Inspired with Alexa von Tobel

What happens when humanity faces the sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history? Serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm believes we need a backup plan. With a track record of building and exiting companies across AI, gaming, and conversational intelligence, Ben took on his most audacious venture in 2021: co-founding Colossal Biosciences with Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church to bring extinct species back to life. The company has already successfully de-extincted the dire wolf and aims to return woolly mammoths to the Arctic by 2028. In this episode, Ben shares how his self-described "unemployable" streak became his entrepreneurial superpower, why asking naive questions helps him tackle impossible challenges across industries, and how Colossal's breakthrough technologies represent humanity's essential insurance policy for planetary survival. Follow Inspired: ⁠Website⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ ⁠X⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Substack

Watershed CEO Taylor Francis is building the infrastructure for companies to decarbonize at scale. After building Stripe's climate program, he saw how technology could move the needle faster than policy alone and set out on his journey as a founder. With a 500 million ton CO2 reduction goal by 2030 and customers like FedEx, Walmart, Airbnb, and Spotify, Taylor is proving that climate action can be both urgent and profitable. What You'll Learn: Taylor's journey from An Inconvenient Truth to founding Watershed What he learned at Stripe about scaling impact and building mission-driven companies How supply chain collaboration is the real lever for decarbonization (and why it matters more than you think) What the next decade of climate actually looks like and why the world is winning faster than predicted The frameworks and principles that attract the best people to solve the hardest problems Chapters: 1:57 Growing Up and An Inconvenient Truth 5:35 From Princeton to Policy 7:40 What Stripe Taught Him About Scale 9:54 The Origin of Watershed's 500 Megaton Mission 13:09 Breaking Down Scope One, Two, and Three Emissions 16:00 How Watershed Works With Fortune 500 Companies 18:50 The Story Behind the Name Watershed 21:00 Why Network Effects Matter in Decarbonization 23:15 What the Best Investors Taught Him 28:15 The Truth About Climate Today 33:10 Where the World Is Actually Headed 36:20 Product Footprints and AI Done Right 39:42 Why Domain-Specific AI Beats Generic Models 41:00 Quick Fire Follow Watershed and Taylor: Watershed Website Watershed LinkedIn Taylor Francis LinkedIn Follow Inspired: Website LinkedIn X Instagram Substack

Julia Berolzheimer and Thomas Berolzheimer have spent 15 years turning a fashion blog into one of the most powerful e-commerce brands in the creator economy. What started with a camera and an idea in 2011 has grown into a multi-platform empire spanning a blog, Instagram, Substack, ShopMy, Amazon, and their newest venture, Coreli. What You'll Learn: How Julia and Thomas built one of the most trusted brands in the creator economy Why curation beats creation when it comes to driving real commerce How they think about managing content, platforms, and technology as a team Where AI fits in and where it doesn't for creators who've built on authenticity What the next decade of the creator economy actually looks like Chapters: 01:52 Intro 02:35 The Beginning of Julia and Thomas's Journey 04:45 Milestones and Evolution of Gal Meets Glam 06:41 Curation and How Julia Starts Every Morning 11:30 Managing Content Across Different Platforms 15:34 ShopMy 20:25 Tools and Technology 25:20 How Julia and Thomas Work Together 29:00 The Future of the Creator Economy 31:05 Using AI for Influencer Content 35:45 Quickfire Round Follow Julia and Thomas Berolzheimer: Julia Berolzheimer Blog Julia's Instagram Thomas' Instagram Substack Coreli Follow Inspired:‍ Website LinkedIn X Instagram Substack

Solace founder and CEO Jeremy Gurewitz is building a marketplace that connects patients with healthcare advocates—covered by insurance. After losing his mother to pancreatic cancer and witnessing firsthand how difficult it was to navigate the US healthcare system, Jeremy founded Solace to help every American manage the overwhelming complexity of healthcare, from finding the right doctors to dealing with insurance. Now, after raising $130 million in a Series C led by IVP, Solace is expanding into commercial insurance and scaling nationally. With a patient NPS of 90 and data showing improved outcomes and lower costs, Jeremy shares how he is building for a future where healthcare advocacy becomes as standard as having a primary care physician. What You'll Learn: Jeremy's personal journey from losing his mother to building Solace How healthcare advocacy works and why patients achieve a 90+ NPS Why the US healthcare system is so broken and how advocates fix it Where Jeremy sees healthcare heading in the next decade Chapters:02:00 Growing Up with a Doctor Mother06:45 From Quantitative Finance to Healthcare09:00 What Solace Does for Patients11:38 Why Inspired Invested in Solace12:45 Real Stories of Solace Saving Lives17:35 Why the US Healthcare System Is So Broken20:35 Building a Marketplace of Healthcare Advocates22:45 Measuring What Matters: Outcomes and Costs28:50 Announcing Solace's $130M Series C30:31 Building Culture at Scale33:00 Where Solace Is Headed36:30 When AI Helps and When Humans Are Essential40:20 Jeremy's Predictions for Healthcare in 2035 Follow Solace and Jeremy:‍ • Solace Website • Solace LinkedIn • Jeremy Gurewitz LinkedIn Follow Inspired:‍ • Website • LinkedIn • X • Instagram • Substack

