Found
How do you build a company from scratch? How do you take an idea and turn yourself into a founder? Find out from those who’ve already taken the plunge and are in the weeds of entrepreneurship. Every Tuesday, hosts Becca Szuktak and Dominic-Madori Davis interview founders on their origins, product roadmaps, funding efforts — and how they grow from failures. Found is produced by Maggie Stamets
Technology
News
Tech News
151
Laura Crabtree, Epsilon3
 Space enterprise founder, Laura Crabtree, talks with Darrell and Jordan about starting Epsilon 3 and how they are helping companies across the space industry (and beyond) plan, track, and record their large projects and mission. They discuss their growing market fit, building relationships with your investors, and the benefits of having three founders.
55 min
152
Shivani Siroya, Tala
Found Live is back again with Shivani Siroya, CEO and founder of Tala, a fintech company that works with underestimated communities to build a financial system that works for everyone. While working at the UN, Siroya was working to understand progress out of poverty and discovered you need to understand where the money is being used. In this episode, she talks with Jordan and Darrell about how she took that information to start Tala, raise a $145 million series E, adjust and excel during the pandemic, lead with honesty and empathy, and continues to create a more equitable financial system.
48 min
153
Matthew Wadiak, Cooks Venture
Most people don’t spend much time thinking about where their poultry comes from, much less what it was eating when it was alive but the feeding practices on large farms are harmful to the environment and have led to bland, unhealthy chickens. Today’s guest, Matthew Wadiak is a chef and founder and CEO of Cooks Venture which is on a mission to create a new breed of broiler chicken that is more active, able to eat a varied diet, and tastier. Through restorative agriculture and selective breeding, the Cooks Venture farm in Arkansas has bred chickens that are more heat resistant and can eat a variety of grains. As a chef and former co-founder of Blue Apron, Wadiak views it as his duty to try to change the food system for the better. Don’t miss the next live episode with Shivani Siroya from Tala on 3/17 at 10pm PT/ 1pm ET.  RSVP: https://hopin.com/events/found-live-mar17 Watch the Cooks Venture video about planting 20,000 Hazelnut trees in partnership with RAD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ0WRUtfn4c
52 min
154
Toyin Ajayi, Cityblock
On Found Live Darrell and Jordan got to chat with Cityblock co-founder and president, Toyin Ajayi. CItyblock provides primary care, behavioral health, and social care to folks who have been historically marginalized in the healthcare system, primarily people who are receiving their health insurance through Medicaid with the goal of providing high-quality holistic care at a lower cost. They do this through a network of physicians, community outreach teams, and by working with insurance providers. While Dr. Ajayi was working in a hospital system she became frustrated by the systemic issues that were sending the same patients back to the hospital time and time again. So she began experimenting with ways to extend her care like giving out her cell phone number, making house calls, being available to explain medications. That idea grew into Cityblock where that level of personalized care is scaled. They talked about the healthcare system, how providers can improve care, Toyin’s spicy TechCrunch Disrupt panel, and answered a few audience questions. Don’t miss the next live episode with Shivani Siroya from Tala on 3/17 at 10pm PT/ 1pm ET. RSVP: https://hopin.com/events/found-live-mar17
52 min
155
Michelle You, Supercritical
Michelle You, co-founder and CEO of Supercritical, is on a mission to help companies get to net-zero but she refuses to sacrifice her personal life for the startup. Michelle talks with Darrell and Jordan about how motherhood has eased her imposter syndrome, the “scar tissue” she had from a tough exit of her first startup, why the planet needs more effective carbon removal methods now, and how she’s using those learnings as a second-time founder. Don't miss Found Live with Toyin Ajayi from CityBlock this Thursday (3/3) at 12pm PT/ 3pm ET. RSVP: https://hopin.com/events/found-live-mar3
48 min
156
Found Live ft Jordan Taylor and Edith Cooper, M...
Listen in to the first-ever episode of Found Live. We were joined by the mother-daughter duo Jordan Taylor and Edith Cooper who co-founded Medley—a group coaching platform focusing on personal and professional growth. They talked with Jordan and Darrell about what it’s like to start a business with a family member amidst a pandemic, what it takes to foster community in a virtual space, and the importance of vulnerable, honest communication. Those who joined us live were able to participate in the conversation in real time. If you missed this live episode, don’t worry, we’re going live on Hopin every other Thursday. On March 3, Toyin Ajayi from Cityblock will join the found crew at 10am Pt/ 1pm ET
53 min
157
Sunil Paul, Spring Free EV
Don't miss Found Live on 2/17 at 10am PT / 1pm ET with our first guest Thor Fridriksson. RSVP at ttps://tcrn.ch/3ox8iS1. When serial founder turned venture capitalist Sunil Paul decided to step back into startups, it was only after trying to give the idea behind his fintech company Spring Free EV away for over a decade. The idea is simple, bring down the initial cost of electric vehicles by charging owners a fee per mile. And after the wildfires in California lead to what he called the "orange sky day" he knew he had to figure out a way to do more to address the climate crisis by making EVs more accessible to the people who drive the most in the US. He joins Darrell and Jordan to talk about the end of the world, recruiting as a climate-focused fintech, fundraising, and of course Canada came up a few times too.
