Inc. Founders Project with Alexa von Tobel

After five seasons, sometimes a rebrand is in order. Join host and repeat entrepreneur Alex Von Tobel for a new season of podcasts with a new title: What was The Founders Project is now For Starters with Alexa von Tobel. You can expect the same deep-dive into the journey of being a founder, from future insights to "pinch me" moments to big wins. Join us each Wednesday. New episodes start on April 4. And if you haven't already, subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. See you there!

Shiza's career path has been one of pivots: she went from a childhood in Pakistan to college at Stanford. Post-college, she started off at McKinsey, but left for the non-profit world, co-founded the Malala Fund with Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. And then in 2019, she co-founded Our Place,a mission-driven startup reimagining kitchenware for the modern, multiethnic, global kitchen. Our Place's designs have resulted in more than 140 patents, waitlists of over 30,000 people and more than 1000 press headlines. The iconic Always Pan has sold out more than 30 times. Shiza shares how learning to cook led her to reimagine the kitchenware industry, how she persevered past 100 investor rejections, and why we often think opportunities are riskier than they are.

As the co-founder of Atomic, a venture fund that builds new companies, Andrew was no stranger to being a founder. But starting Hims in 2017 proved to be his biggest swing yet. He launched Hims to tackle the largest industry in the country that had not yet been touched by modern technology: healthcare. Today, Hims and Hers is a leading consumer health platform powering nearly 9 million medical visits and enabling access for millions of people to a broad range of care, including for mental health, sexual health, and dermatology. Just four years after launching, $HIMS debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. Andrew shares how it felt to get 500 sign-ups in the first week, why it's never been harder to build a brand, and how his time as a concert cellist (playing Carnegie Hall) taught him about accountability. 

What does it take to build the fastest-growing insurance brokerage in industry history? According to Greg Williams, it's all about thinking three to four years ahead. When he cofounded Acrisure in 2005, he initially questioned the need for another insurance broker. Yet, by bringing his vision of the future into the day-to-day, Acrisure is now the sixth-largest insurance broker globally and the largest independent real estate services company in America. By providing customers with intelligence-driven financial services solutions, Acrisure combines the best of human capabilities with the best of technological capabilities, and is valued at more than $20B. Greg shares why highly successful people think differently, why he's bullish on proprietary chatbots, and why he focuses heavily on vision and culture.

What does it take to start one of the fastest-growing consumer marketplaces? According to repeat founder Grant LaFontaine, it starts with an open mind. When he and his co-founder Logan Head launched Whatnot in 2019, they went into it know that their starting place and ending place would be completely different. The team opted to be customer-centric instead of vision-driven. Today, Whatnot is a live shopping marketplace that enables anyone to turn their passion into a business. Whatnot is like Twitch-meets-eBay and was most recently valued at $3.7B. Grant shares why they started building with a niche community (Funko Pop collectors), why creativity is vital for consumer startups, and why this generation of shoppers cares about authenticity. 

In 1976, Jim McCann had spent a decade working in a group home for boys and was bartending on the side. A customer at the bar gave him a tip that there was an opportunity to buy a flower shop for $10,000. Jim took the leap and turned that single flower shop on Manhattan's East Side into a billion-dollar omni-channel retailer. He grew store by store, turning on a franchise model, expanding into new gifting categories (from The Popcorn Factory to Harry & David). Through it all, Jim had a knack for adopting new technologies ahead of other retailers. Jim shares where the company's iconic name comes from, how he positioned the company to become the first merchant of any kind on AOL, and why the best way to solve a problem is with a pen and a pad of paper.

Capital One is such an iconic brand that it is hard to imagine a time before it. But when Nigel Morris co-founded the business in 1994, it was wildly innovative—from the products it introduced to the market (like secured credit cards) to a data-driven approach to customer segmentation to an emphasis on team culture. Today, Capital One is one of the largest retail banks in the United States, serving more than 100 million customers across a diverse set of businesses. Nigel's career didn't stop there: he went on to start QED Investors, a fintech venture capital platform that has invested in companies like Credit Karma, Nubank, and Klarna. Nigel shares why Capital One's early success came down to rapid execution, why restlessness is a positive trait for founders, and how one interesting use case of AI is powering one-to-one marketing.

