Podcasts about google ventures

Venture capital unit of Alphabet Inc.

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Best podcasts about google ventures

Latest podcast episodes about google ventures

The Glossy Beauty Podcast
Why Midi Health is expanding into 'hormone-informed skin care' with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kathleen Jordan, MD

The Glossy Beauty Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2026 32:52


Midi Health is betting on topical skin care and body care as it diversifies its telehealth offerings to capture more women. “Women in midlife go through amazing changes with their hormones, … [and] our skin care needs actually change over time with our hormone evolution,” Dr. Kathleen Jordan, MD, chief medical officer of Midi Health, told Glossy. “I usually talk about [this care expansion] as ‘hormone informed skin care' because that's really what the market's been lacking.”  That is, skin care that treats a variety of skin concerns that can develop in mid-life such as dryness, loss of collagen, hyperpigmentation, and acne.  “We saw patients for many years without having [skin-care] products, but what we saw was them struggling to get good products that were actually designed for them,” Dr. Jordan said. “We now see tens of thousands of women every week, and we actually hear from them. We hear their questions. We understand where they're struggling to get products that actually are meaningful [for their skin concerns], and then in response, we can develop products that actually help them.”  For Midi Health, this means offering prescription and OTC products with ingredients like estrogen, retinol, hydroquinone and tretinoin. In June, Midi expanded its skin-care selection to include topical copper peptides. According to Dr. Jordan, this is just the start for the company. Midi Health launched in 2021 and currently treats around 25,000 women per week. Oftentimes, this includes care for issues dismissed by the traditional medical industry, like fatigue, weight gain, mood and sleep disturbance, which can be treated with things like hormone replacement therapies or other OTC and prescription interventions.  Midi Health is privately held by its founders plus investors like Connie Britton, Brandi Chastain, Tory Burch, Amy Schumer, and Meghan Markle, as well as private equity firms like Google Ventures and Emerson Collective, plus a laundry list of tech execs including Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Meta, and Tekedra Mawakana, the co-CEO of Waymo. Midi Health was valued at $1 billion following a $100 million series D funding round in February.  Glossy West Coast correspondent Lexy Lebsack sat down with Dr. Jordan to discuss Midi Health's skin- and body-care aspirations, the category's role in telehealth in the future, and how Midi Health hopes to earn more market share. 

Ini Koper
#1027 Belajar Sprint Strategy

Ini Koper

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2026 7:56


Metode Design Sprint (dikembangkan oleh Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, dan Braden Kowitz dari Google Ventures) menawarkan jalan keluar dari jebakan wacana ini. Kerangka kerja 5 hari yang terstruktur—Senin hingga Jumat—memungkinkan tim untuk memangkas debat berbulan-bulan menjadi eksperimen konkret dalam hitungan hari. Mari kita belajar bersama.

IDEAS+LEADERS
311. How Great Leaders Build Great Teams - Maximos Lih

IDEAS+LEADERS

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2026 35:42


In this episode of the IDEAS+LEADERS Podcast, I'm joined by Maximos Lih, executive coach and founder of Emboldened LLC. After starting his career at Google, Maximos spent nearly a decade at Google Ventures, where he helped hundreds of founders scale their companies and leadership.We explore what it really takes to build high-performing teams, why founders often become bottlenecks as their companies grow, and how leaders can move from being the “hero” who solves every problem to the “host” who creates the conditions for others to thrive. In this episode, we discuss:How founders can recognize when they have become the bottleneckWhat it means to move from “hero” to “host” as a leaderHow your team's behavior can become a mirror of your leadershipWhy trust and exceptional talent matter when building great teamsHow leaders can create clarity in fast-growing organizationsTune in for a practical conversation about leadership, high-performing teams, scaling organizations, and creating the conditions for people to do their best work.You can connect with Maximos here: linkedin.com/in/maximoslih Thank you for joining me on this episode of IDEAS+LEADERS. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review so that more people can enjoy the podcast on Apple https://apple.co/3fKv9IH or Spotify https://sptfy.com/Nrtq.

Profiles in Leadership
Maximos Lih, Great Leaders Evolve from Heroes to Hosts

Profiles in Leadership

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2026 54:20


Maximos Lih is an Executive Coach and founder of Emboldened LLC, where he helps small teams scale without losing their edge and leaders grow with purpose and trust. His leadership philosophy was shaped by his grandfather—a self-taught orphan who became a four-star general—who taught him that true greatness is measured by how you make people feel. After immigrating to the U.S. and graduating from UC Berkeley, Maximos joined Google, where he specialized in recruiting top engineering talent before moving to Google Ventures. There, he guided hundreds of founders through rapid growth, witnessing companies like Uber and Flatiron Health scale at remarkable speed. Today, he draws on those experiences to coach the next generation of leaders in building mission-driven, high-performing teams.      

Beyond Users
How to Work Out What You Actually Want From Your Design Career

Beyond Users

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2026 26:58


Everybody thinks they know what matters to them. Then you ask them, and they can't tell you.Daniel Burka has stood at more career crossroads than most: Digg, Glitch (which became Slack), a company sold to Google, five years at Google Ventures, then eight years in global public health. Every time the stakes got high, he reached for the same thing: Job Rank, a weighted-scoring spreadsheet for choosing your next role. In this episode he opens the real template on screen and walks through exactly how it works, for designers, product people, and anyone in tech staring at a hard career decision.We get into:Why the spreadsheet isn't really the tool: 90% of the value is being forced to write down what you value and rank itIf everything's important, nothing's important: how the weighting forces the trade-offs a pros and cons list politely avoidsThe moment the sheet told Daniel something his ego didn't want to hear about a big role at GoogleHow the tool travels with you: same values, different weights, as your life changesWhere AI fits into a decision that should stay humanGET THE TEMPLATEFree to copy, in Daniel's full write-up: https://www.hardproblems.com/articles...LINKSHard Problems, helping designers and people in tech find work that matters: https://www.hardproblems.comd.MBA, business education for designers: https://d.mba00:15 – What this episode is about02:10 – Daniel's career crossroads04:15 – Job Rank: it's just a spreadsheet04:40 – Writing down what matters to you06:25 – Weighting each value (and why not everything's a 5)09:50 – Scoring the jobs you're considering11:20 – Scoring jobs that don't exist yet13:10 – How to make your own job16:50 – The Google role his ego wanted19:10 – Why 90% of the value is just writing it down21:10 – Hard Problems: work that actually matters25:05 – Jobs that matte

Future Fit Leadership
What Happens When AI Does Half The Thinking with Maximos Lih

Future Fit Leadership

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2026 46:04


Technology is changing faster than leadership. As AI reshapes the way we work, many organisations are focused on becoming more efficient. But what if they're asking the wrong question? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, I sit down with executive coach and former Google Ventures leader Maximos Lih for a thoughtful conversation about what leadership looks like when AI does more of the thinking, and why the future belongs to leaders who become more human, not less. Maximos shares the remarkable story of his grandfather, an orphan who taught himself to read before rising to become a four-star general, and the leadership lesson that has shaped his entire career: great leaders are remembered not for the positions they hold, but for the lives they change. Drawing on years of coaching founders and high-growth companies, Maximos explains why leaders become the bottleneck in their own organisations, why start-ups should think more like Olympic teams than championship teams, and why copying companies like Google often leads businesses down the wrong path. Together, we explore why trust, storytelling, imagination and clarity will become the defining leadership capabilities of the next decade, why AI should free people to do more meaningful work rather than simply make them more productive, and why the most important question every leader should ask is not "What can AI do?" but "What can only humans do?" If you're leading people through growth, change or uncertainty, this conversation will challenge the way you think about leadership and leave you with a simple but powerful reminder: the future may be powered by AI, but it will still belong to leaders who know how to bring out the very best in people.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)
Wesley Chan on Building 100-Year Companies and Investing Against Consensus

Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 31, 2026 48:56


The companies that define an era often appear irrational before they appear inevitable. In this episode of Technoventure, Peter High speaks with FPV Ventures Co-Founder & Managing Partner Wesley Chan about building products at Google, founding Google Ventures, investing against consensus, and recognizing founders with 100-year visions. Wesley explains how first-principles thinking helped him identify companies such as Canva and why the most important investment question may be, “What if it goes right?” They also explore: Why Google prioritized speed and relevance over keeping users on its site How Google Ventures aligned corporate capital with founder interests What Wesley saw in Canva after 111 investors said no Why specialized data can create more durable AI businesses How Bill Campbell taught leaders to protect their time and energy Why incentives frequently matter more than policies or intentions Listen for an operator-investor's perspective on product excellence, AI investing, organizational design, and building companies capable of outliving their founders.

Space Business Podcast
#171 | An Exchange for the Space Sector | Tejpaul Bhatia, Nebex

Space Business Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2026 69:48


 Nebex is a new exchange for the global space sector. It just came out of stealth recently, but it already raised a $30 million seed round led by Google Ventures. The co-founder and CEO, Tejpaul Bhatia, is our guest for this episode. Enjoy.    TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Podcast Intro 1:45 – Elevator Pitch 3:01 – The Problem: Cross-Border Space Friction 15:06 – Real-World Examples incl. Axiom 34:04 – The Product: Exchange vs. Marketplace 37:40 – Business Model 50:41 – Regulation, Market Making 55:48 – Product Timeline & Alpha Launch 5:59 – Onboarding Space Founders 1:01:13 – What Else Is Exciting in Space? 1:03:57 – Nebex name origin 1:06:45 – Favorite Science-Fiction  

The Tech Blog Writer Podcast
What Responsible AI Looks Like in Practice with Complyance

The Tech Blog Writer Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2026 21:38


What does responsible AI actually look like once you move beyond the headlines and start deploying it inside highly regulated businesses? In this episode, I speak with Richa Kaul, Founder and CEO of Complyance, about one of the biggest challenges facing enterprise AI today: building systems that people can trust. As companies race to adopt AI across every part of the business, governance, risk management, and compliance are no longer back-office functions. They are becoming central to every conversation about innovation. Richa shares the personal experiences that inspired her to build Complyance, from her work in public sector technology and legal AI to her long-standing passion for data privacy. We discuss why trust has become one of the defining themes of enterprise AI and why businesses must think beyond their own AI initiatives to also understand the risks introduced by third-party vendors. One of the most interesting parts of our conversation focuses on the difference between compliance and risk. Rather than viewing compliance as a box-ticking exercise or a cost center, Richa explains why AI has brought risk discussions directly into the boardroom. Business leaders are now asking deeper questions about how customer data is handled, how AI decisions are governed, and what safeguards need to exist before new technologies are deployed at scale. We also explore how AI is changing governance itself. Traditional compliance has often relied on manual reviews and simple pass-or-fail checks, but Complyance is applying agentic AI to introduce greater context and human-like judgment into governance workflows. Richa explains how that approach is helping reduce manual effort while allowing teams to focus on higher-value risk decisions rather than repetitive administrative work. Our conversation also covers practical advice for companies introducing AI into regulated environments. From evaluating third-party vendors and defining acceptable risk thresholds to adopting emerging AI standards and maintaining transparency throughout the process, Richa offers thoughtful guidance for leaders trying to balance innovation with accountability. Along the way, we also discuss Complyance's recent $20 million Series A investment led by Google Ventures and what that recognition means for the company's mission to modernize governance, risk, and compliance with AI. If your business is investing in AI while trying to strengthen trust, transparency, and responsible innovation, this episode offers a timely look at how governance is evolving alongside the technology itself. As AI becomes embedded into more business processes, how is your company building trust while still giving teams the freedom to innovate?

