Startup Foundations

Sophia Yen is the CEO and co-founder of Pandia Health, a women-founded and women-led birth control delivery company. Pandia partners with pharmacies and doctors who specialize in women's health to bring convenient, dignified and stress-free ways of accessing telehealth services.In our conversation we talked about the goals of Pandia Health, and how abortion laws could potentially impact Sophia's business. We also discuss how the idea for Pandia Health was born through Sophia' practice as a clinical associate professor at Stanford, and why she thought birth control delivery company should be doctor-founded and led by women. Sophia also makes the case for physicians being able to practice medicine nationally not federally when they're granted their license. Sophia shares how she prepared for starting Pandia Health, and how she ended up distributing equity and roles among 6 founders initially. Sophia also discussed finding the first users and product-fit for her company, and the potential dangers of telemedicine abuse.Find out more about Pandia Health on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Website, Blog, and YouTube.

Ashley Etling is the CEO and co-founder of LimeLoop, a smart shipping platform building reusable packaging and sustainable logistics solutions.In our conversation with Ashley we cover the origin story of LimeLoop, and discuss how their product evolved from reusable packaging to a smart platform helping companies make their supply chains sustainable. We dig deep into the issues of minimizing the environmental impacts of global supply chains, and discuss interesting innovation happening in that space.We also discuss the recent political actions for environmental impact like carbon taxes in EU and China's National Sword policy, and how governments worldwide are dealing with the issues of waste management and climate change. As a repeat founder, mentor and advisor, Ashley shares her approach to building a great team, finding co-founders, key hires and early startup employees. She also speaks on issues like dividing equity between co-founders, and common mistakes made by first-time founders.

Jill Koziol is the CEO and co-founder of Motherly, an educational platform and lifestyle brand redefining motherhood. Motherly's goal is building a movement helping women across the world thrive as mothers and make the most of their parenting experience.Jill talked to us about how the idea for Motherly was born, and how she and her co-founder Liz Tenety originally met. Jill discussed building the brand recognition, getting the first publicity and leveraging the organic content distribution to get the initial traction. We also talked about the advantages of a content and community-first approach to building a startup.Jill discussed the relationship between her and her co-founder and how they approached divvying up the roles and equity in Motherly when founding the company. Jill also shared what she thinks are the most important traits of the first hires for a startup, and what every founder should look for when hiring their first employees.We also cover the process of raising capital for Motherly, striking a balance between journalistic integrity and brand building, and Motherly's educational platform.Motherly: https://www.mother.ly/Jill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillkoziol/Capbase: https://capbase.com/

Tara Viswanathan is the co-founder and CEO of Rupa Health, a health startup focused on expanding access to root cause medicine and modernizing the process of ordering specialty lab tests. Tara talked to us about what exactly is root cause medicine and why is it central to Rupa Health's mission. We discuss how the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry has evolved and what are the current challenges for healthcare practitioners. Tara shares her thoughts regarding chronic illnesses and talks about why they are currently the biggest danger to our health. We also discuss Americans' nutrition and dietary habits, gut biome issues, novel treatments, and why taking a lot of prescription drugs can have adverse effects on people's health.Tara also shares her personal story behind the decision to start Rupa Health, speaks on finding the first key hires, equity splits, and role distribution between her and her co-founders, and shares how she found her product-market fit.

We talked to Elise Boivin, the CEO and founder behind ArtlyOwl, an art curation and ecommerce startup that's focused on connecting local artists and collectors in their respective cities. Since our conversation with Elise, ArtlyOwl joined forces with Wescover, an online marketplace for uniquely made items, that aims to support artists and designers from the local communities.In our conversation with Elise we discussed how ArtlyOwl worked, how it sourced artists for their platform, and built out the local connections to artists and clients. Elise shares the backstory of how she got the idea to start ArtlyOwl and why she decided to bootstrap ArtlyOwl as a solo founder, and not raise any outside capital.We also talked about what it means to create an experience marketplace and how Elise was trying to do that with ArtlyOwl. Elise shares her thoughts on art as as an investment and speaks on the evolution of the art world in general.

Borys Musielak is an investor, engineer, and entrepreneur, currently managing SMOK Ventures, a US venture capital fund investing in early-stage software startups in Central & Eastern Europe. Borys' entrepreneurial experience includes co-founding Filmaster, a startup for film fans to get personalized film recommendations which got acquired by Samba TV back in 2015. Borys is also very active on the Polish startup scene, where he's a board member of the Startup Poland foundation and has co-founded ReaktorX, a remote-first startup acceleration program.Borys talked to us about turning his passion for films into a successful startup that created a Netflix-like recommendation system. We discussed early Polish arthouse cinema and how Borys had grown the company from 2010 to its acquisition in 2015.Borys also shared why he decided to start investing and become a VC, and talked about all the things he had pioneered in the Polish startup scene, including creating a first coworking space dedicated to startups, an accelerator program, and events that contributed to growing the Polish startup community.We also discuss the evolution of the Polish and Eastern European startup scene, and why large enough domestic markets can be detrimental to the creation of innovative startups on a global scale. Borys also shares very interesting insights regarding the Polish and European VC scene and highlights the niches developing within the Polish startups.

