AZ Tech Podcast

For this episode, we partnered with Startup Grind Phoenix to put together a podcast recording in front of a LIVE audience. It's been a long time since we've hosted -- and attended -- in person events, and it was so great to meet some of our listeners in person!Anything can happen in a live event, especially with the three founders we invited to join us. Hamid talked with three of his good friends: Bob La Loggia, founder of AppointmentPlus; Mike Roberts, founder of SpyFu; and Chris Cardinal, founder of Synapse Studios and CarbonQA. The guys don't hold back as they discuss unrealized capital gains, NFTs, outer space and the metaverse.Watch the discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MQPaSYIsOMI

Aly Saxe knows how to succeed, but she also knows how to fail. More importantly, she knows how to get back up.  She's weathered the challenges of raising money to make payroll to sexual harassment to calling it quits. Even after having a stroke, Aly ran her company though she barely had any feeling in the right side of her body and couldn't move any part of the left side. Aly's learned that taking care of yourself and your family should always be the priority, no matter what. In this episode, Hamid talks to Aly about how raising money is actually very hard, how she decided to sunset her company and how she recovered from a massive stroke in her 30s. And Aly turns the tables and interviews Hamid. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G9SKGkKs8yg

This week, AirGarage, a startup founded in Tempe that's designed to improve the public parking experience, announced a $12.5 million raise led by Andreesen Horowitz. MediaKits, a startup that provides "digital resumes" for influencers, raised $1 million.  We also talk about the massive amount of investment capital in Arizona. We also discuss the metaverse, the new MacBook Pro and Donald Trump's new social media platform. Watch the discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dFeBkemiHNE

Alexis Krisay and Melissa DiGianfilippo started their brand marketing agency as basically strangers, but after running a company together for 12 years, they've become BFFs. They've got a pretty good "marriage" (as they call it) because they complement each other well and never go to bed angry. They also co-host a podcast called "Will It Stick?", which dives deep into some of the best - and worst - marketing campaigns in history. They call themselves "marketing junkies," entrepreneurs and moms. In this episode, Hamid talks to Alexis and Melissa about their company, their podcast and a condom campaign. Watch the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/50ynVCYPX0M

Saeed Eslami wanted to start fresh after he moved to the United States from Iran. He'd built a successful company in his home country, but he wanted to get an education and find a good job in America. He was willing to work hard and do what it takes. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. So, when he was offered a construction job after he finished his graduate degree in engineering, he took it. That job would give him the idea that would change his life.In this episode, Hamid talks to Saeed about living in Iran, taking advantage of life's opportunities and embracing hard work. Watch the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JO_SZKpDJPs

This week was Invest Southwest's Venture Madness, where up to 25 startups pitch to an audience for the chance to win $10,000. Hamid was at the conference and on this week's news recap, he tells me all about this year's finalists and winners. We also talk about how big tech is taking over the world.Watch the interview: https://youtu.be/JRmMHVEJLUM

When you ask Alexi Venneri about the challenges she's had while building Digital Air Strike, a multimillion dollar tech company, she answers with an iteration of one of the quintessential interview answers: "Our challenges have become our strengths." But the thing is, she really means it. Alexi loves her company and team, who she says are like family. And she believes in treating them actually even better than most of us treat our own families. She's renting islands, for example. Hamid talks to Alexi about how she grew her business from her kitchen, how she had to leave a board meeting to feed her premature baby and her love for Richard Branson. Watch the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Yaknz-2U9_U

This week in Arizona we saw a merger between two drone data collection companies. The first is Skynetwest, which was based here in Chandler, joined forces with Mississippi-based Soaring Eagle Imaging to create Soaring Eagle Technologies. Another bit of news was that Arizona Commerce Authority announced the National Semiconductor Economic Roadmap (NSER), which will bring people from different sectors together to position the US as the leader in semiconductor manufacturing. We also discuss Instagram's halt on its product for kids, privacy and what the Elizabeth Holmes trial says about Silicon Valley. 

