Lubo Smid Podcast

Meet Daniel Khachab, CEO of Choco, the innovative tech company transforming the food supply chain to eliminate waste. With a bold vision to drive zero food waste, Choco has raised $326 million, rapidly reaching a $1.2 billion valuation in just four years. In this episode, we dive deep into the problem of overproduction, the complexity of food supply chain, and how Choco is leveraging AI to truly t...

Meet Erik Huberman, founder and CEO of Hawke Media, a marketing agency valued at over $150 million. He's a serial entrepreneur who quickly scaled businesses like Swag of the Month and Ellie.com, capturing the attention of Forbes "30 Under 30" and Inc Magazine's "Top 25 Marketing Influencers." Erik’s insights on digital marketing and entrepreneurship are frequently sough...

Meet Lu Zhang, a force in healthcare, insurance, and the space industry, whose journey from Mongolia to leading a major tech fund in Silicon Valley exemplifies the American Dream. This episode takes you deep into the insights of an entrepreneur and investor who's reshaping the future with her expertise in AI, facing today’s biggest challenges head-on. Episode Highlights: AI's Role in Cutti...

How to turn sweat into success? Hear it from Kirby Porter, the Founder of New Game Labs and an athlete turned entrepreneur. Kirby joins us to discuss emerging trends in the sports industry, the journey of building New Game Labs and the importance of personal branding. Kirby’s recipe to success? - stay consistent - iterate on the message - nourish your relationships Chapters: 1:00 What's Happen...

Either go all in or don’t do it at all, says Patrick Dees as he descents into the ice-cold Vltava River. The Co-founder & Chief Gaming Officer at Fan Controlled Sports and Entertainment doesn’t do things halfway. His key strategy is to say no to things and be selective about who you spend time with. Guess our podcast host Lubo Smid was the lucky one! It’s hard not to fall for Patrick when you...

Anthony Vennare is the co-founder of Fitt Insider. Having his dad pass away from brain cancer, he realized early on the importance of health. Now he shares the simple fitness formula with thousands of subscribers and fellow fitness founders. Together with his brother Joe, they tapped into the multi-trillion industry and are now advising other companies on how to enter the world of health and welln...

Varun Puri is the co-founder of Yoodli , an AI-powered communication coach.  After working closely with the ex president of Google, Varun co-founded Yoodli, now with $7 million secured. Turns out, 2 out of 3 people are afraid of public speaking, and it shows: filler words, unnatural body language, bad pacing. Yoodli solves all that. Varun talks the cruel process of fundraising, why small wins matt...

JR Gondeck is the CEO of video-based dating app Verge. He’s also a Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisor and a Managing Director at wealth management co. The Lerner Group. The man is a well of diverse knowledge who’s mastered his major/minor philosophy: Do what you’re good at as a major, focus on passion as a minor. He shares his blueprint for standing out in finance and tech, how visualization isn’...

Rahul Vohra built the first Gmail plugin to scale to millions of users. It was acquired by LinkedIn. Having learned all things email, he then created Superhuman — the AI-powered, lightning-fast email with $75M in Series C and backed by Will Smith. Lucky for us, the email genius is an open book, so we kept the Qs rolling. How can you get rapid email responses and save 134 hrs/year with Command-K? W...

Timmy has an appetite for risk. From a homeless artist to working with Unity founders, he’s learned to walk the line between creative and critical thinking like a pro — by leading Volvo Cars innovative VR/AR initiatives, co-founding “incubator of dreams” The Point Labs and hiring all the misfits he can find. Pretty much living a life of both rock star and engineer, because why choose when you can...

Victor Wang was a lawyer, a hopeful founder, a nearly broke one… until Linkin Park stumbled onto his product: Kaiber, an AI video gen platform perfect for the band’s newest music video. Cut to cranking out 14 videos for Kid Cudi in 48 hours, achieving massive online traction and sticking to a “creative enablement, not replacement” AI mission, and you’ve got an entrepreneur brimming with advice — w...

The founder of sports tech media powerhouse Profluence Sports is also an athlete, investor and creator. Andrew Petcash moves FAST because he refuses to work for anyone, and he’s convinced all athletes need to do the same before the opportunities are gone — which happens overnight. He tells us which sport is about to blow up, how he’s building an “athletic flywheel” and why reading books never lose...

