Startup Grind

Hey There and welcome to Monday's episode of the startup grind podcast. This week we have a truly awesome interview with one of Silicon Valley’s biggest personalities. Chamath Palihapitiya. Chamath is the founder and managing partner of the Social Capital Partnership, a venture capital fund based in Palo Alto, CA that incubates and invests in breakthrough companies in Healthcare, Education, Fincancial services, mobile, and enterprise software. Preceding his focus as an investor, Chamath was the longest tenured member of Facebooks senior executive team and helped drive its ascension to one of the most important companies in the world. Chamath is also an owner and director of the NBA’s golden state warriors. Chamath was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in canada, and graduated with a degreee in electrical engineering from the university of waterloo. In this very honest and insightful interview chamath speaks with startup grind’s founder derek andersen in Palo Alto about his early life, time at Facebook, encounters with Steve jobs, and what he feels the valley should really be working on. Lets listen in.

Today we have an episode with Bill Clerico the founder of WePay. WePay is a payment’s platform with a built in fraud analyzer that powers some of the worlds best known marketplaces including Care.com, Constant Contact, Freshbooks, GoFundMe and Meetup. WePay protects its partners from risk and regulatory exposure, while supporting a great experience for their end-users. Prior to WePay, Bill was a technology investment banker and has a degree in computer science from Boston College. lets listen into Bill interview in Silicon Valley with Startup Grind’s own TD Lowe.

Hey there and welcome’s to Monday's episode of the startup Grind podcast! Today we have the founder of the virally popular live streaming app Meerkat. Ben Rubin is the Israeli born founder of Life on Air whose primary product is Meerkat, a real time streaming application that grew to over 700k users in just 8 weeks after blowing up at the SXSW festival last year. Prior to founding Meerkat Ben was the founder of Yevvo an similar app that allowed users to tune into live on air video broadcasts. Life on Air has currently raised 18 million dollars to continue to create ephemeral and real time experiences. Ben is interviewed by Startup Grind’s founder Derek andersen at our Chapter in San Francisco.

Today we have a chat with David Zhu the co-founder of Divide which is a mobile enterprise company that made it possible for employees to separate their work and personal life on 1 device. Prior to founding Divide with partners Andrew and Alexander, David was the 1 employee at smule the company responsible for #1 apps like Ocarina, sonic lighter, and I am T-Pain. After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in computer science David went on to work at companies like Morgan Stanley, Jarna, and HP. Last year Divide was acquired by google and David went to become an engineering director on the android platform. Lets into this great interview with david interviewed by our Hong Kong chapter director where he talks mobile technology, what it’s like to be acquired by google, and even the chinese education system.

Today we have a chat with one of the co-founders of the innovative sister led dating app Coffee Meets Bagel. Dawoon Kang and her two sisters Arum and Soo, founded Coffee Meets Bagel as an answer to many of the prevailing male centric, image overloaded apps that weren’t addressing the unique ways in which women prefer to date. Dawoon and her sisters became famous last year for rejecting the largest offer ever made on the popular TV show Shark Tank after they turned down Mark Cuban's $30M offer for their company. They then went on to raise $7.8M in Series A financing, and with that funding began their international expansion outside the US with Hong Kong as their first overseas market. Prior to CMB, Dawoon lived & worked in Korea, Japan, New York, India & Hong Kong, in a variety of roles that spanned from strategy & business development, marketing, research to investing/finance. Lets listen into Dawoon interviewed by our Hong Kong chapter director Joshua Steimle.

Hey there and welcome to wednesday’s episode of the startup grind podcast. today we have a chat with Paddy cosgrave co-founder of the Web Summit conference. Web Summit attracts thousands of attendees from dozens of countries to dublin ireland for its annual gathering of the technology industries greats. Paddy graduated from trinity college with a BA in Political Science and economics and worked in a number of start-ups before founding the event which grew from a few hundred attendees to many thousands in just a few short years. Lets listen into the chat between paddy cosgrave and our london chapter director Marian Gazdik.

Hey there and welcome to Monday’s episode of the startup grind podcast. Today we have something a bit different. our founder Derek andersen who is also our Silicon Valley chapter director is used to asking the questions at his events; is in this episode he is the featured guest at our chapter in phoenix Arizona. Director Christie Kerner goes over Derek’s early life, professional experience and the origin story of the worlds largest entrepreneurial community. Lets listen into this chat with Startup Grind’s Founder and CEO Derek Andersen:

Today we have an amazing chat with the founder of 500 Startups Dave McClure, interviewed by our chapter director in Gaza Palestine. The audio quality is slightly reduced and the power goes out at 1 point during the interview but it is a great opportunity to hear advice from a silicon valley entrepreneur/venture capitalist given to the community in palestine. Dave is the founding partner of 500 Startups, a venture capital firm and startup incubator in Silicon Valley with over $125M under management. He has been an investor in hundreds of companies around the world including Credit Karma, Twilio, MakerBot, Wildfire Interactive, Viki, Mashery, SendGrid, Mint.com, and SlideShare, among others. Dave has been geeking out in Silicon Valley for over twenty-five years as a developer, entrepreneur, blogger, investor, and internet marketing nerd.