49 min
158
Kentaro Kawamori, Persefoni
This week, Persefoni co-founder and CEO, Kentaro Kawamori is joining us this week not only to talk about his climate tech startup that aims at helping asset managers, banks and other financial institutions measure their financial emissions footprint and purchase offsets. But he is also sharing his spicey takes on the fundraising landscape and what he thinks stands the best chance of combatting the climate crisis. Darrell, Jordan and Kentaro get into the importance of building the team that’s a perfect fit for the industry you’re disrupting and the Web 3 company “Holy Smokes” they’re all launching together. RSVP for Found Live at https://tcrn.ch/3ox8iS1
52 min
159
Elizabeth Ruzzo, adyn
We’re in the business of talking to very impressive people who are working to solve incredibly tough problems— but Elizabeth Ruzzo, founder and CEO of adyn, may be one of the most impressive yet. Not only did she develop the only test for women to ensure they are prescribed the birth control that will be the least likely to have detrimental side effects, she also founded the company and fundraised as the sole employee of the company. She talks to Darrell and Jordan about the challenges she faced as a solo founder/employee raising money for a solution for birth control, why she decided to leave academia, and the complicated regulatory maze she had to navigate to get adyn off the ground.
45 min
160
Julian Green, Headroom
We’re talking to serial founder Julian Green whose most recent startup, Headroom is using AI to hack human conversation—starting with meetings. Julian’s goal is to make meetings and virtual communication feel closer to talking in the real world. Come to hear a very smart founder talk about his experience in startups and at Google, stay for Jordan pitching sound effects for every time Darrell mentions Canada.
51 min
161
Ariela Safira, Real
This week Darrell and Jordan talk with Real CEO and Founder, Ariela Safira. Real is a therapy platform that aims to make mental healthcare more accessible by offering group sessions and curriculums a user can engage with any time. While in college, Ariela had her first encounter with the mental health care system and realized that people were only seeking help for their mental health when they were in crisis. She then spent years studying the ways people seek care and how therapy could be more accessible and effective. In this conversation as they dive into everything from the research that lead her to found Real to religion to the merits of Goop. CW: suicide and attempted suicide.
51 min
162
Liz Young, Realm
Liz Young remembers when her family became homeowners, even at six years old she understood it was a big deal. That sparked a fascination with real estate and the home-owning experience. While working at Bloomberg, she discovered the importance of data-driven decisions in the housing market. She wanted to give the power of data to the average homeowner so she founded Realm which helps homeowners prioritize renovation projects to increase the value of the home and use their time and money wisely. Darrell, Jordan, and Liz talk about the tricky housing market, how powerful localized data is for homeowners, and how Darrell can renovate his basement dungeon gym for the greeted ROI.
46 min
163
Ashley Sumner, Quilt (re-release)
As COVID-19 cases spike many people enter 2022 in some kind of quarantine, a conversation about community and connecting across a digital space feels like just what the doctor ordered. Ashley Sumner's original concept for Quilt was all about meeting up in person — almost an Airbnb for conversations. But shortly after launch, the universe threw a wrench in the works, as a global pandemic shut down or severely limited in-person interaction almost everywhere, particularly among strangers connecting for the first time. Quilt made a pivot into the suddenly crowded social audio space, but Ashley explains how it kept its core focus and differentiation in the process.
53 min
164
Alexandra Bonetti, The Talent Hack
While owning and operating studio gym spaces in New York, Alexandra Bonetti knew that it shouldn’t have to be this hard to establish processes for issues all gyms have like recruiting new members, hiring qualified talent, and getting substitutes for classes, to name a few. So she founded The Talent Hack which is a platform geared towards helping experts working in the fitness and wellness industry achieve tangible success. In this episode, she discusses her philosophy that everyone has superpowers and she is passionate about discovering those talents and making them work for the individual and how to be nimble as a new company in a complicated industry.
40 min
165
Yusuf Sherwani , Quit Genius
Yusuf Sherwani saw the value in remote mental healthcare long before COVID sent everyone into video therapy sessions. He is the CEO and one of three doctor/co-founders of Quit Genius, an app that uses CBT therapy and other proven methods to help patients tackle their addiction. He talks with Darrell and Jordan about starting a telehealth company before COVID and the regulatory hurdles they had to navigate and how they convinced investors that it was crucial to be research-led when it comes to building a patient-focused product.