A tech freak for life, Uriel took a detour with the Israel Defense Forces before merging the best of Reddit and Google Maps to build Atly, a location-based app helping people explore the world. With 120,000 members, the user-generated product is on the rise — and marketing has nothing to do with it. Uriel explains why community trumps ads and provides tips on hitting military-level focus. ‘Cause i...

How can team sports make you a better entrepreneur? For Mike Mahlkow, they redefined the concept of winning. As a Forbes 30 Under 30, 2x YC alum, angel investor and the co-founder/CEO of backend workflow builder Fastgen, the man’s got a handle on working “smarter.” He shares the one key driver of product success, putting in the due diligence before building a business and why investing feels like...

“Bud, this is gonna be impossible to raise money for.” In the financing game for 20+ years, Rob spots a challenge faster than most. Rarely stops him from going for it anyway — and occasionally making a few millies in 30 min. The Co-founding President of private cannabis real estate lender Pelorus Capital Group talks navigating a high-risk industry and why weed packs a bigger punch than the NFL and...

The fight or flight response can be controlled. Once the CEO of stress tracking solution Sensate cracked the code, her science-backed hustle led to kickstarting a company in 48 hours. While Anna admits it’s all still “a little bit magic” to her, users across 50+ countries love it — and she’s got a lot to say about the vagus nerve, sonic resonance and the viral wellness trends out there. Anna Gudmu...

They said TikTok was for kids. But not Amin; he was getting millions of views and rode that TikTok wave all the way to co-founding Kadama, a Gen-Z tutoring marketplace with 1 billion views that hit #2 on the App Store. The former Apple senior engineer (behind iMessenger and the Health App) talks what Gen Z wants, what it lacks and how to use socials to deliver on both. Amin Shaykho on LinkedIn: ht...

Serial founder Champ is dead set on democratizing creativity. His newest venture, Capsule, is a video editing AI studio 3 years in the making — and with almost $5 million in funding and a waitlist of 10,000+ companies, it’s looking like a win. As the CEO, Champ shares the thesis that kicked things off, why storytelling is king and how to recognize a worthy idea beyond all the fluff. Product featur...

AR, VR, all the Rs — which ones will make it? Should founders prepare to discard traditional development for Apple platforms? STRV CTO Jan Kaltoun talks spatial computing, how the right terminology squashes competition, why the next big thing could cost $10,000 and it wouldn’t change a thing, and what all these tech abbreviations mean for your mom.  Jan Kaltoun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.co...

Facebook, Uber, 11 startups, now CMO of Smart Token Labs… Brent has earned the “Chief” in his marketing title more than most. That experience is embedded in every piece of advice, from what makes an authentic brand to why you can’t educate while selling and how to shift the idea of tokens as solely tradable assets. Turns out, it’s not that different from offering a sandwich. Product featured: Smar...

In 2016, only 19% of children’s books had female heroes. Not the case anymore — just ask the 23 million girls inspired by Rebel Girls. As the CEO, Jes shares how the global brand helps raise confident girls via 2000+ stories told through NY Times bestsellers and an award-winning audio app, plus how it all started with Kickstarter… and being kinda annoyed by Finding Nemo? Product featured: Rebel Gi...

For any virtual therapy skeptics, let’s check the facts. Evidence-based autism therapy platform AnswersNow works solely with Masters/PhD-level clinicians. It’s facilitated 10,000+ hours of help. And as co-founder/CEO Jeff explains, families have been needing more support for ages. In fact, AnswersNow started with a Slack group and shared frustrations over major waitlists.  Product featured: Answer...

Take it from Will, “The Email Guy” and co-founder/COO of Lavender: That robotic email isn’t getting you anywhere. But wait. Lavender is the #1 AI sales email coaching platform — so isn’t that as soulless as it gets? Will explains how feeding AI millions of emails every week makes things more (not less) human, and also spills trade secrets about the perfect outreach email.  Product featured: Lavend...

While 99% of people went wild for digital, LTD.INC chose “phygital” — NFTs that exist in both the digital and physical world. Brands like Wrangler Jeans are pumped; it’s pure gold for proof of authenticity, collectibles on the blockchain and the road to digital scarcity changing our reality. Founder/CEO Daryl explains more, plus why the wallet is “the social media of the future.” Product featured:...

Around 5 million smart contracts deployed, yet we’ve got developers working with subpar tools that have them struggling with “what the hell is going on” every day. As the co-founder/CEO of web3 end-to-end observability platform Blocktorch, Gery notes it’s time to look beyond the cool factor of web3, at real value — starting with reimagining how devs build and maintain dApps.  Product featured: Blo...