Kim Roxie is the founder and CEO of LAMIK Beauty, licensed esthetician, motivational speaker, philanthropist and community advocate. Her company is creating makeup products made with organic ingredients that help women of color enhance their beauty.In our conversation we talked about Kim's background, running a beauty salon, developing her own formulas for beauty products, and how she got the idea to start her own company.We discuss how Kim's customers helped to shape LAMIK Beauty products and getting the initial funds to start the company from a crowdfunding campaign and pitch competitions.We also talk about the startups and recent exits in the beauty industry, and how that space has been getting more and more traction in the recent years, after being overlooked by tech for a long time.

Aaron Bailey is the CEO & co-founder of Builtfirst, a startup building cloud marketplace platform. Aaron's company streamlines creation of community-based marketplaces and modernizes how SaaS and services are discovered and purchased. Aaron talked about his background, the time he spent as head of global partnerships at 500 Startups, and how that influenced his decision to start his own company, Builtfirst. Aaron shared how the product has changed to meet the needs of users, shifting from a focus on accelerators and VC funds to a focus on anyone who wants to recommend trusted vendors to their online communities.We also cover finding the right co-founders for a startup, distributing equity between founders and early employees, and the advantages of hiring remotely.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a Techstars backed FinTech lending platform that streamlines capital deployment process for individual and institutional investors who want to support businesses led by women and people of color. EnrichHER has been in-market since 2019, deploying $14M in capital to traditional businesses from 47 states.In our conversation with Dr. Roshawnna we talk about many obstacles facing small business owners, women of color in particular, when trying to raise capital for their companies. We also discuss Roshawnna's backstory and how she got into entrepreneurship.Dr. Roshawnna shares her insights regarding lending landscape for small businesses and speaks on systemic bias and discrimination against black women in the financial ecosystem. We also cover different types of financing available through Roshawnna's company, and talk about the early days of building the product. Roshawnna gives her thoughts on what are the most important traits to look for when hiring employees and shares lessons learned from her experience of going through Techstars accelerator.

Rogelio Caceres is a serial entrepreneur, currently serving as the founder and CEO of Global Residency & Citizenship Group (Global RCG), a startup enabling digital nomads to move abroad and stay compliant with the international employment laws. In our conversation with Rogelio we talked about how Global RCG is simplifying lives of digital nomads, the US immigration system along with its flaws and shortcomings, and the trends behind people looking for more flexibility around where they work.Rogelio also discusses how he got the idea to work on mobility solutions and international compliance, his initial fundraising experiences and shares his advice for first-time founders.We also speak on how employment laws may hinder workers mobility, why people working in corporations and bigger companies have a hard time getting a green light to work abroad, the intricacies and challenges of international compliance for digital nomads and which countries have modified their immigration laws to cater to the needs of digital nomads and the changing economy.

Cheryl Contee is an entrepreneur, investor, writer, founder of a digital marketing agency Do Big Things, and currently the CEO of the Impact Seat Foundation, an organization that aims to level the playing field for women of color who want to become successful business leaders. Over the course of her career, Cheryl was also successful in building Attentive.ly, a social listening and marketing automation startup focused on developing tools for non-profits.In our conversation, we discuss Cheryl's work with Attentive.ly, and how she co-founded the company as a spin-off of her digital marketing company Do Big Things. We talk about the market for building tools for non-profit organizations and how Cheryl has built the company over the years and eventually exited to Blackbaud in 2016.We also dig deeper into the evolution of the startup funding ecosystem, and its many flaws and shortcomings. Particularly lack of support for female founders and founders of color. Cheryl recalls her first fundraising experiences and shares interesting insights into why the VC world isn't willing to fund diverse founders.Cheryl also shares the mission of the Impact Seat Foundation, and how it's trying to democratize business leadership and make it more accessible to women of color.

Sahin Boydas is a serial entrepreneur, born in the US, grew up in Turkey, who most recently founded RemoteTeam, a startup building software for remote hiring and international payroll. RemoteTeam was acquired by Gusto back in 2021, and at the moment Sahin is Gusto's head of RemoteTeam.In our conversation we discuss Sahin's entrepreneurial background, and his rich experience in finding the right ideas, building good products, and then exiting successfuly. Sahin shares the insights that made him start RemoteTeam back in 2019, just before the beginning of pandemic. We also discuss how partnerships can turn into acquisitions, the aftermath of exiting RemoteTeam to Gusto, and why Sahin decided to work for someone, for the first time in his entrepreneurial career.Sahin also speaks on growing and selling multiple business back when he was living in Turkey, his early days in the Silicon Valley, and he shares tips on hiring and fundraising for early startups.

Jess Lee is the founder and CEO of Bitesize, a startup helping car dealerships communicate with thousands of customers at once. Jess is also an active angel investor working with the Hustle Fund.In our conversation, we talk about how Jess got the idea to build texting tools through immigrant activism at college, and how she ended up translating her experience to a completely different space, which is the automotive industry.Jess discusses why she decided to build software for car dealerships and what's the business rationale behind Bitesize. She also shares why she decided to go it alone and grow her company as a solo founder. We talk about the pros and cons of being a solo founder and why investors are more likely to fund startups with multiple founders.We also discuss how the industry has changed over the last couple of years with regard to female founders and women working in venture capital firms. Jess also takes us back to the early days of Bitesize and shares how she got her first customer literally driving around car dealerships with coffee and donuts.

