The Startup Ideas Podcast

Do advanced civilizations exist? Can psychedelics help us better understand ourselves? What goes on in Elon's mind? Can one episode answer all of these questions? When Tim Urban is the guest that's exactly what happens. Tim is an incredible writer known for his blog, Wait But Why, which has gained the respect of some of the world's brightest minds, including Elon Musk. He joins host Sahil Bloom to...

There’s a giant opportunity in helping older adults live a more vibrant, empowering life throughout their later years. Today we’re joined by John Zapolski, the founder and CEO of Alive Ventures, to better understand that opportunity. John is dedicated to building products and services that cater to older adults, and has developed a co-design system that allows them to be part of the process. On th...

What does the future of Twitter look like as it transitions to a private company? Sriram Krishnan joined us on the pod to explore that question. Sriram is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and host of "The Good Time Show.” With a focus on investing in crypto and web3, he brings a unique perspective to help us understand the shifting social media landscape. In this episode, we also cover the...

Morgan Housel ( @morganhouse l) sits down with host Sahil Bloom for a deep dive on money and success. Morgan shares the powerful story of how he went from a 20-year-old with an 8th-grade education to a distinguished writer and partner at The Collaborative Fund. We also cover humility, independence, and insecurity. Three assets that have helped drive Morgan's success, as well as financial caution a...

Today's guest shows the power of community by sharing a personal story of how Discord changed the trajectory of his life. Jiho (@Jihoz_Axie), the Co-Founder of Axie Infinity, tells the story of how he went from community manager to C-Level Executive at Axie Infinity. As the co-founder of one of the most successful play-to-earn games to date, Jiho has tons of knowledge about NFTs and video games. H...

Brand storytelling is the future of marketing. In today’s digital society, businesses need to get creative to connect with their audience and truly pull at their heartstrings. Danny Trinh (@dtrinh), Design, New Platforms at Snap and consumer social legend, is our go-to guy when it comes to understanding social behavior. Danny joins us today for a fun conversation that takes us from Mike Posner’s c...

In this episode we dive deep on the Terra LUNA Ponzi debate, then bring in guest Ndamukong Suh to pick his brain on lessons from his multifaceted career. Ndamukong began his career as a Nebraska football player and has gone on to play in the NFL, where he is one of the highest-paid defensive players in NFL history. He is also an investor, engineer, developer, entrepreneur, and father. Known for hi...

What does the future of gaming look like on the blockchain? We’re joined by a leader in the space Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz). He’s the former global head of gaming partnerships at Google and head of gaming at YouTube, where he also led their virtual and augmented reality business. Wyatt now serves as the CEO of Polygon Studios. In this episode of Where It Happens, Ryan discusses his path from high school...

Can a billion-dollar business be built remotely? You don't need to guess if it can happen. For more than 15 years -- long before coronavirus forced work from home for just about everyone -- Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) was trailblazing the remote work movement as the founding developer at WordPress. Today, the platform powers approximately 30 percent of the entire internet, and its businesses emplo...

Codie Sanchez is no stranger to thinking outside the box. The founder of Contrarian Thinking and Managing Partner at Entourage Effect Capital, she shares her path from traditional finance to founder and investor with more than 100,000 newsletter subscribers. In the last 12 years, she’s bought and sold more than 60 businesses and now runs a portfolio of 26 companies. On this episode of Where It Hap...

What does it take to build a successful bootstrapped business? Michael Martocci (@MichaelMartocci) is the right person to ask. The Founder and CEO of SwagUp grew his bootstrapped brand to more than 8-figures in revenue in just 3 years. On this episode of Where It Happens, Michael shares how to overcome the zero-to-one hurdles, finance secrets, and why he believes bootstrapping is the right way to...

David Friedberg (@friedberg), founder and CEO of The Production Board (TPB), is working to reimagine global systems in order to solve some of the biggest sustainability problems we face today. He joins hosts Sahil Bloom (@sahilbloom) and Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg) to explain why the best path forward is using the latest science and technology innovations to meet the trends of human desire and c...

What could you do if you had access to 50 million people? Nuseir Yassin, the creator of Nas Daily and Nas Academy, is the perfect person to answer that question. Today's guest went from Venmo employee to YouTube star incredibly fast. His secret? The ability to assess personality-market fit and determine the likelihood of virality. In this episode, hosts Sahil Bloom (@sahilbloom) and Greg Isenberg...