Sales POP! Podcasts
Is AI Coming for Your Job? Maximos Lih Says It's Not

Sales POP! Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2026 22:13


Maximos Lih, founder and CEO of Emboldened LLC and former Google Ventures operating partner, explains how leaders win in the agentic age by treating AI failure as a business opportunity rather than a layoff equation. He shows how IKEA reskilled 8,500 service agents to build a $1.4 billion interior design business rather than cutting headcount. Connect with Maximos: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximoslih/

AI and the Future of Work
394: Dr. Muthu Alagappan, CEO of Counsel Health: Democratizing Primary Care with Semi-Autonomous AI

AI and the Future of Work

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2026 38:22


Send us Fan MailDr. Muthu Alagappan is the Founder and CEO of Counsel Health, the company automating access to high-quality, personalized medical advice from doctors. Counsel recently closed a $25M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures, following an $11M seed round that included A16Z, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Floodgate Fund, and Pear VC.He holds an MD from Stanford Medicine and a B.S. in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford, and was among the earliest AI researchers to publish on clinical applications of machine intelligence.In this episode, Muthu draws on 15 years at the intersection of AI research and frontline clinical medicine to explore the shift toward semi-autonomous care.In this conversation, we discuss:How AI addresses the limitations of traditional primary care by offering a highly personalized, knowledgeable, and always available medical experience.Why patients might leapfrog clinicians in their willingness to adopt AI for medical advice, and how this shift challenges the traditional identity of physicians.What semi-autonomous care actually looks like in practice, and how Counsel Health uses a clinician cockpit to augment human compassion with real-time machine intelligence.How to leverage population-level patterns without compromising patient privacy.Why the double standard applied to AI is misplaced, and why Muthu argues we should hold AI to a much higher benchmark than human doctors simply.What the future of global healthcare could look like when cognitive medical expertise is fully democratized, ensuring that a patient's zip code no longer dictates the quality of care they receive.Explore the Conversation00:00 Intro & AI Fun Fact: Big Data Limitations and Bias in Clinical AI03:52 Meet Dr. Muthu Alagappan: From Stanford AI Researcher to Counsel Health CEO06:51 Why Primary Care Falls Short: The Case for AI-Augmented Medicine09:05 Human Doctors Are Human: How Patients Are Adopting AI Medical Advice12:20 Patient Privacy and Population Health: Learning Without Training on Data14:17 Inside the Clinician Cockpit: Real-Time AI Support for Doctors16:17 Why Counsel Health Employs Its Own Physicians: Messaging-Based Care19:00 From Semi-Autonomous to Fully Autonomous Care: Healthcare's Next Era24:19 AI Ethics in Medicine: Safety Standards, Model Values, and Data Ownership27:22 The AI Double Standard: Why Machines Deserve a Higher Benchmark Than Doctors31:07 Founder Lessons: Building a Category-Defining Healthcare AI Company33:53 Rewriting the Commencement Address: Medicine as Lifelong Learning35:37 Where to Connect with Dr. Muthu Alagappan and Counsel HealthResourcesSubscribe to the AI & The Future of Work NewsletterConnect with Muthu on LinkedInAI fun fact article: Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: The Ethical Frontier via ConexiantOn the future of AI, Silicon Valley and Venture Capital LIVE EVENT: See how leading enterprises are using agentic AI to give employees back 4–6 productive hours every week. Join PeopleReign CEO Dan Turchin for a live demo on June 25, 2026.Register here: https://go.peoplereign.io/live-demo-how-agentic-ai-is-being-used-by-global-enterprises

Beyond A Million
231: The New Rules of Building a $100M Company with Roger Neel

Beyond A Million

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2026 64:42


Roger Neel sold his SaaS company at $100M+ ARR, took three hours off, and dove straight into a health tech startup backed by Google Ventures and Dexcom. In this conversation, Roger breaks down the full arc — from founding Mavenlink in the teeth of the 2008 financial crash, to grinding through 13 years of customer base churn, fundraising rounds, and eventually selling to PE. He also shares what he'd do completely differently if he were starting today with AI tools at his disposal to build a 9-figure business. We get into his framework for evaluating whether a business is actually defensible (he calls it the 3 Ds), why most SaaS companies don't need a moat until they're past $10M, what really happens when you sell to a PE firm, and how a regulatory curveball nearly killed his new company Signos right before launch.   Key Takeaways with Roger Neel (01:48) Building A $100M Company In The AI Era (04:03) The Origin Story Of Mavenlink (07:01) The Future Of SaaS And Custom Software (09:25) The Three Ds: Demand, Differentiation, Defensibility (17:18) Why He Jumped Into Health Tech (19:26) Finding Your Actual Passion In Business (21:51) How Signos Revolutionized Continuous Glucose Monitoring (27:27) When A Regulatory Shift Breaks Your Model (33:16) Bootstrapping Vs. Raising Capital (38:09) The 13-Year Growth Arc To Exit (41:54) Going Up Market Faster With AI  (46:43) Selling To PE: How The Deal Actually Works (48:48) Why Keep Raising Instead Of Selling Earlier (50:24) PE vs. IPO (51:02) Picking The Right PE Firm (58:03) Advice For Raising Capital Today (59:30) AI Tools Entrepreneurs Should Be Using   Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ktl53U-LLL0     Let's Connect: Website | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Facebook

OVNI's
OVNIs Ep. #117 - Gautier Bugeon - Le futur de la cybersécurité est français

OVNI's

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2026 37:39


Dans ce nouvel épisode d'OVNIs, Matt Stefani reçoit Gautier Bugeon, fondateur de Mokn, une startup cyber française qui révolutionne la détection des identifiants compromis grâce à une approche aussi simple que redoutable : créer de fausses portes d'entrée pour piéger les attaquants avant qu'ils ne pénètrent réellement les systèmes des entreprises. Ancien pentester offensif, Gautier raconte comment son expérience de “hacker éthique” lui a permis d'imaginer une technologie capable de retourner les techniques de phishing contre les cybercriminels eux-mêmes. Au fil de la discussion, ils explorent l'évolution fulgurante de la cybersécurité à l'ère de l'IA, les coulisses des attaques modernes, le fonctionnement des ransomwares, mais aussi la construction éclair de Mokn : une startup lancée avec seulement 5 000 euros, aujourd'hui soutenue par Google Ventures après une levée de 15 millions de dollars. Un échange passionnant sur le hacking, la défense offensive, le scale aux États-Unis et la nouvelle génération de startups cyber françaises. [00:00:00] Introduction : découvrir Mokn et le concept du “Phishback”[00:02:10] Comment les hackers volent et exploitent les identifiants[00:03:28] Les fausses portes d'entrée : la stratégie de défense de Mokn[00:04:27] Le parcours de Gautier Bugeon et le métier de pentester[00:06:24] Pourquoi l'IA révolutionne les cyberattaques et le hacking[00:09:05] Comment l'IA devient aussi une arme défensive pour Mokn[00:10:24] Ransomwares, hacking éthique et sécurité des grandes entreprises[00:12:42] Bug bounty, marché noir des exploits et cybercriminalité[00:14:04] Construire une startup cyber : branding, produit et marketing[00:15:04] Les débuts bootstrapés de Mokn et les premiers clients CAC 40[00:16:52] Les attaques permanentes contre les grandes entreprises[00:18:03] Automatisation, threat intelligence et réponse aux incidents[00:22:25] Levée de fonds avec Google Ventures et ambitions internationales[00:24:24] Scaling aux États-Unis, recrutement et business de la cybersécurité[00:29:12] Vision long terme, entrepreneuriat et passion du hacking

WealthStack
The WealthStack Podcast: AI's Client Engagement Frontier with A.J. De Rosa

WealthStack

Play Episode Listen Later May 22, 2026 37:10


Everyone in wealth management is talking about artificial intelligence, but too much of the conversation still centers on efficiency. Yes, saving time matters. But the bigger opportunity is moving firms from disconnected tools, dashboards and workflows into a world where AI can help deliver timely insights, proactive engagement and more personalized communication at scale. In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with A.J. De Rosa, CEO and co-founder of Intellebox, to explore what separates AI as a feature from it as a firmwide strategy, why agentic workflows are not the same as basic automation, and how compliance may become stronger, not weaker, when AI is designed with the right guardrails. Key takeaways: How client engagement and personalization have become the new bottlenecks in wealth management Why AI needs to evolve from point solutions into agentic operating systems How compliance could become stronger with AI-powered oversight and human review Why the future is not human versus AI, but human judgment plus machine intelligence Why efficiency alone is not a growth strategy for advisory firms Resources: Listen to WealthStack on Wealth Management Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Apple Podcasts Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Spotify Connect with Shannon Rosic: Shannon Rosic WealthStack website Wealth Management Connect with A.J. De Rosa: LinkedIn: A.J. De Rosa LinkedIn: Intellebox.ai Website: Intellebox.ai aj@Intellebox.ai  Substack: A.J. De Rosa X: Intellebox.ai About Our Guest: AJ DeRosa is the Co-Founder and CEO of Intellebox.ai, where he leads the company's mission to redefine wealth management through agentic AI and a next-generation client engagement platform. His extensive experience in startup leadership, capital formation, and enterprise scaling has positioned him exceptionally well for this next chapter, building an industry-transforming company at the intersection of AI and wealth advisory. AJ brings over 29 years of revenue and operations leadership across finance, AI, and technology. He joined Intellectus Partners as a Partner and CEO-in-Residency, specifically recruited to incubate and launch Intellebox.ai. During his time at Intellectus, AJ helped shape the firm's growth strategy while architecting the vision, commercial model, and market approach that became the foundation of Intellebox. Before launching Intellebox.ai, AJ played integral roles in five venture-backed startups. Most recently, as Chief Revenue Officer and Section 16 Officer at Evolv Technologies, he helped lead the company through hyper-growth and its successful NASDAQ public listing in 2021. Prior to Evolv, AJ served as Chief Revenue Officer at Orbital Insight, where he secured over $120 million in venture capital from firms including Sequoia, Google Ventures, and Lux Capital, relationships he continues to support as an advisor. Earlier, AJ spent more than a decade at Eze Software Group, where he contributed to major private equity transactions and served as Co-Head of Global Sales, solidifying his deep roots in the investment management and hedge fund ecosystem. AJ holds a B.S. in Economics from Lehigh University.

Forbes Daily Briefing
The Payday From These 3 Companies Would Outstrip A Decade Of VC Returns

Forbes Daily Briefing

Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2026 7:06


When ride-hailing app Uber listed on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2019, it reset the scales for all venture capitalists. In one of the all-time largest initial public offerings in the United States, the company raised $8.1 billion on a $82 billion valuation.  Early backers like venture fund Benchmark, Google Ventures and Lowercase Capital held stakes worth over $12 billion at the time of the float. But the numbers for that deal — one of the best of the last era of startups — now look quaint.  That's because the valuation of just three startups, SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic, have exploded over the last year. Elon's space giant is now tipped to go public at a valuation of over $1.5 trillion as soon as June following its merger with xAI in February, which valued the combined business at $1.25 trillion. OpenAI and Anthropic are now valued at $852 billion and $380 billion respectively, with Anthropic reportedly in talks to at least match its archrival's valuation in a new fundraise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hunters and Unicorns
NEVER Chase the Money — GV Talent Partner Reveals the Career Mistake Costing You Everything

Hunters and Unicorns

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2026 54:44


Inside the AI Talent War at Google Ventures! What does the future of hiring, leadership, and company building actually look like in the age of AI? In this episode, Rhys Hughes, Executive Talent Partner at GV, joins us for a fascinating deep dive into the battle for talent happening inside the world's fastest-growing AI companies. From billion-dollar compensation packages and the rise of vertical AI startups to what founders are really looking for in executives, this conversation pulls back the curtain on how the next generation of iconic companies are being built. We explore the reality of scaling in today's market. Why velocity has become one of the defining traits of elite founders, how culture is becoming more important than compensation, and why networking and relationship-building are now critical career advantages in an AI-driven world. Rhys also shares incredible insight into what's happening inside the venture ecosystem at GV, where the biggest opportunities are emerging across AI, robotics, life sciences, frontier tech, and enterprise software — alongside the major risks and bottlenecks founders are navigating in real time. If you're interested in AI, startups, venture capital, hiring, go-to-market strategy, or the future of work, this is an episode you don't want to miss. Timestamps: 0:00 — Trailer 1:30 — Introduction & Guest Overview 2:29 — The Battle for Talent in the AI Era 4:36 — Profound Differences in This New Market 6:39 — How Organizations Are Attracting Talent & How Candidates Are Choosing 9:20 — How to Evaluate a Strong Equity Package 11:41 — Are New Comp Models Like Anthropic's Driving the Right Behaviours 14:36 — How Founders Are Approaching Go-to-Market in the AI Era 17:30 — How Does a Company Stand Out 21:44 — What Velocity Really Means & Why It Matters 23:05 — What Rhys Is Seeing From Founders Right Now 26:12 — Rogue Founders: GV's Red Lines & What They Look For 29:17 — Why Building VC Talent Relationships Is Non-Negotiable 36:19 — What Sectors & Trends GV Is Most Excited About 38:14 — Specific AI Trends Shaping GV's Investment Thesis 42:50 — Biggest Bottlenecks That Could Slow Everything Down 44:29 — How GTM Talent Should Get on the Radar of Top Portfolio Companies 47:50 — The Biggest Mistakes People Make Choosing the Wrong Company

Inside the Bradfield Centre
Rafie Faruq: From Trading Floors to Legal AI with Genie AI

Inside the Bradfield Centre

Play Episode Listen Later May 5, 2026 41:10


In the latest episode of the Cambridge Tech Podcast, hosts James Parton and Faye Holland chat with Rafie Faruq, co-founder of Genie AI. Genie AI is already backed by Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures, operates across 35+ countries, and serves everyone from SMEs to enterprises. But the real story? It's about reimagining an entire industry. "We're democratizing expertise and what we're really selling is trust."Genie AI's secret sauce is a patent-pending architecture called Eidetic Intelligence, which dramatically outperforms ChatGPT and Claude for legal tasks: 86% accuracy on benchmarks vs. GPT's 48% a significant leap in legal qualityHandles unlimited context length across 20-30+ documents simultaneouslyCreates a knowledge graph of company policies, templates, and negotiation behaviourMaintains legal quality through intelligent compression and gating mechanisms This matters because most law firms operate on a template and tweak model, charging tens of thousands for slightly modified contracts. Genie flips the script entirely.Perhaps most fascinating is Rafie's vision for the future of work itself. As AI agents handle more tasks autonomously, company structures are already shifting: Rather than cross-functional teams slowing things down with collaboration, we're moving towards generalists managing multiple AI agents - essentially, one-person companies at scale.Tune in to hear the full conversation on the Cambridge Tech Podcast - available on all major platforms.Headline sponsor Holden Polestar#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All the Hacks
The Custom Everything Era with Kevin Rose

