How Lorenzo Thione Is Scaling Support For Diverse Founders With Gaingels
Lorenzo Thione is the Managing Director of Gaingels, a leading LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate and one of the largest and most active private investors in North America. He is also the co-founding Chairman of StartOut, Chairman of the Board at Social Edge, and previously co-founded Powerset, a natural-language search engine startup sold to Microsoft for $100 million in 2008.
Lorenzo Thione, Managing Director of Gaingels
We sat down with one of the most influential people in tech, Lorenzo Thione, who shares his very inspiring journey and how that led him to be where he is today.
Lorenzo grew up in Milan, Italy and had a technical background at an early age. He completed his studies at the University of Texas at Austin, from which he holds a M.S. in Computer Engineering.
He is now the Managing Director of Gaingels, a leading LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate and one of the largest and most active private investors in North America. He is also the co-founding Chairman of StartOut, Chairman of the Board at Social Edge, and previously co-founded Powerset, a natural-language search engine startup sold to Microsoft for $100 million in 2008.
Lorenzo is named one of the most influential LGBT people in tech in 2014 and 2018 and his dedication in supporting and elevating leaders of the LGBTQ+ in the venture startup is amazing.
As the Managing Producer at Sing Out, Louis! Productions, he is also a Tony-Award winner (Hadestown, The Inheritance). He produced and co-created the Broadway musical, Allegiance starring George Takei and Lea Salonga. He is currently working in a new original musical, Indigo, as well as The Elephant Whisperer.
We covered a lot of ground in this episode, including:
Topics Discussed:
Where his passion comes from and how Lorenzo found entrepreneurship.
Helping others to build a diverse company by providing more than just funding.
The different companies that he had a part in building.
His mark on Broadway.
How your descent can make a difference in your future and your thinking.
How the model of angel groups is evolving to syndicates and SPV’s.
The role of a “Platform” strategy to help Gaingels portfolio companies.
What does Lorenzo think about the future of Venture Capital.
Quote of the Episode:
“Strategic Value, what is all being brought to the table”
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
His mentor told him to, “ be obsessive, about how you can add value, to your own network and relationships”
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Finta - Finta’s end to end fundraising management platform enables you to manage your investors throughout their entire lifecycle in a single streamlined flow.
A-List: After every episode of the Ambition Today podcast we record an exclusive bonus clip, where we ask each guest to tell us the best advice they have ever received. Hear first-hand stories from over 30 entrepreneurs and investors in these exclusive bonus clips.
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Millennial Investing Podcast Episode: Venture Capital Investing With Kevin Siskar
Last month I had the opportunity to sit on the opposite sit of the podcaster’s table to be a guest on the Millennial Investing Podcast! Where hosts, Robert Leonard and Clay Finck interview successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors to help educate and inspire the millennial generation.
Kevin Siskar, Millenial Investing Podcast
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit on the opposite sit of the podcaster’s table to be a guest on the Millennial Investing Podcast! Where hosts, Robert Leonard and Clay Finck interview successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors to help educate and inspire the millennial generation.
I hope you enjoy the episode. Listen here!
Host Clay Finck chats with Kevin Siskar about venture capital investing, the types of companies emerging in the venture capital space, how studying human behavior can help you as an investor, the differences between working at a large corporation vs a smaller company, how you can shift yourself to have a growth mindset, how luck has played into the companies Kevin has worked with, and much, much more!
Topics Discussed:
· What types of companies 43North looks to invest in.
· Why tech incubators should be everywhere, not just in Silicon Valley.
· What types of industries are currently most exciting from Kevin’s point of view.
· How studying human behavior can help you as an investor.
· What Kevin wishes he could tell his younger self about investing in startups.
· The differences between working at a large corporation and working at a smaller company.
· How people can shift from a worker mindset to a growth mindset.
· How luck has played into the companies that Kevin has worked with.
· The importance of a strong network and how Kevin maintains such a wide network.
· And much, much more!