Ahmad Ibrahim is the co-founder and CEO of neo.tax, a startup that creates tax filing and automation software that simplifies the R&D tax credit application process. Ahmad's career path included studying economics and philosophy, working as a product manager at Intuit, and launching his own accounting firms.We discuss how studying philosophy can be helpful in a career of a founder and lessons learned from Ibrahim's first startup, Unleash. We also discuss how building an software product for accountant within the confines of Intuit has influenced Ibrahim's will to pursue another startup venture in that space. Ibrahim speaks on the predicament of accounting, shares his “lightbulb moment” that gave him the idea that he turned into neo.tax. Ibrahim also talks to us about the challenges of building tax automation software, his co-founders and their role distribution, and the future of legal and accounting services.

Viola Llewellyn is the president and co-founder of Ovamba Solutions, a fintech startup working on financing products for the trade and commodities sectors in Africa and other developing markets. Ovamba works as an ecosystem that helps African businesses with short-term financing and enables sharia-compliant funding structures.We discuss the origin story of Ovamba, how it got its first users and funding, and the meeting of its co-founders - Viola and Marvin Cole. Viola shares her valuable insights into the intricacies of financing the commodities market in Africa and building unique data sets that are based on inventory and asset movement in relation to people.We also talk about who the customers of Ovamba are - from banks in Africa to international institutions looking to finance projects on the continent. Viola shares her plans for the future of Ovamba, including possible expansion to other regions like the Middle East or Latin America.Viola and Greg speak on the importance of blockchain technology, tokenization, and cryptocurrency in streamlining the growth and movement of assets and commodities in emerging markets. Viola also shares her thoughts on the situation of black female entrepreneurs and on making the startup ecosystem more inclusive.

Kiwi Camara is the CEO and co-founder of DISCO, a publicly traded legal tech company providing cloud-native, AI-powered solutions that simplify ediscovery, case management, and legal document review for law firms and enterprises. Kiwi's extensive background includes a B.S. in computer science, as well as J.D. from Harvard Law School and Ph.D. in economics from Stanford.We discuss what is DISCO, and how lawyers can use it to streamline their work with legal documents and case files. Kiwi also shares how he got the idea to start his own company and what it takes to innovate in the legal space. He also shares how he grew DISCO, from receiving the first check from investors to IPO in 2021.We talk about the business rationale behind DISCO and why law firms adopt these types of legal solutions. Kiwi also shares his thoughts on other innovative and promising companies in the space.

Lisa Gelobter is the CEO and co-founder of tEQuitable, an independent, confidential platform helping companies address issues of bias, discrimination and harassment in the workplace.Lisa expansive background includes working on groundbreaking multimedia projects like Shockwave, Hulu, Viacom, and serving as Chief Digital Service Officer for the US Department of Education during the presidency of Barack Obama.Lisa talked to us about her current company tEQuitable, its mission, and how technology can be used to mitigate issues of harassment and discrimination in a workplace. We talk about different types of organizations tEQuitable has already worked with, and how it tackles complex issues like equitable workplace in the era of a fully remote work.Lisa also shares what made her pursue the idea of building a startup, and shares her thoughts on the issue of inclusivity and diversity of funding in the world of venture capital and startups. We also discuss the issue of upward mobility among immigrants and minorities in the US. Lisa also shares some insights on building a diverse and friendly workplace from the very beginning.

Henrik Werdelin is a serial entrepreneur and author, who co-founded BarkBox, a subscription-based service providing a monthly box of treats and toys for dogs. BarkBox is now called BARK and it is a publicly traded company, after its IPO in June of 2021. Henrik has also started Prehype, a collective of entrepreneurs that builds products and companies through collaboration with corporations and VCs.Henrik talks to us about the early days of BARK, randomly meeting his co-founder Matt Meeker during a cruise ship and the strategies used for growing their company. We discuss the creative marketing and the famous 4/20 campaign, as well as raising capital at the beginning of the twenty-tens.We also talk about the best dog breed for founders and delve deeper into the world of pet startups. Henrik speaks on his book “The Acorn Method”, which covers building new product lines within the confines of an existing business. and shares interesting insights on what makes a good startup employee and how the roles of early employees shape across the lifespan of a company.

Courtney Caldwell is the co-founder and COO of ShearShare, a “Hairbnb” startup that helps salon owners maximize their earnings potential by renting out their spaces to beauty industry professionals. Courtney talked to us about how ShearShare works, and why “space as a service” has been such a big deal for people working in the beauty industry. We also go over why many professionals in the space have been deciding to pursue a solo career, instead of working as employees in salons.We cover the origin story of ShearShare, which is rather far from serendipitous. Courtney herself was a high-ranking employee at Oracle, while her co-founder and husband has been one of the most notorious barbers and beauty industry professionals in the country. After finding a niche neglected by tech, they've initially bootstrapped the company before going through 500 Startups and receiving first investor check.We also discuss the bias against married founders in the VC community, and how limited that industry still is in terms of funding initiatives that make a difference for people in need. Courtney also speaks about interesting companies to watch in the beauty space and talks about what the future may hold for the entire industry.