Today we have a great conversation with the co-founder and CEO of Distil networks Rami Essaid. Rami was born in syria to a family known for their engineering talent. He later moved the united states and started working in sales and business. After realizing what a challenge spam and malware bots were posing to corporations rami decided to create a product that would protect against attacks. Rami then took the plunge and founded his company Distil in 2001. After a lot of testing with the beta product Distil networks has now become to go to solution for protecting against bot nets and brute force login attacks. Distil Networks secured $38 million in total funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Group and TechStars' Bullet Time Ventures, ff Venture Capital, IDEA Fund Partners, and Militello Capital. Rami attended North Carolina State University where he majored in computer engineering.Lets listen into Rami interviewed by Startup Grind’s DC chapter director Brian Park.

Today we have a great chat with the co-founder and CEO of Postmates. Bastian Lehmann. Bastian is originally from Munich and graduate of the AngelPad Accelerator in San Francisco. He originally founded Postmates in 2011 and has seen incredible growth fueled by revolutionary partnerships with companies like Chipotle, Starbucks. and 7-Eleven. Postmates now operates the largest on-demand delivery fleet with 13,000 Postmates in 28 metropolitan markets. Lets listen into this great interview with Bastian interviewed by Startup Grind’s founder Derek Andersen in San Francisco.

Today we have a chat between our seattle chapter director mike grabham and the CEO of RedFin Glenn Kelman. Glen started his career at the stanford technogloy group after graduating from UC berekely. STG was then acquired by IBM which spurred glenn to co-found his own company Plumtree. Plumb tree then became a large publicly traded company in which glenn held various roles as an engineering lead, marketing lead, business development, and product management. Glen most recently Joined red fin as their CEO and is working to completely reinvent the real estate industry towards the consumers advantage. lets listen to this inspiring chat with a great founder.

Today we have a chat with SoftLayer’s chief startup evangelist Joshua Krammes. As Softlayers startup evangelist Joshua creates awareness for soft layers efforts towards fostering innovation and investment in the global startup ecosystem. Specifically he serves as an advisor, mentor, friend and liaison for early stage startups. He has partnered and mentored with several globally recognized startup organizations such as: Y Combinator, Founder’s Network, TechStars, 500 Startups, the Global Accelerator Network, and many more. Joshua is interviewed in Detroit by our Startup grind chapter direct Anamarie Sabagh

Today we have a great chat between 5 different tech stars partners including co-founder david cohen. The guests include David Cohen, Ari Newman, Jason Seats, Mark Solon, Nicole Glaros. Tech stars is one the worlds top accelerators with locations in over a dozen cities. It also powers vertical focused programs with partners like Disney, Qualcomm, Mike, Ford, and many more. Lets listen into this great chat with 5 top partners in one 1 room at our startup grind chapter in Boise Idaho. The discussion is moderated by boise director jess whiting. Lets listen.

Today we have an enlightening conversation with the Editor at Large of TechCrunch which is the biggest breaking news sites about the hottest tech companies. Mike has been named one of the Top 50 most influential Britons in technology by The Daily Telegraph. As well as being a long-time Writer, Broadcaster and Editor Mike is also co-founder of TechHub (@TechHub), a project to merge a thriving community with office space for fast-moving startups. Mike has written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike arned his B.A. degree in History and English Literature from Australian National University.

Today we have a conversation between Kevin Gibbon the co-founder of shyp and seed investor Hunter Walk. Kevin co-founded shyp in attempt to revolutionize the shipping industry by making shipping any item as easy as snapping a picture of it. They raised over 60 million dollars from firms like sherpa ventures, home-brew vc and, and Kleiner Perkins. With markets in a few cities in the us they are quickly expanding to help make shipping goods as easy as possible. Hunter walk is the co-founder of and partner at Homebrew VC. He lead product at YouTube for several years and interviews keyin at our chapter in San Francisco. Lets listen in. A quick break from Kevin Gibbon of Shyp for some recent startup headlines.

Today we have a great presentation from our 2015 Global Conference. Paul Ahlstrom is an entrepreneur and investor who has focused his carreer on understanding the inner workings of early stage startups. He’s founded multiple high-technology startups and investment funds in the United States and Mexico. Paul’s current focus is opening up capital sources to Mexican entrepreneurs and supporting Mexico’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. In his presentation Paul discusses 3 ways to guarantee that your startup will fail. Lets listen in to this short but impactful talk.

Today we have the Managing Director of the female centric crowdfunding site, Plum Alley. Plum Alley is a site specifically made for women consumers and women looking to crowdfund from other women. It further differentiates itself by offering expert help to crowdfunders which has created a funding success rate of near double kickstarter and quadruple that seen on indiegogo. Jan has also held high level positions at non-profits including the Girl Scouts, Teach For America, the Sierra Club and as the CFO of Planned Parenthood International. She then went on to found the 6 figures women network and her own client relations and brand management consultancy called Swig. Jan is interviewed by our Tampa Bay Chapter director Joy Randels. Let’s Listen in.