Kevin Ryan is known as the godfather of New York City tech. Over three decades, he's founded or backed companies worth more than $40 billion combined, including DoubleClick (acquired by Google), MongoDB (now valued at $30 billion), Business Insider (sold for $450 million), and Gilt Group. As founder of AlleyCorp, Kevin has spent his career building category-defining companies and correctly predicting major technology shifts before they happened. From betting on the internet in 1996 to understanding AI's trajectory today, Kevin shares his framework for seeing what's next and why speed executed properly changes everything. What You'll Learn: How Kevin spotted the internet would change everything in 1996 and the patterns he uses to see what's next The two categories Kevin is betting on: vertical AI applications and deep science breakthroughs Why winning the first four years matters more than anything else How to compete for top 0.1% talent in today's market Kevin's 2036 predictions for work, NYC vs SF, and where technology is headed Chapters: 00:00 Introduction02:10 Kevin's Childhood 05:00 Reflecting on His Entrepreneurship Journey08:30 Speed Matters11:15 The Feeling When You Know a Company Is the One14:58 Why You Need Top 0.1% Talent17:00 Two Categories Kevin Is Betting On20:00 Drawing the Defensibility Line in Vertical AI22:22 Thinking About the Product23:10 Acceleration of Science and When Kevin's Antenna Goes Up25:08 What the World Looks Like in 203627:00 Job Loss and AI Displacement32:00 San Francisco vs New York City38:18 What Kevin Hopes for NYC Tech40:50 Interesting Topics Kevin Is Exploring42:36 Quickfire Round Follow AlleyCorp and Kevin: AlleyCorp Website AlleyCorp LinkedIn Kevin Ryan LinkedIn Follow Inspired:‍ Website LinkedIn X Instagram Substack

Flock Safety founder and CEO Garrett Langley is building the technology infrastructure to eliminate crime in America. A repeat entrepreneur who previously built and sold two companies for over $200 million each, Garrett now leads a $7.5 billion company serving more than 6,000 communities, 5,000 law enforcement agencies, and 1,000 businesses while helping achieve nearly a million arrests annually. He shares his conviction that safety drives economic prosperity, the surprising fact that drones arrive on scene 94% of the time before officers, and how AI will free police officers from paperwork to focus on community relationships. What You'll Learn: Why it's getting easier to commit serious crimes in America and what's driving that trend How technology creates precision in law enforcement that's never existed before Why drones are transforming emergency response and saving cities money How AI will reshape policing by eliminating paperwork and doubling community presence Why safety is the foundation for economic prosperity and job growth Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:08 Why Team Is the Only Thing That Matters 04:40 Growing Up in Atlanta: Learning Sales from His Father 06:45 What Is Flock Safety and How Does It Work? 11:20 The Crime Crisis No One Talks About 14:33 Serving Neighborhoods, Businesses, and Law Enforcement 17:00 Real Cases: From U-Hauls to Black SUVs 19:55 The Future of Policing in 10 Years 23:30 Building Technology While People's Lives Are at Stake 25:38 How Drones Are Changing Emergency Response 28:09 Scaling to $300M ARR at 70% Growth 29:38 Why Safety Drives Economic Prosperity 32:30 The "Do the Work" Culture at Flock 33:48 Quickfire Round Follow Flock Safety and Garrett: ⁠Flock Safety Website Flock Safety LinkedIn ⁠⁠Flock Safety Instagram ⁠⁠Flock Safety X Garrett’s LinkedIn⁠⁠ Garrett’s X Follow Inspired: Website⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ LinkedIn⁠ X⁠ Substack

Alexa is sharing her bold predictions for 2026, from physical AI transforming our crumbling infrastructure to quantum computing breakthroughs that will reshape innovation. With her signature focus on walking into the office "in 2035," she explain why AI won't destroy jobs but will instead free us from mundane work, how autonomous vehicles will give suburban parents their time back, and why smart machines are finally taking us out of the Roman times. Chapters: 00:09 Prediction #1- Physical AI 02:06 Prediction #2- Quantum 03:00 Prediction #3 - Jobs 05:04 Prediction #4 - Autonomous cars Follow Inspired: Website⁠ Instagram⁠ LinkedIn⁠ X⁠ Substack

Suno founder and CEO Mikey Shulman is building the future of music creation. A Harvard PhD physicist who led machine learning at Kensho before it was acquired by S&P Global, Mikey had a realization in 2022 that audio was a backwater in machine learning—despite being everywhere in human life. He turned that realization into $2.5B company Suno, which grew from zero to over 100 million users. Mikey shares how Suno scales to users generating seven million tracks a day, why music's format will change as dramatically in this era as it did in the shift from vinyl to streaming, and how AI is democratizing creativity for billions of people who never thought they could make music. What You'll Learn: How growing up in a loving, stable environment with parents who encouraged following your passions shaped Mikey's leadership style Why audio was overlooked in machine learning and how Suno made it a first-class citizen How Suno went from zero users to 100 million and zero revenue to $200 million in under three years Why a quarter of songs on Suno are remixes of other songs on the platform The difference between creation and consumption in music and why that boundary is disappearing How Suno is growing the entire pie of music rather than just splitting existing revenue Why the business model for music will change when the format becomes interactive What Mikey learned about speed versus craft when building for billions of users Chapters:01:52 Growing Up: Following What You Love03:45 From Physics to a PhD at Harvard05:30 Kensho and the Path to Machine Learning09:30 Teaching Machine Learning at MIT Sloan12:10 The Birth of Suno15:30 Why Audio When Everyone Chose Text16:25 Zero to 100 Million Users in Three Years18:55 Xania Monet: The First AI Billboard Artist21:55 Stories That Keep the Team Going24:15 Music Was Invented to Be Social27:27 The Business Model for Interactive Music29:44 Reshaping the Music Industry32:45 New Boundaries of Music Creation35:00 The Future: Interactive Albums and Fan Fiction37:35 Growing the Pie for All Creators40:00 Will There Be Agentic AI Stars?41:15 Building Teams That Move Fast43:30 Speed and Craft: The Cultural Balance45:30 What's Coming Next at Suno46:30 Guardrails in a Lower Stakes Domain47:47 Managing Chaos as a First-Time CEO at Scale49:55 Quickfire Round Follow Suno and Mikey: Suno Website Suno Instagram Mikey's LinkedIn Mikey's Twittter Follow Inspired: ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Substack⁠