Nial DeMena is the CEO and co-founder of Vella Bioscience, a femtech startup dedicated to sexually empowering every woman. Vella's flagship product is a pre-play topical serum designed to help women achieve better orgasms, no matter their hormonal status.We talked to Nial about the details of how Vella's main product works and what's it like doing business at the intersection of sexual wellness and femtech industries. Nials also shares the rationale behind Vella's multichannel distribution strategy, which involves direct-to-consumer and retail.Nial shares more information about his background and previous ventures, including starting multiple health tech companies (Temescal Wellness and Manna Molecular Science). He also speaks more about the research that went into creating their product and how scientific discoveries about CBD and cannabinoids turned into the actual production of the serum.Nial also gives us valuable insights regarding the regulatory issues in the sexual wellness space and how studying the therapeutical potential of cannabinoids can shape the future of Vella's products.

Melissa Pancoast is the founder and CEO of The Beans, an app helping people manage their finances in stressfree way. Melissa actually started her career as a teacher, but eventually left that behind to study how people think and feel about money at Oxford. Partially as a result of the she ended up starting The Beans, which is aimed to simplify financial management for middle-class Americans.In our conversation with Melissa we talk about why she decided to name her Startup “The Beans”, and how is her product different from many other fintech products in the personal finance management space.We also talk about Melissa's background, her stint as a teacher, working for early-stage digital health startup, founding an AI-focused venture fund Comet Labs and studies at Oxford, where she researched how people interact with money. We talk in depth about reasons why fin-tech still hasn't quite solved the finance management problem for many people, and how impactful solving number one stressor in America could be.Melissa takes us through her experiences of looking for a co-founder, finding one, and eventually splitting up. She also talks about her takeaways from the fundraising process and shares valuable tips for founders out there who are at the beginning of their journey.

Kerry Schrader is the CEO and co-founder of Mixtroz, a mobile app boosting event engagement by helping attendees make virtual and in-person connections. Kerry is the 37th black female founder to ever raise $1M+ in a venture-backed pre-seed round. We talk about what Mixtroz is, how it works and how event organizers can use it to boost their gathering's engagement. Kerry details the inner workings of the app, and how it can be customized to fit different scenarios and use cases.Kerry shares an amazing backstory behind Mixtroz, and how the idea for the app was born over a phone conversation with her daughter Ashley (now her co-founder). We dig deeper into how Kerry, as a non-technical co-founder, has found developers to carry out her vision for the product.Kerry also shares interesting insights about the startup ecosystem in Birmingham, Alabama, and discusses her many experiences with fundraising for Mixtroz, winning a couple of pitching competitions, and getting into a startup accelerator. We talk about the fundraising landscape for female founders of color and why certain things get more funded than others.

Alec Hartman is the co-founder and CEO of Welcome Homes, a startup streamlining the way people buy homes online. Alec was also a co-founder in a now publicly traded company Digital Ocean, that provides cloud infrastructure that helps businesses build and scale software applications. Alec, a Florida native, talked to us about the evolution of the startup ecosystem in Miami and Florida, and how both city and the state situation have changed for tech people over the recent years. Alec also discusses the origin story of Welcome Homes and shares a detailed market analysis that made him and his team start the company in a space that very few startups ever dare to disrupt. We go over the business rationale behind creating a company that builds customizable homes that are available to purchase online. We also discuss how Alec's company is making contractors' lives easier and what level of technology people expect in their homes at the moment. Alec also shares his valuable insights regarding the housing market in the times of remote work and discusses how regulatory compliance and municipal codes impact the pricing and feasibility of certain homes.We also talk about Alec's startup journey, early days of tech in NYC and how Techstars program helped him build Digital Ocean.

Natalie Barbu is the co-founder and CEO of Rella, a startup building software to help influencers and content creators manage and expand their business. Natalie is also an experienced content creator, with over 350,000 followers across platforms like Youtube and Instagram. We talked to Natalie about how the idea for Rella came about, and how her background as a content creator and influencer helped her find the right pain-points to solve. We also dive deeper into the life of content creators and discuss the ins and outs of the business, along with the landscape of tools offered by different social media platforms.Natalie also shares her thoughts on the evolution, growth and the future of influencer marketing and discusses some of the problematic aspects of the business, like analytics. Natalie also talks about meeting her co-founders and how she managed to start a software company, without prior technical experience.

This time on Startup Foundations we speak with Luke Deka, the CEO and co-founder of Growbots, a Polish startup building software to automate outbound email outreach and streamline lead generation for SMBs. Luke talks to us about the in's and out's of Growbots product, and how their software is helping companies automate and scale their sales efforts. We also discuss the origin story of Growbots, and how it evolved over the years, trying out different strategies for customer acquisition, fundraising and the product development.Luke and Greg also talk about the art of pricing your product the right way, and Luke shares the pricing changes they went through as a company and what eventually helped them bring their bottom line in shape.We also delve deeper into the startup ecosystem in Poland, and how the landscape for startups has evolved over the years. We cover the challenges of running an European startup in the US, and discuss interesting startups coming out of Poland.

