InTheir20s

Fred Hoch is a consummate builder. Throughout his career, Fred has worked with thousands of technology companies to drive their growth through strategic insight partnered with a keen focus on execution. Hoch is the Founder and General Partner of Chicago's TechNexus Venture Collaborative, a venture investment company building ecosystems to drive insight and growth. Through a unique alignment of relationships and partnerships, leading corporations leverage the platform to align, invest in and collaborate with ventures to transform business models and ultimately innovate. An outgrowth of one of the most successful startup incubators in the country in the past decade, TechNexus has emerged as one of the most active venture investors globally. He has an eclectic entrepreneurial background that includes startups, evangelism, the birth of SaaS, and associations with a bit of international affairs thrown in for good measure. He uses the entire spectrum of these experiences, and a dose of sarcasm,  to propel in his business and personal endeavors.A native Californian, now a deep-rooted Chicagoan, he is always seeking ways to get in the water and enjoy the outdoors through biking, hiking, or kayaking with and without his wife, labrador, and three children. He currently sits on the boards of numerous startups, as well as the UIC School of Engineering, ChicagoNEXT, and SmartBet Charities.

Keith Houlemard is former President of the Jordan Brand at Nike. He's currently the CO-Founder of FoodE

Ben Weiss is the co-founder of CoinFlip, which has the largest network of Bitcoin ATMs by volume in the US.

A reflection episode

Francesc Miralles is the author of one of my favorite books: IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Healthy Life.

Reclist is a customizable newsletter where you can subscribe to different thought-leaders and get all the articles, podcasts, videos and books they recommend.

Glewee is an Exclusive Marketplace that connects brands with creators. We spoke with Co-Founders Chris Brown and Dylan Duke.

Puzzl App is building work management for digital service businesses. This episode dives deep into the gig economy.

Dive Chat is a new app for college, bringing together your group chats and events in a fun and seamless experience.

Casey Adams is a 22 year old entrepreneur and co-founder of MediaKits. At the age of 17, Casey started his podcast, The Casey Adams Show, which has quickly become a top 100 business podcast. Over the years Casey has interviewed over 300+ world class individuals including the late Larry King, Rick Ross, Maye Musk, Robert Greene, and David Sacks.

I'm super excited to launch a new segment on inTheir20s called: New Kids on the Block! I'll be interviewing an awesome group of Gen Z builders that I'm extremely bullish on. These builders include: Founders Operators Creators On the segment, we'll dive into their products; competitors; funding history; market dynamics; and unique insights. Blake Michaels is a multi-faceted Gen Z. He's the Chief Evangelist of Lumanu - fintech for creators which recently raised 12M Series A from Origin Ventures & 500 Startups. He's starred in Disney's Lemonade Mouth and Dog with a Blog, which earned 4 Emmy nominations. He also has over 5 million followers on social media. He's now the Co-Founder and GP of Creator Led Ventures, which is an LP base of the world's top influencers. They have an unparalleled insight into the creator market and help founders navigate the fastest-growing customer acquisition channel in the digital space

NowAccount pays businesses their invoices now, while they await their clients' payments for their services/products. Why? Companies are more likely to grow out of business than they are to go out of business. Prior to Now, Lara co-founded Nourish (the manufacturing company), and Insomnia, LLC, a firm specializing in investment, development, and management of complex and innovative “world-changing” projects. She also co-wrote a book about business with her good friend and business parter Stacey Abrams.

Most books about the post-grad years are written by psychologists and business leaders who offer recommendations based on their professional expertise. While helpful, it is rare to hear the voices of those currently living through this season of life. That's why I spoke with Cate LeSourd, the Author of Coming of Age. This book exposes the realities of the pivotal transition from college into adulthood from the perspective of other twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings.

Frank Mong is COO of Nova Labs (formerly Helium Inc.), where he is responsible for sales, marketing and business development for the company. Before Helium, Mong spent 20 years in cyber security including CMO at Hortonworks, SVP of Marketing at Palo Alto Networks, and VP/GM of security at HP.

Henri is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Harlem Capital, a venture capital firm changing the face of entrepreneurship. He has led 22 investments and sat on 7 company boards. Henri currently sits on the Amazon Black Business Accelerator Board and formerly sat on the Management Leadership for Tomorrow NYC Board.