Dylan Taylor, founder and CEO of Voyager Technologies, is building the infrastructure that will define humanity's future in space. Through defense, space solutions, and Starlab, Voyager is working on some of the most ambitious aerospace projects of our generation. In this conversation, Dylan takes us from watching Star Trek as a kid in Idaho to becoming a publicly traded space company CEO. He shares what it's actually like to reach space aboard Blue Origin, why we're living through the biggest space boom in human history, and how space will transform our global economy. What You'll Learn: Why space isn't an industry but humanity's eighth continent His experience going to outer space How perfect real-time information about Earth will create trillions in economic value Projects that Voyager is working on How ambition shifted from personal glory to reflected glory through leadership Predictions for the space industry The frontier innovations that will enable humans to live and work in space Chapters:01:52 From Star Trek Dreams to Space Reality04:37 What is Voyager Technologies?07:02 Winning the Contract to Build Starlab09:40 Going to Space on Blue Origin16:36 The Overview Effect and What Astronauts Feel20:10 How Space Shifted Dylan's Perspective on Risk and Ambition22:40 The Henry Crown Fellowship and Leadership Transformation23:40 Inside Voyager Technologies' Projects26:50 The Purpose of Starlab as a Microgravity Laboratory31:00 Space Predictions35:23 Space as the Eighth Continent36:55 Perfect Real-Time Information About Earth38:50 What Keeps Dylan Up at Night About Space's Future41:07 Frontier Innovations in Quantum Computing and Beyond45:15 Quick Fire Round47:52 Outro Follow Voyager Technologies and Dylan: Voyager Website Voyager LinkedIn Voyager X Voyager Insta Dylan's LinkedIn Follow Inspired: ⁠Website⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ ⁠X⁠ ⁠Substack

Axion founder Daniel First is building the command center for American manufacturing that detects product failures before they reach customers. His AI-powered observability platform links IoT data, technician reports, and customer feedback across aerospace, medical devices, and consumer products to identify emerging issues manufacturers don't even know exist. Born from watching enterprise AI pilots fail at McKinsey, Axion is architecting customer-centric manufacturing where products iterate in real time based on what's breaking in the field. What You'll Learn: The trillion-dollar quality crisis plaguing American manufacturing and how AI is solving it Why most enterprise AI fails and what makes the rare successes different The future of American manufacturing competing on speed of customer learning How real-time field data is transforming product development cycles Unconventional founder habits that enable exceptional speed and deep thinking Chapters: 2:00 From Orthodox Debates to Independent Thinking3:00 Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Human Flourishing6:00 The Pivot from Academia to Industry7:20 Predicting AI as the Next Cultural Mania8:10 What Axion Actually Does for Manufacturers10:35 The Invisible Quality Crisis Costing Trillions13:30 Surprising Multi-Department Platform Adoption16:02 Surgery Equipment Failure With Two Root Causes16:47 Why Axion's Organization Looks Different18:00 Building an Ecosystem Across Product Lifecycle20:28 How Quality Data Drives Product Innovation21:58 American Manufacturing Winning on Empathy26:00 How Axion Succeeded Where 95% Fail28:50 Why Robotics Will Create More Quality Issues31:10 What Enterprise Leaders Think About AI32:50 Data Centers and Manufacturing Tailwind34:09 The Experimental Mindset Driving Speed36:30 Why 2010s Advice No Longer Applies38:40 The Vertical AI Revolution39:55 Quick-fire Questions Follow Axion and Daniel: • ⁠Axion Website⁠⁠• ⁠Axion LI ⁠⁠• ⁠Daniel LI Follow Inspired:• ⁠Website⁠• ⁠Instagram⁠• ⁠LinkedIn⁠• ⁠X⁠• ⁠Substack

Interior designer Nate Berkus is one of the most recognizable names in design. He started his firm at 24 with nothing but authenticity and hustle, building an empire spanning TV, books, product lines, and high-end interiors that's landed him on the AD100 list for a decade. His journey includes 12 years as Oprah's design expert, surviving the 2004 tsunami, and building a life with Jeremiah Brent as one of TV's first openly gay families. With his new book Foundations releasing November 18th, Nate reflects on what it takes to stay creatively obsessed for 30 years and build a household name in design. What You'll Learn: • How he started his firm at 24 and convinced clients to take a chance on him • Working with Oprah and his strategic approach to media • How surviving the 2004 tsunami fundamentally changed him and his reflections on that experience • Why he believes design is part magic, part alchemy, and part sociology • How he and Jeremiah Brent collaborate as both partners and business collaborators • The future of design and how AI will reshape the industry Chapters: 02:30 Intro 03:15 The Origin of His Design Obsession 06:10 Why Design Is Sociology 08:27 Starting a Firm at 24 With Nothing But Authenticity 14:28 How Surviving the 2004 Tsunami Changed Everything 19:50 The Strategy Behind Using TV as a Platform 23:00 A Funny Oprah Story 24:46 Why TV Was Always a Means to an End 28:40 How He Stays Creatively Obsessed After 30 Years 32:38 Never Stop Learning and Do What Feels Effortless 34:07 Partnership With Jeremiah as Parents and Business Partners 39:30 Why He Wrote Foundations and What It Means 42:15 How AI Will Impact the Future of Design 46:44 His Approach to Curation in the Creator Economy 50:05 Reflecting on His Biggest Life Moments 52:02 Quick-fire Round Follow Nate Berkus: • Nate's Website • Nate's Instagram Follow Inspired and Alexa: • Website • Instagram • LinkedIn • X • Substack

