The Thread Podcast

Tom McLeod , Founder and Executive Director of Arkive , joins the show to talk about: Re-imagining the art museum and the founding story behind Arkive. Breaking down the collectibles space and the evolution of NFT's and digital creative works. Lessons learned from shipping 17 iPhone apps, and measuring "speed to learning" as Tom's ultimate KPI Why the wave of Gen AI apps is ver...

Guy Kawasaki , evangelist and author, joins the show to talk about - From Kalihi Valley to Apple.  The first bridge that Guy took to success that started in the 6th grade. - What is a product evangelist and how should early stage founders be thinking about evangelism? - Guy's definition of what it takes to be remarkable (and what it isn't), what it was like working for Steve Jobs, and ho...

Ariel Renous , Co founder and CEO of Augment joins the show to talk about How Augment is disrupting the traditional MBA program. Fundraising for Augment and $6M from RTP Global.  The future of executive education, and the importance of learning and raising money from people that have actually done the thing.

Baron Davis , Founder and CEO of B.I.G (Business Inside the Game), joins the show to talk about: Baron's "renegade approach" in transitioning from NBA All-Star to entrepreneurship. The importance of investing in "multi-hyphenates", and how B.I.G is building its network around creators with these super powers. Who were some of Baron's early mentors and advisors as an e...

Eve Halimi and Anam Lakhani , Co founders of Alinea , join the show to talk about: The challenges of managing money out of college & founding Alinea. Taking Alinea to profitability before their seed round. Slackers vs. trackers and how Gen Z compares to prior generations of money managers Ways to teach my kids how to be financially literate. The role of co-CEO and how Eve and Anam divide and c...

Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan , CEO and Co founder of Samooha (acq'd by Snowflake), joins the show to talk about - how she built two companies that helped customers "bring data to life", selling DrawBridge to LinkedIn and Samooha to Snowflake. - Kamakshi's advantages as a second time founder. - How Kamakshi knew it was the right time to sell Samooha and the process she went through...

Albert Gozzi , CEO and Co founder of Aleph joins the show to talk about.  The insight Albert got from his time in consulting at Bain, specifically the pain in and around FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis), that led him to founding Aleph. How CEOs should be thinking about balancing "relationship building" with VCs vs. building the business.  The mentality of company building aft...

Nora Jones , CEO and Co founder of Jeli , joins the show to talk about How Nora's experience at Jet, Netflix, and Slack led her to founding Jeli. Chaos engineering, quantifying the impact of burnout in an "always on" economy, and the human side of incident management.   Selling Jeli to PagerDuty and the process Nora went through to sell the company (when to bring in outside help)

Tracy Young , CEO and Co founder of TigerEye , joins the show to talk about Building Tracy's first successful company, PlanGrid, and how the Autodesk acquisition of PlanGrid led to Tracy uncovering the opportunity for her current venture, TigerEye (launching this year in 2024!) Tracy's decision to start another company and how she evaluated her options after her time at AutoDesk. Balanci...

Anna Believantseva , COO and Co founder of Esper Bionics joins the show to talk about  - Human augmentation and using bionics and technology to extend our human potential. - The human technology stack, and the potential of embedded hardware in humans.  - The role of a COO at an early stage startup, B2B2C business model challenges and fundraising for a bionics, robotics, and hardware startup. 

Hedda Båverud Olsson , CEO and Co founder of Lassie , joins the show to talk about The Pet insurance and pet ownership space, the major insurance incumbents, and Lassie's focus on preventative veterinary practices. Chicken problems and how different cultures view pet ownership.  Hedda's experience closing out her €23M Series B round from Balderton Capital, and best practices on how to cl...

Rachel Blank , CEO and Co founder of Allara Health , joins the show to talk about The evolution of women's health care and how improvements are being made through digital health. The importance and advantages of a "direct to consumer" health care model. Raising $10M from Google Ventures, balancing cash conservation with growth, and how Rachel is thinking about scaling quality of car...