How Jordan Levy Left His Mark On The Venture Capital Industry
In the fall we sat down with one of the godfathers of Venture Capital, Jordan Levy, who shares his very inspiring founder story and how that led to his career as an investor.
Jordan Levy | SEed Capital Partners (SBNY)
In the fall we sat down with one of the godfathers of Venture Capital, Jordan Levy, who shares his very inspiring founder story and how that led to his career as an investor.
Jordan co-founded Software Distribution Services which was acquired by Ingram Micro, before going on to be a Partner on the early-stage investing team at SoftBank Capital (SBNY) for 16 years.
Jordan has served on the boards of BuzzFeed, TalkSpace, Work Market, ACV Auctions, and many others. Using his upbringing and religion to pay it forward (Tzedakah) to the community that he grew up in, in Buffalo, New York. Jordy also co-founded Z80 Labs, a startup incubator in Buffalo, and 43North, an accelerator that hosts an annual startup competition, investing $5M per year in Buffalo, NY. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, including:
Topics Discussed:
Building Software Distribution Services in the early days of venture capital.
How to think about the private vs public markets.
The intricacies of SPACs vs the IPO.
Lessons learned from decades of investments.
Betting on the first days of the internet and what has changed since.
Investing through the dot com boom and bust.
How ACV Auctions re-defined the auto market.
The importance of investing in people over markets, trends, and other aspects of the business.
Quote of the Episode:
“You invest in the people and I will always believe that” and “if you don’t think someone can take this company to the promised land, then don’t invest in them.”
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
As his grandmother passed down to him, “never go to bed angry with your wife.”
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Finta - Finta’s end to end fundraising management platform enables you to manage your investors throughout their entire lifecycle in a single streamlined flow.
A-List: After every episode of the Ambition Today podcast we record an exclusive bonus clip, where we ask each guest to tell us the best advice they have ever received. Hear first-hand stories from over 30 entrepreneurs and investors in these exclusive bonus clips.
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
My 2022 Predictions
Happy New Year to you and your family! In addition to well wishes for 2022, I also wanted to take a minute to kick off 2022 with some predictions for the year! Some of my own, but also let you know what predictions I am following from others.
Happy New Year to you and your family! In addition to well wishes for 2022, I also wanted to take a minute to kick off 2022 with some predictions for the year! Some of my own, but also let you know what predictions I am following from others.
Visited Moraine Lake in Alberta, Canada in 2021.
An investment theme I am closely watching as we head into 2022?
The Artificial Intelligence tools & APIs recently released for software developers enable an entirely new level of automation for software platforms. One example, GPT-3 is a text-based A.I. model from Elon Musk & Sam Altman’s company Open AI that you simply prompt with plain English text, and it will generate an incredibly accurate response. What is fascinating to me is how these AI models continuously improve, to the point that GPT-3 can now even code portions of your app for you, from something as simple as a prompt that says “create a user signup screen.” And within a few seconds, GPT-3 will write all the code, and the browser will render the page with a brand new, fully functioning signup screen. This simplicity and open access will unlock the door for a whole new generation of founders and builders.
What's a trend that is buzzy but will take some time in 2022?
Everyone is talking about the impending third phase of the internet called Web3, which the builders and users decentrally own, orchestrated with tokens. I love the concept of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations or DAOs as I believe they could be the next evolution of what a company is.
I do think the path blockchain technology is on will take the internet closer to this Web3 vision of the future. However, I have spent some time personally building in this space with my company Finta, which provides fundraising software to founders and diligence tools to investors. Finta originally started as a project called Equity Token and through that work, I have seen firsthand how important it is going to be for the SEC to modernize and clarify its securities regulations for a world where tokens can flow freely in a decentralized environment while still representing equity ownership.
Andresson Horowitz recently advocated that the U.S. government create some policy guidance for entrepreneurs to build within. Otherwise, these web3 innovations might happen outside U.S. borders.
What's a development in fundraising founders should know?