All the Hacks

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2026 67:14


#275: Chris and Kevin dig into how they're actually using AI tools in their daily lives right now. They explore real-world AI use cases, the tradeoffs of sharing personal data, the collapse of trust online, and what all of this means for jobs, creativity, and human connection. Kevin Rose is the host of Diggnation and a partner at True Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that has invested over $4 billion in a portfolio of over 400+ founders. Kevin previously founded Zero and Oak, and was a partner at Google Ventures. Link to Full Show Notes: https://chrishutchins.com/using-ai-tools-today-kevin-rose Partner Deals Aura Frames: $25 off the Carver Mat with code ALLTHEHACKS NetSuite: ⁠Free KPI checklist to upgrade your business performance Quince: Affordable luxury essentials with free shipping + 365 day returns Bilt Rewards: ⁠Earn the most valuable points when you pay rent Mercury: Help your business grow with simplified finances For all the deals, discounts and promo codes from our partners, go to: ⁠chrishutchins.com/deals Resources Mentioned Kevin Rose: Diggnation | Newsletter AI Tools & Platforms Claude OpenClaw ChatGPT Google Gemini ElevenLabs Vercel Japan Travel Craig Mod's Blog Park Hyatt Tokyo KidZania Tokyo Articles & Pop Culture Leica and Content Authenticity Initiative All-In Podcast episode with Travis Kalanick The Pitt Joker Greeting ATH Podcast Newsletter Gift Card Site Leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Email for questions, hacks, deals, and feedback: podcast@chrishutchins.com Full Show Notes (00:00) Introduction (01:07) Are We Actually Saving Time with AI—or Just Wasting It Faster? (10:03) The Real Risks of Sharing Your Data with AI Tools (21:18) Why It's Never Been Easier to Build and Create (28:12) Has AI Content Already Gone Too Far? (37:37) How AI Is Reshaping Human Interaction (40:43) The Growing Need to Verify What's Real (46:33) Investing in a World Being Disrupted by AI (51:44) Where Jobs Are Headed in the AI Era (55:02) What Happens to Art When Anyone Can Create? (56:47) Tips for Planning a Trip to Japan Connect with Chris ⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠ | ⁠Membership⁠⁠ | ⁠X⁠⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ Editor's Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All Ears - Senior Living Success with Matt Reiners
Beyond Mystery Shopping: How AI Is Transforming Senior Living Sales with Sebastian Jimenez - Founder & CEO of Rilla

All Ears - Senior Living Success with Matt Reiners

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 21, 2026 30:16


In this episode, Matt sits down with Sebastian Jimenez, Founder and CEO of Rilla, to explore how AI is changing the way senior living operators coach sales teams, improve tour performance, and increase occupancy. Sebastian breaks down why traditional mystery shopping falls short, what top-performing sales directors do differently, and how AI-powered conversation analysis can uncover the behaviors that actually drive move-ins.Guest BioSebastian Jimenez is the Founder and CEO of Rilla, an AI coaching platform built for in-person sales teams. Backed by Google Ventures, Rilla helps organizations analyze real customer conversations to improve coaching, consistency, and conversion rates. The company has been recognized on the Forbes Cloud 100 and the Forbes Next 1000. Sebastian is also a former stand-up comedian, bringing sharp perspective and energy to conversations about sales, leadership, and technology.Timestamps:02:00 – Matt introduces Sebastian Jimenez, Founder and CEO of Rilla, and sets up the conversation around AI coaching for in-person sales. 02:53 – Sebastian explains what Rilla does and how it helps senior living sales teams record, analyze, and improve prospect tours through AI-powered coaching. 04:13 – Why mystery shopping creates friction, and why sales reps often push back on it. Sebastian compares sales coaching to sports: you cannot coach what you cannot actually see. 09:12 – What separates top-performing senior living sales directors from the average. Sebastian introduces the idea of “Moneyball for sales” and explains how AI can identify the behaviors tied to better conversion rates. 12:04 – The surprising top objection in senior living tours: unit size. Sebastian shares how elite sales performers reframe the conversation from square footage to lifestyle fit. 16:46 – One of the biggest mistakes sales teams make: mishandling the “I'm not ready” objection. Sebastian explains the question top performers ask to uncover the real reason a prospect started touring. 21:39 – Where the ROI shows up. Sebastian shares that Rilla customers saw an average 25.9% increase in tour-to-deposit conversion rates in pilot comparisons. 24:07 – How other industries are using AI coaching, from virtual shadowing to personalized follow-up, and what senior living can learn from them. 28:36 – Sebastian's final takeaway: AI is a tool, not a replacement for strong managers or healthy sales culture. The technology works best when paired with great coaching.

Empowering Entrepreneurs The Harper+ Way
Maximos Lih's Lessons from Google to Executive Coaching

Empowering Entrepreneurs The Harper+ Way

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2026 51:55 Transcription Available


With experience from Google's recruiting front lines to playing a pivotal role at Google Ventures, Maximos Lih offers firsthand insights into what it means to build, scale, and reinvent not just companies, but yourself.Welcome to another episode of Empowering Entrepreneurs, where we talk about the journeys of visionary leaders who dare to break the mold. Glenn Harper and Julie Smith sit down with Maximos Lih, founder and CEO of Emboldened LLC—a dynamic executive coach known for guiding leaders out of their comfort zones and into game-changing growth.From his early days navigating cultural transitions as an immigrant, to a unique academic journey in cognitive science and the rise and fall of civilizations, Maximos Lih shares how his background shaped a distinctive approach to leadership and innovation.In this episode, you'll hear how Maximos Lih turns challenges into entrepreneurial advantages, why understanding the "secret language" of venture and leadership opens doors, and how his vision for human-first growth drives his work today.Whether you're at a crossroads or ready to take the leap, this conversation is packed with stories, strategies, and the mindset shifts that empower entrepreneurs to thrive—without settling for mediocrity.This episode is brought to you by PureTax, LLC. Tax preparation services without the pressure. When all you need is to get your tax return done, take the stress out of tax season by working with a firm that has simplified the process and the pricing. Find out more about how we started.Here are 3 key takeaways for fellow leaders and entrepreneurs:Your background is your superpower. Navigating different cultures and systems teaches adaptability and unique leadership skills (07:47, 17:19).Execution beats ideas, every time. The best product doesn't guarantee success—the right strategy, culture, and understanding the “secret language” of your industry are often what set winners apart (26:36, 32:04).Human-first leadership matters. AI and technology are tools, but true business transformation happens when you center people, empathy, and shared growth (38:20, 48:42).Running a business doesn't have to run your life.Without a business partner who holds you accountable, it's easy to be so busy ‘doing' business that you don't have the right strategy to grow your business.Stop letting your business run you. At Harper & Co CPA Plus, we know that you want to be empowered to build the lifestyle you envision. In order to do that you need a clear path to follow for successOur clients enjoy a proactive partnership with us. Schedule a consultation with us today.Download our free guide - Entrepreneurial Success Formula: How to Avoid Managing Your Business From Your Bank Account.Glenn Harper, CPA, is the Owner and Managing Partner of Harper & Company CPAs Plus, a top 10 Managing Partner in the country (Accounting Today's 2022 MP Elite). His firm won the 2021 Luca Award for Firm of the Year. An entrepreneur and speaker, Glenn transformed his firm into an advisory-focused practice, doubling revenue and profit in two years. He teaches entrepreneurs to build financial and operational excellence, speaks nationwide to CPA firm owners about running their businesses like entrepreneurs, and consults with firms across the country. Glenn enjoys golfing, fishing, hiking, cooking, and spending time with his family.Julie Smith, MBA, is a serial entrepreneur in the public accounting space. She is the Founder of EmpowerCPA™, Founder of PureTax, LLC, COO for Harper & Company CPAs Plus, and Co-host of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. Named CPA.com's 2021 Innovative Practitioner of Year, Julie led Harper & Company's transition to an advisory-focused firm, doubling revenue and profit in two years. She now empowers other CPA firm owners nationwide through consulting and speaking, teaching them how to run their businesses like entrepreneurs. Julie lives in Columbus, OH with her family and enjoys travel, coaching basketball, sporting events, and the occasional shopping spree.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/Copyright 2026 Glenn HarperMentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Harper & Company CPAs PlusRunning a business takes vision, grit… and the right financial partner. At Harper & Company CPAs Plus, we don't just crunch numbers—we empower entrepreneurs. From proactive tax strategy and accounting to business advisory services, our team helps you keep more of what you earn and scale with confidence. Whether you're launching, growing, or preparing for exit, Harper & Company is in your corner with expert guidance built for business owners like you. Visit www.harpercpaplus.com to book a complimentary discovery call today - or call us at 614-456-7222. Brought to you by Harper & Company CPAs Plus

All the Hacks
Design Your Best Year: Goals, Tools & Mindset for 2026 with Kevin Rose

All the Hacks

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2026 69:45


#261: Chris and Kevin reflect on 2025's biggest wins and lessons, then dive into how they're planning 2026. They share their goals, the tools they're using, and why they're designing a year that's easier, not just more optimized. Kevin Rose is the host of Diggnation and a partner at True Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that has invested over $4 billion in a portfolio of over 400+ founders. Kevin previously founded Zero and Oak, and was a partner at Google Ventures. Link to Full Show Notes: https://chrishutchins.com/reflecting-and-planning-2026 Partner Deals Wispr Flow: Try effortless voice dictation for free LMNT: Free sample pack of my favorite electrolyte drink mix Copilot Money: Free 2 months access to my favorite personal finance app with code HACKS2 Fabric: Affordable term life insurance for you and your family Gelt: Skip the waitlist on personalized tax guidance to maximize your wealth For all the deals, discounts and promo codes from our partners, go to: chrishutchins.com/deals Resources Mentioned Kevin Rose: Diggnation | Newsletter Books The Wealth Ladder by Nick Maggiulli Rework by Jason Fried Fizzy Jesse Itzler: Plan An Incredible 2026 In 12 Minutes Podcasts The Daily Churn New Modern Mom: Do you need a house manager? Duolingo Games Magazine Subscription Bram Cohen Puzzles The Big A## Calendar ATH Podcast Newsletter Chris' Card Optimizer Tool Ep #99: 7 Questions to Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet Ep #213: The 5 Types of Wealth with Sahil Bloom Ep #259: Choosing the Problems Worth Struggling For with Mark Manson Leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Email for questions, hacks, deals, and feedback: podcast@chrishutchins.com Full Show Notes (00:00) Introduction (00:45) Kevin's 2025 Goals & How They Came to Fruition (04:34) Chris's Challenging End to 2025 (06:53) How Chris is Approaching Optimization in 2026 (09:33) Stepping Up Your Ability to Spend Money (15:55) What Chris and Kevin Changed Their Minds About in 2025 (20:11) The Many Different Uses of AI (29:16) Chris's Energy Generators and Drainers (33:40) Kevin's Energy Generators and Drainers (36:56) Decluttering for A Peace of Mind (41:09) How To Identify The Boat Anchors in Your Life (49:18) Chris's Hits and Misses in 2025 (52:10) Kevin's Hits and Misses for 2025 (54:19) How Kevin Plans His Year Ahead (57:53) Outsourcing to Make Things Easier (01:05:12) Focus on Making Lasting Memories (01:06:34) Ways to Pick Up New Skills (01:09:36) The Life Blender Concept Connect with Chris Newsletter | Membership | X | Instagram | LinkedIn Editor's Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Story Collider
Bad News: Stories about tough conversations

The Story Collider

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2025 29:30


In this week's episode, both storytellers must navigate heartbreaking dilemmas as they try to figure out how to convey crushing news.Part 1: While doing fieldwork in the Congo, Stella Mayerhoff must track down a local researcher to deliver devastating news. Part 2: During his second year of residency, Sam Blackman is tasked with caring for a dying child whose mother's unwavering faith clashes with his scientific approach. Stella Mayerhoff is a primatologist turned science communicator. As a scientist, Stella traveled the world—from Puerto Rico to the Democratic Republic of Congo—studying various primate species. She now draws inspiration from her time in the field, writing to share the sense of adventure and real-world impact that science offers. Stella has written for Georgia State's College of Arts & Sciences, Georgia State University Research Magazine, and Science ATL, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in Science Communication at UC Santa Cruz. When she's not chasing a story, Stella enjoys spending her time with her cat, TBD, who owes his perfectly odd name to a moment of writer's block. Sam Blackman is a physician-scientist and pediatric oncologist. He's was founder and former head of research and development at Day One Biopharmaceuticals, a company focused on drug development for childhood cancers. He's currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures. Sam is an avid storyteller, baker of bread, and recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Sam lives on Orcas Island with his wife, having successfully launched their first and only child off to college.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Design Better Podcast
Rewind: Paola Antonelli: How design shapes culture

Design Better Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2025 59:17


Visit our Substack for bonus content and more: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/rewind-paola-antonelli Design Better has been on the road recently, recording a live episode in Manhattan for design search firm Wert & Co's 30th anniversary. Guests for the episode included Paola Antonelli (senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA) Mike Davidson (VP of Design and User Research at Microsoft AI), Kate Aronowitz (Design Partner at Google Ventures), Meaghan Choi (Product Designer at Anthropic), & Mark Wilson (Global Design Editor at Fast Company). While Aarron and I are catching up from travel, and as a lead-in to the live episode airing next week, we're rewinding to our interview with Paola Antonelli. We hope you enjoy the episode. And if you haven't checked it out yet, did you know you can save over $1600 on popular productivity tools and design and AI courses with the Design Better Toolkit? Just head over to dbtr.co/toolkit to learn more. *** The Museum of Modern Art brings to mind images of Van Gough's Starry Night, Salvador Dali's Persistence of Memory, and Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Cans. But thanks to Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA exhibitions also encompass the role design has played in shaping culture and the human experience. We talk with Paola about how we can look at digital design through a historic lens, some of the most important design movements in the past 100 years, and how the creative process has evolved through these different movements. We also talk about the history of the @ symbol, why craftsmanship is necessary to experimentation, and some of the current challenges in design education. We hope you enjoy this episode which is a part of our series on design history, with upcoming episodes on typography with Jonathan Hoefler, and the history and philosophy of design with Professor Barry Katz. Paola Antonelli joined The Museum of Modern Art in 1994 and is the Museum's Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, as well as MoMA's founding Director of Research and Development. Her work investigates design in all its forms, from architecture to video games, often expanding its reach to include overlooked objects and practices. An architect trained at the Polytechnic of Milan and a pasionaria of design, Antonelli has been named one of the 25 most incisive design visionaries in the world by TIME magazine, has earned the Design Mind Smithsonian Institution's National Design Award, has been inducted in the US Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, and has received the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Artists,) the London Design Medal, and the German Design Award, among other accolades.

TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition
Google Ventures doubles down on dev tool startup Blacksmith just 4 months after its seed round; also, Icarus raises $6.1M to take on space's “warehouse work” with embodied-AI robots

TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2025 9:16


As speed becomes the defining currency in an AI-driven software world, Blacksmith has raised another round led by Google Ventures — just four months after its initial seed round — to accelerate how code gets shipped. Icarus Robotics cofounders Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer spent hours interviewing astronauts about what it was like working in space as they homed in on their startup idea. Their big takeaway: the work was often more cargo logistics than cutting-edge science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boundless Body Radio
animal. The Documentary with Executive Producer Vinny Lingham! 865

Boundless Body Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2025 43:41


Send us a textVinny Lingham is a well-recognized South African Internet entrepreneur, an active technology investor focused primarily on Bitcoin and Blockchain projects, and a Shark in Shark Tank South Africa.Dubbed “the Bitcoin Oracle,” Vinny immigrated to California a decade ago and is currently the co­-founder & CEO of Civic Technologies, Inc, ­a blockchain-powered startup company that is now leading the global digital identity revolution. Prior to Civic, he was the co­-founder and CEO of Gyft, a mobile gift card company founded in 2012 and backed by Google Ventures.He is the executive producer of the recent documentary animal., released in 2025 which unmasks a century-long conspiracy of political, economic, and religious forces that have twisted our natural bond with meat--enslaving us to ill health and Big Pharma dependency.Through bold interviews, historical revelations, and groundbreaking science, it shatters nutritional myths and dares us to reclaim the ancestral diet that fueled our evolution, and features several of our former podcast guests, including Dr. Anthony Chaffee, Dr. Ken Berry, Dr. Shawn Baker, and Sally K. Norton, among others.Find Vinny at-https://www.animal.movie/TW- @vinnylinghamIG- @vinnylinghamFind Boundless Body at- myboundlessbody.com Book a session with us here!

From Start-Up to Grown-Up
#98 3-time founder Craig Walker — From Selling Door-to-Door to 3-time founder; Building Google Voice; and the Real Trade-offs of Entrepreneurship

From Start-Up to Grown-Up

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2025 62:09


Craig Walker is the founder and CEO of Dialpad, a business communications platform powered by AI. A former M&A lawyer turned serial entrepreneur, Craig previously co-founded GrandCentral (acquired by Google and relaunched as Google Voice) and sold his prior company to Yahoo. In this episode, Craig shares how his career unfolded from door-to-door dictation sales to running a 1,500-person company, and how AI became central to Dialpad's strategy long before the hype cycle.Craig opens up about the loneliness of leadership, his bet-the-company acquisition of TalkIQ, and the hardest day of his career when four high-stakes deals all hinged on one phone call. He also explains why he still avoids hiring a COO, how he evaluates executive talent, and why long-term trust is his leadership superpower.Whether you're building in AI, navigating founder-operator transitions, or learning to scale without burning out, Craig's story is packed with hard-earned lessons and honest insights.Where to find Craig:DialpadLinkedInTimestamps:(00:00) Starting in door-to-door sales (02:54) What Craig learned about grit from early sales jobs (04:42) From Apple to law school to M&A at Wilson Sonsini (07:22) How Cisco influenced his approach to acquisitions (08:32) The founding of GrandCentral and acquisition by Google (09:12) Leaving Google to build again (13:22) Why Craig couldn't stay a middle manager (14:53) What Dialpad is and how it started (17:36) Google Ventures' support and early Dialpad funding (21:03) What startup life looked like in the pool house (24:17) Family trade-offs and how Craig stayed connected (28:23) Acquiring TalkIQ and the AI unlock (33:37) Why Dialpad was years ahead in AI (35:09) Lessons from integrating an early-stage acquisition (37:43) What tech reveals about culture (39:39) How Craig grew from scrappy founder to CEO (42:20) Delegating to operators while staying strategic (43:30) Why hiring executives is so hard (47:23) How he evaluates cultural fit and long-term potential (49:26) Loyalty, longevity, and building a trusted leadership team (50:57) Craig's moment of truth and the most stressful day of his career (55:48) What he wishes he knew earlier (57:46) His advice for founders in the AI eraIn this episode, you'll learn:How to evaluate and integrate an early-stage acquisitionWhy trust and long-term relationships build company resilienceWhat most founders get wrong about hiring senior executivesWhy naivete is an advantage in fast-changing marketsHow to stay optimistic in the face of startup volatilityWhy Craig empowers teams with autonomy, not layersHow a founder mindset helps navigate economic shocksWhat it takes to lead through multiple tech transitionsHow to pick colleagues  and partners you can grow with for decadesConnect with Alisa! Follow Alisa Cohn on Instagram: @alisacohn Twitter: @alisacohn Facebook: facebook.com/alisa.cohn LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisacohn/ Website: http://www.alisacohn.com Download her 5 scripts for delicate conversations (and 1 to make your life better) Grab a copy of From Start-Up to Grown-Up by Alisa Cohn from Amazon

The Road to Why
Business Stewardship with Nadia Rawlinson and Michael Alter (WNBA's Chicago SKY)

The Road to Why

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 28, 2025 36:23


Nadia Rawlinson and Michael Alter are co-owners of the WNBA team, the Chicago Sky. Nadia was the Chief People Officer at Slack Technologies when the company was acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $28 billion.  She is an advisor for Google Ventures, serves on the Stanford University Board of Trustees and is on the Board of Directors for J. Crew and Vail Resorts. Michael is President of the Alter Group, which was founded by his father and has become one of the largest private commercial real estate developers in the country.  He is also the founder and a board member of the non-profit organization City Year Chicago. In today's conversation, we will learn: (1:05) – What were Michael and Nadia's formative years like?(4:16) – How and why did Michael join the family business (Alter Group)?(8:39) – How did Nadia define her career path after the Slack acquisition?(12:23) – What makes for a good board member?(15:12) – What do entrepreneurs get wrong when building a business?(16:43) – Why did Michael decide to buy Chicago Sky?(21:08) – What does being a good “steward” of the Chicago Sky mean to Nadia?(24:35) – How does the organizational structure of a sports franchise work?(29:01) – What life lessons have Nadia and Michael brought home from Chicago Sky?(33:15) – What are Michael and Nadia's “why's”?  © 2025 Northern Trust Corporation. Head Office: 50 South La Salle Street, Chicago, IL 60603. Incorporated with limited liability in the U.S. Member FDIC.

Business Leadership Series
Episode 1424: Sanyin Siang: Behavioral Science Principles and Life Data Points

Business Leadership Series

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2025 32:33


Sanyin Siang is Derek's amazing featured guest this week! Sanyin shares highlights from her journey, and how to accept positive affirmations and constructive criticism as data points in your life, importance of being generous, and how to be vulnerable.Sanyin helps leaders launch and create value by focusing on mindset, behavioral change, and team and culture building. Sanyin is a CEO Coach, Advisor, Author,the Executive Director of Duke University's Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics (COLE) and a Professor with its Pratt School of Engineering.The COLE center is a leadership laboratory that engages all of Duke's Daytime MBA students and convenes high-level think tank gatherings to explore today's complex leadership opportunities and challenges.Sanyin coaches C-suite executives and is in the original cohort of Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches. She is an advisor for GV (former Google Ventures), Duke Corporate Education, and the Sports Innovation Lab. Her thought leadership has appeared in Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN. She has more than 1 million LinkedIn followers. She is a LinkedIn Top 10 Influencer and a Thinkers50 On the Radar.Sanyin's board service has included those of The Emily K Center, The Museum of Life & Science, Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center. She is a Sr. Advisor with Dan Ariely's Center for Advanced Hindsight and a faculty with StoryLab at Duke. She has spoken to audiences from the White House to Global Sports Management and Owners Summits.Prior to Duke, Sanyin worked at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest federation of scientific and engineering societies, and publisher of Science. Her initiatives explored the ethical, social, and legal implications of technological advances before they became reality.Her book The Launch Book: Motivational Stories for Launching Your Idea, Business, or Next Career, uses behavioral science principles to help readers build the mindset for addressing major change.Sanyin received a BSE in Biomedical Engineering and an MBA from Duke University.Order "The Launch Book": https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074JC5L9V/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Dead Cat
Inside Cerebral Valley: Autonomous Vehicles & AI Investment

Dead Cat

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2025 47:38


Today on the pod, we're bringing you two of the liveliest panels from the 2025 Cerebral Valley AI Summit, held this week in London.Both panels — “The Autonomous Vehicle Rollout” and “Investing in 2030” — explore one of the major themes from the event: where AI is poised to show up next in our everyday lives, beyond the chatbot. Think voice, devices, and even your car.First up, we'll hear from Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, and Alex Kendall, Co-founder and CEO of Wayve, who are teaming up to bring self-driving cars to the UK.Then we turn to the investor perspective, with top European VCs — Philippe Botteri of Accel, Tom Hulme of Google Ventures, and Jan Hammer of Index Ventures — on where they see the biggest AI opportunities for founders in the years ahead.

RecTech: the Recruiting Technology Podcast
CareerBuilder and Monster SOLD!!!

RecTech: the Recruiting Technology Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2025 8:25


First up…Appcast, the leading recruitment marketing platform powered by programmatic, today announced the launch of Appcast Brand Ads, the recruiting industry's first brand marketing solution that tracks to the hire. This innovative solution enables employers to engage people on social channels where they spend vast amounts of time. By bringing Appcast's programmatic technology to social media channels, Appcast Brand Ads allows employers to scale and optimize recruitment campaigns while tracking performance from impression to hire.  https://hrtechfeed.com/new-hr-tech-from-appcast/ Jobright, an AI-native job search platform, announced the launch of Jobright Agent, the ‘first-of-its-kind' AI career agent designed to automate the entire job application process for job seekers. This tool promises to cut job search time by a remarkable 80% and double interview rates, fundamentally changing how professionals find their next career opportunity. https://hrtechfeed.com/indeed-venture-arm-invests-in-ai-career-agent-technology/ CHICAGO– CareerBuilder + Monster (the “Company”) today announced that it has initiated a court-supervised sale process to maximize value, preserve jobs and seamlessly transition ownership of its businesses. https://hrtechfeed.com/careerbuilder-monster-assets-to-be-sold-to-jobget/ Metaview just announced they recently secured $35 million in Series B funding led by Google Ventures, bringing their total funding to $50 million. https://hrtechfeed.com/interview-intelligence-tool-metaview-lands-35m/

The Tim Ferriss Show
#815: Chris Hutchins, Deal Master — Helping Tim Burn 15M+ Miles and Points, Flipping Costco Gold Into Five-Star Trips, Flying to Japan for $222, Tech Tools and Tricks, and Avoiding The Optimizer's Curse

The Tim Ferriss Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2025 159:25


Chris Hutchins is the creator and host of All the Hacks, a podcast that helps people upgrade their life, money, and travel. He previously founded Grove (acquired by Wealthfront) and Milk (acquired by Google), led New Product Strategy at Wealthfront, and was a Partner at Google Ventures. Most importantly, he is the person Kevin Rose and I call if we want to figure how to get a better deal on just about anything in the world, or if we just want to learn about his latest hijinks doing things like getting $200 flights to Japan, running gold pseudo-arbitrage at retail, or dirt-cheap trips to Bora Bora. We cover all three and more in this conversation.Sponsors:Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: https://shopify.com/tim (one-dollar-per-month trial period)Ramp easy-to-use corporate cards, bill payments, accounting, and more: https://ramp.com/tim (Get $250 when you join Ramp)AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://DrinkAG1.com/Tim (1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase.)*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim's email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim's books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coffee w/#The Freight Coach
1209. #TFCP - High-Stakes Freight: Building Trust in Demanding Industries!

