Homeroom

Anish Kaushal is a healthcare investor at Amplitude Ventures. He is also the author of From Here to Here, and blogs at www.anicheperience.com.

Daniel Scarr is a former researcher for Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto, Canada.

Kelly Kinnard is an Operating Partner and Head of Talent at Khosla Ventures.

Ian Burgess is the co-founder and President of Validere, a measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) platform for the energy industry. Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, he attended the University of Waterloo where he pursued physics. He would later receive a Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard. After completing his student, Ian worked at the Weiss Institute, developing adaptive optical materials for application in colorants, sensing and camouflage.

Abhay Venkatesh is an early engineer at Anduril, a new American defense company. He is also an angel investor and a scout at Greylock.

Pranav Raj is the co-founder and CEO of Chatwoot, an open-source omnichannel customer engagement platform.

Luca Rossettini is the founder and CEO of D-Orbit, an aerospace company with solutions covering the entire lifecycle of a space missions and logistics.

Will Crowe is the co-founder and CEO of HEO Robotics, an aerospace startup that visually monitors space objects for governments and defense.

Dusko Kelez is the co-founder and CEO of Hapi, a stocks and cryptos trading app with zero commissions and no minimums.

Ned Rockson is the co-founder and CEO of SlashAuth, a solution for fine-grained access control in Web3.

Nikhil Aggarwal is the co-founder and CEO of Village, a new type of social media app with the thesis of curating instead of creating.

Blair Robertson is a retired investment banker with over $100 billion in transaction experience. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Smith Business School at Queen's University.

Justin Rosete is an award-winning video game developer, the creator of Samurai Slaughterhouse, and owner of Tab Games.

Tom Baruch is a climate-tech investor and founder of Baruch Future Ventures.

Luke Zhan is an investor at At One Ventures, an early stage climate-tech focused fund.

Shahin Farshchi is a General Partner at Lux Capital, an industry agnostic multi stage focused fund. His most notable investments include Aeva, Planet Labs, Relativity Space, Zoox (acquired by Amazon), Mosaic ML (acquired by Databricks), and many others. Recently, Shahin travelled to Capitol Hill and testified to the U.S. House of Representatives on advancing innovations in AI.

Ibrahim Irfan is the co-founder and CTO of Superpowered, an AI copilot and calendar app for your meetings.

Ian Rountree is the founder and Managing Partner of Cantos VC, an early stage hard-tech focused fund.

Shuo Yang is a Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, a climate-tech focused fund.

Carlo Cisco is the founder and CEO of SELECT, a new type of black card with a private membership community and access to perks at over 1.6 million locations.

Danielle Strachman is the founder and Managing Partner of 1517, an industry agnostic early stage focused fund. Previously, Danielle was the founding Director of the Thiel Fellowship.

Arash Afrakhteh is a Partner at Pear VC, an industry agnostic early stage focused fund. Previously, Arash was the co-founder and CTO of Cariden.

Sean Whitney is a Principal at Craft Ventures, a B2B software focused fund founded by David Sacks.

Ridge Frank-White is a career coach, a researcher at the Internet Archives, and President of the Ulrich and Ruth Frank Foundation.

Karthee Madasamy is the founder and Managing Partner of MFV Partners, an early stage hard-tech focused fund. His most notable investments include Waze (acquired by Google), Agility Robotics, and Psi Quantum. Previously, Karthee was a Managing Director at Qualcomm Ventures.

Ian Kennedy is a former Green Beret, having spent 6 years as a Sergeant in the United States Army.

Adam Goulburn is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Dimension, a new early stage fund focused on investing at the intersection of medicine and data science. Some of their recent investments include Enveda, Kaleidoscope, and Lamin AI. Previously, Adam was a Partner at Lux Capital.

Colin Chartier is the founder and CEO of Webapp, a hypervisor that makes webapp CI/CD, E2E testing, and preview environments simple. Previously, Colin was the CTO of ParseHub.

Jennifer Carolan is the founder and Managing Partner of Reach Capital.

Garrett McCurrach is the co-founder and CEO of Pipedream Labs, a company aiming to revolutionize last mile delivery logistics.

Jesse Draper is the founder of Halogen, a female founder focused venture capital firm investing in consumer-tech products. Their team is based in Los Angeles.

Chen-Ping Yu is the founder and CEO of Phiar Technologies, a company that was recently acquired by Google.

Sam Steyer is the co-founder and CEO of Greenwork, helps climate tech companies get connected to high quality construction partners.

Jane Poynter is the co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective, a luxury space travel company. Previously, she was the co-founder of World View Enterprises and also a founding member of the Biosphere 2 design team.

