The Defiance_ Ventures Podcast

When Christian Giordano joined Mancini Duffy, he was attracted to working with a well established architecture firm with a top shelf list of customers and a stellar reputation. He would eventually take a majority ownership stake and help the company transform the industry by embracing technology. Christian hosts The Anti-Architect podcast. He and John discuss all of this and more in this episode.

Jeff is a podcast host and executive coach who focuses on helping executives perform better by improving their daily habits. In this episode Jeff tells his story of a life changing event that made him walk away from a successful corporate career to figure out how to improve his own health and effectiveness. He ultimately turned that into a business and a podcast. Oxygen Advantage Jeff's book YouTube Channel

Amy is the founder and CEO of AnswerLab, a design strategy firm that she started after working with a design-focused startup in Japan. In this episode she talks about starting and scaling AnswerLab. She discusses challenges that female founders face and also talks about her ongoing efforts to support diversity and inclusion. Amy created The Human-Centered Work Project in order to help companies embrace diversity and inclusion.

Mac has started multiple successful business in industries ranging from apparel to internet software to soccer agency and many others. He has six total exits and in this episode tells the story of how his career has shaped up. He also talks about his interest in blockchain, what role soccer has played in his life, and what he is currently working on.

Grant is one of the founder of Lucidworks, a leading search engine platform. In this episode he and John discuss the evolution of search and big data, starting a business with a group of friends, scaling that business and raising money, contributing to and starting new Apache open source projects, and becoming the CTO of Wikimedia and some of the unique challenges they face. Grant is an author and also hosts a podcast that explores careers in technology.

Laura is the Assistant Director at Ventureprise, an entrepreneurship center at UNCC. In this episode she discusses working on a radio show, creating a radio program for NASCAR, joining a startup, and eventually joining Ventureprise after working closely with it at her startup. She discusses entrepreneurship in Charlotte, building an ecoSystem, and shares lots of knowledge after years of working with students and founders.

Aaron is one of the founders of Opkalla, an IT services company based in Charlotte. In this episode Aaron talks about going out on his own, surviving a pandemic, and scaling a business in a rapidly changing IT landscape.

In this episode John talks with co-founder and CEO of Rent Ready, Jonathan Kite. Rent Ready is a turnkey solution for multi-family real estate owners. Jonathan discusses the origin story of the company, when he and two friends with very complementary skillsets came up with the concept and turned it into a reality. He discusses raising angel and VC capital and scaling a business during a global pandemic.

Blenheim Chalcot is the UK's leading venture builder and much of the inspiration for Defiance Ventures. In this episode Lee Arthur gives an overview of several of BC's portfolio companies. He also talks about what it takes to make it in early stage companies.

William hosts one of the most popular early stage investment podcasts in the SouthEast. In this episode he and John discuss angel investing in Charlotte, entrepreneurship broadly, and how the Charlotte early stage community has changed through the years.

BatteryXchange is a Charlotte-based startup that provides portable charging solutions for mobile devices in popular venues. Desmond is the founder and CEO. In this episode he describes the process that led him to create the company. He talks about building a supply chain in China, raising money, and the challenges that minority founders face throughout the process. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/batteryxchange_/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/batteryxchangetech LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/batteryxchange/ In the news: https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/inno/stories/news/2020/06/01/batteryxchange-founder-focuses-on-recharging.html

Matteo is a JavaScript expert, having created and maintained multiple open source frameworks including Pino and Fastify. Matteo is also a Technical Director at NearForm, a leading application development consultancy that focuses on JavaScript and Node.js in particular. In this episode Matteo talks about the popularity of JavaScript, speaking at conferences, and building open source frameworks. Matteo also talks about his popular newsletter, Adventures in Nodeland. LinkedIn Twitter

Juston Burris talks in this episode with John about making it in the NFL and planning for the future. Juston purchases and up-fits homes in towns that he knows and turns them into income producing short term rentals.

Cassmer is the founder of multiple companies throughout his career. He is also a professor at Queens University and hosts a popular entrepreneurship video series. He also has written a book on cost accounting.

Chris is one of the founders of Global Wired Advisors, an investment bank with a particular focus on e-commerce. In this episode Chris discusses starting Global Wired Advisors with partners, watching COVID unfold and the incredible effects it had on his clients, and he talks about growing, scaling, and exiting an e-commerce business.