Coffee w/#The Freight Coach

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2025 34:04 Transcription Available


Listen to our last guest this week, Rob Rajfer, the founder and CEO of Waggon, as he speaks about his entrepreneurial journey and success in the transportation industry!     Here's What to Learn From This Episode: Rob Rajfer's Entrepreneurial Journey: Rob transitioned from a career at C.H. Robinson to founding Waggon with Tyler Sala. Launched in May 2023, catalyzed by market downturns and a risk-taking mindset post-capital raise from friends and family. Waggon's Growth Metrics: Bootstrapped from personal savings, Waggon achieved $3M in top-line revenue in its first six months and targets 6x growth in the second year, with ambitions to 3x again. Emphasis on talent and processes over tech complexity is vital to this growth. Key Industry Insights: Rob identifies M&A as significant for industry consolidation, benefiting fragmented small brokerages. Automation and AI will enhance back-office functions, but human interaction remains crucial in sales and customer service for maintaining competitive edge.   About Rob Rajfer Robert received his BA in Liberal Arts and Business Management from Indiana University and his MS in Law from Northwestern University. Robert has worked in the supply chain / logistics industry for the past five years. Robert spent the first three years of his career at C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) and the following years at Flock Freight (backed by SoftBank, Google Ventures, and Signal Fire). In conjunction with his work in supply chain / logistics, Robert is the Managing Partner of Seconds Capital LLC, a boutique micro VC.  

The Jubal Show
Nina's What's Trending - Cannes Cracks Down on Naked Dressing and a Possible Cure for Baldness

The Jubal Show

Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2025 3:46 Transcription Available


What’s Inside: Cannes Film Festival bans naked dressing on the red carpet The iconic event kicks off with new fashion rules and old-school glamour UCLA scientists may have found a breakthrough baldness treatment A molecule called PP405 could change the hair game by 2027 Episode Description:The Cannes Film Festival is known for its glitz, glamour, and show-stopping red carpet looks—but this year, they’re putting their foot down on fashion. Organizers have officially banned “naked dressing,” the sheer, skin-baring style that’s dominated celebrity wardrobes in recent years. As the 78th annual event kicks off, the festival is making it clear: elegance is back in, and body-baring looks are out. It’s a shift toward more classic, sophisticated style—at least for now. Meanwhile, in the world of science and self-esteem, researchers at UCLA may be on the verge of a baldness breakthrough. A molecule called PP405 is showing serious promise in early trials, reportedly waking up dormant hair follicles and prompting them to grow thick, real strands of hair—not just fuzz. Backed by Google Ventures and with $16 million raised so far, the treatment is moving through clinical trials and could be available by 2027 if it gets FDA approval. For millions of people, this could be a literal hair-raising game changer. Sources: Cannes Film Festival announcement (no link provided) UCLA Baldness Research (summary provided by user) Nina's What's Trending is your daily dose of the hottest headlines, viral moments, and must-know stories from The Jubal Show! From celebrity gossip and pop culture buzz to breaking news and weird internet trends, Nina’s got you covered with everything trending right now. She delivers it with wit, energy, and a touch of humor. Stay in the know and never miss a beat—because if it’s trending, Nina’s talking about it! ======This is just a tiny piece of The Jubal Show. You can find every podcast we have, including the full show every weekday right here…➡︎ https://thejubalshow.com/podcasts The Jubal Show is everywhere, and also these places:Website ➡︎ https://thejubalshow.comInstagram ➡︎ https://instagram.com/thejubalshowX/Twitter ➡︎ https://twitter.com/thejubalshowTiktok ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@the.jubal.showFacebook ➡︎ https://facebook.com/thejubalshowYouTube ➡︎ https://www.youtube.com/@JubalFreshSupport the show: https://the-jubal-show.beehiiv.com/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Killer Innovations: Successful Innovators Talking About Creativity, Design and Innovation | Hosted by Phil McKinney

In 2007, two designers struggling to pay rent in San Francisco had a seemingly simple thought: "What if people could rent out their spare rooms to travelers?" This question—posed by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia—sparked what would become Airbnb, a company now valued at over $100 billion that has fundamentally reshaped how millions of people travel. The power of their question wasn't just in identifying a market gap. It challenged fundamental assumptions about hospitality, property use, and trust between strangers. It wasn't just incremental—it was transformative. And here lies the innovation paradox most organizations face today: Companies invest heavily in expertise, data, and answers, yet rarely invest in improving the quality of their questions. They hire specialists who know the current state of the art but don't necessarily know how to question it. They gather mountains of data but ask the same questions of it that competitors do. They reward employees who provide answers, not those who challenge assumptions with powerful questions. This explains why true breakthroughs remain rare. The uncomfortable truth is that the quality of your innovation is directly proportional to the quality of the questions you're asking. Transformative innovations don't come from having slightly better answers to the same questions everyone else is asking—they come from asking entirely different questions altogether. In this episode, you'll discover five specific questioning techniques that have demonstrably led to breakthrough innovations across industries. These aren't generic "think outside the box" prompts, but precise question formulations with clear applications and proven results. Master these, and you'll have the keys to unlock innovation possibilities others can't even see. The Science of Questioning Before diving into specific questioning techniques, it's worth understanding why questions—rather than answers—drive innovation so powerfully. Neurologically, questioning activates different brain pathways than analytical thinking. When we search for answers, we typically engage in convergent thinking, narrowing possibilities until we arrive at what seems optimal. This activates primarily the brain's prefrontal cortex, the region associated with logical reasoning and decision-making. But when we ask open questions, particularly those that challenge assumptions, we activate regions associated with divergent thinking and novel connections. According to research from the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University, individuals who regularly engage in questioning and curiosity-driven thinking show greater activation in areas associated with insight and creative problem-solving. This neurological difference has led innovative organizations to replace traditional brainstorming—which often produces incremental ideas at best—with what innovation facilitators call "question-storming." In these sessions, participants generate only questions about a challenge, focusing on quantity and provocativeness rather than immediate answers. Data supports this approach: A McKinsey study of over 300 companies found that those with formalized questioning methodologies in their innovation processes outperformed industry peers by an average of 34% in innovation output as measured by successful new products and services. Even more compelling is research from Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, which demonstrates that teams that regularly engage in question-based inquiry rather than assertion-based advocacy show significantly higher rates of breakthrough thinking and successful innovation implementation. The science is clear: Better questions create better innovations. Now let's examine the five specific questions that have demonstrated the power to unlock breakthrough thinking. Question 1: The Constraint-Flipping Question Formula: "What if this limitation was actually an advantage?" Most innovators instinctively fight against constraints. Limited budget? Try to get more funding. Restrictive regulations? Look for loopholes. Legacy technology? Plan a complete overhaul. But true innovators know that constraints, reframed through the right question, can become catalysts for breakthrough thinking. Consider Southwest Airlines. When launching in the 1970s, the company faced severe financial constraints that limited them to purchasing only one type of aircraft—the Boeing 737. Rather than viewing this as a disadvantage, founder Herb Kelleher asked, "What if having only one type of aircraft is actually an advantage?" This question led to a cascade of innovations: The airline developed unparalleled expertise in maintaining and operating that specific aircraft. They simplified crew training since every pilot could fly any plane in the fleet. They streamlined parts inventory and maintenance processes. And they created a model for rapid turnaround at gates, since every plane had identical configurations. The result? Southwest became one of the most consistently profitable airlines in an industry where competitors regularly went bankrupt. Application Techniques: To apply the constraint-flipping question in your context: Identify your most frustrating constraints. List the limitations you believe are holding back innovation—budget restrictions, regulatory requirements, technology limitations, etc. For each constraint, explicitly ask: "What if this limitation is actually an advantage? How might it force us to innovate in ways we wouldn't otherwise consider?" Generate at least seven possibilities for how this constraint could drive rather than inhibit innovation. Develop the most promising responses into concrete innovation concepts. Implementation Exercise: With your team, identify your three most significant constraints. For each, complete this sentence: "This limitation could become our greatest innovation advantage if we..." Herb Kelleher's answer was: "This limitation could become our greatest innovation advantage if we built our entire operational model around mastering one aircraft type rather than offering variety." What's yours? Question 2: The Cross-Industry Inspiration Question Formula: "How has another entirely unrelated industry solved a similar problem?" Industries develop their own orthodoxies and blind spots. What seems innovative within one sector might be standard practice in another. The cross-industry inspiration question breaks through these silos by forcing connections between seemingly unrelated domains. One of the most powerful examples comes from healthcare. In 2005, Great Ormond Street Hospital in London was struggling with patient handoffs between surgery and intensive care—a critical moment when communication failures regularly led to complications. Instead of looking to other hospitals for solutions, someone asked a revolutionary question: "Who else handles high-stakes handoffs with precision and speed?" The answer came from an unexpected source: Formula 1 racing pit crews. The hospital sent a team to observe Ferrari's pit stops, where 20 people perform complex, sequential tasks in under seven seconds. This cross-industry inspiration led to the development of new handoff protocols that reduced technical errors by over 40% and information handoff omissions by nearly 50%. Application Techniques: To apply the cross-industry inspiration question effectively: Abstract your challenge to its fundamental pattern. Rather than "How do we improve patient handoffs?" ask "How do we execute complex, time-critical processes with minimal error?" Identify industries that excel at that fundamental pattern, even if they seem completely unrelated to your field. Study those industries' approaches, looking for transferable principles rather than surface-level practices. Adapt and test the principles in your context, modifying as needed for your specific constraints. Implementation Exercise: For your current innovation challenge, complete this statement: "At its core, we're really trying to solve the problem of ____________." Then identify three completely unrelated industries that might excel at solving that core problem. For each, research their approaches and identify at least one principle you could adapt to your context. Question 3: The First Principles Question Formula: "What would we do if we started completely from scratch, ignoring all precedent?" Most innovation is built on existing foundations, iterating on what came before. But the most disruptive innovations come from challenging fundamental assumptions and rethinking problems from first principles. Elon Musk famously applied this questioning approach to space technology. When starting SpaceX, conventional wisdom held that rockets were necessarily expensive, with costs running into hundreds of millions of dollars. Rather than accepting this, Musk asked: "What would rocket design look like if we started completely from scratch, questioning every assumption?" This led his team to break down rockets into their basic components and reconsider each one. They found that the raw materials for rockets cost only about 2% of the typical price of a rocket. This insight drove them to vertically integrate production, building components in-house rather than purchasing them from traditional aerospace suppliers with 100-year-old designs. The result was the development of rockets at roughly one-tenth the cost of traditional designs, fundamentally changing the economics of space access. Application Techniques: To apply the first principles question: List all assumptions in your current approach. What do you take for granted about how things must work? Challenge each assumption by asking, "Why must this be true? What would happen if the opposite were true?" Break down the problem to its fundamental elements. What are the irreducible components or factors? Rebuild your approach from these elements, ignoring precedent and tradition. Implementation Exercise: For your next innovation challenge, hold a "first principles session" where: You list all assumptions about how your product, service, or process must work Explicitly challenge each one with "What if this wasn't true?" Identify the three assumptions that, if challenged, would most dramatically change your approach Question 4: The Extreme User Question Formula: "What would delight our most demanding users so much they couldn't imagine going back?" Average users give you feedback for incremental improvements. Extreme users—those with the most demanding needs, unusual use cases, or challenging contexts—can point the way to breakthrough innovations. Apple's development of voice-activated technology provides a compelling example. While voice control is now mainstream, its origins lie partly in designing for users with disabilities. By asking "What would create a transformative experience for users who cannot use traditional interfaces?" Apple developed technologies that eventually evolved into Siri and voice control features that millions now use daily. Similarly, OXO built a kitchen tool empire by focusing first on users with arthritis and other grip limitations. The question "What would make tools usable for people with the most limited grip strength?" led to innovations in handle design that turned out to create better experiences for all users. Application Techniques: To leverage the extreme user question: Identify your extreme users. These might be power users who push your product to its limits, users in challenging contexts (extreme climates, resource-limited settings), users with special needs, or even non-users who have rejected your category entirely. Study them intensively, through interviews, observation, and collaborative design. Ask explicitly: "What would transform your experience so dramatically you couldn't imagine going back to the current approach?" Test whether solutions for extreme users reveal unmet needs for mainstream users as well. Implementation Exercise: Select three "extreme user" categories for your product or service. For each, arrange to interview or observe at least two users in that category. Focus on understanding their workarounds, frustrations, and ideal scenarios. Then ask: "What features would make this so perfect for them that they would become evangelists for our solution?" Question 5: The Counterintuitive Question Formula: "What if the opposite of our current approach is true?" Our mental models and industry conventions often limit our thinking in ways we don't even recognize. The counterintuitive question deliberately inverts these models to reveal new possibilities. Netflix revolutionized talent management by asking precisely this type of question. While most companies aim to build controls to minimize the damage that could be caused by disengaged employees (detailed procedures, approval hierarchies, expense limits), Netflix asked, "What if we did the opposite? What if we maximized freedom instead of minimizing abuse?" This led to their famous "Freedom and Responsibility" culture, which eliminated vacation tracking, expense approval processes, and rigid reporting structures. The counterintuitive approach helped Netflix attract exceptional talent and build a culture of high performance and innovation that supported their transformation from DVD delivery to streaming pioneer. Application Techniques: To apply the counterintuitive question: Identify your organization's core practices or beliefs about how to approach your market, product development, or operations. For each practice or belief, ask: "What if the opposite approach is actually more effective? What would that look like?" Explore the inverted approach thoroughly before dismissing it, looking for elements that challenge your assumptions constructively. Test small-scale inversions to see if they yield unexpected benefits. Implementation Exercise: List the three most firmly held beliefs about "how things work" in your industry. For each one, complete the sentence: "What if the opposite is true? If so, we would..." Then identify one small-scale experiment you could run to test elements of the inverted approach. The Innovation Question Cascade These five questions are most powerful when used systematically rather than in isolation. The Innovation Question Cascade provides a framework for sequencing these questions within your innovation process: Start with the First Principles Question to clear away limiting assumptions and establish a blank slate of possibilities. Apply the Extreme User Question to identify meaningful problems worth solving and generate initial solution concepts. Explore the Cross-Industry Inspiration Question to bring in novel approaches from unrelated domains. Use the Constraint-Flipping Question to turn limitations into advantages in your emerging concepts. Finish with the Counterintuitive Question to check whether inversions of your approach might yield even better results. This cascade can be embedded in existing innovation processes through question-centered workshops, where each phase focuses on one of these questioning techniques. Innovation teams can be trained in facilitating these sessions and capturing the insights they generate. Common obstacles to implementing questioning approaches include impatience for answers (especially among senior leaders), cultural norms that reward quick solutions over thoughtful inquiry, and the cognitive discomfort that comes with leaving questions open. To overcome these obstacles, start small. Introduce one questioning technique in a low-stakes context, demonstrate its value, and gradually expand. Create explicit permission for "question time" where the pursuit of answers is temporarily suspended. For your first week, try this simple practice plan: - Day 1: Ask the First Principles Question about one aspect of your work - Day 3: Apply the Constraint-Flipping Question to a current limitation - Day 5: Experiment with the Counterintuitive Question in a team discussion Measuring Question Impact How do you know if better questioning is actually improving your innovation outcomes? The key is to track both process measures (how questioning is changing your approach) and outcome measures (how those changes affect results). Process measures might include: - Question diversity (number of different question types raised in innovation discussions) - Assumption identification (number of previously hidden assumptions surfaced) - Exploration breadth (number of distinct solution approaches considered) Outcome measures could include: - Innovation novelty (degree of departure from existing approaches) - Implementation success (percentage of innovations that achieve desired results) - Time to breakthrough (how quickly fundamental insights emerge) Organizations like IDEO and Google Ventures actively measure question effectiveness in their innovation processes. IDEO, for example, tracks "How Might We" questions generated during design thinking sessions, analyzing their characteristics against ultimate project outcomes. A simple assessment tool for evaluating your team's current questioning patterns is the Question Quotient (QQ) framework: Record a typical innovation meeting Count the ratio of questions to statements Analyze what percentage of questions challenge assumptions versus merely seeking information Track how these metrics change as you implement the questioning techniques outlined above This is an opportunity to test an AI tool to transcribe and extract the "Question Quotient" metrics for your innovation sessions.  The Question Revolution Returning to the Airbnb story, there's a fascinating detail often overlooked. Before their breakthrough question about renting spare rooms, the founders had been pursuing a completely different business model focused on roommate matching. It wasn't superior market knowledge or technical expertise that led to their breakthrough—it was their willingness to question fundamental assumptions about how the hospitality industry should work. This pattern repeats across innovation history. The transformative power of questioning has been the hidden force behind countless breakthroughs, from Netflix's reinvention of video distribution to Toyota's reinvention of manufacturing with the simple question: "Why do we need inventory?" Before we wrap up today's episode, I want to thank all of you for joining me on this journey. I'm grateful for each and every one of you who takes the time to watch and engage. If you found value in our content, please hit that like button and subscribe to our channel. It helps more innovators like you discover these concepts. Its our collective way to "pay-it-forward".  Don't forget to tap the notification bell so you never miss an episode.  For those who want to go deeper with these concepts of questions and their role in innovation and creativity, you can check out my book, Beyond the Obvious and the Killer Questions Card deck. All of our tools are at Innovation [DOT] Tools. 100% of the profits are donated to charity.   You'll find the link in the description below. Have you used any of these questioning approaches in your work? I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments section. Your stories inspire this community and help us all grow. And speaking of community, a special shout-out to our Patreon patrons and paid subscribers on Substack who support the channel and get exclusive access to our special content and live streams. If you're interested in joining, become a supporter at either:  Patreon Substack  Remember, the quality of your innovation is directly proportional to the quality of the questions you're asking. One powerful question can change everything. Until next week, keep questioning, keep creating, and keep pushing boundaries.  I'm Phil McKinney, and as always, thank you for being part of this innovation journey.