Delian Asparouhov is the co-founder and CEO of Varda Space, a company that builds manufacturing vessels to design products in space. He is also a Principal at Founders Fund. Connect with Varda Space Website: https://varda.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/varda-space-industries/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/VardaSpace Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Palmer McCutcheon is the co-founder and CTO of Sleek, a browser extension that lets you do 1-click checkout from every store on the internet. Connect with Sleek Website: https://www.onsleek.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onsleek Twitter: https://twitter.com/trysleek Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Lena Okajima is the founder of CEO of ALE, a space startup creating the world's first man-made shooting star. Connect with ALE Website: https://star-ale.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ale-co--ltd-/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALE_StarAle Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Mark Mullen is the co-founder and Managing Director of Bonfire Ventures, an early stage investment firm based in Santa Monica. The company focuses early stage B2B SaaS, and have historically outperformed over 90% of venture funds. Connect with Bonfire Ventures Website: https://www.bonfirevc.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bonfireventures/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/bonfire_vc Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Geoff Lewis is the founder and Managing Partner of Bedrock Capital. Prior to starting his own firm, Geoff worked at Founders Fund and was also the co-founder and CEO of TopGuest. Some of his biggest investments include Lyft, NuBank and most recently Rippling. Connect with Bedrock Capital Bedrock's Latest Investment: https://www.bedrockcap.com/letters/rippling-is-built-different Website: https://www.bedrockcap.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bedrockcap/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/bedrock Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Laura Crabtree is the co-founder and CEO of Epsilon3, an OS for spacecraft and complex operations. Connect with Epsilon3 Website: https://www.epsilon3.io/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/epsilon3inc/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Epsilon3Inc Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

James Dorris is the co-founder and CEO of Odys Aviation, a vertical take-off and landing aircraft for major airlines. Using city helipads and local airports, Odys cuts travel time in half. Connect with Odys Aviation Website: https://www.odysaviation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/odys-aviation/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/OdysAviation Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Kevin Zhang is a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. As an investor, Kevin investor focusing on early stage financial technology and business software products. Some of his most recent investments include Alloy Automation, Lightning AI, and Hightouch. Connect with Kevin Zhang Website: https://baincapitalventures.com/team/kevin-zhang/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinzhang711/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinzhang Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Joel Sercel is the founder and CEO of TransAstra, a company that focuses on orbital logistics. He is the definition of a badass. Having more energy than most 20 year olds, he has forgotten more than I'll ever know. We were incredibly lucky to speak with him about his career at JPL, working as a Cal-Tech professor, and now creating his second company. Joel also served as the founding CTO of Momentus. It was a pleasure to have him on for the longest episode yet! Connect with TransAstra Website: https://transastra.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trans-astronautica-corporation/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TransAstra_Corp Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Kris Bennatti is the co-founder and CEO of Bedrock AI. The company that uses NLP to extract red flags from financial statements. Given the average 10K is longer than Shakespeare Hamlet, this tool is incredibly powerful in assessing all contextual statements in financial reports. Connect with Bedrock AI Website: https://www.bedrock-ai.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bedrock-ai/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BedrockAI Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Matt Gialich is the co-founder and CEO of AstroForge, an asteroid mining company. Building a company is hard, but a feat of this kind is something entirely different. They are one of the select few building this technology, so it was incredibly exciting to hear how he thinks about scaling this type of business. While they are not the first to attempt this, they may be the first to succeed. Connect with AstroForge Website: https://www.astroforge.io/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/astroforge/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ForgeAstro Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Neil Cloughley is the founder and CEO of Faradair Aerospace. His mission exudes the kind of integrity and determination anyone would want to back. It was an honour speaking with him this week to learn about what it's like building an aviation company in the United Kingdom. Connect with Faradair Website: https://www.faradair.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/faradair-aerospace/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/faradair Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Jordan Noone is a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded Embedded Ventures, KittyCAD, and Relativity Space. Now a venture capitalist, his team Embedded are invest in pre-seed and seed stage startups focused in space operations, digital engineering, and advanced manufacturing. Described as the "skunkworks of Venture Capital", their goal is to remove the traditional barriers, and grant access to the investment opportunities Jordan would have wanted access to prior to becoming fund managers. Connect with Embedded Ventures Invest: https://angel.co/v/back/embedded-ventures-opportunity-fund Website: https://www.embedded.ventures/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/embedded-ventures/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmbeddedVC Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Norris Tie is the co-founder and CEO of Exosonic. The company is developing a new standard for travel with our low-boom supersonic jet capable of cruising at Mach 1.8 overland and comfortably carrying 70 passengers. It will enable people to fly anywhere in half the time at prices comparable to a business class ticket today. Connect with Exosonic Website: https://www.exosonic.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exosonic/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FlyExosonic Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Natasha Baker is the founder and CEO of SnapEDA, the Internet's first electronics design library. Each year, over 1 million professional engineers rely on SnapEDA to design faster. Some of their biggest customers include Google, Facebook, and Samsung. They're building over 192,000 unique products, including medical devices, satellites, drones and much more. Connect with SnapEDA Website: https://www.snapeda.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/snapeda/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SnapEDA Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Praying for Exits is the creator of the popular Venture Capital satire page on Instagram. This was by far my favourite conversation. Connect with Praying for Exits Website: https://www.prayingforexits.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayingforexits/ Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks

Oliver Gunasekara is the co-founder and CEO of Impossible Mining. In 2020, Oliver founder the company to provide responsible seabed mining and refining of battery metals, enabling the world's transition to sustainable energy. Impossible Mining is building underwater robotics vehicles which collect battery metals from the seabed without harming the environment as well as using bacteria to refine battery metals without generating tailings. Connect with Impossible Mining Website: https://impossiblemining.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/impossible-mining/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ImpossMining Connect with Homeroom Website: https://www.homeroompodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeroomtalks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/homeroomtalks