Farhan is the founder and general manager at Axcelinno, a software consulting shop based in Dallas and Charlotte. In this episode he and John discuss the growth of open source, the disruption of public and hybrid clouds, OpenShift, and the Red Hat/IBM acquisition.

C-Trax is a cannabis POS solution developed by the founding team of Sean and Kiah Tolliver and Michael Clinton. In this interview, the team talks about weed legalization, social justice, raising money as minority founders, and the future of legalization in this country and globally

Steve has founded, invested in, run, and exited multiple companies through the years. He is the founder of All-In to Fight Cancer. In this episode he talks about his philosophy on business, work life balance, fitness, and especially on the progress being made against cancer.

Duncan operates multiple companies related to marketing and sales. In this episode he explains how he started each company and where he is taking them.

Tony decided to build a subscription news service focused hyper-locally on Charlotte. In this episode he talks about new business models in media enabled by Substack. He talks about creating a free service and converting it into paid. And the two discuss the changing landscape of tech and media broadly.

Meggie joins John for her second appearance to talk about pivoting during a pandemic and having to dig deep. She also talks about the various stages of fundraising as the company has matured. She also discusses growth strategy as we come out of lockdown.

John discusses the various ways he seeks to improve his health. This includes a fairly extensive list of supplements, self quantification devices and tests, dietary approaches, mindfulness, and hormetic stressors.

Dr Pizzorno is a Naturopathic Doctor and the founder and director of Bastyr University, founder and director of the Institute for Functional Medicine, and editor in chief of PubMed Indexed IMCJ. He has authored 13 books as well. In this episode he and John discuss functional medicine (also known as naturopathic medicine) and its history in the United States. They talk about detoxification and why it is so important to health. The Toxin Solution

In this episode John discusses how it is often more important to "get in the game" than to figure out every detail and wait for perfection.

In this episode John interviews Kyle Hepp, founder of Boxmagic, the leading gym management software platform in Latin America. John and Kyle discuss starting a gym in Chile as an American female and then starting a software business to support gyms. They also discuss handling the business in a pandemic when gyms were forced to shut down.

Jeff is the founder of PairPEO, a PEO brokerage that helps clients save money on health and dental benefits. In this episode he explains how PEOs work and why they are so popular, and he talks about scaling a business through building his network meticulously.

Bobby is the founder of IntellyDoc, a contract management system. He also is an attorney with a history in M&A and a current focus on social media influencers. In this episode he gives the background on building IntellyDoc and selling it to Defiance. He also talks about challenges minorities face in law and entrepreneurship and how to turn those challenges into opportunities. He also discusses emerging legal issues related to social media influencers.

The founders of 2ULaundry came back to the studio to chat about a pivot, managing during a crisis, how their board of directors helped them react to COVID, and the future of laundry.

In this episode John sits down with Stu Brauer, his first guest on the show and now his first repeat guest. They cover a wide range of topics including workout modalities, using workouts to mentally prep for a tough day, franchising vs licensing, the changes at CrossFit HQ in 2020, and a host of other topics. Stu also talks about navigating the pandemic while also balancing three different pillars of his fitness empire.

Jim has been involved in and started numerous organizations throughout the Southeastern United States. He currently runs an entrepreneurial network and an angel fund in Wilmington, NC. In this episode Jim talks about starting eco-systems, the wild success Wilmington is currently having, early stage funding, and gives his thoughts on how NC cities can collaborate better. He also talks about a lot of great resources for founders. Here are a few of his favorites: NC Tech Association NC IDEA RIOT Dig South CED And a newsletter Articles about Wilmington's tech/startup scene: https://hypepotamus.com/feature/whats-up-with-wilmington-nc-the-small-city-with-surprisingly-strong-startup-roots/ https://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/technology/2020/07/17/fostering_a_startup_ecosystem/20639 https://digsouth.com/2020/06/15/southern-coastal-cities-need-to-attract-more-resources-for-entrepreneurs-and-tech-talent-will-follow/ Jim hosts a wonderful podcast here and a local startup news feed here (Twitter for news feed). Follow Jim on Twitter or NEW on Facebook

West Kept Secret is a boutique gym that combines cardio with pilates and strength training in a High Intensity Interval (HIIT) format. In this interview John interviews Marissa West and Heidi Hillman. They discuss how Marissa parlayed her experience as a Panthers cheerleader into doing personal training and then partnering with Heidi as a client. The two talk about why they work well together and how they've scaled the business. They also dig into specific fitness and nutritional advice. They discuss opening a gym in a pandemic and how the pandemic forced them to rethink digital/virtual/streaming.