Harley Finkelstein first encountered Shopify as a user. Back in 2006, while in law school, he was one of the first merchants to use the platform. He joined the company in 2010 and now serves as President, helping to scale Shopify to millions of daily active users across 175 countries driving $444B in global economic activity. Today, Shopify is the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow a business—and is second only to Amazon as the largest online retailer in the US. Harley shares why the future of e-commerce is just the future of commerce, why his favorite motto is "how you do anything is how you do everything," and how being a power extrovert has made him a stronger leader.

Approaching a new industry as an outsider and as a team of one would be daunting for most founders. But Chen Amit, Founder and CEO of Tipalti, was a repeat entrepreneur building in a new arena. In the past 13 years, he has scaled Tipalti— a finance automation suite focusing on global payments and accounts payable—into one of the most highly valued privately-held fintech companies in the globe. With a valuation of $8.3B, Tipalti processes over $43B in payments annually. Chen shares why signing his third customer was his biggest signal of product-market fit, what playing poker taught him about taking calculated risks, and why he relearns his job every eighteen months.

Over the past 13 years, Warby Parker has become synonymous with offering stylish eyewear at revolutionary prices. The company was born back at Wharton in 2010, when a group of classmates—including co-CEO Neil Blumenthal, came together around an idea they couldn't get out of their heads. Since then, Warby Parker has grown to over 200 brick and mortar locations and went public in 2021. They've also hit a giant milestone: distributing 15 million pairs of glasses globally through their Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program, helping people get the glasses they need to learn, work, and achieve better economic outcomes. Neil shares how it took them six months and over 2,000 names to settle on Warby Parker, why getting pricing right was key to their early success, and why empathy is key to business-building. 

The company's director of finance explains how her job goes well beyond accounting. Tina Hetzer, director of finance at Pink Lily, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. She built Pink Lily's finance team from scratch and has helped the company become one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Hetzer discusses the cash-flow challenges unique to fashion retailers and explains how working at a smaller, founder-run company can fuel greater collaboration across the organization.  

In 2014, as an engineer at a delivery startup, Daniel Yanisse identified an opportunity to improve a part of the HR tech world that was known to be high on friction. He co-founded Checkr to leverage technology to transform the world of background checks. Today, Checkr is a leading HR tech company that processes over 30 million background checks annually—and has earned a valuation of $4.6B. Daniel shares why the company is committed to Fair Chance Hiring, how Checkr grew alongside the on-demand economy companies it first served (like Instacart and Uber), and why being new to the industry was an advantage.

Duolingo's freemium subscription model, beloved brand and strategic investments have allowed it to execute its educational mission and become a cultural touchstone. Matthew Skaruppa, CFO of Duolingo, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. Since he joined the company in 2020, Duolingo has grown its base of monthly active users by more than 80%. Each month, 75 million users hone their language skills on the Duolingo app. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Skaruppa discusses how his analytical background has allowed to him to be a more strategy-oriented CFO. For him, that has meant balancing big aspirations and finite resources, and turning the uncertainties of tomorrow into action today.

Athena Calderone is a multi-hyphenate creator through and through. She is widely known as an interior designer, author, chef, and entertaining expert. Since she launched EyeSwoon in 2012, she's grown the brand from editorial platform into an e-commerce destination and hit major milestones along the way: earning over a million Instagram followers, writing two best-selling books, and launching a collaboration with Crate and Barrel that beat its yearly sales projection in the first 60 days. Athena shares how her parents' careers as hairdressers gave her an early appreciation for aesthetics, why finding your authentic voice takes time, and how she structures her calendar to make space for creativity.

