Talking Startups at NYU

In this episode of Talking Startups, my guest is Alyssa Petersel (Silver '17), founder of My Wellbeing. Her platform is designed to help people find the best therapist according to their needs. We dive into what therapy actually is, and explore the narratives through which we view the world. We talk about trauma, stigma around mental health, and what will need to change for mental wellbeing access to scale.

My guest today Is Joshua Sakhai one of the 4 active co-founders of Ephemeral, a company designing a tattoo ink which disappears over time. This ink is not yet out on the market, as the product is still in the development phase. However, as you will hear the product relies on an ingenious redesign of the ink particles, which break down over time and ultimately disappear completely. In this episode we discuss the organizational implications of trying to navigate the front-loaded ,heavy, R&D lift that these type of innovative products require. It’s also interesting to hear how Josh as a 21 year old ,currently on a leave of absence from NYU, is managing the expectations of being in the pre-product phase for a good that may potentially revolutionize the multi-billion dollar industry that is tattoo ink. I hope you enjoy the show. And as always you can follow us on iTunes or Soundcloud or follow us on social media, just look up NYU Entrepreneurial Institute on Fb or Twitter.

This week we talked with Michael Lebowitz, a guest lecturer at NYUStern, about the pros and cons of building an award-winning advertising agency without a business degree. Additionally we focused on the profound changes that have been occurring through out the advertisement industry in the last 15 years and how Big Spaceship has evolved to negotiate these new challenges.

In this episode my guest is Meika Hollander the founder of the female sexual health products 'Sustain Natural'.This feels like quite a timely conversation in the age of #MeToo . We broach topics like how important contraception and female is to closing the gender wage and opportunity gap, as well as the sociological root of the orgasm gap.

This week we talked with Guy Story, Founding CTO at Audible, about what happened in the 80s when audio met digital, and how Audible made audiobooks a thing. If you want to hear more about the human stories which underpin some of todays biggest startups follow us here on Soundcloud or in the Itunes app.

“Season 2, episode 3 of #TalkingStartups #Podcast: We talked with Kunal Mehta, author of the book Disruptors and Venture Associate at the NYU venture fund, about why failing is essential and inescapable in any startup. He reminds us to fail fast and learn quickly.

Season 2, episode 2 of TalkingStartups Podcast: Founder of the beauty product company EOS, Jonathan Teller, talks about identifying a market opportunity to re-inventing the common lip balm. Hear his philosophy on the risks & rewards of innovating in the beauty industry.

For this weeks episode we are talking to Estee Goldschmidt, the founder of ShopDrop. She founded this company when she discovered how exciting it is was to save money shopping at sample sales. She wanted to share that high with others so she founded a platform with which users can find sample sales in their area. We also explore how she has learnt to cope with the stresses of starting a business versus following a more traditional corporate career.

I had a lot of fun talking with Caren Maio, founder of the real estate tech platform, Nestio. The conversation centered around what she feels is the underpinning of any entrepreneurial success: passion. Caren sees her commitment to product, people and industry as the fundamental component of Nestio's growth engine.

Today I am talking to J.G and Taffi ayodele, about their fashion company Thando’s. Thando’s produces colorful foldable flats that are heavily influenced by African craftsmanship, especially Nigerian Ankara fabrics. Today we discuss to what extents it makes sense to speak of Africa as a whole, the new phenomenon of crowdsourcing designs, and how the social aspect of their venture has turned out to be central to their success.

In this episode I am talking to Jason Green about Edenworks, a company which is revolutionizing farming by producing leafy greens, which are healthier both for the customers and the planet. We discuss the rise of a unique indoor farming technique called aquaponics, the importance of treating soil like an evolving and changing eco-system and the difficulties of scaling a business which leverages one of a kind technology.

Today I am talking to Lisbeth Kaufman, founder of a market place which film makers can use to rent film equipment called KitSplit. We talk about the importance of creating community around one's platform, the on-going democratization of art and how Ron Jeremy become her first major star endorsement

In the episode I am talking to Nayeem Hussein about the company he co-founded called Keen home. We discuss the upside of being a tech company rather then a product company. He also elaborates on how he thinks smart appliances will change the very way in which we approach home building.

Today I am talking to Susannah Villa about her sub-leasing platform, Flip. In this episode we discuss the implications of short term rentals on cities with housing shortages, as well as her crusade to give people the freedom to live where they want and when they want it.

In this episode I talk to Ken Perlin, a computer science professor at the NYU Courant Institute and chief scientific advisor to two startups. The first is Holojam, a company which creates shareable VR spaces that allow you to hang out with your friends in virtual environments. The second is Tactonic Technologies which creates weight sensing mats that allow people to interact with VR platforms. We talk about the growth of consumer VR and AR, the next big thing in the world of technology and the importance of properly educating and nurturing the next generation of engineers.

Today I am talking to Alexandra Diracles about the ed-tech platform she founded called Vidcode. We discuss the importance of teaching coding to young kids and the tools and assets that exist to help women entrepreneurs overcome existing gender biases.

In this episode I am talking to Darren Yee and Christopher Lysiuk, the co-founders of a construction management software company called Acculis. We talk about how to transition from part-time to full time entrepreneur, how to deal with doubt and what they think the right way to teach entrepreneurship is.

It was great to have Frank Rimalovski on for the first episode of Talking Startups at NYU!! Frank is the executive director of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute and the Managing Director of NYU Innovation Venture Fund. In this episode, we talk about the need to get out of the building and test your ideas, as well as common mistakes student entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them.