Venture Capital is at an all-time high. According to Crunchbase, “prior to 2021, global funding had not reached over $100 billion in a single quarter. Funding in 2021 has far superseded that amount, with the first quarter tracking at $135 billion, the second quarter reaching $159 billion, and the most recent quarter peaking at $160 billion.”
While access to capital is at an all-time high, and we live in a world where fundraising announcements receive constant glory in the press, the outside appearance to other startup founders can be that fundraising rounds constantly happen with little effort. But the data show’s that most founders log over 100 meetings with different investors to eventually secure the investment they need to safely have 18-24 months of runway in front of the company.
So I want founders to remember that they are not alone and should keep fundraising beyond any initial rejections. Don’t take the rejection personally and use the feedback to improve your pitch for the next investor. I find it has been helpful to get founders into the mindset of thinking about the fundraising process more like a sales process, but this time the product is just different. Instead of a good, you are selling equity in your company. The right investors for your company are out there; you just need to find them so they know you exist. Keep going!
Other 2022 Tech Predictions I Am Following:
Scott Belsky, the founder of Behance and Chief Product Officer at Adobe, put out a great article yesterday on the “10 Forecasts For The Near Future Of Tech”.
Every year Fred Wilson publishes his predictions for the next year and here is Fred’s predictions for 2022. I have to agree that the carbon and climate tech spaces are def heating up, from what I am seeing. What I love about how Fred does this each year is that he also recaps what he got right and wrong the previous year. You can read his 2021 as well.
Finally, The All In Podcast has become one of my favorite listens this past year, and the besties released their tech predictions for 2022 in the latest episode, which you can watch on Youtube or listen to the podcast. The whole episode is good, but a great segment worth listening to on payment rails in fintech, starting at the 27 min mark.
I hope you enjoy the new year and wish you the best of luck in 2022!
Scott Wayman's Plan for Kangarootime to Support the $648 Billion Care Economy
From a 6 year old calling around on car repairs for his mother, to a thriving CEO of Kangarootime, our next guest Scott Wayman gives us insight on how he got to where he is today. Scott was the oldest son of 24 kids (18 of which were adopted).
Scott Wayman | Kangarootime
Scott Wayman's shares his very inspiring founder story. His passion for Kangarootime is next level and the company is currently focused on winning the childcare management software space for daycares and preschools. With plans to expand to the larger “care economy” which includes not only early education & childcare but also elder & senior care. A $648B TAM in the U.S. Alone according to Melinda Gate's Pivotal Ventures.
The Kangarootime team brilliantly positioned themselves throughout COVID19 as leaders in the space, by taking time to host educational sessions about how their customers can best adapt their centers, as well as quickly shipping new features such as contactless check-in/out, health checks, and more. I have personally watched Scott relentlessly grow this company from their early days at Founder Institute, through several investments from 43North, and was very excited to sit down with him for this episode.
Topics Discussed:
A unique upbringing with 18 adopted siblings.
Building his sales chops with Enterprise Rental Car.
Why you need passion to succeed in your startup’s vision.
Kangarootime’s origin story.
The role of psychology in startups.
How Kangarootime seized a leadership role by helping their daycare centers through COVID19.
The future of the $648 Billion Care Economy.
Quote of the Episode:
“Working in a center and living the life of our customers… was crucial to finding product-market fit”
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Check out the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List , where you can listen to free exclusive audio clips containing the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Finta - Finta’s end to end fundraising management platform enables you to manage your investors throughout their entire lifecycle in a single streamlined flow.
A-List: After every episode of the Ambition Today podcast we record an exclusive bonus clip, where we ask each guest to tell us the best advice they have ever received. Hear first-hand stories from over 30 entrepreneurs and investors in these exclusive bonus clips.
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Creating Data-Driven Founding Sales Leaders With Peter Kazanjy
Pete Kazanjy is Ambition Today’s new guest from Southern California. He is sitting in San Francisco, CA right now as we speak, enjoying Alamo Square. He is a serial founder and seasoned early stage Saas executive, advisor, and investor.