41 min
166
Aditi Shekar, Zeta (Re-Release)
This week we're re-releasing Jordan and Darrell's conversation with Aditi Shekar, the co-founder and CEO of Zeta. As the year comes to a close and we look toward 2022, we thought everyone could use inspiration to get new year, new financial habits in order. Plus Aditi's unstoppable tenacity and drive are undeniably inspiring. Aditi's childhood ambitions included literal world domination, but she ended up as an unstoppable entrepreneur instead. She's the co-founder and CEO of Zeta, a new kind of financial services company that's designed from the ground up for "multiplayer" banking — be it with a spouse, a trusted partner or anyone else. Aditi tells us all about how she's revolutionizing money management thanks to her drive and focus.
55 min
167
Ross Lipson, Dutchie
Co-founder of Dutchie, Ross Lipson talks to Jordan and Darrell about stepping into the cannabis space, taking the hits as they come, and growing a business in a highly-regulated and brand new industry. His positive outlook on business and life may be contagious so pessimists, nihilists, and fatalists beware.
55 min
168
Carolyn Mooney, Nextmv
Carolyn Mooney wants you to make your decision-making process code. She is the co-founder and CEO of Nextmv which helps companies make efficient decisions on a mass scale—think Amazon distributing packaging or Uber plotting a route for an uber pool. In this week’s episode, she talks with Darrell and Jordan about Nextmv’s software that doesn’t just optimize decision making and route planning but also enables engineers to work on many different types of teams. Plus she talks about how coaching high school volleyball has made her a better leader and forced her to prioritize a work-life balance.
52 min
169
Larry Gadea, Envoy
The way COVID-19 has changed the way we work comes up a lot, founders have had to pivot and innovate to build companies during lockdown but the workplace restrictions seemed to spark inspiration for this week's guest, Larry Gadea, founder, and CEO of Envoy. Envoy started in 2013 as a guest sign-in platform to make offices safer and more efficient. Over the past 18 months, they've created new products to solve for many of the new issues offices have as they adapt to the new and frequently changing office safety protocols. Larry talks about how remote work affected company culture, his work-life balance philosophy, and how his leadership style has grown with the company.
50 min
170
Nabiha Saklayen, Cellino
Not only is this week's guest the TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 Battlefield winner, but Nabiha Saklayen is also democratizing access to life-saving cell therapies by using—you guessed it—lasers. Nabiha is the co-founder and CEO of Cellino which is a company developing the tech to automate stem cell production that will lower the cost of cell therapies and increase the yield of viable cells. In this episode, Nabiha tells Jordan and Darrell how she built a start-up beginning with the tech and finding a business fit, her evolving leadership style, and why this work is crucial to the biomedical field.
48 min
171
Megan O'Connor, Nth Cycle
This week we talk to the runner-up in Tech Crunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield: Megan O'Connor from Nth Cycle. Megan first found out about the impending shortage of materials used in batteries, phones, electric vehicles, and many of the products needed for a more sustainable green economy while studying at Yale and immediately began working towards a solution. She co-founded Nth Cycle which has developed a technology to help mining and recycling companies recover every bit of critical minerals from their operations by more efficiently recycling the materials and working to fill the gaps in the supply chain.
45 min
172
Maria Shriver and Patrick Schwarzenegger, MOSH
After experiencing firsthand what Alzheimer’s does to patients and their families, Maria Shriver and Patrick Schwarzenegger, have launched MOSH, a nutrition company focusing on brain food. The mother and son duo combined her passion for advocacy with his experience in company building to create and a product and brand that will have people thinking about their brain health. They talk to Darrell and Jordan about how having a co-founder who is also your mother can have some additional stress, how they view health-food brands and the lofty promises of so many brands, and why we should all be thinking about our brain health no matter how old you are.
47 min
173
Kiki Freedman, Hey Jane
Kiki Freedman realized access to abortion care was already at risk long before Texas' SB8, and that was what inspired her to found Hey Jane, a virtual health care startup aimed at women with an initial focus on delivering remote abortion care. Hey Jane provides access to consultations with doctors, available 24 hours a day, and home delivery for FDA-approved abortion pills. Freedman tells us about how her experience at Uber informed her founder mentality at Hey Jane, and how the startup hopes to change the healthcare industry.
42 min
174
Jacqueline Schafer, Clearbrief
After a legal career that included litigation experience at a big NYC law firm, as well as stops in both the Washington and Alaska Attorney General offices, Jackie Schafer realized that one of the major challenges in litigation is accurate and thorough review and citation of the mass of documents and prior judgements involved in a case. That's why she founded Clearbrief, which could help level the playing field for small legal firms and unlock major efficiencies in the public justice system. Also, she's an amazing singer!
49 min
175
Job van der Voort, Remote
Job van der Voort knows a thing or two about running a remote company, as a long-time GitLab employee, the host of the Remote Work Podcast and the CEO and founder of a company literally named 'Remote.' We talk to him about shifts in how companies and employees are approaching remote work, and how that proved a great basis for the creation of a company that renders a lot of the fundamentals of the model easy and repeatable.
57 min