Forward Thinking Founders

Some of the questions we dive into in this episode including: What is MIdtype ? What featur3s did Midtype build so others didn't have to How does a team implement Midtype in their product? Why go through YC? What is open source? What are some of the reasons to go open source from the beginning?  What are some of the most successful open source companies? What advice do you have for someone wanting...

In this episode, Krish answers some of the following questions: What is Fireflies ? What is the "why" behind Fireflies? Why did you start it in the first place? How dos Fireflies work if we were using it right now? (we were) Where do you see Fireflies in a decade? How co you think about distributing for Fireflies? What are the biggest learnings from raising your seed round? How does someone break...

In this episode, we talk about so many topics related to real estate. Some of the questions that I ask Abhi are: What is Hutsy? What is the New York Tech scene like? How does Hutsy feel to a user? Walk through a user experience with me. Where are the big three waves of real estate tech innovation? Are you similar to Atrium for real estate? What was Y Combinator like for you? How do you know when t...

It was so nice to reconnect to Jack Morrison to talk about his company, Scythe Robotics . Scythe builds autonomous lawnmowers to sell to commercial lawn care companies. Jack and I first got connected at Boulder Startup week in 2016, and three years later, here we are. On this episode, we dive into questions like: What are you building at Scythe? What fundamental problems does Scythe help solve? Is...

This was a fascinating conversation with Justin who is the creator of Matrix , which is a venture-backed ESports team. This was a deep dive into this space, and it was super interesting to talk to a pro like Justin who is on the ground floor making it happen. He answers questions such as: What is Matrix? What are Esports? How are Esports growing so quickly? How did you get into Esports? How does s...

I had a great time talking to Hamza Zia, who is the CEO of GitStart . They are creating a whole new way that companies can recruit technical talent + a new way to engage developers looking for work. He also has many insights on the future of education in this awesome conversation. Today, we dive into: What is GitStart? How does the model work for companies? For developers? Is GitStart considered a...

This was a great conversation with Elena Nadolinski, who is the CEO and founder of Beanstalk . She is a whiz and super insightful person when it comes to blockchain, crypto, and all the way to remote work. She is also a Pioneer , like many of my other guests. ——— Quick note - You’ll hear a sound in the background for the first third of the video. This will go away in the middle of the recording. —...

Neal is a legend at growth. Period. He co-founded Bell Curve , a premiere agency to help startups with growth that have worked with Outschool, Clearbit, Envoy, and many others. From there, he co-founded Demand Curve , a company aimed to teach founders how to do growth themselves, for a fraction of the cost of an agency. On this episode, we dive deep into many topics, including: What is Demand Curv...

It was such a blast to have Chris, the CEO of Trainual , on the podcast. Chris is a friend from the Phoenix startup scene and is one of the nicest guys out there. He is also one of the most successful, with Trainua being one of the hottest companies in the valley. In our conversation, he answers some of these questions: What is Trainual? How does Trainual work for users? How did you get the idea?...

Hannah was a blast to talk to. She is the Founder and CEO of YC backed company, Localyze , which helps international employees relocate without needing to deal with dozens of websites to stay compliant. Localyze does it all. In this conversation, we dive into: What is Locayze? What is the current way that people relocate for a job? How does Localyze improve the process? What’s the origin story? Wh...

Ashutosh is a startup CEO monk if I ever met one. What an insightful conversation all about productivity, tying in his company perfectly. Sunsama is one of the cleanest and most helpful tools I use to plan my day, and It was super interesting to dive into a lot of the “why” behind it hearing straight from the CEO. In this conversation, we dive into questions such as: What is Sunsama? What is the b...

It was such a pleasure to talk to Stefania Olafsdottir, who is the CEO of Avo . Avo is a tool that product leaders can use to track the right data in their app at the same speed that that code is being shipped. Avo recently went through Y Combinator in their W19 batch. We had a really insightful conversation about tons of different topics, including but not limited to: What is Avo? What is the rel...

Joshua Browder has built one of the coolest products I have ever used, DoNotPay . What started as a way to fight parking tickets has grown into an app the waits in phone lines for you when calling companies, cancels trials for you automatically, and can get through legal matters that you don’t want to spend time on. Funded by Founders Fund, a16z, Index Ventures and more, this is a unicorn in the m...