Mitch Reback, CFO of Sweetgreen, is one of the rising corporate financial stars who is helping to take their companies to the next level. When he started, Sweetgreen had 25 stores; today, there are more than 220—and Reback says the company is still in its “infancy.” In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Reback takes a deep dive into his role as a growth agent. Capital is the engine that drives growth, and Reback says his job is to make sure the company has adequate capital to grow as well as determining how best to allocate it, including investments in stores, marketing, staff, and technology—or, as he puts it, to push innovation forward in a way that's capital efficient.

In 2010, after a bad customer support experience for a TV delivery, Girish Mathrubootham decided to build a better solution. He launched Freshworks as the first multichannel customer support system. Today, the product has evolved into a robust suite for IT, customer support, sales, and marketing teams. Freshworks now has three offices across eight countries with over 5,000 employees and more than 65,000 customers. In 2021, Girish took Freshworks public on Nasdaq as the first Indian SaaS company to go public in the US. Girish shares why he believes this is the Indian decade for tech, why UI and design are key for product-led growth, and why "pressure is a privilege" is a motto that resonates.

What if brands were empowered to deliver personalized experiences online, just as well as they could do in a store? That's the idea that underpins Klaviyo, the leading customer and marketing automation platform. Andrew Bialecki cofounded Klaviyo in 2012 and now serves over 100,000 brands, helping them generate $28 billion in revenue for its customers in 2021 alone. Andrew shares why he bootstrapped the business until profitability, how early partnerships can be a key to efficient customer acquisition, and why he feels like he's only achieved 1% of Klaviyo's potential. Original Air Date 12-07-2022

Michael Brown started his career in investment banking, meeting two colleagues who would go on to become his co-founders. After some time in finance, he set out on a new challenge: acquiring and running small businesses. Along the way, he identified a huge mission and plans to dedicate his whole career to this singular focus—helping thousands of small businesses become employee-owned. In 2019, Michael co-founded Teamshares with Alex Eu and Kevin Shiiba. The team has raised over $245M in financing and acquired nearly 90 businesses across the country, stopping the succession problem and building wealth for employees along the way. Michael shares why he operates with a 200-year mentality, why financial education for employees is a critical part of ownership, and why the perfect hire has a mix of kindness and ambition.

What if someone told you they could help you communicate better? That's the mission Max Lytvyn, co-founder of Grammarly, has been on since 2009. After working on plagiarism detection technology, Max realized that the root of plagiarism was people's desire to be better writers. The company was incredibly early to use AI to aid in communication and now has grown to over 30 million daily users and a valuation north of $13 billion. Max shares why their technology started with the mechanics of language, why the first product targeted professional writers, and how his childhood in Ukraine inspired him to become an entrepreneur.

Euan Blair started his career in finance, but he had a nagging interest at the intersection of education and employment. In 2016, Euan launched Multiverse, a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an alternative to university and corporate training: apprenticeships. Today, Multiverse helps over 1,000 organizations hire apprentices to close skill gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. The company has trained over 10,000 of these apprentices and earned its status as the UK's first EdTech unicorn. Euan shares why the company's apprenticeships are rooted in high-growth areas like tech, why founders should devote even more time to hiring, and how growing up with his dad as the Prime Minister fostered a deep sense of public service. 

In 2012, Saji Wickramasekara took a bold leap: he took a leave of absence from his undergraduate studies at MIT to start Benchling. A computer scientist by training, Saji had also worked in labs and realized just how much was still run on pen and paper. Today, Benchling's technology powers the biotechnology industry, used by more than 200,000 scientists at over 1200 companies and 7,500 research institutions around the globe. Saji shares how he approached building a digital lab for scientists to do their best work, why they offered their early product to academics for free, and what it means to grow a purpose-built business.