Before Matthew Pittinsky was CEO of the EdTech company Parchment, he was co-founder and CEO of Blackboard, Inc., a software used by universities across the country. If you went to college in the aughts, you likely used Blackboard to submit assignments and interact with your class and professor. Matthew has been passionate about education since he was a kid and has been involved with education for most of his professional career. He's even received a PhD in the sociology of education. In this episode, Matthew tells Hamid about his experience as a "bad student," his ability to bootstrap creatively and his love of Atari. Watch the interview on YouTube: 

Josh Snow (formerly Josh Elizetxe) didn't have much as a kid. He grew up in a dangerous part of Phoenix and could've easily joined a gang. Instead, he spent his afternoons in the Phoenix Public Library reading all the "For Dummies" books he could get his hands on. He taught himself to code and used his skills to start a business. By age 17, he was a millionaire. Since then, he's had several successful ventures and now, he's trying to change the world one smile at a time. Josh talks to Hamid about his journey to success, scaling a fast growing business and his passion for white teeth. Watch the interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yrxQpPsGLc

Busy week for Arizona tech news. eVisit and Nextiva raise big. Axosoft makes an acquisition and a few other announcements too.Plus we talk about national tech news from Apple, SpaceX, VW and more.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego made the decision to run for mayor at a time when, she says, her life was falling apart. As it turns out, she won. Now, she's the mayor of the country's 5th largest city and also the youngest mayor of a major city. Kate got into politics to make a difference in current affairs, but she stays in politics to help build a better future for her 4-year-old son. Hamid talks with Kate about why she decided to run for mayor, her experiences at Harvard and how building a campaign is a lot like building a startup. Watch the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qOtTlKqYl8Q

Hamid talks to AZ Tech Podcast producer Adrienne about their favorite parts of Season 1 and what can be expected this summer before the podcast returns with Season 2 later this year. 

One day, Chris Ronzio was running a highly-profitable consulting business. The next, he launched Trainual, one of the fastest growing companies in Arizona that streamlines businesses' training processes. Watching his mom start her own esthetician business and his dad work and travel often for his corporate job influenced Chris on his path to business. Living with Type 1 Diabetes also taught him to be resilient, transparent, and authentic, all traits he exudes to others.  In this episode, Chris and Hamid talk all about the start of Trainual, the Phoenix Suns, meditation, and Type 1 Diabetes.

Tuft & Needle co-founder JT Marino could be the poster child of how to bootstrap your way to success.  When he was first exploring ideas for the type of startup he wanted to build, he and his friend and co-founder Daehee Park made a very specific set of constraints that included never raising capital. The two decided to design a way to make buying a mattress as painless as possible. They knew nothing about mattresses, but JT did everything he could to transform what was once a miserable experience into  something as easy as shopping on Amazon. From there, they completely disrupted the entire mattress industry  and built a company that now is seeing revenue of half a billion dollars. Listen as JT tells Hamid the wild story of building Tuft & Needle from scratch and his recent dive into skydiving and psychedelics. 

Dr. Grant McFadden is trying to find out if a virus fatal only to rabbits might also destroy cancer cells. He became interested in the myxoma virus in grad school. The virus was first released in Australia in the 1950s to try to control a massive rabbit population . Since then, Grant has turned his interest into a lifelong pursuit of understanding viruses. Now, as a virologist and researcher at ASU's Biodesign Institute, he's altering viruses and learning how these viruses could treat cancer. In this episode, Dr. McFadden tells Hamid about his research and discusses the importance of the FDA and the development and safety of the Covid-19 vaccines.

Greg Head is one of the biggest champions of Arizona's tech scene. Even though he's now based out of Dallas, he runs Gregslist in Phoenix, one of the best resources for entrepreneurs, investors and founders in the valley. Not only that, but he has the experience of marketing major startups and helping them scale to multimillion dollar companies. In this episode, Greg tells Hamid some of his best tips for scaling, marketing and getting your company's name and product out in the world. 