Billion Dollar Backstory
94: Big Exit. Bigger Idea. $30M in Backing | Meet Rafael Loureiro, CEO of Wealth.com

Billion Dollar Backstory

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2025 62:45


After exiting a successful startup, Rafael Loureiro went looking for a better way to do estate planning…and came up empty. The experience? Clunky. Expensive. Outdated.So like any smart entrepreneur would do, he decided to build something better.Today, Rafael is the CEO of Wealth.com, a FinTech firm backed by Google Ventures and designed to modernize the estate planning process for advisors and their clients.In this Episode, Rafael sits down with Stacy to discuss: Rafael's backstory – How he went from Brazil to Silicon Valley to Wall Street Why his post-exit estate plan felt more like Mad Libs than modern finance How that clunky estate planning experience drove him to go from introverted software engineer to front-and-center CEOWhy it's actually easier to raise capital before the product exists (yes, really)About Rafael Loureiro:Rafael Loureiro is the CEO and co-founder of Wealth.com, the industry's leading estate planning platform. Under his leadership,Wealth.com has become the fastest-growing solution in the space, empowering 750+ wealth management firms to modernize the delivery of estate planning guidance. Backed by Google Ventures, Wealth.com is the only tech-led, end-to-end estate planning platform built specifically for financial institutions—helping advisors scale, drive efficiency, and serve clients across the wealth spectrum.Rafael was named ThinkAdvisor's 2024 Executive of the Year in the financial planning technology category and also received the Advisor Choice Award for Technology Providers: CEO of the Year in the 2024 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards, where Wealth.com was recognized as the Best Technology Provider in the Trust category. A technology entrepreneur and product innovator, Rafael brings more than 20 years of technical and executive leadership experience across start-ups, growth-stage ventures, and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding Wealth.com, he served as Chief Technology Officer at Emailage, a global fraud prevention SaaS startup acquired by Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions in 2020.Rafael is a member of the Forbes Finance Council and an active community leader in the Phoenix start-up ecosystem. Originally from Brazil, Rafael has been in Arizona for over 20 years. Outside of work, he enjoys time with his family, hiking the Arizona desert, playing pickleball, reading, and gaming. Want More Help With Storytelling?  +  Subscribe to my newsletter to get a weekly email that helps you use your words to power your growth:https://www.stacyhavener.com/subscribe   - - -Make The Boutique Investment Collective part of your Billion Dollar Backstory. Gain access to invaluable resources, expert coaches, and a supportive community of other boutique founders, fund managers, and investment pros. Join Havener Capital's exclusive membership - - -Make The Boutique Investment Collective part of your Billion Dollar Backstory. Gain access to invaluable resources, expert coaches, and a supportive community of other boutique founders, fund managers, and investment pros. Join Havener Capital's exclusive membership

AI and the Future of Work
331: Rethinking Legal Access, Work, and Meaning with Rafie Faruq, Co-Founder & CEO of Genie AI

AI and the Future of Work

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2025 30:20


Rafie Faruq is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Genie, a platform launched in 2017 to make high-quality legal documents accessible through open-source tools. Since then, Genie has served over 100,000 users across 120 jurisdictions and recently raised an $18M Series A from Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Rafie holds an MSc in Machine Learning, has advised the Law Policy Commission, contributed to the Law Society, and represented the Ministry of Justice on international trade missions. He also teaches meditation and is a mentor to many seeking meaning and clarity in life.In this conversation, we discuss:Rafie Faruq's unconventional path from bond trader to AI entrepreneur and what drove him to apply machine learning to legal access.How his early research on generative models led to new ways of thinking about document creation and automation.Why he believes the current definition of intelligence is outdated—and what a more human-centered version could look like.The role of emotional intelligence, purpose, and social connection in a future shaped by automation.What it means to build a business rooted in spiritual principles—and how Rafie applies concepts like rhythm, balance, and nature to team building.His reflections on power, responsibility, and why founders should see themselves as stewards of broader societal change.Resources:Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribeConnect with Rafie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rfaruq/AI fun fact article: https://www.mixonline.com/blog/mix-blog-who-wrote-that-ai-and-copyright-lawOn Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/linda-rottenberg-endeavor-co-founder-and-ceo/id1476885647?i=1000517670973 

Business Leadership Series
Episode 1411: Sanyin Siang: Behavioral Science Principles and Life Data Points

Business Leadership Series

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2025 32:33


Sanyin Siang shares highlights from her journey, and how to accept positive affirmations and constructive criticism as data points in your life, importance of being generous, and how to be vulnerable.Sanyin helps leaders launch and create value by focusing on mindset, behavioral change, and team and culture building. Sanyin is a CEO Coach, Advisor, Author,the Executive Director of Duke University's Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics (COLE) and a Professor with its Pratt School of Engineering.The COLE center is a leadership laboratory that engages all of Duke's Daytime MBA students and convenes high-level think tank gatherings to explore today's complex leadership opportunities and challenges.Sanyin coaches C-suite executives and is in the original cohort of Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches. She is an advisor for GV (former Google Ventures), Duke Corporate Education, and the Sports Innovation Lab. Her thought leadership has appeared in Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN. She has more than 1 million LinkedIn followers. She is a LinkedIn 2017 & 2018 Top 10 Influencer and a 2018 Thinkers50 On the Radar.Sanyin's board service has included those of The Emily K Center, The Museum of Life & Science, Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center. She is a Sr. Advisor with Dan Ariely's Center for Advanced Hindsight and a faculty with StoryLab at Duke. She has spoken to audiences from the White House to Global Sports Management and Owners Summits.Prior to Duke, Sanyin worked at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest federation of scientific and engineering societies, and publisher of Science. Her initiatives explored the ethical, social, and legal implications of technological advances before they became reality.Her book The Launch Book: Motivational Stories for Launching Your Idea, Business, or Next Career, uses behavioral science principles to help readers build the mindset for addressing major change.Sanyin received a BSE in Biomedical Engineering and an MBA from Duke University.Order "The Launch Book": https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074JC5L9V/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

All the Hacks
Top AI Tools, Insurance Planning for Fires and More Listener Q&A with Kevin Rose

All the Hacks

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2025 65:48


#217: From the best AI tools to takeaways from losing a home in the LA fires, we dive deep into strategies for optimizing home insurance, the benefits of rope training and saunas, how think about where to live, and and more listener questions. Kevin Rose is a partner at True Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that has invested over $4 billion in a portfolio of over 400+ founders. Kevin previously founded Digg, Zero, Oak, and was a Partner at Google Ventures. Link to Full Show Notes: https://chrishutchins.com/kevin-rose-ama-2-ai-tools-wildfires-fitness  Partner Deals MasterClass: Learn from the world's best with 15% off Bilt Rewards: Earn the most valuable points when you pay rent Facet: Personalized Financial Planning + $250 enrollment fee waived DeleteMe: 20% off removing your personal info from the web Superhuman: Free month of the fastest and best email with code ALLTHEHACKS For all the deals, discounts and promo codes from our partners, go to: chrishutchins.com/deals Resources Mentioned Kevin Rose: Community Forum | Newsletter Digital Thermometers Haven Sauna Trumpkin's Notes On Building A Sauna AI Tools ChatGPT Pro Claude ‎Gemini Chatterbot Google NotebookLM ElevenLabs Coding: Replit | Cursor | BoltAI Simple AI Automation: Zapier | Make | Howie Podcasts: Snipd Note taking: Journal | Granola | Limitless ATH Podcast Ep #216: Purpose, Friendship, and Human Skills with Simon Sinek Leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Submit questions for our next AMA here Email for questions, hacks, deals, and feedback: podcast@allthehacks.com Full Show Notes (00:00) Introduction (02:16) How Kevin Generally Spends His Day (04:28) Saunas: Impact and How to Efficiently Operate (08:55) Rope Training and Exploring New Ideas (11:46) ChatGPT Hack (17:26) Kevin's Current AI Tool Stack (24:27) The Impact of AI Tools on Consumer Apps (28:09) Tools That Chris Uses (30:57) AI Tools for Podcasts and Note-Taking (37:53) Key Takeaways From the Recent L.A. Fires (47:27) Chris and Kevin's Favorite Physical Items or Purchases (50:00) Why You Should Record Your Belongings Every 6 Months (52:55) How Chris and Kevin Evaluate Where to Live (59:52) Ways to Stay Grounded and True to Yourself Connect with Chris Newsletter | Membership | X | Instagram | LinkedIn Editor's Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show
Signs You're Drifting Away from Your Purpose (and How to Get Back on Track)