Writer CEO May Habib is building the future of enterprise AI. Born in Lebanon as the oldest of eight kids, May grew up navigating chaos, multiple languages, and cultures, skills that shaped her into a founder willing to challenge assumptions. After pivoting from Qordoba, she built Writer's own foundational models and spent a decade solving real AI problems for Fortune 500 companies. Now leading a $2B+ company, May shares her bold vision for where AI is headed, from self-evolving LLMs that proactively guide us to why work in 2030 will be unrecognizable. What You'll Learn: How growing up as the oldest of eight in a Lebanese family shaped May's leadership style Why Writer focuses on highly regulated industries like healthcare and financial services The critical difference between generative AI and agentic AI How self-evolving AI will proactively prompt you instead of waiting for commands Why execution is going from scarce and expensive to abundant and on-demand What the average knowledge worker's job will look like in 2030 Why narrow job specs are dead and career lattices are the future The two disruptive forces that will make work unrecognizable in 30 years Why May believes there's no AI bubble Chapters: 00:00 Introduction01:50 Growing Up as the Oldest of Eight in an Immigrant Family05:30 Why Language Shapes Who We Become09:05 The Decision to Leave Finance and Start Qordoba12:05 The Risky Pivot from Qordoba to Writer17:45 What Problem Writer Actually Solves for Enterprise21:05 Building Trust at Scale in Regulated Industries24:30 How Writer Stays Maniacally Focused28:10 Writer's Vision for Self-Evolving AI35:00 Why Narrow Job Specs Are Dead37:30 What Work Looks Like in 2030 and the Two Unknowns Shaping the Future39:26 What Most People Misunderstand About AI41:44 The Book That Changed May's Life43:06 Is There an AI Bubble?43:15 May's One-Word Mantra: Forward43:49 How May Manages Stress44:00 Beyond AI: What Excites May the Most Follow Writer and May: • Writer Website • Writer LinkedIn • May's LinkedIn Follow Inspired: • Website • Instagram • LinkedIn • X • Substack

Atria Health Institute founder Alan Tisch is rebuilding America's healthcare system from the ground up. After two near-death experiences in his mid-20s revealed how broken preventive care truly is, Alan made it his life's mission to tackle a system designed to profit from sick people rather than keep them healthy. With a multidisciplinary team of 15 medical specialties and cutting-edge diagnostics, Atria is pioneering the preventive healthcare movement to extend not only lifespan but healthspan. What You'll Learn: Why the healthcare system profits from keeping you sick instead of healthy How a $150 test can prevent heart attacks 20 years before they happen The difference between healthspan and lifespan and why it matters Why team-based care across specialties beats the traditional siloed approach How to think about preventive diagnostics like whole body MRIs and genetic testing Why now is the most exciting time for healthcare Chapters:00:00 Intro02:40 Early Influences and Family Background06:38 Lessons from Building Spring10:25 The Birth of Atria Health Institute16:07 Why Healthcare Incentives Favor Sick Care20:20 What It's Like to Be an Atria Patient23:50 The Four Step Framework for Disease Prevention25:49 Health Fads: Overhyped vs Underhyped28:50 Genomics and Full Body MRI Scans for Everyone34:50 The Two Sides of Atria: Clinical Care and Research39:07 The Future of Healthcare43:58 Healthspan vs Lifespan47:03 One Thing You Should Do Tomorrow49:05 AI in Preventive Care52:00 Book That Changed Alan's Life52:46 Health Habit Alan Has Adopted Follow Atria: Atria Website: https://www.atria.org/ Atria LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atria-institute/ Follow Inspired and Alexa: Website: ⁠⁠https://www.inspiredcapital.com/ Substack: https://alexavontobel.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners/ X: https://x.com/inspiredcap

ShopMy co-founders Harry Rein and Tiffany Lopinsky are building the most sophisticated three-sided commerce platform that revolutionizes how creators monetize authentic recommendations, how brands scale through trusted advocates, and how consumers discover products through curated networks they actually trust. Powered by intricate product graph technology and advanced data infrastructure that maps millions of products across retailers, they're architecting the future of commerce driven by intentional curation rather than algorithmic impulse buying. What You'll Learn: Why the "curator economy" matters more than the "creator economy" How their Circles feature creates personalized shopping through trusted networks The product philosophy of minimizing "calories" in user experience design How they thought through scaling ShopMy’s audience Why authentic recommendations outperform traditional performance marketing How complementary co-founder skills drive success The "sweep the floors" mentality that keeps leadership embedded in daily work Chapters:01:53 Intro03:30 From Boston Foodies to Engineering Complementary Backgrounds10:08 The ShopMy Genesis Solving Creator Monetization14:18 Breaking Down ShopMy Three Core Constituencies18:39 Introducing Circles Personalized Shopping Through Trust25:27 The Three Phases of Building ShopMy26:35 Product Philosophy Minimizing Calories in User Experience32:38 Cutting Through the Noise Where Shopping Journeys Begin34:32 Opportunities Scaling Creator Performance Marketing36:25 The Role of AI in Taste and Personalization37:49 From Creator Economy to Curator Economy44:10 Funding Strategy Building for the Long Term46:10 Building the Team The Sweep the Floors Leadership Philosophy52:20 Personal Discoveries What the Founders Buy Through Circles Follow ShopMy: • ShopMy Website: https://shopmy.us/home • ShopMy Linkedin: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/shopmy-/ • ShopMy Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/shopmy/ Follow Inspired and Alexa: • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ • Linkedin: ⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners/ • X: https://x.com/inspiredcap • Website: ⁠⁠https://www.inspiredcapital.com/