Peter Kazanjy | Co-Founder of Atrium
Pete Kazanjy is Ambition Today’s new guest from Southern California. He is sitting in San Francisco, CA right now as we speak, enjoying Alamo Square. Peter Kazanjy is a serial founder and seasoned early stage Saas executive, advisor, and investor. Pete has cofounded many companies including TalentBin, Modern Sales, and Atrium. He is also an author of “Founding Sales”.
He went to Stanford where he learned English and Philosophy. Pete is still going strong and has a lot to offer his clients, be sure to read his book “Founding Sales”, a Startup Sales Handbook. In this episode of the podcast, we go deep into how best to optimize early sales for startups companies.
Topics Discussed:
Go-to-Market and Marketing Strategies
The difference between founding sales and normal sales.
Why sales are so critical to early growth.
The best tools for sales, revenue, and accounting
Maintaining work-life balance as an entrepreneur
Quote of the Episode:
“Three main rules: focus, focus, focus”.
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Check out the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where you can listen to exclusive audio clips containing the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Finta - A secure, cloud-based, deal room platform. Companies quickly set up a deal room and have a blazing fast tool for raising capital. We make sharing company information with investors secure, simple, and automated.
A-List: After every episode of the Ambition Today podcast we record an exclusive bonus clip, where we ask each guest to tell us the best advice they have ever received. Hear first-hand stories from over 30 entrepreneurs and investors in these exclusive bonus clips.
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Jack Greco Helps Build A Unicorn Company In Buffalo, With ACV Auctions
From growing up on a dairy farm, to a successful entrepreneur with hundreds of employees, meet our next guest, Jack Greco. Greco co-founded ACV Auctions, an online auction dealer platform, which was last valued at $1.5B.
Jack Greco | ACV Auctions
From growing up on a dairy farm, to a successful entrepreneur with hundreds of employees, meet our next guest, Jack Greco. Greco co-founded ACV Auctions, an online auction dealer platform, which was last valued at $1.5B. He never thought that he would be the person to co-found Buffalo’s first unicorn startup in 2014. The great part is the story behind his success. He later reveals to Kevin that he has been fired from every job before he became a founder, and what kicked him in gear, was learning that he had a baby on the way. Every success story is different, and I think this is great for our audience to hear, and prove to you, never give up, or think that you are not worth something because you got fired! Pick your feet up and move on!
As of 2018, Greco left ACV Auctions and is now an angel investor. To date, he has invested in over 50 companies and is trying his hardest to maintain a quality work-life balance for his son.
Topics Discussed:
A little background on Jack Greco
Unicorn Start-Up
Angel investing in 50 companies
Working with others
Covid effects on the world
Work-life balance
Mental Health
Having a coach is so important
Buffalo Bridge
Quote of the Episode:
“This [ACV Auctions] is a great learning experience, and it will shape who I am going to be as an investor, a mentor, executive, father, for the rest of my life.” - Jack Greco
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Checkout the podcast’s back channel, The A-List where you can listen to exclusive audio clips containing the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Finta - A secure, deal room platform for early-stage companies. Quickly set up your company and you’ve got a blazing fast tool for organizing your fundraise and securing your sensitive company information. House your pitch deck, secure your legal documents, organize your cap table, notify target investors, and close deals faster! Finta allows you to raise more, save time, and increase your efficiency.
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Bringing Back Jeff Wald To Discuss The End Of Jobs
Our next guest is so amazing, we had to interview him a second time! He was on nearly 5 years ago on Episode 8! Jeff Wald is an entrepreneur who has started three technology companies, with his latest company, WorkMarket, being sold to ADP.
Jeff Wald | Author | The End of Jobs
Our next guest is so amazing, we had to interview him a second time! Jeff Wald was on Ambition Today nearly 5 years ago on Episode 8 and we are bringing him back for episode 62!