Chris Cardinal has a lot to say, and he proved as much on our latest podcast episode. The co-founder of Synapse Studios and CarbonQA shared his philosophy on balancing big deadlines, while also building positive culture at new companies. He talked about how CEOs of the Big 5 companies, like Elon Musk or the late Steve Jobs, aren't exactly who he looks up to while building a business.Hamid and Chris explore both sides of many of the hottest debates in tech right now, like Bitcoin vs. Dogecoin, retail investors vs. Wall Street, the Epic vs. Apple battle, and what it takes to change the world.

Ibrahim Mesbah is building the Amazon of buying and selling car parts. It's a very specific market, but that's what's made his company RevolutionParts so successful. It addresses a major inefficiencies and unnecessary costs in the retail car parts market which, as it turns out, is pretty big.  Ibrahim talks to Hamid about growing up in Zambia, his hiring mistakes and how he uses ride share apps to move product. 

Dr. Danny Jacobs is, in a way, a space explorer. As part of his research at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, he's trying to understand how the universe began. Danny's whole goal is to answer some of life's biggest and most basic questions, like where did we come from and how did we get here? Not only that, but he's also building satellites the size of cereal boxes to launch into space. So where did we come from? In this episode, Danny and Hamid talk about that and more, like Elon Musk, the colonization of Mars and the future of space exploration.

Pat Sullivan has built several successful companies in his almost 40-year career as an entrepreneur. One of his biggest successes was ACT, the very first CRM software. With his newest venture Defendry, Pat is trying to literally save lives by using AI and drones to reduce the number of people killed in mass shootings. Even though the pandemic brought Defendry to a screeching halt, Pat says he'll do what he's doing until he's in the ground. In this episode, Pat shares some of the most important lessons he's learned in his long career.

Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is one of Arizona’s most successful software companies, but the company's had really high highs and really low lows. In this episode of AZ Tech Podcast, Keap co-founder Clate Mask shares the intimate and emotional roller coaster that comes with building a $100 million revenue SaaS company, including the three years he was sidelined as the CEO of his own company. Now Clate is back and Keap is growing. How did he do it? 

This week, Hamid talks to AZ Tech producer Adrienne St. Clair about what it takes to build, lead and exit a startup. 

We're trying something a little different this week. Hamid invites Mike Roberts and Bob LaLoggia back on the podcast to "shoot the shit." They discuss the nature of a founder, how to be happy and they actually do end up talking about shit.

Jamie Baxter's company Qwick was almost a casualty of the pandemic. As an on-demand staffing startup for food and beverage contract employees, the shutdown of the food and beverage industry was nearly a death sentence. But Jamie and his team got creative to stay alive and now Qwick is doing better than ever. In this episode, Jamie tells Hamid the wild story of how his company survived, why he loves being a pilot and recommends the Valley startups that he's most excited about. Watch the episode on the AZ Tech Podcast YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UREAPfL6RTY

Howard Lindzon is an expert in investing and has bet on a wide range of startups, from Robinhood to Manscaped. In this episode, Hamid and Howard talk about investment strategies, the problem with millennials and why Jurassic Park is a great model for the stock market. Watch the episode on the AZ Tech Podcast YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=432exTPtWYY

We're 11 episodes in on the AZ Tech Podcast and we're having the best time. The conversations have been insightful, inspiring, funny, emotional and raw. Here's a  quick glimpse into what's happened so far. If you love the podcast, share this promo with your friends and family.  Also, let us know what you think by giving us a rating and leaving a review, and  stay up-to-date by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts! 

Kelly Smith is changing the way America thinks about education. He founded Prenda, a company that empowers parents to choose the learning that's best for their children.Listen to Hamid and Kelly talk about Prenda's explosive growth, the education system and its flaws, and random topics like Nuclear Physics, which happens to be another one of Kelly's areas of expertise.