World quantum expert and professor Jeff Thompson, founder of Logiqal, shares his journey from academia (at Yale, Harvard, MIT, and Princeton) to now building the first scaled quantum computer. He explains why the world needs this breakthrough, how Logiqal’s neutral atom technology makes it possible, and what it could unlock for medicine, materials, and the future of innovation. What You’ll Learn: What is quantum? Why the world needs a scaled quantum computer Jeff’s journey through Yale, Harvard, MIT, and now running a lab at Princeton Why failure drives scientific discovery How Logiqal is using neutral atom technology and ytterbium What quantum could unlock for medicine and materials How Jeff balances academia and entrepreneurship How he sees the global race for quantum computing Chapters:01:58 Intro 08:04 Quantum 101: Bits, Qubits, and Schrödinger’s Cat09:40 The State of Quantum Today: Early Days, Big Potential13:19 What Really Counts as a Quantum Computer?14:35 How Many Qubits Does It Take to Change the World?19:11 The Quantum Hardware Wars24:00 Why Yttrium is the Chosen Atom26:33 Rydberg Gates: Turning Interactions On and Off28:39 Founding Logiqal: The Challenge of a Lifetime31:01 Unlocking Quantum: From Pharma to Materials to Mars37:05 Quantum + AI: Partners, Not Competitors40:28 What Gets Jeff Out of Bed Every Morning41:07 Books That Shaped a Quantum Founder42:17 The Time for Quantum is Now Follow Jeff and Logiqal: Jeff Linkedin: ⁠http://bit.ly/46fkFav⁠ Logiqal Linkedin: ⁠http://bit.ly/48aizLA⁠ Follow Inspired and Alexa: Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital⁠⁠ Linkedin: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠https://x.com/InspiredCap⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠https://www.inspiredcapital.com/⁠⁠

Dr. Becky Kennedy from Good Inside shares her journey from private practice psychologist to building the #1 consumer parenting tool on the planet. She reveals how blending emotional connection with practical action helps parents raise resilient kids and become sturdier themselves. What You’ll Learn: • How Dr. Becky built Good Inside into a global parenting movement • The secret to becoming a “sturdy parent” and raising resilient kids • Why parenting feels hard even for good parents and how to navigate it with confidence • How to break cycles of shame and foster deep connection at home • The lessons Dr. Becky learned while scaling a mission-driven brand • Good Inside’s future Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:58 Becky’s Origin Story 5:34 Parenting Genres of Our Generation 9:38 Early Career and Education 14:11 Internal Family Systems (IFS) Explained 17:19 Private Practice to Parenting Work 21:15 Instagram and the First Viral Posts 27:39 Founding Good Inside 30:34 Parenting as the Last Frontier 39:15 The Good Inside App and Vision 52:30 Broader Societal Impact of Parenting 56:04 Two Mantras Dr.Becky Uses 59:30 One Habit Dr. Becky Does Follow Dr. Becky and Good Inside: • Instagram: https://bit.ly/3H9UWIa • Website: https://www.goodinside.com/ Follow Inspired and Alexa: • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners • X: https://x.com/InspiredCap • Website: https://www.inspiredcapital.com/

What if the secret to solving impossible problems isn't avoiding failure, but learning to leverage it? Serial entrepreneur and inventor Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at X (Alphabet's Moonshot Factory), discovered this counterintuitive truth growing up in a family where intelligence was everything. The grandson of Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, and a Nobel Prize-winning economist, Astro learned that being smart wasn't enough. He had to develop his creativity into his philosophy of "being yourself on purpose." Today, Astro is responsible for steering X’s projects—like Waymo, Dandelion, and Verily—through the bumps and scrapes they meet along the road to reality. In this episode, Astro shares how childhood stories of the Manhattan Project's creative community inspired X's culture, why he transformed from trying to outsmart employees to becoming a "culture engineer," and why intellectual honesty is the real key to turning science fiction into reality.

What if we could predict infrastructure failures before they happen instead of scrambling to fix them after disaster strikes? Serial entrepreneur Alex Hawkinson quips that the Romans would be laughing at us if they saw our current approach to managing the critical systems that power our world. Known as the father of IoT for creating SmartThings—a platform supporting over one billion connected devices before its acquisition by Samsung—Alex is now tackling his most ambitious challenge yet: awakening America's crumbling infrastructure through physical AI. With nearly 500,000 sensors already deployed across water, energy, and essential services, BrightAI is shifting entire industries from reactive maintenance to proactive intelligence. In this episode, Alex shares how BrightAI's observability layer creates an unbreakable competitive moat, how his "swing big" philosophy attracts world-class talent, and why transforming infrastructure management represents humanity's next great technological leap forward.

What happens when humanity faces the sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history? Serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm believes we need a backup plan. With a track record of building and exiting companies across AI, gaming, and conversational intelligence, Ben took on his most audacious venture in 2021: co-founding Colossal Biosciences with Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church to bring extinct species back to life. The company has already successfully de-extincted the dire wolf and aims to return woolly mammoths to the Arctic by 2028. In this episode, Ben shares how his self-described "unemployable" streak became his entrepreneurial superpower, why asking naive questions helps him tackle impossible challenges across industries, and how Colossal's breakthrough technologies represent humanity's essential insurance policy for planetary survival. Follow Inspired on Instagram Follow Inspired on Twitter

With software powering every aspect of our lives, when does quality testing shift from a nicety to an absolute necessity? Despite the stakes, most companies fail to test everything—and even fewer automate their QA processes—leaving critical systems vulnerable to catastrophic bugs. Jon Perl is on a mission to change that. In 2019, he launched QA Wolf to help hundreds of companies automate 80% of their quality assurance processes, accelerating release cycles fivefold and saving customers over $100 million annually. By disrupting the outdated, manual QA status quo, QA Wolf empowers teams to ship faster and more confidently, delivering innovation without compromise. In this episode, Jon shares how a tech mistake sparked the idea for QA Wolf, how they settled on a pricing model that aligns incentives with their customers, and why he believes human-in-the-loop will remain essential until AI achieves flawless accuracy.

For 60 years, Moore's Law and Dennard scaling drove the exponential advancement of computers, making them faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient. But as Nick Harris explains, the era of transistor-based technology has reached its physical limits. The future of computing demands a new solution, and that solution is light. Nick founded Lightmatter in 2017 to fully transform AI data center infrastructure. By harnessing light to process and transmit data, Lightmatter is laying the foundation for the next generation of computing. The company invented the world's first 3D-stacked photonics engine and was most recently valued at $4.4 billion. In this episode, Nick shares why he chose to leave academia after receiving his PhD, how his go-to-market strategy hinged on building real friendships and understanding his customers' internal roadmaps, and why he believes that having an obsession is a gift.