Jeff Wald is an entrepreneur who has started three technology companies, and since we last spoke with Jeff, he sold his latest company, WorkMarket, to ADP. Jeff is also a Board Member on the following boards: Steel Connect, Costar Technologies, TransfrVR, Peerless Systems, and Register.com. During this episode we catch up with Jeff and talk about his new book, “The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations”. Tune in to hear all about his book as well as statistics regarding the workforce in 2020:
Topics Discussed:
His experience selling the company.
The impact of remote working.
How to create “social squads” in your company.
The importance of defining the goal of any meeting.
The steps of technological change, mechanization, electrification, computerization and what comes next with robots and AI.
Quote of the Episode:
“Every time {we revolutionize} we ended up with more jobs, at a higher standard of living, with working fewer hours, that is definitively clear through history.” - Jeff Wald
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Checkout the podcast’s back channel, The A-List where you can listen to exclusive audio clips containing the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Finta - A secure, deal room platform for early-stage companies. Quickly set up your company and you’ve got a blazing fast tool for organizing your fundraise and securing your sensitive company information. House your pitch deck, secure your legal documents, organize your cap table, notify target investors, and close deals faster! Finta allows you to raise more, save time, and increase your efficiency.
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
The Future Is Here, And It’s Now Being Evenly Distributed
If you work in tech you have probably heard this quote over the years: “The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.” William Gibson - August 1993
The Oculus, New York City
If you work in tech you have probably heard this quote over the years:
“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.”
William Gibson - August 1993
Having lived in New York City for most of the past decade, I have often felt like New Yorkers live in the future compared to others around the country. Fast-casual salad restaurants, seamless, electric bike shares, uber, revel, spectacles, ramen burgers, cronuts, the void VR, capsule, etc, all existed in New York City (and to be fair other tier-1 cities) before making their way out into the smaller cities, then the suburbs, and finally the rural parts of America. Normally the process of “innovation sprawl” can take years.
In the very short amount of time we have all been in this global COVID-19 pandemic, technological innovation has been sprawling faster than ever. Everyone everywhere is being forced into the future. Using and adjusting to future technology to help cope in their own ways with the virus.
Learning for Pre-K through College has moved online, those younger students who didn’t have access to a computer at home, are now getting iPads. Education departments are also working to finally solve the issue of internet access for those students who lacked access to adequate internet (about 29% of households across NYC).
Traditionally online courses are seeing an increase as well. Two years ago I taught a course on Skillshare called Productivity Today. Normally January is the most-watched month of the year for all the courses on the platform, due to the increase in new year’s resolutions. But recently, with everyone working from home, March and April’s view times are beating the record high’s of January’s past.
While most young urban professionals (yuppies as the boomers call us) used to be the core customers of food delivery apps like Seamless, Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc. Now everyone, at every age, is using them. And every restaurant that wants to stay alive has been onboarded to deliver through them, greatly increasing the supply side of these marketplaces.
The same goes for grocery delivery apps like Instacart, Amazon Prime, and local grocery chains that have white-labeled their own solutions, such as Wegmans (which is actually powered by Instacart on the backend).
“This level of online shopping was, at best, forecast to occur five years from now,” says David Bishop, a partner at grocery research consultancy Brick Meets Click. “The demand has overwhelmed the capacity of the retailers.” In 2019, Bishop reports that 6.3% of grocery-related spending was through online orders, bringing in around $29 billion in U.S. orders alone. That’s a lot of green, but it’s a fraction of the $650 billion industry. “Shopping online costs more for the retailer, and was a low priority for grocery stores,” Bishop says. “They offered it as an add-on, not a core part of their business.”
Everything flipped this March. With shelter-in-place orders across the country, online groceries are now a hot commodity. About 40% of orders come from first-time shoppers, according to Gordon Hasket Research.
- Excerpt from The Real Reason It’s So Hard to Order Groceries Online Right Now
When I don’t order online and I do really need to get something from a physical retail location, I have been using contactless Apple Pay almost every time. In the times of social distancing, no cashier wants to touch a card or money I hand them and contactless payments have also flipped to become the norm.
