Next Unicorn: The Next Great Tech Startups & Founders

Ajay Kamat is a Partner at Pear VC, where he runs PearX, one of the top startup accelerators in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pear VC has been an early investor in many successful startup companies. In this episode, we talk about the PearX method of startup success, and how the team at PearX helps startup founders avoid common mistakes, find product-market fit, land their first hires, find venture capital funding, and quickly scale into successful unicorn companies. Later in the interview, we discuss Ajay's personal career background, his time as a founder, and how he became the head of PearX. Also, stick around to the end of the interview, because Ajay participates in the Next Unicorn Podcast bonus round!This is Next Unicorn Podcast episode 7. The video version of this episode is available on the Next Unicorn YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/SNbS7mTW2PE?si=fDJr7IxJ-PKEk3b5If you like this episode, I think you'd also like episode 5 (Are Startup Accelerators Worth It For Founders?), an interview with the former head of Techstars startup accelerator's San Francisco Bay Area location. The YouTube version of that episode is available at: https://youtu.be/sGBS8w0iLv0?si=8pb0dzPJqVeBZXPAFollow Ajay Kamat:

Nick Kateris is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University, where his research is focused on new battery technology, and computer modeling to help develop new types of battery technology, as well as on detonation engines. (Recently, along with colleagues from Stanford and Dartmouth, Nick developed a new type of lithium-sulfur battery that performs much better than any lithium-sulfur batteries developed previously.) In this episode we talk about the future of new battery technology innovation and how it will change the world. Nick completed his PhD at Stanford University, and his bachelor's and master's degrees at Cambridge University in the UK. He is originally from Athens, Greece.Next Unicorn podcast episode 6. The video version of this episode is available on the Next Unicorn YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@nextunicornFollow Nick Kateris

Collin Wallace is the Former Head of Techstars Silicon Valley (one of the top startup accelerators), co-teaches the Startup Garage accelerator class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), and is a partner at Lobby Capital (formerly August Capital), a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Previously, as a repeat founder, he also was a participant in Techstars and Y Combinator (YC is, of course, also a top startup accelerator). One of the startups that he founded (FanGo) was acquired by Grubhub pre-IPO, where he became Head of Innovation. In this interview, we talk about startup accelerators, how they've changed, and whether they are worth it for founders. We also talk about how much equity startup accelerators take, the amount of funding they provide, and some details regarding SAFEs and other startup accelerator financing terms, as well as differences between startup accelerators. We also talk about the types of problems startup accelerators are especially good at helping founders solve. In addition, we discuss the differences between accelerators: Y Combinator vs Techstars vs Pear VC, etc. Collin has invested in over 80 early-stage companies, including PayJoy, Landed, Mosaic Voice, Postscript, and Vellum. He has a BS from Georgia Tech, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In addition, he speaks Mandarin Chinese.

Ali Abouelatta is the author of the First 1000 newsletter on Substack (with over 85,000 subscribers at the time of publishing this episode), which is about just that! It also contains all kinds of tips, tricks, and hacks relating to getting your first 1,000 customers and beyond, including: pricing, product design, product management, growth hacks, startup stories, and much more. By day he is a product manager at the popular language learning app Duolingo, and by night he is the author of the popular email newsletter First 1000. Originally from Egypt, he received his bachelor's degree from NYU, and his Master's degree from Cornell Tech. He's worked in a wide range of roles from product management to venture capital.  Next Unicorn podcast episode 4. Watch the video version of this episode on the Next Unicorn

Damir Vrabac is the Co-Founder & COO of Valar Labs, an AI startup that analyzes cancer tissue samples and predicts which type of cancer treatment (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, etc.) would be most successful for each individual cancer patient. Until now, this has been a very difficult thing for oncologists to predict. This incredible application of AI has the potential to have a life-saving impact on the lives of so many people. The Valar Labs founding team is out of Stanford. Their seed round was led by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Other keywords: Medtech / healthtech / healthcare / digital pathology / medicine / future of medicine. 

Leeor Mushin is a Principal at Floodgate, an early-stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. Floodgate has been an early investor in such iconic companies as Lyft, Twitter, Okta, Twitch, Task Rabbit, and many others. Leeor attended the University of Texas at Austin, and more recently graduated with an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (the GSB). He previously worked in the energy sector, and also co-founded a digital marketing company. While at Stanford, he co-founded the GSB 2020 Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in startups founded by his classmates, which was the first such fund at the GSB, and which has been repeated by each subsequent class. Since graduating, Leeor been working as a principal at Floodgate Fund, alongside the founding partners, Mike Maples and Ann Miura-Ko. 

Caleb Boyd is the Co-Founder & CEO of Molten Industries. Molten is commercializing breakthrough technology to produce the lowest-cost, cleanest hydrogen to decarbonize heavy industrial sectors such as steel, fertilizer, fuels, and plastics. He attended UC Berkeley for his bachelor's, and then graduated from Stanford with a PhD in materials science and engineering. After graduating, he moved to Germany and become a venture capitalist in Munich, working with UVC partners, an early-stage deep tech VC firm. Eventually, he moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area to co-found Molten Industries. Recently, he was named a 2023 Forbes 30 under 30. Caleb and his co-founder, Kevin Bush, were also recently named as two of Bill Gates' 2022 Breakthrough Energy Fellows.