What if building a website wasn’t just for developers, but something anyone could do easily? This was the simple idea that led Avishai Abrahami to create Wix in 2006. What began as a no-code tool to help businesses establish an online presence has grown into a global platform that serves hundreds of millions of users. Under Avishai’s leadership, the company has reached many milestones including the launch of Wix’s first AI website builder in 2016—one the first commercial AI products available to consumers at mass scale. In 2013, Avishai took Wix public, and the company is currently valued at over $11 billion. In this episode, Avishai shares his take on what differentiates exceptional entrepreneurs from the rest, why he believes in meticulously tracking the most granular details, and how important it is to master the balance of seeking feedback while knowing when to trust your own judgment.

What if the media you consume isn’t just how you spend your time—but who you become? Chris Best began his career as a software engineer, driven by the idea that writing code could transform how millions of people work. But after nearly a decade of coding, he recognized an even greater potential with writing: the power to shape who millions of people become. In 2017, Chris launched Substack, a platform that empowers independent writers and creators to own their connection with audiences and earn through paid subscriptions. In this episode, Chris unpacks the “anti-media” philosophy at the heart of Substack—eliminating barriers for writers to share their work and creating a meritocratic space where the most influential voices can be heard. From political commentators and fashion gurus to sports enthusiasts, Substack has grown into a vibrant ecosystem where readers can discover their tribe. Today, the platform boasts over 35 million active readers and more than 4 million paid subscribers. Chris shares how he overcame initial skepticism about product-market fit, why he thinks of Substack as an index for culture, and how authenticity is increasingly vital in a world where AI generated content is limitless.

Following the clean-tech bust of the early 2010s, the path to renewable energy was anything but clear. Yet in 2013, Chris Hopper took a bold step forward to co-found Aurora Solar, on a mission to accelerate solar energy adoption. Aurora’s platform streamlines and improves the processes of sales, design, and installation—making solar more accessible and efficient for all. Operating in a tough funding environment, he relied on grit to secure a seed round that enabled the company to bootstrap and grow steadily over the next five years. Today, Aurora Solar has raised over half a billion dollars, achieved a valuation exceeding $4 billion, and has empowered the design of over 10 million solar projects worldwide. Chris shares why he’s grateful for the challenging early days, how Aurora's cloud-based platform uses AI to streamline workflows, and why—despite his forward-thinking mindset—he encourages entrepreneurs to remain open to serendipity.

In 2011, as the rise of digital media cast doubt on the survival of print, Sarah Harrelson broke from convention and launched her own independent magazine: CULTURED. Sarah set out to spotlight artists, writers, curators, and designers overlooked by mainstream outlets and has since become one of the most trusted voices in the world of art and design. Beyond the magazine’s editorial prestige, CULTURED collaborates with leading fashion houses, luxury brands, and galleries. Sarah has had a decades-long career in magazines, beginning with an internship at Elle and including launching the Miami Herald’s Home and Design section, becoming the editor-in-chief of Ocean Drive and Art Basel Magazine, and ultimately founding her own publishing company. In this episode, Sarah shares how intuition shapes her approach to talent discovery, why her belief in the staying power of print remains unchanged, and how the magazine’s strategic focus has evolved to span global markets and adjacent industries.

In 2013, when Ryan Petersen launched Flexport, he approached the problem from a customer’s perspective. Early in his career, he had worked at his brother’s import-export business, sourcing and selling ATVs, scooters, and dirt bikes from Asia to markets around the world. They built the entire technical platform to facilitate these transactions, and Ryan saw an opportunity to make the freight forwarding industry more efficient. He founded Flexport to make global trade easy and accessible for everyone and has since raised $2.3 billion to fuel the business. Today, Flexport’s platform coordinates logistics from factory floor to customer door, serving companies of all sizes. In 2023 alone, Flexport’s technology moved over $32 billion worth of merchandise. Ryan discusses how he leverages the U.S. Air Force’s OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) strategy, how AI is helping automate 1% of its freight forwarding workflows each week, and why Flexport’s agility remains the company’s greatest strength.

When Eliot Horowitz, Founder and CEO of Viam, was locked down with his family during COVID, he did what any engineer might do—he built a robot to play chess. Once that project was complete, he turned his attention to his ever-problematic sprinkler system. After that? He added smart software to his HVAC system. Through this series of home improvements, he uncovered a problem he was eager to solve, and his third startup was born. Eliot founded Viam to build a product that connects hardware to software and unlocks AI, automation, and data for the physical world. A career software developer and technology leader, Eliot previously co-founded MongoDB, writing the core code base for the pioneering database and leading the engineering teams for 13 years as CTO. MongoDB went public in 2017 and has a market cap of over $20 billion. Eliot shares why he enforces a no-jerk policy when it comes to hiring, how he evolved as a founder from the seed stage to post-IPO, and why he believes that being the product’s biggest user is essential to success.

In 2007, Emmett co-founded a live streaming service called Justin.tv along with his childhood friend and neighbor, Justin. That first entrepreneurial spark grew into Twitch, an interactive livestreaming service that spans gaming, entertainment, sports, music, and more. Today, at any given moment, more than 2.5 million people globally are engaging with Twitch. While Twitch was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for nearly $1 billion, Emmett has stayed on as CEO and continued to scale. Emmett shares why the company's hardest engineering challenge was scaling live video, why the future of the creator economy is "micro-patronage," and the role Twitch plays in combating loneliness. Original airdate: Aug 2022

From the time she was a child in East London, Emma Grede knew she wanted to work in fashion. After a long career at the intersection of fashion and entertainment, Emma now sits at the helm of Good American, the fashion label she co-founded with Khloe Kardashian in 2016. The first fully inclusive fashion brand kicked off with the largest denim launch in history, bringing in $1M on day one, and has evolved to include ready-to-wear, swim, shoes and activewear. Emma shares what it was like to experience the roller coaster of launch day, why the ability to understand what customers want is a superpower, and why she thinks in-person retail experiences will be here for decades to come. Original Air Date 06-02-2021