Christina Gilbert is a co-founder of OneSchema, a Y-Combinator-backed startup working on data importing tools for SaaS companies. OneSchema was a part of the YC's S21 cohort, and ever since has been gaining a lot of traction, supplying a well-researched product, that solves many pain points for “system of record” companies that deal with extensive databases.Christina talks to us about the customer base or OneSchema, and delves deeper into the features of their product. She also speaks on the process of finding her co-founder, Andrew Luo, and the origin story behind OneSchema.We discuss the challenges of building data import tools and the future roadmap for OneSchema, including building multi-file data migrations. Christina also shares her thoughts the value of going through Y Combinator and how it's been helpful in getting their first customers for OneSchema.Christina also tells us how they were able to gain significant traction quickly and walks us through their product discovery process for OneSchema, and shares useful insights regarding fundraising and product building.

Richard White is a serial entrepreneur, founder & CEO of Fathom and previously User Voice. Richard's current company is a Y-Combinator backed startup, working on a video plugin that enables recording and managing highlights from Zoom calls. In our conversation with Richard, we dig deeper into his current venture Fathom Video. We talk about the problem its trying to solve, which is, simply put, note-taking during sales and customer support calls. Richard also discusses potential use cases for their software and addresses the risks related to building a product that is so closely connected to one specific platform.We also discuss Richard's fascinating startup journey, which starts with working on Kiko along with Justin Kan and Emmet Shear (who went on to found Twitch), going through the very first Y Combinator batch in 2005, selling Kiko on eBay for quarter million dollars, and eventually founding his first company User Voice.The User Voice days were still early days of startups in general, and Richard tells hilarious story of finding one of his co-founders on Craigslist. He also speaks on the division of labour between him and other co-founders, building the first MVP, incorporating and their first fundraising efforts.Richard also talks about his experience of doing Y Combinator as a repeat founder and shares battle-tested advice to first-time founders.

Jayce Hafner is the CEO and co-founder of FarmRaise, a startup streamlining the process for agricultural grants and funding. As someone who grew up on a family's farm, Jayce knows how difficult getting farm funding can be. Hence her decision to build FarmRaise and improve the access to funding for modernizing farm operations.In our conversation with Jayce, we dig deeper into the funding situation of small and medium American farms, as well as Jayce's story and how she ended up building FarmRaise.Jayce talks about how she met her co-founder while doing MBA research for her agricultural business studies, and how they've eventually decided to found FarmRaise. Jayce also shares how they've been able to leverage social media to get the initial traction with their customers.We also discuss the innovation happening in the agricultural space, and what software tools are useful for farmers. Jayce shares her insights regarding the future of the agriculture and food tech industry and highlights the most important challenges lying ahead of us.Follow Jayce

Nathan Morris is the co-founder and Chief Culture Officer of Filevine, a legal-tech company building software solutions to help law firms manage their clients' projects and documents. Nathan was a practicing attorney before realizing how many processes in the legal space can be improved with digitization. He decided to start Filevine along with fellow legal practitioners Jim Blake and Ryan Anderson, and solve many problems that came with an out-of-date way of doing things. In our conversation we discuss the initial vision behind Filevine, how the Iron Man movies inspired the original MVP, and how Nathan's company got their first paying customers. We also discuss the importance of customer feedback and the balancing act between staying on track with the product vision and satisfying feature requests from customers.Nathan also shares how they approached convincing legacy software users to switch, and speaks on the evolution and future of products in the legal tech space. We also discuss Filevine's acquisition of Outlaw, and how Nathan views the challenge of integrating another company's technology and culture into your own.

Ema Rouf is the co-founder of pave.dev - a fintech startup building cashflow API to analyze risk and build financial experiences. We talk about what pave.dev is building, and how their API helps other fintech companies understand and process their consumers' financial data.Ema also shares the founding story of pave.dev, and takes us back to her ad tech days, where she worked with her husband on social shopping widgets for Facebook. Ema also shares her take on what it's like being married to your co-founder and how that influences fundraising.We also chat about the process of building pave.dev during the pandemic, getting the first customers, and what's next on the roadmap.

Joshua Wöhle is a London-based founder and serial entrepreneur, currently building Mindstone — a platform that allows anyone to create a course by curating a playlist from articles, podcasts, videos, and other resources. Here are the topics that we talked about:- Getting first customers for Mindstone- Backstory of London's rise to prominence as the biggest startup hub in Europe- How startup ecosystems are created- Employee stock compensation in Europe and how it differs from US- Joshua's previous venture - Super Awesome, and a successful exit to Epic Games- Joshua's transition from being a fouder to also being an investor- The history of Super Awesome and building tools for children online privacy- Joshua's take on Facebook and Instagram being bad for kids- Joshua's advice to first-time founders