Tim is a notable venture capital investor, and founder of Draper University, Draper Venture Network, and Draper Associates. Some of his investments include early bets in companies like Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitch, Carta, Webflow, Robinhood, and Coinbase. Tim is regularly featured on major networks, in publications, and in social media as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative governance, free markets, and Bitcoin. He has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum's "Entrepreneur of the World." He has also been highly ranked on several notable lists including one of the top 100 most powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by Crypto Weekly, #1 most networked venture capitalist by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, and #48 most influential Harvard Alum. In this episode we spoke about: The Formula for Risk Taking in your 20s Tim's Honest Thoughts on Bitcoin What Originally Peaked his Interest about Venture Capital

Eyal N. Danon is a life coach, founder of the Ignite Advisory Group, and author of “The Principle of 18: Getting the Most Out of Every Stage in Your Life.” We've been taught to plan our lives based on a very stressful pattern: Decide what you'll do for a living in your 20s, focus on making money in your 30s, work into your late 60s, then retire fatigued — and, perhaps, unfulfilled. But as a life coach who was worked with several major clients, including executives at Amazon and Dell, Eyal discovered an alternative life-system that can minimize your regrets, decrease your worries, and enable you to live a happier, more meaningful life. You can do this by realizing the potential of five interconnected stages: the Dreamer, Explorer, Builder, Mentor and Giver. He calls it the “Principle of 18,” because each stage lasts for 18 years.

Amanda Goetz is the founder of House of Wise, a luxury CBD brand.

Mastering Twitter in your 20s with John Pompliano

Welcome to the 100th Episode of inTheir20s. For the past 2 years, we've shared iconic episodes with the World's most influential people about what they did in their 20s. People like Steve Wozniak, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, Cathy Bessant, Ev Williams, Beto O'Rourke, Chantel Jeffries, Mayor Francis Suarez, Kat Cole, Dr. Meg Jay, Tim Hardaway Sr, AJ Vaynerchuk, Sekou Kaalund, Andy Dunn, and more. This episode will be a little different than what we usually do. This is a reflection on building inTheir20s. In this 3 part episode, we speak about methods to getting the best guests on the podcast; dealing with the tragic passing of inTheir20s co-host Michael Holmes; and leveraging the podcast to get a full-time role in media.

On this week's episode of inTheir20s, we chatted with Workweek co-founder and CEO Adam Ryan. Adam and Workweek are building a new kind of media company that empowers creators to leverage their industry experience through engaging and insightful newsletters. In this episode of inTheir20s, Adam spoke about the benefit of being a deep generalist throughout your 20s. Deep generalism is the process of having a wide net of experiences across multiple industries and verticals. Adam explained how deep generalism helped him find career success before discussing what he is building with Workweek.

In this week's episode of inTheir20s, we spoke with Cana CEO Matt Mahar. Cana is the world's first molecular beverage pinter. Its innovative technology brings an entire grocery store's worth of beverages to your kitchen. Cana is a company that is being incubated by David Friedberg's The Production Board, which is a holding company of businesses established to solve the most fundamental problems that affect our planet. Landon spent some time with David this past week in Miami for the All-In Summit. Matt was a terrific guest who gave a tone of actionable advice. Over the course of the episode we discussed: His first job out of college teaching English in South Korea Being a video game tester at EA Building category-defining products at Nike During the episode, Matt recommended that listeners check out Play Bigger.

Kat Cole is an American businesswoman. She is the former Chief operating officer and president of North America for Focus Brands. She is a former president of Focus Brands' subsidiary Cinnabon, an American chain of retail bakeries specializing in cinnamon buns. She currently serves as the COO and President of c

Chantel Jeffries is a Dj/Producer, Investor and Online personality with endeavors in the film and modeling industries. With presence in the online and traditional entertainment space for over 10 years she has worked with numerous brands, many from their early stages such as : Uber, Revolve, Samsung, Loreal, Fendi, Skims, Alo, Savage x Fenty and countless others. She has amassed over 10 million followers across her various social media platforms which she now uses to help find, collaborate and invest in companies that align with her thesis. Through her amassed network of entrepreneurs, influencers, celebrities, and brands and vast knowledge and interests across sectors she plans to make innovative and impactful investments for her limited partners as she has been personally.