Kuika is an innovative low code suite of tools that allow enterprises and divisions to build better, faster software. In this episode John is joined by Sy Ciliv, owner of Kuika. They discuss the industry, the biggest challenges large companies face, building an international business, and how Sy was able to leverage his experiences leading some of the biggest teams and companies in the world. Sy mentioned Boys in the Boat as a very good read for any leader.

Gower is a serial entrepreneur. He has founded multiple companies in the US, New Zealand, and Australia. Defiance Ventures led an investment round in Swyft, his most recent creation. Swyft is the global leader in unattended retail. In this article he and John discuss what it takes to start multiple companies, modern trends in retail, growing an international business, and many other related topics. Gower often gifts this book about William H Pickering.

Yigit is the founder of Vela Partners, a Bay Area based Venture Capital fund focusing on AI and machine learning. It has developed very interesting AI technology to help it find the best investment opportunities in the space. Yigit tells his story about joining Google early on and how he parlayed that into building a world class VC fund.

Emir Dukic owns Rabbu, a short term rental commercial real estate startup in Charlotte. In this episode John and Emir discuss going out on his own, the short term rental market, being flexible in the COVID-19 era, and working with AirBNB.

HoneyFi is a couple's financial planning platform. In this episode John interviews its CEO and founder, Ramy Serageldin. Ramy talks about starting a company after learning from a high flying fintech success story from very early on. He shares insights into the payments industry and gives indispensable guidance to any would be startup founder.

Jack Ossa owns Ossa Studio which designs commercial real estate projects and has branched into marketing services and even software development. He also hosts the Power of Design Podcast. In this episode John and Jack dig into his business, how he got started, and where he wants to take it.

Mike is a technologist who has been working at big banks and recently started his own consultancy where he advises startups on partnering with banks and on cyber security. In this episode he interviews John about his history and what he's doing with Defiance. They discuss what makes products successful and what things entrepreneurs need to be able to do in order to be successful.

Ivan Barajas Vargas is the founder of MuukTest, a TechStars 2020 company that provides a comprehensive automated software testing solution. In this episode John and Ivan talk about lessons learned working for one of the biggest enterprise software companies in the world and building a product and company to solve problems encountered along the way.

In this episode John interviews JP Conklin, founder of Pensford and LoanBoss. Pensford was his first company and it is a financial services company providing derivatives for commercial real estate owners. From what he learned in building and scaling Pensford JP identified a set of software tools that were not supported well by existing PropTech vendors. This lead to the creation of LoanBoss, a software platform that helps commercial real estate owners leverage their data to make better loan decisions. JP talks about building a software product without a technical background, trends in commercial real estate, what the data tell him about COVID, and his background jumping from his dream corporate job to going out on his own. He also talks about his own philosophy on managing two distinct but related companies.

In this episode John is interviewed by David Wells, founder of the New Years Revolutionary Podcast. The sound volume level is a little low as this was the first episode recorded in the Defiance Ventures studio since COVID, but David asks John about his history and philosophy on building scalable businesses.

In this episode John interviews the couple behind popular NoDa restaurants Haberdish, Crepe Cellar, Growlers, and Reigning Donuts. In this episode Jeff and Jamie discuss starting a restaurant during a recession and financial crisis, growing into multiple restaurants, driving innovation on both the culinary and mixology in one of Charlotte's top neighborhoods, and then opening a new concept in a new neighborhood (Supperland in Plaza Midwood) during a global pandemic and local shutdown. Jamie and Jeff mentioned finding inspiration and guidance from Setting the Table and You are a Badass.

