into their journey from ideation, through multiple relaunches, a global pandemic, rapid client growth and venture...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by Alex Mitchell, the SVP Unlocking Innovation, where he oversees all founder-facing efforts, including recruitment, all incubation programs, as well as investments of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)  Impact Fund and LACI Cleantech Debt Fund. Alex and our hosts share their enthusiasm for the urgency and opportunity of Clean/Green technolog...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by Eric Eide, Managing Director at the Alliance for Southern California Innovation. Eric is one of the brightest thought leaders and policy catalysts in the Los Angeles and Southern California entrepreneurial economy. He's part policy wonk, part innovation driver, and is  a people centered relationship builder. International travel throughout his ear...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by Alex Santana, VC and Startup Business Development Manager at AWS (Amazon Web Services) in Mexico. Alex shares his really unique "early" perspective having been a witness to the growth of "entrepreneurial economies" across Latin America over the last 10+ years. He tells stories of having helped grow some of the best known global entrepreneurial support...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are thrilled to be joined by one of the original founders in the first generation of the modern day Mexican entrepreneurial economy, Jennifer Reyna, CEO/Co-founder of OkBoy! OkBoy is building a new platform transforming the category of "Home Services" both for consumers and the tens of thousands of small business (PYME) local providers in the "home services" market...

In this rare episode without an external guest, two great friends, our co-creators, Rob and Ileana, share a very personal conversation about life, adversity, confidence and community. We are so excited to welcome back our fearless co-creator Ileana to the show, following her few month hiatus. In this episode you will hear Ileana share the story behind what kept her away these last few months, and...

In this episode, Rob was so grateful to be joined by one of the most dynamic young founders in Latin America, Sabrina Castelli, Founder and CEO of Mujer FInanciera, Latin America's fastest growing financial education and community platform for Women. Mujer Financiera was one of the 7 projects selected by the Ministry of Production of Argentina to access the 2019 Impact Seed Fund. Its app was chose...

In this episode, Rob is joined by the dynamic Leslie Feinzaig, Founder and Managing Director of Graham & Walker, a $10m Venture Capital fund and community. Leslie's mission, which began in her Seattle basement, is to reshape the Nasdaq by investing in tech companies founded and led by women or women led/mixed gender teams. She proudly states that her measure of future success, will be " whethe...

In this episode, Rob is joined by the talented and thoughtful Miki Reynolds, CEO/Co-Founder of Grid110, a Los Angeles based early stage startup accelerator and community development non-profit organization. Miki shares her decade + experiences in building the entrepreneurial economy of LA, intentionally serving under-served founder communities and the rules of the game of venture capital. She tell...

In this episode, Rob is joined by his friend, Isaac McCoy, who shares his unique perspective on the critical work of inclusiveness and creating economic access to entrepreneurial activity in under-served communities of color, from his hometown of Chicago, to the Southern United States and the world. Isaac is a natural leader, and has leveraged that skill to build a number of consulting companies,...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by super connector/visionary, Dave Whelan, CEO of BioscienceLA, an innovative catalyst for Life Science and Health Innovation in Los Angeles. If you are an entrepreneur or investor in Life/Bio/Health Sciences, you'll want to hear what Dave has to say. He talks about Los Angeles's unique opportunity to grow its Life/Health sciences entrepreneurial economy....

In this episode, Ileana and Rob are joined by Tadashi Takaoka, Gerente General, Socialab Chile. He challenges us to begin a conversation about this pivotal moment for entrepreneurship in Latin America and the world at large. He brings a unique sense of history, borne of his experiences as one of the original leaders of entrepreneurial innovation in Chile and Latin America through his long career i...

In this episode, recorded in the Fall of 2021, Rob and Ileana are joined by one of the OG Latino American and Mexican Venture Investors, Federico Antoni, founding partner at ALLVP. He has been a leading catalyst and passionate advocate for the entrepreneurial economies of the region for the last 10+ years and joined our show to share his unique perspectives gained over those years when there were...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by Daniel Verdugo Bosnic, an accomplished ultra-marathoner, competitive athlete, software engineer, world traveler and dedicated father and husband. Daniel challenges our audience to lean into their curiosity and fail often while taking big swings in life because the joy is in the journey! He joined our hosts from his new home in Miami Florida, United Sta...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana are joined by Mariano Gonzalez Vasconcelos from San Antonio, Texas. Mariano, is a devout gamer, who shares his inspiring life journey from a small town in Mexico, to the United States, Northwestern University, a top tier career in Strategy Consulting and the launching of his life long dream to become a Venture Capitalist investing in others. He discusses his unique...

In this episode, Rob and Ileana welcome Miguel (Mike) Medina, Co-founder of Plerk, a (YC) Y Combinator funded company from Mexico. Mike shares his incredible personal story, a conventional path turned unconventional path when forced to make hard life choices, at an early age. His journey takes us through a lifetime of sales/selling, from his earliest childhood, hustling to sell candies at school,...

In this episode, Ileana and Rob welcome the founder of KindTail, Amy Kim, from Los Angeles. Amy is an artist turned top product designer in the automotive and consumer space, turned pet products entrepreneur as the inventor and visionary behind the fast growing company, KindTail. She launched their flagship product, PAWD, the plastic collapsable dog crate and has built the company from there. Her...

In this episode, Rob (flying solo without our absent but amazing co-host Ileana) welcomes the founder of Lalo, Juan Medina, from Seattle, WA. Juan is the definition of nomad, having been born in Brazil, to Colombian and Bolivian parents who then grew up in Kentucky, USA and attended university and built his early career all across the United States. He and his family are now happily settled in Sea...