FastStart.talk

It is no secret that the Shared Economy is here in a big way.  There are several reasons why this type of business is flourishing.  One is that the recent recession left many without jobs.  The Shared Economy offered instant employment to hundreds of thousands.  The second is that as a society we are use to having it our way.  That means working or playing when we want and not to some set schedule.  The Uber style business model plays directly to this need.  There are other reasons but these two are enough to have changed the way business is done in many industry categories.  Enter Rikki Torres and EZTruckx (formerly known as A Guy With A Truck).  In this episode Rikki explains why and how he is building this company.

Jeffery Dinkin, Head of the Employment Law Department at Stradling Law discusses the merits and potential disruption caused by recent changes in employment law.  Both the Uber class action suit and the new direction for the National Labor Relations Board are turning not only existing business upside down but are having great impact on startups in the new Shared Economy.  Independent Contractor vs. Employee and the effect on business is one of the great unknowns but Jeff shares his vast experience on the topic to bring some clarity to the subject.

Some people are very good at product development, others at creating high functioning teams, and very few others are great at picking the right concepts to invest in.  Anderee Berengian is stellar at all three.  How does he do it?  Hear from the local super star himself in this in-depth interview.  Anderee shares his candid thoughts on what makes a great and investable founder and many other topics.  This is a not to be missed interview with one of OC's top investors.

Tap into the Private Capital Network.  Ken Hubbard, President of PCN talks about what he looks for in potential investments.  Is it the concept, the team, the market, the level of investment or timing.  All these are answered in detail by the guy who does it everyday for a living.  Don't miss this insightful interview with one of Orange County's most active investors

Stem cell therapy is not new.  John Chi's approach to using your own stem cells to heal and rejuvenate damaged joints is new and within the reach of 27 million suffers.  John and his two partners, both board certified surgeons, are building a company to help the average person escape the pain, suffering and restriction to movement associated with extreme arthritis joint deterioration.  He talks about his journey as a startup.  His challenges with FDA regulations and all the other issues of a Medical Device Startup.

Knowledge Influencers...a term that includes bloggers has become one of the most talked about and important new concepts in media buying.  Launching products, selling goods or just learning about the "Why's of customer engagement" is intimately tied to the core functionality of skyrocketing startup Social Edge.  That is just one of the successes serial entrepreneur Vak Sambath brings to the table.  He shares a candid look at how he does it.  Both the successes and the failures are equally important benchmarks for any startup founder.

Musician and founder of Gigging and Grubbing, Kenny Rudolph is in studio talking about what else but food and music.  Kenny's web TV show is a hit and it is easy to see why.  What better content than listening to great music followed by a trip to that musician's favorite local hangout.  Learn the secret restaurants, grills and just cool hangouts that these talented people frequent when on tour.  Also on this show is another legal segment from Mark Skaist, Stradling Law.  Don't start a company with partners before you all sit down and workout the terms of for a partnership agreement, or pay the very high price for failing to do so.  This show is packed with great info.  Let's hear from you if you want to be on the show or have a recommendation.

We start out this our 7th Episode of FastStart.talk with an international guest, Marie Breziski from Marseilles, France.  Marie has spent the last three months exploring the California startups ecosystem and shares her experiences on this show.  We also have a great session from Salil Bali, from Stradling Law on why filing a provisional patent is so important to startup founders.

Like so many others who support the Orange County startup scene, Lori Mazan is involved in many different tracks.  She has been amazingly effective both with Fortune 100 companies and with startups.  One of her passions is the work she does with Astia, a very large Angel Investor group that focuses on startup that has at least one woman in the C Suite with equity. Lori tells all in this episode of FastStart.talk

Serial Entrepreneur and Angle Investor JJ Richa Tells What It Takes To Launch A Successful Startup. Not only does this seasoned professional share his process for creating companies, he also talks about what he looks for as an Angel Investor.  This show gives you great insight to both processes from someone who had demonstrated over and over again that he has the "right stuff".

Life is not always easy in Startup Land.  Listen to two very different startup founders talk about the struggles and rewards of launching a new company.  Also, in studio for this episode of FastStart.talk is Buddy the the Border Collie.

This is our all TCVN show featuring two of Tech Coast Venture Network's board of directors.  Both are also successful entrepreneurs with great stories to share.  Not the least is Ash being honored by the White House and publishing his second book on entrepreneurs.  Lauren and her partner have created Beyond Fifteen a powerful Public Relations company. Theirs are terrific Orange County success stories.

Meet three exciting new OC startups on this show.  All are being incubated at FastStart.studio in Irvine.  All are in extremely hot vertices.  First up is OCVR which is a development house for virtual reality and augmented reality experiences.  The second is Changefindr which allows users to take the unused balances of gift cards, that usual have little or no value to you and turns them into cash for charities of your choice.  And finally, the last startup is Renowaster that performs the magical task of turning organic garbage into fuel pellets.  This is the future and what will put an end to landfills and save our water table from pollution.  Also in the segment, Mark Skaist from Stradling Law explains Convertible Notes as a method of financing startups.

Here we go with the very first episode of FastStart.talk the Entrepreneurial Voice of Orange County. Our first guest is startup Rock Star, Sergey Sundukovskiy who just sold his 12th startup company to Capital One.  This lastest exit for him was just 1 of the 6 concepts he has under development.  Sergey shares some of the method under the madness of creating profitable startups.  Also, on the show is lovely Lou Lomibao who has her own startup tale to share.  Lou is currently Marketing Director at wedding startup SnapKnot. And finally on the show we tackle the tricky topic of Paid Finders.  Mark Skaist, corporate attorney with Stradling Law sheds light on the grey areas around using a paid finder to locate investment money for your startup.