The Deep End by ODF

Cal.com CEO Bailey Pumfleet turned a side project into one of the most ambitious infrastructure companies ever. His mission: powering a billion connections by 2031 Rather than just another Calendly alternative, they're building the "Stripe for Time" - scheduling infrastructure that powers everything from doctor's appointments to refugee services. We get into: [3:56] How startups get open source wr...

Eoghan McCabe is the CEO and co-founder of Intercom This was an incredible talk recorded live during the ODF22 cohort. Thanks again to Intercom for hosting. 10 important ideas (and timestamps) from this conversation: 1/ Innocence and Naivety Can Be a Superpower 7:58 - “There was a phenomenal amount of naivety that allowed people to do things that were kind of like conventionally the wrong thing to...

Today we’re chatting with Mo El Mahallawy, CTO and co-founder of Shepherd. Shepherd is all in one commercial insurance platform focused on high hazard industries. The company is on an absolute tear and this month they announced a $13.5M series A. Mo and I decided to sit down and record a conversation because the journey of Shepherd will resonate with many potential founders who are try to find tho...

Today’s conversation is rare but vital — we spend much of our time talking about the challenges around shutting down companies. While I spend most of my time writing about how to build towards success, the stark reality is that most companies fail. Shutting down your company is incredibly painful but it’s particularly lonely — you often feel like you have limited support and guidance. That’s why S...

ODF is thrilled to announce its partnership with Puzzle — all ODF participants and alumni now save hundreds of dollars, To learn more go here . -- Are you exploring starting a company? We’ve got a program for that! ODF has helped 1k companies—like Puzzle which was ODF8—get started and go on to raise over $2B. Applications for our IRL cohorts in San Francisco are now open. Learn more and apply at b...

Are you exploring starting a company? We’ve got a program for that! ODF has helped 1k companies—like Respell which was ODF17—get started and go on to raise over $2B. Applications for our 20th cohort in San Francisco are now . Learn more and apply at beondeck.com respell.ai Matt on X/Twitter beondeck.com On Deck on X/Twitter Podcast episode archive and show notes For this episode of the Deep End, M...

Earlier this week Celine Halioua (ODF2), founder and CEO of Loyal — a dog longevity biotech startup — announced something truly groundbreaking. Loyal (ODF2) has earned what they believe to be the FDA’s first-ever formal acceptance that a drug can be developed and approved for lifespan extension.  As Celine says in her announcement; “I started Loyal 4 years ago with the explicit goal to get the fir...

Joining me in the deep end is US Navy veteran Mike Slagh — founder of Shift — an organization that has built the most significant bridge between the Department of Defense and the startup ecosystem. Defense Tech is a big deal. We’re just now starting to see it be thought of as a more feasible sector to build startups. Mike might be one of the best people in the world to learn about opportunities to...

Are you exploring starting a company? We’ve got a program for that. ODF has helped 1k companies get started and go on to raise over $2B. Applications for our 19th cohort in San Francisco are due this week. Learn more and apply at beondeck.com -- Joining me in the deep end is Max Greenwald — co-founder of Warmly a startup that helps businesses turn warm leads into sales. The company recently announ...

Joining me in the deep end is Elaine Zelby — co-founder of Tofu ( https://www.tofuhq.com/ ) — a powerful generative AI platform that enables marketing teams to repurpose their content and run more successful campaigns. Tofu recently announced their $5M seed round led by Index Ventures. We’ve known Elaine for years — first as a friend, then as a participant in ODF2, then as an investor in On Deck d...

On this episode of The Deep End, Julian Weisser – co-founder of On Deck – sits down with Marshall to discuss the latest from a program that has helped launch over 1,000 startups. Applications for the next cohort of On Deck Founders close on Tuesday, October 24th at 23:59 PST. If you’re exploring starting a company and want to figure out what to build and with whom, we’d love to chat. Apply today →...

Joining us in The Deep End today is Amrit Singh. Amrit Singh is the co-founder of Loop Health, the fastest-growing health insurance startup in India. Loop Health has raised over $40M, led by General Catalyst and Elevation Capital. As we delve deeper into the meta-series of longevity, we engage in a captivating conversation with Amrit, exploring how Loop Health incentivizes health for its users. We...