At his core, John Colgrove, aka "Coz," doesn't consider himself an entrepreneur. He sees himself as an engineer who loves to build things. But despite that, he is the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Pure Storage, a company that uncomplicates data storage—and has a market cap over $11B. Coz co-founded Pure Storage in 2009 to empower every organization to get the most from their data and has grown the business to over 11,000 enterprise customers. He spent 20-years at Veritas Software and holds over 170 patents in computer system design. Coz shares why he hired engineers outside of the storage industry, how to maintain a 10x mentality as you scale, and why hard drives will be a thing of the past.

To build one successful company is a feat. But to do it over and over again? Over the course of his career, Godard Abel has built repeat successes as a serial entrepreneur. Today, he is co-founder and CEO of G2, the world's largest and most trusted software marketplace used by over 80 million people. But he is also the founder of Big Machines (acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (acquired by Salesforce). Godard shares how to find joy in the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey, how to build a community of trusted peers, and why he believes AI will change everything.

Growing up, V watched his older brother suffer an accident and struggle to access the intensive physical therapy he needed to recover. V has since dedicated his career to solving pain for the 2 billion people around the globe who suffer each year. In 2015, he started Sword Health to free the world from pain and has helped thousands of people along the way. Sword's digital therapist is proven to outperform traditional physical therapy and reduces surgery by 60%. V shares how he made the transition from PhD to CEO, why Sword's success is built on a combination of AI and human-led therapies, and why getting rejected is imported to success.

Melinda is the Founder of Pivotal Ventures in addition to co-chairing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has spent much of her life dedicated to promoting gender equality, having invested, donated, and committed $1B to just this cause. Already, she has invested over $65 million in comprehensive federal paid family and medical leave, and they have launched a Future of Longevity Accelerator bringing innovative solutions to elder care. Melinda shares the four key industries that can change society, how her parents taught her to live out her values, and why she found success as a manager by living authentically.

As a serial tech entrepreneur, Greg Jackson entered a new arena in his career in 2016. He decided to shift his focus to the green energy revolution, pursuing a lifelong passion of his to protect the planet. The London-based founder started Octopus Energy Group, which has become the second largest energy supplier in the UK and has expanded operations to 14 countries and 5.1 million customers globally. Greg shares how he's using technology to help tackle climate change, why he's optimistic about the path to renewable energy, and why Al Gore becoming an investor was such a pinch-me moment.

At some point in every tech employee's career, one likely comes into contact with an Atlassian product, from Jira to Confluence to Trello. Scott co-founded Atlassian back in 2001 along with his university friend, Mike Cannon-Brookes, to help unleash the potential of every team. The iconic collaboration company now has over 240,000 customers around the globe and a market value over $40 billion. Scott shares why insatiable curiosity was key to their success, how Atlassian has helped the Australian tech community thrive, and why they've adopted a work-from-anywhere policy and use offices solely for intentional togetherness.

Vikram has spent much of his career as an engineer, managing database storage at Oracle and earning several patents. But in 2015, he officially took on the title of cofounder, starting Lacework to build the security layer for the cloud. The company's thesis hinges on the idea that security problems can be solved through the right datasets. In 2021, Lacework raised a $1.3B Series D round, the largest funding round for any cybersecurity company. Vikram shares why they approach security as a data problem, how they are able to onboard customers within an hour, and why solving the biggest challenges you can is what creates the best company IP and value.

For decades, Kurt House, a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science, has been at the forefront of climate tech. He decided to dedicate his career to helping transition the energy economy into a renewable one—and realized that a critical material shortfall would be one of the biggest hurdles in electric vehicle adoption. So in 2018, he co-founded KoBold, an AI-driven mineral exploration company. KoBold has launched 50 projects on 3 continents, partnered with major mining companies, and is now valued at over $1B. Kurt shares how KoBold's data helps identify locations with anomalously high concentrations of particular elements, why their team combines experienced explorers with technologists, and why failing fast is critical to their business model.

In 2006, Julia Hartz and her cofounders launched Eventbrite, the global self-service ticketing platform for live experiences. Since its start, the company has empowered event creators with seamless technology to bring more events to life. Last year alone, Eventbrite was home to 1.7 million paid events generating $3.3 billion in gross ticket sales. Julia shares how an early focus on self-service helped the company succeed, why she drew on her maternal instinct to guide Eventbrite though the pandemic, and how an early job on the set of TV hit Friends gave her a fear of phone calls. 