Tammy Camp is the CEO and co-founder of Stronghold, a financial infrastructure company that provides fast, secure, and accessible financial services through a simple API. Inspired by her previous entrepreneurial experiences across the technology and startup landscape, Tammy founded Stronghold in 2017 to bring better financial services to a broader range of market participants. Under her leadership, Stronghold also launched the highly successful digital currency SHx to provide real-time settlement, discounts in fees for business customers, and more, to its clients. Tammy was also the first Head of Growth for Stellar, the open-source payments platform for fiat and digital currencies. In this role, she helped the platform attract an astounding 4 million users within its first two months of operations. Tammy is a 2011 graduate of the Global Startup Program at Singularity University at NASA Ames and received her bachelor's degree from Georgia State University. She holds the kiteboarding world record for most completed back loops in one minute.In our conversation with Tammy, we cover:- Virtual payment networks and how they work- How Stronghold combines services of legacy payment rails like ACH or credit cards with modern payments infrastructure using blockchain, Stellar, Ripple, Solana or Ethereum- Tammy's startup journey, Singularity University, head of growth at Stellar, meeting her co-founder Sean Bennett, getting the idea for Stronghold- Interesting products built on top of Stronhold API's- The fundraising process for Strongold - Tammy's experience working with 500 Startups, and her take on why startups fail- Evolution and future of payment networks- Interesting fintech products currently on the market- Advice for first-time founders

Jon Edvald is the founder and CEO of Garden, an end-to-end cloud delivery platform that streamlines the process of building, deploying, and testing software applications. We chatted about Jon's startup journey, the development of startup ecosystems in Iceland and Germany, and why Jon's latest company is a Delaware C Corporation. We also discuss different taxation issues that European founders may face when selling their companies.Jon shares how he got the idea to build Garden and the difference in approach when building a startup for the second time. We dive deeper into the realm of DevOps and talk about challenges that developers face when building the backend of software applications.Jon also shares valuable advice for younger founders and talks about the importance of mental health, dealing with burnout, and maintaining the joy of building a company.

Emma Guo is the co-founder and CEO of Offsyte, a one-stop-shop for discovering and booking team-building events. We chat about the challenges that fully remote startups face when building company culture, pivoting and fundraising in the middle of the pandemic, and Emma's previous experience working as an early engineer for Lyft.Emma also discusses her startup journey, getting the idea for Offsyte, and finding the right co-founder. Emma also shares her insights regarding building a two-sided marketplace and using SEO to drive customer acquisition and brand awareness.As a female engineer, Emma gives her thoughts on the issue of diversity in a workplace and how startups should approach the recruitment process to not struggle with the gender gap later on.

This time on Startup Foundations, we chatted with Chris Van Pelt, co-founder of Weights & Biases and previously co-founder and CTO of CrowdFlower/Figure Eight. We talk about neural networking, autonomous vehicles, Chris' experience building two companies in the AI and machine learning space, and whether we have to worry about machines ever taking control over humans. Chris also shares his insights regarding different approaches to selling developer's tools and highlights the effectiveness of the bottom-up approach to customer acquisition, where the developers themselves are the ones driving the adoption. We ask Chris about ethical issues surrounding the development of AI, particularly in the space of autonomous vehicles, and whether we can expect to see the singularity within our lifespans. Chris also shares how he got into entrepreneurship, got his first check from investors, and explains the division of labor in a company with three co-founders.

In the first installment of Startup Foundations in 2022, we chat with Vera Kutsenko, co-founder & CEO of Neverland — a marketplace and an online community for houseplant enthusiasts.Vera explains where she got the idea to start Neverland, and discusses the process of building a two-sided marketplace connecting plant lovers with gardening shops across the US. She shares some details about the educational functionality of their app, which includes guidance and support around taking care of houseplants.Vera talks us through the process of building an online community in an almost cult-like space of houseplant aficionados, and how they've used the content-first strategy to validate what consumers want. She also shares what tactics worked for her in the fundraising stage, including tips on how to effectively cold email VCs.Vera and Greg also discuss the emotional relationship that people have to plants, where it comes from, and how Neverland tries to leverage that sentiment to appeal to the younger generation and ultimately contribute to building empathy and care for nature.

Yury Lifshits is a russian-born, SF-based mathematician, computer scientist, and serial entrepreneur, currently running Openland, a Y Combinator backed messaging platform for online communities.

Alison Greenberg co-founded Ruth Health along with Audrey Wu, to make pregnancy easier and provide better maternal care by offering at-home ultrasounds, pregnancy coaching and pelvic training. Their startup is currently a part of the S21 batch of Y Combinator.

Emily Dong is the founder and CEO of SnoutID, a software solution for streamlining veterinary practices and expanding access to pet healthcare. Emily, a pet owner herself, talked us through her startup journey that began with Pawprint, an app that allowed pet owners to manage their pets medical records. Emily eventually sold Pawprint as a YC-fellow and moved on to start SnoutID. Emily discussed what changed in her approach between Pawprint and SnoutID, the huge difference a business plan can make, and why she decided to give pet health another go. She speaks on the painful process of finding the product-market fit and shares her vision for SnoutID, including credit and insurance for pet owners. Emily and Greg also discuss fundraising practices, regulatory compliance in the pet care industry, other interesting companies in the pet health space, and whether or not it's a good idea for a dog to eat vegan.