Today we have a chat with a canadian based founder Ethan Song. Ethan is the co-founder of the popular menswear club Frank & Oak. Frank & Oak is a mens lifestyle brand that makes it easy for men to receive the latest fashions and trends right to their door. They also have a few retail locations which Ethan touches on as a core element of their brand as it bridges the gap between online and offline experiences. Ethan is interviewed at our Startup Grind Ottawa chapter by director Franco Varriano. Let’s listen in.

Today we have a really interesting fireside chat with a great arizona based entrepreneur. Hamid Shojaee is the iranian born founder of axosoft which makes the successful live chat software pure chat. Hamid is an ASU graduate and former microsoft employee. He’s very passionate about supporting the entrepreneurial community in Arizona and started the website aztechbeat and even an arizona based incubator. Lets listen into this great chat with hamid interviewed by our phoenix chapter director christie kerner. Before You Go I just wanted to let you know that 2 for 1 tickets to our global event go on sale tomorrow. They are the cheapest tickets we have to offer and the event sold out early last year. Come and hear from key note speakers like the founders of the social + capital partnership, wanelo, thumbtack, cloud flare, joyous, Plus clayton christensen steve blank and the editor at large for the atlantic. Get tickets and more information at startup grind .com/conference.

Today we have one of my favorite startup grind fireside chats. We recently had the honor of hosting Brad Feld of tech stars and the foundry group at our chapter in denver colorado. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding the foundry group he co-founded mobius venture capital. Brad has been active with several nonprofit organizations and is currently chair of the national centre for women at information technology, and is on the board of up global. He’s also completed 23 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states. Lets listen into this great interview with the amazing brad feld

Today we have bryan johnson the co-founder of braintree. Braintree is an online and mobile payments provider that prides itself on allowing it’s merchants to accept more payment types than anyone else. Bryan co-founded and helped Braintree work with some of the best customers in the world such as uber, github, opentable, airbnb, and opentable. in this interview Bryan discusses his goal of retiring at the age of 30 in order to allow himself to help others for the rest of his life. Our startup grind chapter director tom denison interviews bryan in chicago. Let’s listen in.

Today we have the 2nd part of our podcast with the Co-founder of VaynerMedia and venture capitalist Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary's first step as an entrepreneur was when he helped grow his family liquor store into a multimillion dollar enterprise and then launching winelibrary.com, one of America’s first wine e-commerce sites. After wine library, Gary founded VaynerMedia with his brother which today is one of the biggest digital shops focused on social media.Recently Gary launched VaynerRSE, a $25 million seed fund that will invest in and launch the next generation of world-changing technology companies. In part two of the interview, Gary discusses the importance of staying in your lane and the danger of pretending to have expertise in area's you don't know enough about. Gary is interviewed in LA by Startup Grind LA chapter director Joe Famalette.

Today we have Co-founder of VaynerMedia and venture capitalist Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary first step as an entrepreneur was when he helped grow his family liquor store into a multimillion dollar enterprise and launching winelibrary.com, one of America’s first wine e-commerce sites. Gary then went on to found VaynerMedia with his brother which today is one of the biggest social media focused digital shops aiding Fortune 500 brands in their marketing. Recently Gary launched VaynerRSE, a a $25 million seed fund that will invest in and launch the next generation of world-changing technology companies. Gary has written three New York Times bestselling books as well. In the interview, Gary discusses the importance of as a VC sticking to your instincts on what you know will be a big hit and why certain investments are worth the risk when the gains are so high. Gary is interviewed in LA by Startup Grind LA chapter director Joe Famalette.

Today we have the CEO and co-founder of OfferUp Nick Huzar. OfferUp is a platform that aims to create the simplest and safest marketplace to buy and sell locally. OfferUp has grown rapidly to become the largest peer to peer mobile marketplace in the country. Previously, Nick was co-founder and CTO of Konnects, Inc, an early social networking startup where he raised $6M in capital and scaled to over 1M users within 18months. Earlier in his Career Nick held positions at T-Mobile and Microsoft.As a new father with a pile of unwanted things, Nick Huzar realized that there was no easy way to buy and sell locally. With that motivation, OfferUp was born with one mission in mind: to make buying and selling locally as easy as taking a photo. In this interview Nick discusses the importance of company culture and how being a good leader involves hiring the right people and getting out of their way.Nick is interviewed in Seattle by Startup Grind's Seattle chapter director Mike Grabham

Today we have the CEO of Spirit Airlines Ben Baldanza. Spirit Airlines is the largest Ultra Low Cost Carrier in the western hemisphere. Prior to joining Spirit, Baldanza held executive positions at other airlines including US Airways, Continental Airlines and American Airlines. Baldanza earned his BA in economics from Syracuse and an MA in transportation and economics from Princeton. In the interview, Ben discusses the importance of knowing your product and marketing exactly the service you offer. Spirit airlines has been able to distinguish themselves by unbundling their services and offering only the essentials allowing them to provide significantly lower fares, thus they also transformed their branding to demonstrate to customers what makes them different. Ben Baldanza is interviewed in Miami by Startup Grind's Miami chapter director Jason Ibarra.