In 2019, serial founders Leif Abraham and Jannick Malling came together to launch Public.com, the popular investing platform that allows everyone to invest in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and alternative assets. They set out to build a community around the stock market, and in just a few years, they've scaled to 3 million members. Leif started as a fintech outsider, but took his entrepreneurial experience and accolades—a double Cannes Lions Grand Prix winner who was named one of the Top 10 Minds in Digital by Adweek—to create a fintech platform that members love. Leif shares how they work to build an emotional connection with users, why it's important to have a "black swan" playbook to prepare for major market events, and why he believes in playing the long game with business relationships.

Do you know your neighbors? When Nextdoor was founded in 2008, 50% of Americans knew one or none of their neighbors. Fast-forward and Nextdoor now connects 81 million neighbors across 11 countries, building both digital and real-world connections. Sarah Friar joined Nextdoor as CEO in 2018 and took the company public in 2021 under the ticker symbol KIND. Sarah shares how her childhood in Northern Ireland during The Troubles gave her a lifelong belief in the local power of community, how Nextdoor leverages AI to encourage kindness on the platform, and why one of the company's biggest moments to date was bringing together 18 million people in person around the Queen's Jubilee. 

For anyone who's ever smelled one of her iconic scents, Jo Malone needs no introduction. Described as an "English scent maverick," Jo has created some of the world's most-loved fragrances. Her first company, Jo Malone London, gained cult status around the world and was sold to Estée Lauder, and in 2013, she launched her Jo Loves, a global fragrance brand. Jo shares how scent has been a superpower since childhood, how she conquered a bout of anxiety by jumping out of a plane, and why the desire to create led her back to the founder seat.

In 1998, Sara Blakely set out with a big idea to revolutionize the undergarment industry. Overnight, she went from being a frustrated consumer to the brilliant inventor of SPANX. Sara acted as the product's number one salesperson, using her skills honed in fax machine sales to get SPANX everywhere from the shelves of Neiman Marcus to Oprah's Favorite Things. Sara was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world by TIME and was featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine as the youngest self-made female billionaire. Twenty-two years after starting the company, Sara sold a majority stake to Blackstone and became Executive Chairwoman. Sara shares how SPANX has been profitable since day one, why what you don't know can actually be your greatest asset, and why it's important to bucket your days to spend time on what you're best at.

What does the rise of video-forward platforms like TikTok and Snapchat mean for how we work? That's the question Joe Thomas and his co-founders set out to solve at Loom, the video communication platform for async work. They started Loom in 2015, long before the pandemic, and have scaled the platform to 21 million users and more than 215 million "looms" recorded. Joe shares why it took a few product pivots to find real user traction, why asynchronous work is more inclusive, and why he invests 6 hours on Mondays in one-on-ones with his direct reports.

Julie Rice is no stranger to building massive brands. In 2006, she co-founded the fitness phenomenon, SoulCycle, with her business partner Elizabeth Cutler. They scaled SoulCycle from a small dance studio to 60 spin studios across the country, attracting Equinox as a buyer. Along the way, they realized while people came for the workouts, they stayed for the community. Julie and Elizabeth are back in the founder seat with their newest venture, Peoplehood. They have pioneered a guided group conversation practice designed to create new relational habits. Julie shares why she's working to combat the loneliness epidemic, how it feels to be a second-time entrepreneur, and why her family's weekly observance of Shabbat is key to recharging for the week ahead. 

In 2021, Dave Rogenmoser got access to the OpenAI beta. He quickly spotted a giant opportunity: using GPT-3 to help people write great content more quickly. He co-founded Jasper and in under two years, scaled the company to over 100,000 users and a valuation of $1.5 billion. Today, Jasper is an AI-powered content platform working with increasingly large enterprises. Dave shares how AI-powered content became a must-have for companies, why he believes the world won't be dominated by a singular language model in the future, and why his next entrepreneurial swing after Jasper may be found on the golf course.