In this week's episode of inTheir20s, we spoke with the founders of INDX. This episode dives deep into a massive, yet overlooked, part of information commerce - the curation economy. We live in a world where information is in infinite abundance yet time and attention have never been more restricted. The average twenty-something spends ~ 3 hours on their phones per day. Including work and sleep, there isn't much time left to consume the knowledge necessary to level up as an entrepreneur, creative, or any other dream you may have. What do you do with so much to learn and so little time? Enter the curation economy.

Jeremy Neilson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Assure. Assure is a fintech fund administration company that provides the most complete back-office services in the market for fund managers, equity crowdfunding platforms, angel groups and other private-transaction investors. Jeremy has provided support and leadership for some of the most innovative and dynamic industry initiatives in the U.S.--including launching and managing the State of Utah's $300 million Fund of Funds program, providing due diligence and advisory services for the U.S. Small Business Administration's $1-billion early-stage venture capital initiative, and created the LLC syndicate (SPV) administration service used by AngelList, SeedInvest, EquityZen and more.

In this episode, we spoke with Spinach Records founder Brad Watson. Spinach is a record label and creative agency helping to establish a mental health foundation at the intersection of music, film, fashion, politics, and technology. We cover an essential topic - prioritizing mental health in the creative industry. We also dive into the origins of Spinach Records before learning about what's currently wrong with the music industry and how entrepreneurs like Brad are looking to change it.

Elysian House is a collective of the best Gen Z builders in web3 x community based in SF. They're curating a living space and IRL center of gravity that brings together individuals creating change in the world of web3.

Haley Bryant is a Venture Partner at Hustle Fund and the GM of Golden Wok, the holding company behind the b2b SaaS content marketing agency Animalz and the Superpath's content career community. Haley spent the first 5 years of her career at Apple Retail. She spent the following 5 years in startup customer success, first at I Done This, then at DC based Brazen and most recently leading ops as the COO of Animalz. Haley joined Animalz as Director of Customer Ops in 2018 when the company was $13m ARR. Haley began angel investing in 2020, writing her first check into a coworkers startup (Sacra) and joining Angel Squad as a member and then a team member in 2021. She has now made over 30 angel investments.

For Episode #90, we were joined by the "Queen of the Gen Z's": Meagan Loyst! Meagan is the founder of Gen Z VCs, a global community centered around empowering the next generation of leaders in venture capital, growing it to more than 14,000 members since November 2020.  She's also an Associate and youngest investor at Lerer Hippeau, where she's sourced and helped lead seven investments working with 20 portfolio companies.

We spoke with the Co-Founder and CEO of Stoovo about what the job market will look like in 10 years.

Episode #88 features Arik Levy (Founder of LuxerOne) and Alex Hejazi (Founder of BallBox). We spoke about the intriguing space parcel management and locker storage, and why both founders joined this billion dollar industry in their 20s.

Mike founded CityBase to shatter the govtech status quo, creating technology that better serves the everyday needs of people. Mike brings a deep interest in behavioral economics from over a decade working in capital markets, including as a Federal Reserve analyst at Northern Trust. The company ground along for five years, moving at the speed of government, before it was acquired in 2019 for $160 million. Duffy remains onboard as CEO.

Guy Kawasaki is an author, podcaster, and former Chief Evangelist of Apple. He is one of the early pioneers of evangelist marketing and was instrumental in the success of the Apple Macintosh. He now serves as the Chief Evangelist of Canva. In addition, he is the host of the Remarkable People Podcast. In this episode we broke down: How to pick the right mentor; Why your first job doesn't matter; and Following interests not passions.

On this episode of inTheir20s we spoke with the owner of the GaS Digital podcasting network Ralph Sutton. GaS Digital is one of the most successful podcasting networks out there who's members include superstar comedians and creators. Ralph gives a masterclass podcasting which includes: How to get started Tools and resources How to build organically How to earn from your podcast Plus a whole lot else.

Miko is a General Partner with gCC Gumi Cryptos Capital, a Silcon Valley investment fund with over $400M in assets including early-stage investments in unicorns like OpenSea, Yield Guild Games, Celsius Network, VEGA Protocol, Qredo, 1Inch Network and Agoric.