I got the chance to talk to the CTO of Glide , which is a powerful platform that enables you to build mobile apps with Google Sheets. Yes, you heard me correctly. Apps powered by Google Sheets. Fresh out of Y Combinator, Glide is one of the leaders in the no-code space right now, as their simple interface but powerful functionality enables creatives to build whatever they want. When I sat down wit...

In today’s episode, we talk to Rajiv Ayyangar, who is the CEO and Cofounder of Tandem . Tandem is a virtual office for remote teams. Fresh out of YC and coming off a big raise from a16z, Tandem is on a tear building tools for the ever-growing remote world. In this conversation, we talk about: What is Tandem? Is remote work actually growing? If so, why? What does a typical user get when they use Ta...

I had the pleasure of speaking to Sankaet Pathak, who is the CEO of Synapse . Synapse provides building blocks to build financial software products. They enable anyone to compete with Chase Bank or Bank of America on top of Synpase’s infrastructure. With funding from a16z and Trinity Ventures, this is a rocketship in the making. Some of the questions I asked are: What is Synapse? What can a startu...

It was a pleasure to speak to Jude Gomila about his company, Golden . Golden is building a smart knowledge base that is easily searchable of topics in the realms of technology and science. Jude has raised money from the likes of a16z, FoundersFund, SV Angel, and tons more where that came from. In this wide-ranging interview, some of the questions I ask Jude are: What is Golden? How did you get int...

It was so fun to chat with Pavle about what he is working on with Mine VR . Mine VR is a VR Adventure Game for the Blind. Pavle was also one of the first Pioneer winners. which is the game that Daniel Gross started over a year ago . Fun stuff! On this episode, we talk about: What is Mine VR? What problem does it address in the world? What was it like playing and winning Pioneer? What has he learne...

It was a treat to interview the CTO and co-founder of Lunchclub , Scott Wu. Lunchclub is a brilliant platform that helps connect like-minded people together for lunch meetings or coffee conversations in select cities. They also just announced a $4M raise from a16z as well , so congrats to them. It’s invite-only right now, but click the link above and you’ll get access. In this dynamic conversation...

There are few people more knowledgable about the future of work and education than Ruben Harris, CEO of Career Karma . Ruben is a wealth of knowledge on all things future of work and I was thrilled to get the chance to sit down and talk with him about some of topics like: What is Career Karma? How did the coding bootcamp era get started Where is the coding bootcamp era headed? What does Ruben see...

I am so excited to publish this episode. My guest today, Julia Enthoven, is the CEO of Kapwing . Kapwing makes it simple to create videos for the internet and social media platforms. Recently coming off a big series A, Kapwing is growing rapidly. I am thrilled to get the chance to ask Julia tons of questions about what she’s building, why, and how. We talked about topics like: What is Kapwing? Wha...

If there’s one movement I’m most excited about right now, it’s the #nocode movement. One of the companies powering this is Adalo , a platform to build mobile and web applications without coding. Today, I talked to Jeremy Blalock about Adalo and several other topics, including: What does Adalo do? How did Jeremy get started on Adalo? How does one build a platform to allow someone else to build anyt...

I had an incredible conversation with Yoshi Yokokawa, who is the CEO and co-founder of Alpaca . Alpaca is building an API to let anyone start their own version Robinhood, anywhere in the world. Exciting stuff! In this episode, we talk about: How Alpaca works What did Yoshi get started on it What’s happening in the world to allow Alpaca to exist He explains the shift of power from East to West in t...

Immad Akhund is my next guest, who is the founder and CEO of Mercury . Immad is a 4x founder, was a part-time YC partner, and is an investor in over 100 tech startups. Mercury is a bank for startups, simple as that. As a customer myself, I am so excited with what Mercury is building, as I have had horrid experiences with other banks in the past. In this episode, we talk about: What is Mercury? Why...

I had a really great conversation with Kate Swanson who is the CEO of Ensembl , which pioneering a new type of cookware system. On the podcast, we covered a range of topics, including: What is Ensembl? The history of pots and pans ng What is the actual use of a handle in the kitchen? What is the vision for Ensembl? Thoughts on co-living Thoughts on China Thoughts on Fintech What advice she has for...