Over the course of her career, Divya Gokulnath has gone from teacher to cofounder of the world's largest edtech company. In 2011, she co-founded BYJU'S with her husband, Byju Raveendran, to create a world where every student can learn better. By harnessing technology, BYJU'S has scaled to educate over 150 million students around the world, and the company has become India's most valuable startup. Divya shares why her biggest strength comes from starting as a teacher, how BYJU'S assesses every acquisition through three specific parameters, and why being the founder of a hyper-growth company is like being "an elephant with wings."

John Berkowitz's default is to be in problem-solving mode. So after selling his first company Yodle for $340 million, he was ready to get back in the ring. In 2015, John started OJO, an industry-leading real estate technology company that partners with the top real estate teams and agents to deliver value for millions of consumers. OJO was early to use AI to help people navigate the world of real estate. John shares how the company delivers personalization at scale, why it's important to stay curious, and why he treats OJO as a family business and considers his wife and four kids as an extension of his executive team.

Over lunch with a nurse friend, Heather Hasson realized that the whole experience of buying scrubs—from the shopping process to product quality—was subpar. So she and co-founder Trina Spear set out to create a direct-to-consumer brand dedicated to modern healthcare professionals: FIGS. They went from selling scrubs out of a car in 2013 to going public in 2021 at a valuation of over $5 billion. FIGS was the first company led by two female co-founders to ever be taken public. Trina shares how the company quickly pivoted during Covid to produce protective gear, how leading a public company forces improvements in areas that are not working, and what she learned from her first job as a waitress at Johnny Rockets.

What if lawyers could work 10x more efficiently? That's the problem Jason Boehmig set out to solve in 2014 at Ironclad, a leading legal software provider that helps businesses create and manage contracts. But as AI's capabilities have grown, Jason now has his sights set on making legal work 1,000x more efficient. Jason transitioned from corporate attorney to founder, and Ironclad now has over 1,000 customers and a $3.2 billion valuation. Jason shares why Ironclad invested in the legal community early on, how the company is closing the "access to justice gap," and why he starts off every year by reading a poem to the whole company.

Today, Webflow is a company valued at over $4 billion. But it took Vlad and his cofounders repeated attempts to get the company off the ground. In 2012, they started gaining steam for their vision to allow people to create websites with no coding experience. The company now brings the power of software engineering to designers through an intuitive visual interface and has grown to over 3.5 million users. Vlad shares how Webflow has made its user community a superpower, why having two kids when he started the company gave him extra motivation to succeed, and how he predicts no-code and generative AI will intersect. 

While in business school, Jeff Raider co-founded Warby Parker and watched the iconic glasses company take off. So when his friend, Andy Katz-Mayfield, G-chatted him one day with an idea to reimagine mens' razors, Jeff was intrigued. In 2013, the duo started Harry's to create exceptional shaving and personal care products that better meet the needs of modern men. The company has since reached tens of millions of people and become the #2 men's shave brand in the country. Jeff shares how they signed on a German factory to manufacture a million blades before writing a business plan, how their first referral program led to over 100,000 email sign-ups in a week, and how he found the silver lining when the FTC blocked a planned acquisition of Harry's in 2020.

At fourteen, Reese Witherspoon's acting career kicked off. In the ensuing decades, she has become an A-list star, earning an Academy Award for her performance in Walk the Line and starring in iconic films like Legally Blonde and Election. But despite her success, she found herself underwhelmed by the quality of roles for women. In 2016, she started Hello Sunshine, a cross-platform media brand and content company, to drive the production of female-centric content. Hello Sunshine was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential Companies and was acquired for $900M in 2021. Reese shares why female collaboration fuels creativity, how Hello Sunshine has found success across so many media platforms, and what she learned from her first business (a custom barrette company in the third grade). 