Casey Adams is a 21 year old entrepreneur and co-founder of MediaKits, a SaaS platform that allows creators to easily share their creator analytics. At the age of 17, Casey started his podcast, The Casey Adams Show, which has quickly become a top 100 business podcast.

Laurent Lamothe is the former Prime minister of Haiti and a serial entrepreneur. He's also the longest serving PM in modern Haitian history. Through his companies, investments, and political action Laurent has impacted the lives of millions. In this week's episode Laurent broke down his: The routines that helped propel him towards success Approach to entrepreneurship Journey to become a political leader Follow Laurent Follow inTheir20s This weeks episode was sponsored by…… Unstoppable Wallet and Stoovo.

On this week's episode of InTheir20s we spoke with Lolli Co-Founder and CEO Alex Adelman. Lolli helps its users earn up to 12% back in Bitcoin when they make purchases from companies like Nike, Adidas, Athleta and more. We spoke about: His college years Use of Twitter, LinkedIn, and email Building and scaling companies Finding what you're uniquely great at and….Bitcoin.

Mayor Francis Suarez is the 43rd Mayor of Miami in Florida. He assumed office in 2017 and is also the first Miami-born Mayor in the city in over 125 years. Suarez was recently elected to serve as the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Mayor Suarez is most known for his vision to make Miami a top Crypto, VC, and startup hub in the U.S. Accomplishments under his leadership include: Miami becoming #1 in the country in tech-job grow; Miami voted the healthiest city in America 3 years in a row; and Miami growing 200% in venture capital deals. We spoke about lessons from the Mayor's 20s; why he's so bullish on crypto; and his pitch for twenty-somethings interested in moving to his city.

Amanda Richardson is the CEO of CoderPad, which is a platform for conducting technical interviews. Most of the engineers that get hired in Silicon Valley use CoderPad. In the past, Amanda was the Head of Product at Prezi, VP of Product at HotelTonight (AQR by AirBnB), and the CEO of Rabbit.

Benjamin Grubbs and Jonathan Shambroom are the co-founders of Creator+, which is a studio and distribution platform that produces feature-length films in partnership with digital creators and monetizes through their existing audience and beyond across mobile, web and connected-TV. In addition to streaming feature films, the Creator+ platform provides a new user experience for engaging with content, commerce, Creators and community in one place. They recently raised $12M. Benjamin formed Next 10 Ventures in March 2018 to pursue incubating and investing in startups focused on working with content creators. He's worked in media for a while at companies like Google, Yahoo, and YouTube. Jonathan is a veteran operator and serial entrepreneur. Eight of his nine previous tech companies were acquired.

Sean Mendy is a co-founding Partner of Concrete Rose. He is a Bay Area native who has spent his career working to close opportunity gaps in Silicon Valley. Prior to Concrete Rose he was an executive at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula and an Advisor to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. As Venture Partner at Next Play Ventures and Entrepreneur in Residence at Sixth Street, Sean has experience building meaningful connections across the venture ecosystem. Sean earned his BA from Cornell University, where he played soccer, then advanced degrees in business and policy from Stanford and USC. Former Concrete Rose student intern, Jahleesa Phelps, joins this episode as a special guest to share her experiences working with Sean.

Brett Goldstein is the Co-Founder of Launch House, which is a community built to connect and support the world's most ambitious entrepreneurs and creators. Launch House brings together emerging leaders in the startup and entertainment worlds to live in illustrious mansions around the world. Through in-person and online programs, individuals refine their skills, form lifelong relationships, and build category-defining startups as a cohesive community. Sign up to join the Launch House community at www.launchhouse.co

Will Allen is a former NFL safety turned prominent venture capitalist. He was drafted to the NFL in 2004 and played for the Cowboys, Buccaneers, and Steelers, where he served as the team co-captain. In total, he had a 12 year playing career. He's now the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Magarac Ventures Partners, an early stage VC firm based in Pittsburgh that invests in the Mid-West's best companies. Today's episode is sponsored by Launch House and Collectable. If you're a founder you should be part of Launch House. Launch House is an exclusive community of 300+ founders that offers fundraising support, partnerships with top creators, and thousands of dollars in SaaS discounts to help members build their companies. Founding a company can be a lonely endeavor. Launch House gives access to community and capital that can make going from 0-1 easier than ever before. Apply for an upcoming cohort at www.launchhouse.co Collectable is #1 fractional investment platform for sports. They make the top end of the market accessible to all by creating affordable opportunities for buying and trading shares of iconic blue chip trading cards and sports memorabilia. Purchase shares in people like Michael Jordan and Tom Brady at www.Collectable.com