Jake Gibson is the founding partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures and formerly co-founder and COO of NerdWallet, which he started with Tim Chen back in 2010. Jake talked to us about his professional journey, and what made him pursue a career in startups after spending a few years on a trading floor on Wall Street. As a COO and co-founder of NerdWallet, Jake has built a successful fin-tech business from the ground up. He shared some of the lessons learned along the way, including great SEO and content marketing tips.Jake also discusses how he ended up leaving NerdWallet to eventually take up startup investing full time. This resulted in co-founding Better Tomorrow Ventures, an early stage VC fund focused on fintech companies, along with Sheel Mohnot. Jake talks about their recent investments and details the intricacies of funding overseas startups.As a seasoned founder and investor Jake shares his insights about the common mistakes founders make when they pitch investors at the pre-seed stage, and explains the business model and incentives behind the venture capital funding. Jake also shares tips regarding fundraising pitch tactics and general advice for founders who are just getting started.

Jeff Wilson, also known as Professor Dumpster, is a former HBCU environmental science professor and a serial tech entrepreneur. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Jupe, a hardware startup that creates flat packed shelters and software platforms that operate off grid.As Professor Dumpster, Jeff has lived in a 33 sq. ft. modified trash dumpster as part of an environmental education and minimalist housing experiment. His work on sustainability and minimalism has been covered broadly by publications like Forbes, The Atlantic, NY Times, and The Washington Post.Jeff talked to us about his “Dumpster Project” as well as his previous and current startup ventures. As an entrepreneur, Jeff has founded and built a micro housing startup, Kasita, that was sold off in 2018. Jeff's latest company Jupe, has been a part of the recent Y Combinator batch, and Jeff also highlights what he learned from that experience.In our conversation with Jeff we also discuss the details of how his current product works, the challenges of building a hardware company, picking the right co-founder, and… fundraising at the urinals.

Analisa Goodin is the CEO & Founder of Catch&Release, a software platform that streamlines the discovery and licensing of content from social media and the open web. The startup has recently raised $14 million series A from Accel Ventures.Analisa, who has been working with ad agencies and brands for over a decade, talked to us about the hurdles of finding relevant and exciting content that's also ripe for licensing and commercial use, and how her company aims to simplify and automate a lot of the redundant steps in those processes. Catch&Release has been a bootstrapping affair for a few years, before leaning into venture capital, and Analisa talks about a unique leverage this has created for her company. We also touch upon the differences in running a startup vs an ad-agency and what types of content are licensable through Catch&Release's services. Analisa also discusses the challenges she faced scaling her business, the shift from bootstrapping to venture capital, recruiting for startups, the future of digital content production and shares her advice to first time founders: fall in love with what you're building!

Karn Saroya is the co-founder & CEO of Cover, a YC-backed insurance technology company that simplifies the process of getting property insurance and focuses on underserved communities.Karn talked to us about the inefficiencies of the property insurance industry and explained how introducing things like financial transaction history and elements of behavioral data results in a better risk segmentation, fair prices, and in many cases - access to the insurance in general.Karn also discusses how he left a career in finance for startups, and shares details of developing and selling StyleKick, a high-end fashion e-commerce business, to Shopify. Karn also details what made them decide to focus their efforts on young people and under-banked communities.Karn shares his thoughts on building a diverse workplace and challenges that startups face during the hiring process. He also talks about building a business with his wife and how that influenced their fundraising process for Cover.

This time on Startup Foundations, a conversation with Sari Azout, design-thinker, storyteller, angel investor, and founder of Startupy, a company building a community curated knowledge network for startup founders. Sari started her career in finance after graduating from Brown University, and eventually transitioned to tech. She talked to us about the idea of psychological freedom, or lack of thereof, resulting from the attention-based revenue generation models in social media. Sari discusses new, innovative ways of monetizing writing, and how phenomenons like crowdfunding or NFTs could positively impact content and creators.Sari also talks about the untapped potential of newsletters and writing on the internet, and shares examples of how she successfully monetizes her newsletter. Greg and Sari also discuss the regulatory side of the advertising-driven content distribution model, and how it can evolve in the upcoming years.Sari sums up her perfect startup employee as someone who can wear many hats, be autonomous with alignment, and put the company and the team ahead of their own ego.

Madeline Lauf is the founder and CEO of Begin Health - the toddler and kids nutrition health startup that empowers parents to optimize their kid's health and well-being.Madeline talked to us about transitioning from a career in finance to founding her own company Revolt Electrics — an e-bikes startup back in 2021. We chat about how Madeline first started working on Begin Health, and what was her inspiration to explore the kid's health industry. Madeline's current venture Begin Health is focused on developing tools to support young children's digestive health by providing better nutritional supplements. Madeline discusses the process she went through to find the first customers for Begin Health, and a shift in consumer mindset when it comes to science and products. We also chat about how Madeline went about raising money from investors, how being a repeat founder influenced the whole process, and what really helped her at this stage.Madeline sums up with some words of advice to first-time founders — never ever give up, and take strength from knowing that you're doing something that is greater than you.

Kanishka Maheshwari is the CEO and co-founder of InterPrime Technologies, a YCombinator backed startup offering a treasury management service for businesses to manage their money. Kanishka moved to the US to study at Carnegie Mellon and afterward joined Salesforce early in the lifecycle of the company. He sums up the key learnings from his tenure in Salesforce by emphasizing the importance of a customer-focused approach and treating customers as partners, that help you develop the right solutions. As a foreign founder, Kanishka talks about the advantages of registering a company in the States, the hurdles of the US immigration system, and how it could be changed to better accommodate non-US founders.Kanishka also discusses his current venture — InterPrime, and how he got the idea to democratize corporate treasury management, so not only big companies like Apple could keep their finances safe, liquid and get a market rate of return.Kanishka sums up the most important traits to look for in a co-founder — integrity, chemistry, and complementary skills, and shares his advice to first-time founders: prepare for a marathon, not a sprint; make your company resilient; listen to your customers.