Jyoti Bansal is a serial entrepreneur, through and through. In 2008, he first made the leap from startup engineer to CEO with AppDynamics, a company that was acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion just under a decade later. After giving retirement a shot, he returned to the founder seat: he started software delivery unicorn Harness, cybersecurity platform Traceable, startup accelerator BIG Labs, and VC firm Unusual Ventures—and has more than 25 US patents under his name. Jyoti shares his simple formula for finding product-market fit, why ringing the Nasdaq closing bell was part of his Cisco negotiation, and how he's learned not to stress about things outside of his control.

Over his decade-plus at Microsoft, Eugenio Pace became an expert in cloud computing and identity management, co-authoring several books on the topic. His drive to solve the problem of identity management for fellow developers inspired him to start a company of his own, Auth0, in 2013. Over eight years, he scaled the company into a trusted global brand, leading to a 2021 acquisition by Okta in a $6.5 billion dollar deal. Today, Eugenio is the President of Customer Identity at Okta, serving Auth0's and Okta's combined customer base. Eugenio shares why they decided to offer parts of Auth0 for free, why he attributes his success to a CEO development program, and why he felt like it was the right moment to sell his company—even though Okta started courting him years prior.

In 2009, Tim Chen found himself laid off from his Wall Street job and was trying to figure out his next move. But a simple question from his sister about finding the right credit card turned into the core idea for NerdWallet, the company on a mission to give consumers clarity around all of life's financial decisions. NerdWallet started as a tool to help people shop for credit cards, but has scaled to serve over 19 million users. In 2021, Tim led NerdWallet through an IPO. Tim shares why they raised venture capital only after the company was profitable, why he loves the Jeff Bezos quote that very few decisions are irreversible, and how his parents instilled Tim's entrepreneurial drive.

While a sophomore at Harvard, James Hirschfeld put lots of time into planning his 21st birthday party—but when it came time to figure out invitations, there was no option that spoke to him, between expensive stationery and clunky online tools. He started Paperless Post in 2009 along with his sister, Alexa, and has since reimagined the experience of sending and receiving invitations for over 175 million users. James shares why it was an uphill battle convincing investors that consumers wanted premium tools for digital communication, how they turned the business impact of the pandemic (the worst thing that could happen to a company centered on events) into an investment in the future, and why user trust and loyalty is sacred.

In 2012, George Fraser teamed up with his lifelong friend, Taylor Brown, to build Fivetran. Their initial vision was completely different from what Fivetran is today: a fully managed automated data integration provider, valued at over $5 billion. But the two listened to customer conversations and realized that they could build a viable business around a singular pain point. Fivetran now serves thousands of customers and hundreds of leading brands across the globe. George shares how his PhD in Neurobiology impacts his style as a founder, why fear of failure is an underrated motivator, and why they got creative with a major acquisition in order to build a full-spectrum offering overnight. 

Allon Bloch is no stranger to starting companies, but when he launched K Health, he was new to healthcare. Before K Health, he was the CEO of website publishing platform Wix and car retailer Vroom. But his father's health struggles inspired him to turn his focus to delivering high quality medicine at scale. He co-founded K Health in 2016 and has scaled the platform into the #1 downloaded app in the medical category, covering over 300 million people. Allon explains how K Health leveraged AI early on to teach a machine the language of medicine, why he believes it's a great time to be a healthcare entrepreneur, and why he attributes his success to the partnership of strong co-founding teams.

Nearly twenty years ago, Anthony Casalena was a student at the University of Maryland who wanted to build himself a website. Finding no easy platform in the market, he created his own. Today, Squarespace is an all-in-one website building and ecommerce platform used by more than 4.2 million people. Anthony worked as a team of one for the first few years, but now has over 1,800 employees and took Squarespace public in 2021. Anthony shares how he got his idea off the ground with a $30,000 investment in servers and Google AdWords, why it still feels surreal to see a Squarespace ad at the Super Bowl, and how running a public company is completely different than what he expected.