Most startups set out to tackle massive problems, but working to develop a low-cost, long-duration energy storage solution that will enable the electric system to be 100% renewably powered? That's a big one by any standard. At Form Energy, Mateo Jaramillo and his co-founders are working to bring that very vision to life, leveraging the smartest minds in the energy storage space. Mateo shares why he bet his career on the climate tech industry after attending Yale Divinity School, how his time at Tesla taught him the importance of top-quality talent, and what it was like to step into the shoes of a founder at age 40. Original Air Date: 12-16-2020

After a career spent inside a hospital, Brian Whorley envisioned a future for American healthcare that, to him, seemed not just possible but inevitable. Witnessing firsthand the growing number of patients burdened by high deductibles, Brian understood that when people have better financial tools to afford care, they seek treatment sooner, leading to improved health outcomes. In 2018, Brian co-founded Paytient, the company that empowers people to pay for care over time with no interest and no fees—ever. Fast forward seven years, and his vision is becoming a reality. Starting in 2025, every single Part D health plan in the U.S. will be required to offer plan members the option to spread their out-of-pocket pharmaceutical costs over time with interest-free monthly payments. Given this new regulation, Paytient is expected to help nearly 25 million Americans more easily access and afford care next year. Brian shares why he believes founders are forged as children, how he built a business among a sea of skeptics, and why he thinks that healthcare entrepreneurs have to partner with America’s existing health system stakeholders to implement the most impactful change.

Growing up, Annie Lamont was an avid reader with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. This led her to attend Stanford—which coincided with Silicon Valley's tech boom and ignited her passion for entrepreneurship. Immediately, she found herself gravitating towards healthcare investing because of the incredible impact it can have on communities. Today, Annie is the cofounder of Oak HC/FT and is recognized as one of the most influential investors in healthcare and fintech. With over $5 billion in assets under management, she boasts an impressive track record, having backed iconic companies like One Medical, athenahealth, and Devoted Health. To date, she has successfully exited more than 70 companies and achieved 15 IPOs. In addition to her venture career, she also serves as the First Lady of Connecticut. Annie shares her take on how generative AI will impact healthcare and fintech, why she believes the smartest rule in venture is to never compromise on integrity, and how she distinguishes ordinary entrepreneurs from exceptional ones.

What if businesses were empowered to consistently attract and hire the best-possible candidates—every single time? In 2012, Daniel Chait set out on a mission to help every company become great at hiring. He launched Greenhouse and scaled the business into the leader in hiring software. Almost a decade later, private equity leader TPG acquired a majority stake in the company in a $500M deal. Daniel shares how leadership’s involvement in hiring sets the tone for the success of a businesses’ recruitment and retention practices, why he believes that magical interview questions are a myth, and how AI is actually making life much harder for both applicants and employers.

When serial entrepreneur Bill Smith relocated his family across the country to build his third startup, the seedling of an idea for his next startup was born. In 2019, Bill founded Landing, the first membership-based leasing model for flexible living. He has since scaled the business to cities around the country with a network of thousands of apartments. Along the way, he’s amassed $255M in funding and been named Forbes Next Billion Dollar Startup, all while making renting your next apartment as easy as ordering takeout. Prior to Landing, Bill founded, scaled, and exited three companies, including the online grocery delivery marketplace, Shipt, which sold to Target for $550M. Bill shares his advice on navigating negotiations, how he discovered product-market fit by asking customers to pay before his product was even built, and why true partnership is critical for a successful acquisition.

In 2009, Ethan Brown, Founder & CEO of Beyond Meat, faced a dilemma at a rest stop on I-95. Struggling to find a healthy meal for his young children, he realized he had to make a change. That same year, he launched Beyond Meat, the world’s first plant-based meat company, with a mission to drive a global shift from animal-based to plant-based products. Its flagship product, the Beyond Burger, was crafted to look, cook, and taste just like traditional beef. Since then, the company has expanded its offerings and now sells a variety of plant-based products in over 130,000 locations across 65 countries. Today, Beyond Meat partners with major brands like Panda Express and McDonald’s. Ethan shares his predictions for the evolution of the $1+ trillion dollar global meat industry, how he tackled go-to-market for an entirely new food category, and why he believes truths only get truer as his business grows.

Edward Norton is widely known as one of the most celebrated actors of our generation. He has starred in over 50 films, has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won the Golden Globe, an Emmy, and an Obie, to name a few. What many people don’t know is he has built a parallel career as a serial entrepreneur. Today, Edward Norton is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at his fourth startup, Zeck, the company transforming board dynamics for thousands of corporate and nonprofit leaders. Previously, he co-founded Stax Engineering (emission capture as a service to shipping companies in California ports), EDO (advanced data science and machine learning for audience measurement in the media and advertising industries), and CrowdRise (a charitable fundraising platform that merged with GoFundMe to create the largest online charity platform in the world). Edward shares why he believes business-building is so similar to making movies, how his family taught him to address challenges that make a difference in his community, and why solving problems with friends is infinitely more rewarding than going solo.

What does it take to become one of the few self-made billionaires in the US? According to the visionary business leader Jenny Just, it starts with a comfortability with taking risks. After just giving birth to her first child, Jenny took a risk and founded her first business, Peak6, in 1997. Peak6 began as a proprietary options trading firm and has since grown into a multibillion-dollar financial services and technology giant housing the next generation of products and service brands including PEAK6 Capital Management, PEAK6 Strategic Capital, Apex Fintech Solutions, PEAK6 InsurTech, and Zogo. On top of these achievements, Jenny also co-founded Poker Power—a company she launched with her daughter Juliette to teach poker and empower women to master the art of risk-taking. Jenny shares how stock rewards could address the persistent issue of financial literacy in our country, why she believes her repeated failures have led to invaluable lessons throughout her career, and how she continues to motivate herself three decades into her career.