Joining us today in The Deep End is Wallace Torres. Wallace is the Co-Founder of WellTheory. WellTheory is an early-stage startup with a pretty powerful mission: combating the autoimmune epidemic through the use of food as medicine, community care, and personalized insights based on health data. During our conversation, we delve into the story behind WellTheory and the positive impact the startup...

Joining us today in The Deep End is Viswa Colluru, the CEO & Founder of Enveda Biosciences. Enveda has raised $175M in their quest to translate nature into medicine. Before founding Enveda, Viswa obtained a PhD in cellular and molecular biology, and started his career as a product manager at Recursion Pharmaceuticals. As our first guest in this series focusing on longevity and health, we speak to...

Welcome to a new mini-series of The Deep End! In these mini-series we explore some of the most complex, societal problems facing us at the moment - helping listeners gain a nuanced understanding of a complex topic - and then be inspired and equipped to build, invest or support startups and founders that are aiming to solve these challenges. In the last mini-series, we looked at the meta-problem of...

Hey everyone, as we gear up for the launch of a new series on longevity next week, we wanted to re-publish this really timeley episode with Eugenia Kuyda, the founder and CEO of Replika, an AI companion company. Our conversation centers around the different use-cases of AI, from task-oriented chatbots to emotionally-supportive AI companionship. We delve into the current state of conversational tec...

Joining us today in the Deep End is Julian Weisser. Julian is the co-founder of On Deck, and a prolific angel investor with over a hundred angel investments including Loyal, Level, Atmos, and more. Every few months, we invite Julian to the podcast to get a sense of what's going on in the world of venture, and this conversation is not different. We look at the growing importance of profitability an...

Joining us today in the Deep End is Varun Bhanot. Varun is the co-founder and CEO of Magic AI, a home fitness system that uses AI to give you personalised training on a beautifully designed mirror. Prior to building Magic AI, Varun was the co-founder and CEO of Unhoused, a non-profit that leveraged technology to reduce homelessness. He also participated On Deck Founder’s third cohort. In this conv...

Joining us in The Deep End today is Will Jarvis, co-founder and CEO of Valuebase. Valuebase is building land-centric models to improve property valuations and mass appraisal modeling. Valuebase recently secured $1.6 million in funding, with Sam Altman's Hydrazine leading the round and On Deck participating. Prior to Valuebase, Will served as a Researcher in Residence at On Deck, making today's con...

Joining us on The Deep End today is Ryan Delk. Ryan is the CEO & Co-Founder of Primer, a startup creating a new education system for children, centered around microschools. Last year, Primer announced that they’ve raised $15M in new capital. Ryan previously worked in Growth + Partnerships at Gumroad, and then joined another marketplace company, Omni, and became COO. In this conversation, we explor...

Joining us today in the Deep End is Lauren Self. Lauren is the founder of Roots Homes, a fractional home ownership company, that allows you to build equity in your home while paying rent, which recently raised a $2.2M seed round. In this conversation we explore how Roots is finding the missing middle between renting and buying, helping ensure home-ownership comes with flexibility and how Roots is...

Joining us in The Deep End today for our housing series is Kim-Mai Cutler, a partner at Initialized who invests in proptech, real estate, and climate. Kim's background as a financial markets reporter and early-stage venture startup enthusiast, allowed her to broaden her reporting to include the intersection of the industry and public policy. In 2014, her essay on TechCrunch titled "How Burrowing O...

Over the past two years, we've interviewed 100+ people for our podcast, The Deep End. Now we're relaunching The Deep End as a multi-media publication, focused on problems worth solving. In the first series, we are tackling an issue that affects us all: access to housing. Our house provides us with a sense of belonging and serves as a sanctuary where we can retreat from the chaos of the world. Once...

Joining us in The Deep End today is Vignan Velivela. Vignan is the co-founder and CEO of AtoB, a fintech payments platform modernizing the trucking industry’s financial system, which raised a $155M Series B last year. He was also a part of the On Deck Founders’ third cohort. We are taking a short break from our series on access to housing, to talk to Vignan about one of the biggest challenges faci...

Joining us in The Deep End today is Tory Reiss. Tory is the CEO and co-Founder of Equi, an alternative investment hedge fund. Tory previously co-founded Archblock, a decentralized alternatives marketplace, and Harvest Money, an AI-driven debt management platform. We’re taking a quick break from our series on starting companies, to take a quick dive into the world of fintech. Our conversation with...