The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 12, 2025 10:39


Hey friends, Chase here. Today, I want to talk about something we all face at some point—the moment when what once felt like a dream becomes a trap. It's a tough place to be, but if we can recognize it early, we can turn it into an opportunity for growth and reinvention. When Success Becomes Stifling Back in 2010, I co-founded CreativeLive with a simple but ambitious idea: to give the world access to free, world-class creative education. We started small, but over time, we grew to serve tens of millions of people and raised more than $60 million from top-tier investors like Richard Branson, Reid Hoffman, and Google Ventures. At first, my unconventional background as a creator—not an MBA—was celebrated. I brought a personal brand and a community along for the ride, and it seemed like a competitive advantage. But eventually, the pressure to conform crept in. The same people who once admired my unique approach began questioning it. The Subtle Drift Away from Purpose What started as small adjustments in how I operated became a slow drift off course. It wasn't dramatic at first—just a few degrees off. But after walking that path for long enough, I found myself far from where I wanted to be. The very thing I had built to inspire creativity felt stifling and uncreative. And here's the thing—this story isn't unique to me. It happens to many of us. The artist who becomes a manager. The entrepreneur buried in spreadsheets. The corporate climber who wakes up one day and wonders how they got there. If you've ever felt that way—or if you do in the future—this is for you. Signs It's Time for a Change Listen to Your Gut When something feels off for too long, it's your gut telling you it's time to move. Ignoring that voice comes with real consequences—stress, poor health, and a fog that clouds your creativity and joy. Nothing Lasts Forever Even the most exciting roles can run their course. Dreams change, and that's okay. Letting go of a title or identity that no longer serves you is hard, but it's often necessary for growth. Build Your Escape Pod Early Don't wait for a crisis to figure out your next move. Start building skills, connections, and momentum now. When it's time to make a change, you'll be ready to transition on your terms—not out of desperation. Embrace Change as a Constant Change is inevitable. It's uncomfortable, but it's almost always a catalyst for something better. When you start hearing that little voice whispering about a new chapter, don't ignore it. Trust it. Your future self will thank you. Until next time, take care and keep pushing toward what feels true and right for you. Enjoy!

AI and the Future of Work
322: How AI is Revolutionizing Finance and Decision-Making: Insights from wunderkind George Sivulka, Hebbia CEO

AI and the Future of Work

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2025 32:17


George Sivulka, hailed as a wunderkind by Peter Thiel, is the founder of Hebbia, a groundbreaking AI company revolutionizing financial research. Having worked at NASA as a teenager, he later earned a math degree from Stanford in just 2.5 years. George has secured $130M in funding for Hebbia at a $700M valuation, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Google Ventures, and Thiel himself. Hebbia's AI platform, trusted by firms like Centerview Partners and Charlesbank, has driven a 15x revenue growth in 18 months by pioneering RAG techniques that ensure LLM outputs remain within company-sanctioned data.In this conversation, we discuss:How Hebbia is reshaping financial research with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).The leap from academia to entrepreneurship—how George Sivulka turned research into real-world impact.The expanding role of AI in high-stakes industries where precision is critical.The ethical challenges of AI and how transparency can make or break trust.Why AI agents will change knowledge work—but not in the way you might think.The future of AI-powered research and its impact on decision-making.Resources:Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe Connect with Sivulka on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivulka/ AI fun fact article: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/what-ai-sees-market-that-you-might-not On How AI-Powered Writing is reshaping Enterprise Content Creation: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/may-habib-ceo-of-writer-discusses-llms-and-the/id1476885647?i=1000628256870 

Design Better Podcast
Jake Knapp: Click—How to make what people want

Design Better Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2025 57:51


Design sprints have become a staple of the creative process at companies around the world and an indispensable tool in the pursuit of innovation. We owe a debt of thanks to Jake Knapp and his former colleagues at Google Ventures (now known as GV) who pioneered the design sprint. Visit our Substack for bonus content and more: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/jake-knapp-click There is one gap that design sprints have not entirely addressed, though. What do you do if you're starting a new product or company from scratch? That is the subject of Jake Knapp and co-author John Zeratsky's newest book, Click: How to make what people want. Jake lays out the elements of what he calls a “foundation sprint” in this book. We chat with Jake about what makes a foundation sprint different than a design sprint, and some examples from the book of companies that have used foundation sprints effectively. We also talk to Jake about his decision to start Character, a VC fund aimed at helping startups at seed stage with capital and sprints, and the qualities that they look for in their founders when deciding to invest. Pre-order "Click" Bio Jake Knapp is a New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of Character. Previously, Jake built products like Microsoft Encarta and Gmail, co-founded Google Meet, and invented the Design Sprint. He has coached hundreds of teams at places like Miro, Slack, LEGO, IDEO, and NASA on product strategy and time management, and is a guest instructor at Harvard Business School. This is Jake's third appearance on Design Better. In his first interview with us, he discusses Sprint, and in his second interview he talks about his (and John Zeratsky's) book Make Time. Books & links mentioned Ten things we know to be true The Making of Prince of Persia The rest is history podcast Met opera on demand https://jakek.medium.com/ *** Premium Episodes on Design Better This ad-supported episode is available to everyone. If you'd like to hear it ad-free, upgrade to our premium subscription, where you'll get an additional 2 ad-free episodes per month (4 total). ✨New benefits: Premium subscribers also get access to the documentary Design Disruptors and our growing library of books, as well as our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, discounts and early access to workshops, and our monthly newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. Upgrade to paid *** Visiting the links below is one of the best ways to support our show: Masterclass: MasterClass is the only streaming platform where you can learn and grow with over 200+ of the world's best. People like Steph Curry, Paul Krugman, Malcolm Gladwell, Dianne Von Furstenberg, Margaret Atwood, Lavar Burton and so many more inspiring thinkers share their wisdom in a format that is easy to follow and can be streamed anywhere on a smartphone, computer, smart TV, or even in audio mode. MasterClass always has great offers during the holidays, sometimes up to as much as 50% off. Head over to http://masterclass.com/designbetter for the current offer. DUER: Eli and I are busy people. When we're not in the studio producing the podcast and publishing new articles, we're often doing something active—building, cooking, or on an adventure with family. Work and life blend together, and DU/ER makes clothing for people like us. DUER creates performance denim and lifestyle apparel that is made for doing. Check out DUER's flagship stores in LA or Denver, or order now at shopduer.com/DESIGNBETTER. When you use our exclusive URL, you'll get 20% off your first purchase. If you're interested in sponsoring the show, please contact us at: sponsors@thecuriositydepartment.com If you'd like to submit a guest idea, please contact us at: contact@thecuriositydepartment.com

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
An operator's guide to product strategy | Chandra Janakiraman (CPO at VRChat, ex-Meta, Headspace, Zynga)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 26, 2025 107:22


Chandra Janakiraman is the chief product officer, executive vice president, and a board member at VRChat. Previously, he was a product leader at Meta, where he led Facebook's social experience interfaces and Reality Labs' growth; served as CPO at Headspace, where he helped relaunch the platform, driving a 4x subscriber boost; and was a GM at Zynga, delivering massive hit games that reached hundreds of millions. In our conversation, Chandra shares:• His playbook for developing a product strategy• The difference between “small s” and “big S” strategy• How to run strategy sprints• Who should be involved in strategy work• Common pitfalls in strategy development• The role of AI in future strategy development• More—Brought to you by:• Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments• Airtable ProductCentral—Launch to new heights with a unified system for product development• OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster—Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/an-operators-guide-to-product-strategy-chandra-janakiraman—Where to find Chandra Janakiraman:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandramohanj/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Chandra's background(04:47) The importance of strategy(12:40) Defining product strategy(15:42) Developing a winning strategy: an overview(18:51) The preparation phase(30:46) The strategy sprint process(45:51) The design sprint (51:19) Document writing(57:39) Rolling out your strategy(01:01:28) Resourcing and roadmapping(01:04:42) Strategy lessons from Zynga(01:11:34) Strategy lessons from Meta(01:15:55) Big S strategy(01:26:58) AI in strategy formulation(01:38:12) Final thoughts and lightning round—Referenced:• Headspace: https://www.headspace.com/• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy | Richard Rumelt: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/good-strategy-bad-strategy-richard• 5 essential questions to craft a winning strategy | Roger Martin (author, advisor, speaker): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-strategy-roger-martin• VRChat: https://hello.vrchat.com/• Andrew Chen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmandrewchen/• Template: Working Backwards PR FAQ: https://www.workingbackwards.com/resources/working-backwards-pr-faq• How LinkedIn became interesting: The inside story | Tomer Cohen (CPO at LinkedIn): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-linkedin-became-interesting-tomer-cohen• Making time for what matters | Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (authors of Sprint and Make Time, co-founders of Character Capital): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-time-for-what-matters-jake• Identify your bullseye customer in one day | Michael Margolis (UX Research Partner at Google Ventures): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/finding-your-bullseye-customer-michael-margolis• Chandra's flow chart: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SLmQ0oRFadzJnNM3MJetnLUvB18U4W4GXU4KtJ2ujEQ/edit?tab=t.0• Chandra's strategy template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iNeYUaMnpicvkpVZO-gj9cCxLeHfWN0xtGm_QoxgemE/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.5d3jz6v86yrs• Zynga: https://www.zynga.com/• David Foster Wallace's quote about water: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/97082-there-are-these-two-young-fish-swimming-along-and-they• Oculus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus• Elon Musk's quote: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wf8TadbGYok• Concept car: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_car• Acquired podcast: The Mark Zuckerberg interview: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/the-mark-zuckerberg-interview• Armand Ruiz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armand-ruiz/• What is a multi-armed bandit? Full explanation: https://amplitude.com/explore/experiment/multi-armed-bandit• IF on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/IF-John-Krasinski/dp/B0CW19SCVW• Dune: Part 2 on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/dune-part-two/umc.cmc.363aycnv6vy9qgekvew6fveb9• Dune Prophecy on Max: https://www.max.com/shows/dune-prophecy-2024/57660b16-a32a-476f-89da-3302ac379e91• Capybara Go on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ph/app/capybara-go/id6596787726• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/• Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Lost-Interview/dp/B01IJD1BES—Recommended books:• The Art of War: https://www.amazon.com/Art-War-Sun-Tzu/dp/1599869772• Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors: https://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Industries-Competitors/dp/0684841487/• Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-Difference-Matters/dp/0307886239/• Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works: https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X• Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Time-Focus-Matters-Every/dp/0525572422• Sprint: https://www.amazon.com/SPRINT-Jake-Zeratsky-Knapp/dp/0593076117• Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination: https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Triumph-American-Imagination/dp/0679757473• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration: https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Expanded-Overcoming-Inspiration/dp/0593594649/• The Ten Faces of Innovation: Strategies for Heightening Creativity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385512074—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product Strategy
BDTP. Bullseye Customer Research with Michael Margolis

UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product Strategy

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2025 29:47


Today we have another episode of Better Done Than Perfect. Listen in as we talk to Michael Margolis, UX Research Partner at Google Ventures. You'll learn about their bullseye customer sprint, the difference between an ideal customer profile and the bullseye customer, how to apply prototypes, and more.Please head over to the episode page for the detailed recap and key takeaways.Show notesLearn More Faster – Michael's bookFollow Michael on LinkedInThanks for listening! If you found the episode useful, please spread the word about this new show on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.SponsorThis show is brought to you by Userlist — an email automation platform for SaaS companies. It matches the complexity of your customer data, including many-to-many relationships between users and companies. Book your demo call today at userlist.com.Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here.Leave a ReviewReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

Heads Talk
235 - Rafie Faruq, CEO: Genie AI - The Law Industry Disrupters

Heads Talk

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2024 68:44


Let us know your thoughts. Send us a Text Message. Follow me to see #HeadsTalk Podcast Audiograms every Monday on LinkedInEpisode Title:

DealMakers
Brian O'Kelley On Building A $1.6 Billion Company Acquired By Microsoft And Creating A Protocol To Measure And Lower Carbon Emissions In Digital Supply Chains

DealMakers

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2024 42:33


The entrepreneurial path is rarely a straight line, and for Brian O'Kelley, it's been a winding road of remarkable successes, humbling failures, and surprising turns. He has built multiple companies, one of which was incredibly successful and culminated in a $1.6B exit. Brian's latest venture, Scope3, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Room40 Ventures, Google Ventures, Craft Venture, and Venrock.