Is bitcoin a religion? It might sound like a joke, but cryptocurrency is unlocking a whole new world of opportunity and wealth creation. In this episode of Where It Happens, Meltem Demirors (@melt_dem) explores whether the institutions of the future will look like the institutions of the past. Hosts Sahil Bloom (@sahilbloom) and Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg) discuss the different ways that the Web...

When Meta lost more than $230 billion almost overnight many people questioned -- is Meta done? On this episode of Where It Happens, former Meta employee Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) joins hosts Sahil Bloom (@sahilbloom) and Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg) to explore if Meta can recover and how it might happen. They also explore decentralized mobile networks, the future of music, and how Web2 and Web3 c...

Shopify has changed e-commerce forever. And, if you're willing to listen closely enough, you can borrow part of their DNA to accelerate your own entrepreneurial success. On this episode of Where It Happens, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein shares how he created his own luck to become involved with Shopify, how NFTs are changing the future of entrepreneurship, and how media will never be the sa...

Sleep has never been sexier, but it wasn't always that way. On this episode of Where It Happens, Matteo Franceschetti (@m_franceschetti) joins hosts Sahil Bloom (@sahilbloom) and Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg) to discuss how he was able to transform a stale, outdated product into a hot category drawing interest from athletes and big investors. You'll hear stories about how they were able to win ove...

Scott Melker isn't your average crypto expert. Then again, crypto isn't exactly your average area of investing, which might explain his incredible knowledge and success in the space. On this episode, we invited The Wolf of All Streets onto Where It Happens to help predict the future of crypto, learn new investing approaches, and find out why diversification might be one of the most misunderstood p...

Have you heard the story about the crypto founder who sold all his crypto for $10,000 only for it to be worth billions many years later? On this episode of Where It Happens, co-hosts Sahil Bloom ( @sahilbloom ) and Greg Isenberg ( @gregisenberg ) get to the bottom of one of the craziest stories by speaking directly with the co-creator of Dogecoin Billy Markus ( @BillyM2k ). He explains his early e...

Great leaders help develop game-changing brands. Kat Cole ( @KatColeATL ) knows this first-hand, having led Focus Brands as their President and COO, and now in her new role as President and COO of Athletic Greens. Her secret? She understands how to find the feedback, process it, and turn it into ideas that make teams and businesses stand out from the competition. In this episode, you'll learn the...

How will work and life change in a material way over the next 5 years? That one line, written by guest Scott Belsky ( @scottbelsky ), was enough to get hosts Sahil Bloom ( @sahilbloom ) and Greg Isenberg ( @gregisenberg ) to immediately invite the successful entrepreneur and investor onto Where It Happens. But, what started as an exploration of exploding trends turned into a conversation that resu...

Many people view Gary Vaynerchuk as a byproduct of his own energetic self-promotion. What they don't realize? Every big bet is highly calculated, and his excitement is a reflection of his absolute certainty. In this episode of Where It Happens, the serial entrepreneur, Chairman of VaynerX, and CEO of Vayner Media shares his research process for spotting trends, provides rules for getting more out...

Web3 is here, but all of the ways it will change the way the world works is not yet fully understood. In this episode of Where It Happens, the OG of community, Alexis Ohanian ( @alexisohanian ), Founder of Reddit and Seven Seven Six joins the show to share his early lessons from Reddit, stories from Y Combinator, and why he's betting big on Web3 communities and technologies. While co-hosts Greg Is...

When things don't go your way, how do you react? On this episode of  Where It Happens , former White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci ( @Scaramucci ) joins the show to discuss how to turn bad situations into opportunities, the future of live events, and why he's bullish on crypto and Web3. Also, hosts Sahil Bloom ( @sahilbloom ) and Greg Isenberg ( @gregisenberg ) discuss their...

Are they really going to try to buy The X Games? On the last episode of Where It Happens, co-hosts Sahil Bloom ( @sahilbloom ) and Greg Isenberg ( @gregisenberg ) shared a plan to buy the X Games. Next thing you know, athletes and investors answered the call and wanted to bring the vision to life. In this special episode of Where It Happens, Sahil explores what’s next in order to turn this crazy i...