In this episode John interviews Derek Holt, president of K4Connect, a tech company that is transforming the way nursing homes and assisted living communities serve their customers. Derek covers a lot of ground ranging from transitioning from IBM to a startup community to actual startups. He also talks about scaling a business during the COVID pandemic. Books that Derek likes: Challenger Sales Model Measure What Matters

Avidxchange is one of the most well known startups in Charlotte. It has been recognized for many awards and has raised over $1 billion of capital. In this episode John interviews Chris Elmore, one of Avid's first employees. Chris talks about the early days at Avid, scaling it, raising multiple rounds of capital from big name investors across the US, keys to sales success, and also talks about the classes he teaches in NC. John talked about Jeff Bezos's day one letter Chris likes the How I Built This podcast Chris also likes The Pitch podcast

Nina is an impressive young entrepreneur who created a safety app while in under grad to address a problem that she and her friends could not find a good solution for. She talks about building an app without a technical background through a partnership and what she had to do to figure out how to build a company around it. Her company Grooop is an app that makes it easy to let friends and family know when a person is safe versus in transit and to discretely notify others when one might be in danger. It strikes a delicate balance between privacy and security, which is a topic that has taken on increasing significance as society grapples with topics such as contact tracing. Here are many of the resources that John and Nina discussed throughout the interview: Nina's development partner out of Durham - Smashing Boxes UNC's Adam's Apprenticeship Program Vital Voices Non Profit Girlboss Female Founder Collective Project Scientist Hooked - how to build habit forming apps Founders Live Carolina Challenge Launch Chapel Hill Greensleeve Check out the video on the Defiance_ YouTube Channel

John interviews Neeta Kirpalani. Neeta left a successful career in healthcare to become an independent consultant and her practice has thrived. She also invests her time in Healthtech Women and Springboard Enterprise's Women's Health Tech Hub. Neeta talks about building a branding strategy, building a team to support her efforts and scale, and moving from a career in non profits to healthcare. She also talks about the value of an MBA to an entrepreneur. Resources that Neeta likes: Carolina Health Innovators Society of Physician Entrepreneurs HIMSS Bootcamps at UNCC Tech Talent South IASA

In this episode John interviews Lauren McAbee, founder of Essential Thrive, a holistic health company focusing on essential oils and Chakti Yoga, a yoga form she created that combines dancing moves with Yoga. Lauren talks about the health benefits of Yoga, why she created her own form, and also about going virtual and actually increasing revenue. She discusses thinking about going virtual and COVID-19 forcing her hand and she also talks about how much more scalable the business model is. Lauren also talked about her personal regimen including sauna, drinking mineral water from springs, and also talks about being a vegan. Essential Thrive on Instagram Lauren shares her playlists on Spotify. They are awesome!

Jordan started and runs a company that infuses vitamins and other transdermal products into fabrics. His business recently was featured on Fox News resulting in a massive increase in sales of anti-microbial copper infused surgical masks. In this episode he talks about starting the business while at the University of Washington, moving the business to North Carolina, and the massive scaling required when the business took off because of the COVID crisis. Jordan came to North Carolina for the Manufacturing Solutions Center in Conover, NC John mentioned the recent Andreesen article on building. Bezos's article on being a day 1 company Jordan recommends Emotional Intelligence 2.0 Jordan recommends Crossing the Chasm Jordan recommends Play Bigger John's reading list post Jordan recommends 10% happier

In this episode John interview Linda Nash, a serial entrepreneur from Richmond, VA. Linda discusses starting and exiting three businesses prior to starting WellcomeMD, she explains proactive vs reactive medicine, she talks about concierge and executive medicine, and she goes into how the medical industry has changed through the past two decades. John and Linda also discuss some of the challenges that women face in finding female mentors. Linda gives some very interesting statistics about how VCs and PE funds treat women founders differently, and she talks about what men can do to help overcome some of the biases that prevent there from being a more diverse pool of entrepreneurs. Linda also talks about running a business during the COVID pandemic and how she thinks things might change. Women & VC Funding: https://qz.com/work/1372843/quartz-analyzed-the-top-female-founders-to-understand-why-their-companies-are-worth-just-20-of-mens/ Exercise & Immune Health: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/how-to-boost-your-immune-system https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/health/immunity-exercise-sleep-meditation-stress-coronavirus-drayer-wellness/index.html

Dino Carter, a brand and marketing consultant, interviews John in this episode for a video series he hosts.  They talk a lot about running a business and raising money during a pandemic and also cover technological and business changes that may come out of the current COVID crisis.  They also talk about the startup scene in North Carolina.

In this episode John interviews Dain Dulaney, partner at Bishop Dulaney Joyner. Dain is an attorney focusing on startups in Charlotte. In this episode he discusses legal mistakes founders make, investing in companies, raising capital, selling companies, legal entity selection, the key to writing a good Operating Agreement, and many other interesting topics related to the legal side of startups. He also gives great advice on hiring the right law firm.