Mike Weiland , Co founder and CEO of Govly , joins the show to talk about Why selling to the government is really hard and how Govly makes that easier for businesses contracting with the government. Raising $9.5M Series A from Insight, fundraising for a government tech startup, and the advantages of picking a more unique venture vertical that is recession proof. Raising the bar and challenging emp...

Navneet Dalal , CEO and Co founder of Matic joins the show to talk about Being an early mover and pioneer in computer vision and deep learning. Moving beyond an interface and a good product to build a lasting, sustainable business. Being acquired by Google, working for Tony Fadell and with the Nest team, and the insight that led to Matic. The "human sensor stack" and how it intersects wi...

Sam Chaudhary , Co founder and CEO of ClassDojo , joins the show to talk about Where early stage education is falling short, and Sam's experience building the largest community for teachers, parents, and kids to thrive in the educational system.  The process Sam and his co founder Liam went through to unlock PM fit for ClassDojo. The jobs left to be solved in education, reflecting on the COVI...

Siva Namasivayam , Co founder and CEO of Cohere Health , joins the show to talk about Starting companies in chaos and a family full of MDs. The inefficiencies that exist in the operational side of Health Care. Identifying early adopters and the nuances of doing that in a more conservative market like Health Care. Raising capital in health care and the traction you need and expectations you need to...

Mallory Greene , Co founder and CEO of Eirene Cremations , joins the show to talk about "Death tech" and growing up in a family business centered on death. Why death is a great business, and the metrics that matter when raising capital in the Death Tech space Building an "honor based" mindset to servicing the families who have lost loved ones.

Tony Jamous , Co founder and CEO of Oyster , joins the show to talk about Globe trotting from Lebanon to France to Cyprus, and the pains of starting a globally distributed business and the founding story of Oyster. The assumptions and excuses of an in-person office culture A purpose driven approach to company building, and why Tony built Oyster as a B Corp. Hiring the right people for the C-suite,...

Farzad Rashidi , Co founder of Respona , joins the show to talk about: The process Farzad went through to calculate customer acquisition costs and find the channel that ultimately led to founding Respona. A brief history of SEO, and a few hacks that founders can apply to grow their business. Tactics for podcasters to grow their own listener base + how Farzad landed an interview on this show. Balan...

Daniel Yanisse , Co founder and CEO of Checkr , joins the show to talk about The insight from building a startup in the gig economy to founding Checkr. Eliminating bias in the hiring process to help prospective hires live the dream. How founders should evaluate M&A opportunities and when it makes sense to acquire another company. Going up market into selling to larger enterprise with your prod...

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy , CEO of Xero , joins the show to talk about Her first exposure to entrepreneurship running the books for her father's business How Sukhinder has thought about evaluating the entrepreneurial ventures she has taken on, and how she evaluates the importance of the market/opportunity, and team she's building.  How Xero is using AI to help support small businesses, and...

Arjun Sethi , Founder of Tribe Capital , joins the show to talk about The founding story and investment thesis behind Tribe Capital From being kicked out of high school, to joining the army and founding startups. Transitioning from Social Capital to Tribe, and "bottoms up" approach to investing. Arjun's experience gaining leverage through bootstrapping, and differences between raisi...

Job van der Voort , Founder and CEO of Remote , joins the show to talk about The pain of hiring and onboarding remote employees, and the insight from GitLab that led to founding Remote.com . The "superpowers" that AI is going to give employees in this new era of work. Whether or not remote employees are as productive as their in-person colleagues.  Job's reflections on the company h...

Super Bowl champion and New England Patriot, JuJu Smith-Schuster and CEO of World Champion Fantasy , Mike Vela ,  join the show to talk about: JuJu and Mike's perspective on the future of eGaming and Fantasy Sports  How JuJu, Mike and team at WCF are reimagining the Fantasy Sports experience with the PlayerX Portal. The evolution of player empowerment and player ownership in ventures on and o...

Josh Reeves , Co founder and CEO of Gusto , joins the show to talk about Using Word of Mouth growth to over 300,000 business customers  Battling against payroll giants like Intuit and ADP to build a category leader, and how much attention Josh pays to competitors How payroll is evolving, and how Gusto is innovating to support small business on a global scale. The advice Josh gives founders buildin...