How does an entrepreneur without a college degree manage to build a rocket company exploring life beyond earth? Just ask Peter Beck, the Founder, CEO and Chief Engineer of Rocket Lab, a Nasdaq-listed leading launch and space systems company. At an early age, Peter’s parents taught him that no ambition was too big. So he began building rockets, steadily increasing in their size and complexity. In 2006, Peter founded Rocket Lab and has since grown the company into a global organization of 1,800 employees, taking the business public in 2021 with a market cap north of $2.3B. Rocket Lab’s capabilities span the space economy and Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has become the most successful small launch vehicle globally. Peter shares why he focused on credibility and capability in the early days of company building, how constraints ensure Rocket Lab doesn’t outspend its peers, and why he thinks some regulation is needed in the space industry.

As a freshman at MIT, Alexandr was struck by his classmates' interest in AI. But he realized that despite all that AI technology could solve, there was no solution for managing AI-related data. So, at 19, he dropped out of college and started Scale AI. Scale now helps customers like Pinterest and Toyota accelerate the progress of AI and has grown to a valuation of $3.5B. Alexandr shares how AI is changing software development, why he believes in surrounding yourself with optimistic people, and how he learned to get comfortable with not being able to do everything at once. Original Air Date 04-7-2021

As a D1 athlete, Will Ahmed became obsessed with the idea of recovery. How do you unlock human performance, and what data would you need to do so? This interest led to the creation of WHOOP, the next gen wearable technology. Will started WHOOP in 2012, immediately after graduating from Harvard College. Since then, he's raised over $100M in funding, saw 7x member growth in the last year alone, and has been worn by the likes of Lebron James and Michael Phelps. Will shares how the product was born out of his own over-training as an athlete, why he believes WHOOP is fundamentally a data company, and why the most important part of being a CEO is figuring out who to listen to—and when. Note: This episode was recorded in early March, just as the Covid-19 outbreak took hold of the U.S. Since then, WHOOP has been leveraging their data to aid in health research. Original Air Date: 4-16-2020

Ara Katz’s respect for the power of science began in high school when her mom was diagnosed with cancer. After founding her first business, Spring—the mobile commerce startup that helped launch Apple Pay on the iPhone—she set out on a new challenge: creating a consumer health company deeply rooted in science-backed research. Its mission? To lead the field of translating breakthrough science into innovations that impact every aspect of our health related to the microbiome. Founded in 2016, Seed Health is the microbiome science company pioneering innovations in probiotics and living medicines to impact human and planetary health. With 800%+ revenue growth in the last 3 years, Seed has quickly become one of the most trusted and beloved synbiotic brands on the market. Ara shares why she believes science isn’t finished until it's widely understood, how we have the power to significantly change health outcomes if we focus on the microbiome, and why her favorite interview question is: ‘When was the last time you cried?’.

What if restaurants were empowered to deliver a personalized experience each time a guest walks through the door? That’s the idea that underpins Olo, a leading open SaaS platform powering over 700 restaurant brands. Noah Glass founded Olo in 2005, drawing on his experience working from the ground up as a restaurant server, cashier, and delivery driver. Today, Olo is a publicly listed company empowering hospitality at scale. Noah shares how he convinced skeptical restaurant vets and customers that online ordering was the beginning of the future for restaurant tech, why he believes going public was the right idea for his business, and how he made the decision to drop out of HBS to pursue building Olo.

Growing up, Lindsey Vonn’s parents instilled two important lessons: her mom taught her the importance of finding positivity in every situation, and her dad taught her that any ambition is achievable with a clear plan and dedication. So, at the age of 9, she confidently stated her goal to become the greatest ski racer of all time. Her dad helped her write a 10-year plan to make it to the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Today, she is one of the most decorated American ski racers in history and was the first American woman to win a gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Beyond ski racing, Lindsey is a NYT bestselling author, the founder of the Lindsey Vonn Foundation—a nonprofit championing girls through scholarships, education, and athletics—and the creative force behind Apres Productions. Lindsey’s career is a powerful lesson in a differentiated kind of entrepreneurship—one defined by grit, determination, and above all else, consistent work ethic. Lindsey shares how mental toughness is the bedrock of her success, why she views partnerships through a long term lens, and how growing up in a family of seven made her a hard worker at a young age.

Andrew Lacy first encountered whole-body imaging as a patient. In just one hour, he learned more about his health than the American healthcare system had taught him in his entire life. He wondered to himself: why isn’t this technology accessible for everyone everywhere? So he started Prenuvo, the company pioneering proactive whole-body imaging for the early detection of cancer and other diseases—with one 60-minute exam. Prenuvo leverages cutting-edge MRI hardware and software, advanced AI research, and the world's largest database of whole-body imaging to empower patients to proactively manage their health. Andrew shares why information asymmetry amongst physicians was the tipping point that convinced him to start his third entrepreneurial endeavor, how he approached customer acquisition in an entirely new healthcare category, and why he believes humility is a critical quality for repeat entrepreneurs.

Growing up, David's grandmother instilled an important lesson: that the only thing someone can't take away from you is your education. So when a mentor of David's offered to back him as an entrepreneur, he decided to bring the joy back to education and build a school that everyone would want to attend. In 2015, he launched MasterClass, which now provides classes from 100+ of the world’s best practitioners (from Serena Williams to Martin Scorsese). MasterClass has grown into one of the largest online learning platforms in the world and was most recently valued at nearly $3 billion dollars. David shares why a childhood stutter impacted his entrepreneurial ambitions, why starting with the best teachers was critical to his business strategy, and the importance of getting two opinions (and no more) when making a hard decision. Orignal Air Date: 09-22-2021