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
Identify your bullseye customer in one day | Michael Margolis (UX Research Partner at Google Ventures)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2024 89:39


Michael Margolis has been a UX research partner at Google Ventures (GV) for nearly 15 years. He has developed a unique approach to helping startups identify their “bullseye customer”—the specific subset of their target market who initially is most likely to adopt their product. Michael has conducted over 300 hands-on research sprints with GV portfolio companies across various industries and helped develop the “design sprint” process made famous by the book Sprint. In our conversation, we discuss:• The step-by-step process of running a bullseye customer sprint• The most common mistakes founders make when picking their first customers• Practical tips for conducting effective customer interviews• How to create simple but effective prototypes for user research• The power of “watch parties” in aligning teams around customer insights• How to apply these methods beyond typical tech startups—Brought to you by:• Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments• Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want• Enterpret—Transform customer feedback into product growth—Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/finding-your-bullseye-customer-michael-margolis—Where to find Michael Margolis:• X: https://x.com/mmargolis• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmargolis/• Website: https://www.learnmorefaster.com/• Medium: https://medium.com/@mmargolis—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Michael's background(09:11) Bullseye customers vs. ideal customer profiles (ICPs)(12:32) An overview of the bullseye customer sprint(20:56) When to use the bullseye customer sprint(22:19) Step one: Agree on goals and key questions(23:48) Step two: Define your bullseye customer(25:52) The importance of a narrow target audience(29:00) An example of step two in action(38:24) Narrowing attributes and exclusion criteria(43:28) Step three: Recruiting and compensating participants(56:11) Step four: Creating effective prototypes(01:01:10) Step five: Drafting your interview guide(01:08:49) Step six: The watch party method(01:19:40) Common pitfalls and final thoughts(01:24:43) Closing thoughts and where to find Michael—Referenced:• Learn More Faster: How to Find Your Bullseye Customer and Their Perfect Product: https://www.learnmorefaster.com• Alcoa: https://www.alcoa.com• Dupont: https://www.dupont.com• Ericsson: https://www.ericsson.com• Google Ventures: https://www.gv.com/• Kate Aronowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katearonowitz/• Vanessa Cho on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veecho/• How to kickstart and scale a consumer business—Step 2: Identify your super-specific who: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/consumer-business-super-specific-who• When enough is enough | Andy Johns (ex-FB, Twitter, Quora): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/when-enough-is-enough-andy-johns• Zipline for health care: https://www.flyzipline.com/solutions/healthcare• Jobs to Be Done framework: https://www.christenseninstitute.org/theory/jobs-to-be-done• User Interviews: https://www.userinterviews.com/• Respondent: https://www.respondent.io/• Flatiron Health: https://flatiron.com/• How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-identify-your-ideal-customer• Gong: https://www.gong.io• Linear: https://linear.app• Gusto: https://gusto.com/• Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling: https://bookshop.org/p/books/humble-inquiry-second-edition-the-gentle-art-of-asking-instead-of-telling-edgar-h-schein/14739375• Figma: https://www.figma.com—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

All the Hacks
Navigating Your Money, Points, and Career + More Listener Q&A with Kevin Rose

All the Hacks

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2024 83:13


#197: Together with Kevin Rose, we'll dive into points and miles strategies, credit card optimization, travel tips, and career growth. Specifically, we'll cover everything from underrated credit card tricks, tactics for earning multiple welcome bonuses, navigating the complexities of family travel, staying updated on the best deals, our favorite podcasts, and so much more. Kevin Rose is a partner at True Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that has invested over $4 billion in a portfolio of over 400+ founders. Kevin previously founded Digg, Zero, Oak, and was a Partner at Google Ventures. Link to Full Show Notes: https://chrishutchins.com/kevin-rose-ama-1 Partner Deals Stable: 50% off your first year of my favorite digital mailbox Superhuman: Free month of the fastest and best email with code ALLTHEHACKS Daffy: Free $25 to give to the charity of your choice Vuori: 20% off the most comfortable performance apparel I've ever worn Oracle: Free trial of the next generation Oracle Cloud Infrastructure For all the deals, discounts and promo codes from our partners, go to: chrishutchins.com/deals Resources Mentioned Kevin Rose: Website | Newsletter DEXA Scan: DexaFit Credit Cards Best Credit Cards Offers Page Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Card Bank of America Preferred Rewards Robinhood Gold Credit Card Bilt Mastercard® Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card Citi Strata Premier℠ Card Credit Card Optimizer Tool How to Get Approved for Business Cards Pepper Rewards App (Referral code: 612342) Points and Miles Websites Frequent Miler Doctor Of Credit One Mile at a Time Travel point.me AwardCat 10xTravel Savanti Travel Hyatt Globalist Guest of Honor: A Complete Guide Podcasts Frequent Miler On The Air Animal Spirits The Memo by Howard Marks MoneyWise with Sam Parr The Peter Attia Drive diggnation Huberman Lab The Aliquot (Rhonda Patrick) ATH Podcast Chris' Newsletter: Sign Up | Past Issues Chris' Membership Ep #47: Finding Happiness, Success and Deep Purpose with Arthur Brooks Ep #86: The Best Deals for Vacation Rentals, Exchanges, Fractionals, Timeshares and More! Ep #170: Cash Back vs. Points: Are We Doing It All Wrong? Ep #196: Optimizing Metabolic Health to Live a Longer and Healthier Life with Dr. Casey Means Full Show Notes (02:11) Introduction (03:32) Strategizing Your Next Home Purchase (07:42) When Should You Consider REITs? (08:25) Mastering the Skill of Spending (12:15) Why You Should Invest Toward Your Pain Points (14:28) Maximizing Earnings in Less Than 6 Months (16:51) Most Overrated Credit Card Trick (20:55) Underrated Credit Card Strategies (23:30) Chris' Credit Card Optimizer Tool (25:34) Secret Perk on Amazon Visa Card (26:49) How to Earn Multiple Welcome Bonuses (30:26) Cancelling/Recycling Credit Cards (35:20) How to Get Weekly Alerts on Deals & Finds (37:01) Earning Points Beyond Regular Spending (40:00) Pepper Points (41:16) Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines Merger (44:03) Adding Authorized Users on Your Card (45:48) How to Search for Hotel Availability by Occupancy (46:49) Chris' Favorite Websites to Earn Points From (47:22) Best Credit Card Pairings (49:33) Using Consultants to Maximize Points (51:04) Relaxing on Vacation (54:03) Rental Car Protection on Points (55:57) Chris and Kevin's Favorite Airline Cabins (58:10) Splitting Kids & Nanny into Different Class Flight Seats (1:02:20) Earning Hyatt Globalist Status (1:05:52) Optimizing Vacation Rentals or Extended Trips (1:07:07) Chris and Kevin's Favorite Podcasts (1:09:31) How to Decide to Quit Your Job (1:13:49) Accelerating Your Career With Kids (1:20:13) Future Q&A Preview (1:21:04) The Reason We Have Ads in the Show (1:22:53) Where to Find Kevin

Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore
1112: Meredith Sandland, CEO of Empower Delivery and Author of Delivering the Digital Restaurant

Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2024 103:50


Meredith Sandland is the CEO of Empower Delivery and the co-author of 2 books, Delivering The Digital Restaurant: Your Roadmap To The Future Of Food , and Delivering The Digital Restaurant: The Path to Digital Maturity, both co-authored with Carl Osbourne. Prior to co-authoring those books, Meredith spent two decades in consulting, corporate strategy, and restaurant development. After Building 1,000+ restaurants the Chief Development Officer at Yum! Brands' Taco Bell, Meredith observed that the on-demand economy was starting to affect restaurants. Meredith joined ghost kitchen start-up, Kitchen United as employee #4 to create their business model, raise initial capital, and serve as the public face of the Google Venture-backed disruptor. Meredith previously joined Restaurant Unstoppable for episode 842! Favorite success quote/mantra: "Be intentional." In this episode we will discuss:  Tech stack Delivery Ghost kitchens and virtual brands Dynamic pricing AND MORE! Today's sponsors: Restaurant Technologies the company that helps restaurants, “Control the kitchen chaos.” With RT's total oil management, you get: Dependable fresh bulk cooking oil delivery; Filtration + oil usage monitoring and reporting; Used cooking oil pick-up, and recycling; And say goodbye to messy, dangerous restaurant rendering tanks-yuck. RT's end-to-end cooking oils solution helps you manage your used cooking oil storage, collection, and recycling- conveniently, safely, and cleanly- with no upfront costs. Head to www.RTI-inc.com, and let them know the Restaurant Unstoppable Podcast sent you their way. MarginEdge: Boost your efficiency and profitability without adding labor costs. MarginEdge is a complete restaurant management software that allows you to seamlessly manage all aspects of your business from one central location. Track food costs in real time, make inventory faster and less tedious, easily cost out your recipes, and get a daily P&L so you always know where you stand. See how it works at marginedge.com/unstopabble. Meez: Are you a chef, owner, operator, or manage recipes in professional kitchens? meez is built just for you. Organize, share, prep, and scale recipes like never before. Plus, engineer your menu in real-time and get accurate food costs. Sign up for free today and get 2 FREE months of invoice processing as a listener of the Restaurant Unstoppable Podcast. Visit getmeez.com/unstoppable to learn more. Restaurant Systems Pro - Join the 60-day Restaurant Systems Pro FREE TRAINING. This is something that has never been done before. This 60-day event is at no cost to you, but it is not for everyone. Fred Langley, CEO of Restaurant Systems Pro, will lead a group of restaurateurs through the Restaurant Systems Pro software and set up the systems for your restaurant. During the 60 days, Fred will walk you through the Restaurant Systems Pro Process and help you crush the following goals: Recipe Costing Cards; Guidance in your books for accounting; Cash controls; Sales Forecasting(With Accuracy); Checklists; Budgeting for the entire year; Scheduling for profit; More butts in seats and more… Click Here to learn more. Contact the guest: On the web: https://www.empower.delivery LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-sandland/ Thanks for listening! Rate the podcast, subscribe, and share!  We are on Youtube: @RestaurantUnstoppable

All the Hacks
12 Tactics to Make More Time EVERY Day with Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky

All the Hacks

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2024 62:04


#185: Learn a proven 4-step framework to create more time in your day for whatever matters most. In this episode, Jake and John share tactics to highlight your priorities, maintain laser focus, energize with healthy habits, and reflect in order to continuously improve and transform your life. Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky are the authors of the best-selling books Sprint and Make Time, and co-founders of Character, a venture capital firm. Previously, they were partners at Google Ventures and design leads at Google where worked on apps like Gmail and YouTube. Link to Full Show Notes: https://allthehacks.com/make-time-jake-knapp-john-zeratsky Partner Deals Vuori: 20% off the most comfortable performance apparel I've ever worn DeleteMe: 20% off removing your personal info from the web Shopify: $1/month trial for the easiest e-commerce platform Greenlight: First month free on a debit card and money app to raise financially smart kids Green Chef: 50% off organic meal kits with code ALLTHEHACKS50 + 20% off next 2 months For all the deals, discounts and promo codes from our partners, go to: allthehacks.com/deals Resources Mentioned Make Time: Book | Free Notes Template Character | Character Labs Apps: Reclaim Compose Freedom All the Hacks Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts Email for questions, hacks, deals, feedback: podcast@allthehacks.com Full Show Notes (00:00) Introduction (01:50) What Most People Get Wrong About Managing Time (04:06) Why People Are Struggling With Productivity (05:45) Applying ‘Make Time' to Your Personal Life (08:14) Busy Bandwagons and Infinity Pools (12:30) The 4 Step 'Make Time' Framework (15:40) How to Start Your Day With a Highlight (20:24) Highlights: Can There Be More Than One? Can They Change? (24:04) Highlight Tactic: Design Your Day (27:38) Highlight Tactic: Batch the Little Stuff (30:34) How Often Should You Look Into Feedback Loops? (31:18) The Most Efficient Ways to Find Laser Focus (35:20) Creating a Distraction-Free Phone (42:00) How to Deal With Attention Residue (46:38) Ways to Create Energy to Recharge Yourself (50:16) Why You Should Leave Your Headphones at Home (51:05) Best Cadence to Take Breaks (53:00) How Jake and John Apply Exercise to Their Lives (56:20) What Can We Do to Reflect? (59:14) Where to Find Jake and John's Work Connect with All the Hacks All the Hacks: Newsletter | Website | Membership | Email Chris Hutchins: X | Instagram | Website | LinkedIn Editor's Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

The Art of Manliness
How to Create a Distraction-Free Phone

The Art of Manliness

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2024 50:23


Jake Knapp loves tech. He grew up using Apple II and then Mac computers, browsing bulletin boards, and making his own games. As an adult, he worked at Microsoft on the Encarta CD-ROM, before being hired by Google, where he worked on Gmail, co-founded Google Meet, and created Google Ventures' Design Sprint process. Today, he's a venture capitalist and consultant for start-ups, as well as a writer.But, if Jake was an early adopter and booster of the upsides of technology, he was also early in sensing its not-so-positive side effects. Twelve years ago, unhappy with the pull his smartphone was exerting on him, he decided to curb its distractions. He continues to use this distraction-free phone today.Today on the show, I talk to Jake about what motivated him to change his relationship with his phone over a decade ago and what steps he took to do so, including how and why he lives life without a web browser or email app on his phone. We get into what realizations about work and life Jake's gotten from having a distraction-free phone, why he doesn't think using tools like Screen Time or a dumbphone are always the best solutions to reducing the phone itch, and how he also cuts down on distractions on his desktop computer.Resources Related to the PodcastMake Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John ZeratskySprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake KnappAoM Podcast #450: How to Make Time for What Really Matters Every Day With John Zeratsky AoM Podcast #972: Down With Pseudo-Productivity: Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work With Cal NewportAoM Article: The Complete Guide to Breaking Your Smartphone HabitAoM Article: 5 Concrete Ways to Develop a Healthier Relationship With Your Phone (No Blocking or Deleting Apps Required!)AoM Podcast #420: What Makes Your Phone So Addictive & How to Take Back Your LifeFreedom appHow We Feel appLight Phone IITime TimerConnect With Jake KnappJake's website