Sònia Hurtado is the co-founder and chief scientist of Kuleana, a food startup focused on developing plant-based seafood alternatives. Sònia talks about her background as a food biotechnology researcher, and how she came to be interested in startups and decided to found Kuleana in 2019. Sònia shares her scientific perspective on the evolution of alternative meat products, including cell-based and plant-based alternatives, and discusses the state of 3D food printing technology.Sònia talks about meeting her co-founder Jacek Prus, and the environmental mission of Kuleana -- saving bluefin tuna species from extinction and limiting overfishing. Sònia and Greg discuss the importance of the meat alternatives market and its high potential for growth and innovation. Sònia also talks about a unique set of challenges facing biotechnology startups, like getting access to the lab space without spending a fortune on equipment.Sònia gives her thoughts on the startup landscape of her native Barcelona, the visa application process for overseas founders, and shares advice to scientists who want to transition into working in startups or becoming entrepreneurs.

James Lott is the founder and CEO of Script Health — an early-stage health-tech startup empowering pharmacies to revolutionize healthcare in the US. James talked to us about multiple ways in which pharmacies can provide access to healthcare in remote areas and communities that don't have hospitals or proper medical facilities, frequently preventing poor outcomes and even saving lives. A pharmacist himself, James discusses how he got the idea for Script Health, and what made him decide to quit his day job and focus on building a startup in a difficult and tightly regulated space like medicine. James shares some news regarding innovation happening in the digital health industry, and how the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of virtual care and highlighted the need for a change in healthcare policies and regulations.James also tells the story of how his company started as an online platform that allowed people to purchase a lifesaving opioid antidote Noloxone without a prescription. Eventually they had to pivot due to unsustainable business model and co-founder disputes, ultimately focusing on empowering pharmacies to provide more services.James and Greg also discuss startup accelerators, particularly Techstars and Y Combinator, and the specific cases in which they can be helpful to founders. James sums up his advice to other entrepreneurs: being passionate about what you're working on is a guarantee of longevity.

This time on Startup Foundations we host Carolyn Pitt, founder of productions.com, a job marketplace for film production that connects studios, music labels and corporate brands with local film crews. Carolyn explains how huge inefficiencies in hiring for film production in her native Atlanta inspired her to build a platform that leverages technology to make hiring easier, more diverse and more cost-effective. Carolyn discusses the entertainment industry landscape from the production perspective, how parts of it are still pretty archaic, and how the pandemic accelerated some necessary changes.Carolyn also breaks down her customer base and shares how she managed to quickly expand her business from Georgia to a few major cities in the US and Canada. She talks about some of the challenges she faced raising money as a non tech African-American woman founder based in Atlanta, and how her experience in an incubator and in accelerators helped her during the fundraising process.Carolyn chats about the success of Calendly influencing the startup scene in Atlanta, and gives her thoughts on what can be done to make the world of startups more inclusive. She also shares valuable advice for first-time founders who are based outside of the major startup centres like Silicon Valley or New York.

On this episode of Startup Foundations we talk to Jack Cohen Martin, co-founder and CEO of GrapeIn — a marketing automation and business networking platform for the wine and spirits supply chain.Jack talks about the differences between Israeli and US ecosystem, what motivated him to start his journey in that industry back in the 2000s, and how he ended up moving to New York. Jack and Greg discuss Jack's initial experiences in ad-tech, deep-fake technology, and how he got the idea to start working on a wine startup.Jack explains the complicated three-tier system that regulates how alcohol can be distributed and sold in the US, the limitations that exist within that supply chain. Jack also talks about how his company GrapeIn aims to solve this problem by creating a network of wholesalers, matching them with small trade buyers, and allowing them to track the distribution of their products across the US.Jack also shares some valuable insights for founders who are just starting out: be truly interested in what you're doing, and take time picking your first investors, because they're going to be on your cap table for a long time.

This time on Startup Foundations we chat with Kristen Wiley, founder and CEO of Statusphere — a marketplace that connects brands with influencers and streamlines the process of scaling influencer marketing campaigns.Kristen and Greg discuss the startup world in Florida and how Kristen's native Miami is becoming a new hotspot for startups. Kristen talks about her early fascination with marketing and the journey that took her from reselling purses on eBay, to becoming a CMO at a marketing agency and finally starting her own startup.We also discuss the space of influencer marketing - where the industry is headed, and why micro-influencers can drive more engagement than celebrity influencers with large followings. Kristen explains how Statusphere works and why social proofing, getting feedback, and building awareness are high priority for brands who are looking to scale up their business.Kristen shares how she managed to validate her product quickly, using just HubSpot, Wordpress and about $500. She discusses why doing the bare minimum to get your product out there as fast as possible is the way to go. As a solo first-time founder Kristen shares some of her learnings and advice to other founders who are just getting started: get started quick, fail, learn from it, and realize that nobody has it all figured out.