Mark Suster is a Partner at Upfront Ventures, one of Los Angeles' leading and largest venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Bird, GOAT,  and Ring.com. Before joining the world of venture, Mark was the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP of Products. Thank you to our sponsors Upkey and Seedscout. Check out Upkey's free career resources at www.Upkey.com/inTheir20s Get connected to hundreds of investors at www.Seedscout.com

Khaled Naim, is the co-founder and CEO of Onfleet, a last mile delivery platform. Khaled and his co-founders started working together during grad school at Stanford University where they initially came together solve a problem that plagues delivery businesses in emerging markets: lack of functional street addresses. They went through Stanford's accelerator program, StartX, before realizing they needed to pivot their business to a more crucial problem facing online retailers and delivery services: lack of technology. Most companies were using archaic systems, primarily pen and paper, spreadsheets, phone calls, and text messages. From there, they decided to build a smartphone-based delivery logistics platform to help these businesses run more efficiently. Enter Onfleet.

Corey Kossack is an expert in his field having gone from eBay entrepreneur out of college to serial entrepreneur with his latest edtech and SaaS sales reskilling business, Aspireship, dedicated to helping people land new jobs in the emerging field of tech sales. Corey has 15 years of sales and leadership experience specific to technology sales, education technology, and recruiting. In his experience, Corey witnessed firsthand how the skills gap was creating a hiring crisis. Inspired to make a greater difference and help overlooked candidates get into software sales, Corey launched Aspireship. Corey and his team have helped thousands of workers, from all backgrounds and experience levels, land high paying jobs in SaaS sales. Corey is a passionate advocate for the future of work specifically around disrupting antiquated hiring processes and open access, hands on training ensuring equal opportunity for all to learn and demonstrate their capability based on job simulation and soft skills, not past experience.

Kean is the Founder & CEO of MonetizeMore. He started MonetizeMore in 2010 with the goal to build a bootstrap business that would dramatically increase ad revenues for publishers. Over the years, Kean has perfected the proprietary MonetizeMore ad optimization model and now increases ad revenues for hundreds of publisher networks in over 40 countries. He is a pioneer in ad optimization covering areas like Adsense/AdX, GAM, header bidding and ad network optimization. Kean has always believed in empowering publishers to increase their ad revenues more efficiently and effectively via articles, videos and technology.

Jason Arasheben, aka Jason of Beverly Hills, is the go-to creative genius for spectacular custom designed jewels for high-profile individuals. He's most known in the luxury market for his outrageous and over the top diamond pieces. A few of his notable clients include Drake, Michael Jackson, LeBron James, Matthew McConaughey, A$AP Rocky, and NBA teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks. Special thank you to this interview's official sponsors: Glewee and Collectable. Glewee is the first exclusive marketplace that bridges the gap between Brands and Creators like yourself to connect, collaborate, and execute campaigns all in one platform. Learn more at www.glew.ee Collectable is the #1 fractional investing platform for sports. They make the top end of the market accessible to all. Learn more at www.collectable.com

Stefan Henriquez is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mayk.it, which is a social music creation app that wants to help people easily produce, own and share music that they can create using just their phone. Users can upload their own beat or select an existing beat from another user, then add vocals. His company recently announced its $4 million seed round from investors including Greycroft, Chicago Ventures, Slow Ventures, and T-Pain. Prior to founding Mayk.it, Stefan worked at companies like YouTube, Google, Cameo, and TikTok in many marketing executive roles.  This episode is sponsored by Glewee, which is the first exclusive marketplace that bridges the gap between Brands and Creators like yourself to connect, collaborate, and execute campaigns all in one platform. To apply to be a part of the Glewee Creator Community, download Glewee on the App Store to send in an application today. You can also visit www.glew.ee