Kate Sieker loves Arizona. Like really loves Arizona. She loves it so much that she's made it her job to convince others to love Arizona, too. Kate helps build organizations and events that bring together innovative Arizonans to convince business leaders both inside and outside of the state how great it is. One of Kate's projects is PHX StartupWeek, where she's the executive director. The week-long conference at the end of April will be virtual for the first time ever. She's still got a lot of work, but she loves what she does. In this episode, Hamid talks to Kate about the journey she took to get to where she is, what it was like to be pregnant in a pandemic and how her dedication to eating healthy (like eating a salad at Chick-fil-A while her son eats chicken nuggets) has significantly improved her mental and physical health.

Romi Dhillon believes in Arizona’s potential to produce startups that can deliver what he calls “Bay-area results.” In fact, that belief is the foundation of Romi’s mission at Sonoran Founders Fund.One of the most important questions he asks himself when analyzing a potential investment is, “Is there a chance to be a disruption here?” In this episode, Romi talks to Hamid about his passion for supporting Arizona startups, the national debt and how Romi’s childhood prepared him for his career so many years later.

Brad Thomas's company Evercast grew more than 10x during the pandemic. How did that happen?Hamid talks to Brad about things like Evercast's success over the past year, the intense fear entrepreneurs experience and his advice to overcome bumps in the road. 

Francine Hardaway is a force to be reckoned with. She's always known how to make things happen, though she credits a lot of the success she's had in her life to karma. And she's definitely seen a lot of success, from teaching English as a college professor to building several companies to making a smart investment in bitcoin in 2012. During the pandemic, Francine became a beta user for Clubhouse. Now she credits the growing tech app with helping her through. Francine turns 80 years old this year, but she has no intention of retiring anytime soon. She's got her vaccine and is still motivated to support AZ tech. Hamid and Francine talk about her wild journey to where she is now and her thoughts on women in the workplace. They also answer questions from listeners on Clubhouse.

Gregg Scoresby wants to be the most active investor in Arizona, but he'd love for someone to give him a run for his money. Gregg is passionate about the Arizona tech community and hopes to see it continue to grow. But he's not just on the lookout for the next great Arizona startup. He's also running CampusLogic, a multimillion dollar tech startup based in Chandler.In this episode, Hamid talks to Gregg about the unpredictable startup journey, working with his kids and the pros and cons of student loan forgiveness.

Mat Sherman knows how to hustle. He calls himself a "startup guy," because he's so passionate about startups, entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley. He's willing to do what it takes to make things happen, and his latest venture is a podcast all about founders across the country and how they do what they do. Hamid and Mat discuss things like Mat's passion, the challenges he's overcome and the barriers to building a company.

Entrepreneurship is in Jenny Poon's DNA. Her parents own and run a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant in Minnesota and they worked hard so that Jenny could go to college and get a good job. They didn't want her to have to start a business like they did.  But, that's exactly what she did. Jenny's been running CO+HOOTS, a co-working space in Phoenix,  with her husband for more than 10 years. During that time, she's found several opportunities to give back to her community by helping fledgling entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Now, Jenny has launched HUUB,  which is a platform to provide entrepreneurs from all backgrounds with resources and training for success.Hamid and Jenny talk about growing up with immigrant parents, the stress of starting a company, and how to solve some of the country's biggest problems. 

This discussion is guaranteed to entertain! Hamid interviews Mike Roberts, founder of Arizona-based SpyFu, an ad-tech and SEO tools company for marketing teams. Discussions range from how he built his company, to his investment strategies, to homeschooling his kids and even the new Electric motorcycle he just bought.

Hamid and Todd Belfer discuss investing strategies, the stock market, and Bitcoin. Belfer also opens up about the wins (and losses) he’s seen in his long investing career.

Your host, Hamid Shojaee (https://twitter.com/hamids) interviews Bob La Loggia, founder of Arizona-based Appointment Plus, an appointment scheduling software company. Discussions range from the sale of his company to the stock market, to due diligence to world problems and even the Gamestop stock.

This first episode details Hamid Shojaee's plans for the AZ Tech community.