You have probably downloaded Zoom recently, which has exploded massively in growth.
Along with FaceTime, Houseparty, and the up & coming Clubhouse which are bringing how we “hang out” with friends and family into the future.
Slack, which is enabling companies to communicate with their employee’s during remote working from home has also seen explosive growth. From Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack:
In lieu of expensive gym memberships, at-home workouts are taking off with Fitbod, Obe Fitness, and Peloton. And most fitness instructors are replacing their employer/gym by building a direct to consumer relationship, and teaching classes over Zoom or Instagram.
I’m not going to even touch on the changes happening in healthcare, because that could be its own post in and of itself.
We were headed toward a future at the end of 2019. A future that was likely inevitable but still 5-10 years away.
Now in 2020, this coronavirus is global and it’s accelerating the support for new technologies all around the entire world, all at once. The future is now being more evenly distributed than ever before. And when that happens, this fast, you not only arrive at the expected future sooner than later, but you pave a new foundation. Allowing the “next wave” of technology to build on top.
Tomorrowland
Join The Bandwagon With Harold Hughes
Imagine being on a cruise with friends and a good business idea comes to mind, then months later, your idea is now being distributed in Walmart’s around the world! Today’s guest, Alexis Beechen was enjoying her time partyin’ and thought, putting wine in a can would be much easier to casually drink.
Harold Hughes I Founder of Bandwagon
Our next guest on the show, is the amazing Harold Hughes. He is the founder of Bandwagon, which helps companies discover the identity of their fans in order to increase attendance, offer personalized services, and increase revenue.
Growing up, Harold made his first dollar selling AirHeads for cheaper than the school sold them at their cafeteria until he got caught! He went to Clemson University where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics, before going back for his Masters's degree later. It was then, while he was taking his strategic management course that he realized it was a lot like being a fan at a sports event.
Harold loved playing sports when he grew up, and he loved that it didn’t matter your families financial status was or where you lived, you just loved to play the game. That is where Bandwagon all started. Now Harold has expanded Bandwagon from just preventing ticket fraud for fans, too also being a fan identity and data analytics company. Tune in to hear more about Harold’s story and experiences going through the ups and downs of being a CEO.
Quote of the Episode:
“Service to others is the rent for your time on earth”
Gauntlet:
Listen in for Harold’s amazing tips from his experience growing his business:
Branding/Design
Go-to-Market
Product Development
Hiring
Revenue and Accounting
Fundraising
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Join the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where members can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips and get the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Equity Token - Helping early stage companies raise capital faster. Set up your company and fundraising deal once to build your company’s deal room. Then share it anywhere. Let Equity Token take care of the rest.
Audible - Visit www.audibletrial.com/AmbitionToday to download and keep any audiobook for free. Download your free book now!
The A-List - Join the podcast’s backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Alexis Beechen Drops Some Knowledge From Building Her Wine Empire
Imagine being on a cruise with friends and a good business idea comes to mind, then months later, your idea is now being distributed in Walmart’s around the world! Today’s guest, Alexis Beechen was enjoying her time partyin’ and thought, putting wine in a can would be much easier to casually drink.
You are on a cruise with friends and a good business idea comes to mind. Fast forward a few years later and your idea is now very much real and being distributed in Walmart’s around the world!
Alexis Beechen I Founder of The Drop
That’s what happened to today’s guest, Alexis Beechen. She put wine in a can making it much easier to casually drink and enjoy. Alexis and her team created The Drop, which is now at concert venues, small wine stores, and as of late last year, in Walmart’s all around.
An entrepreneur by heart, Alexis made her first dollar selling her mom’s gently used clothes when she could barely drive. Her dad, an entrepreneur himself, had his own legal firm, and her mom was the first person that talked to her about branding yourself and establishing trust with people. Alexis went to Georgetown for Marketing and eventually landed a job with Havas where she maintained Dos Equis account while helping to create the Most Interesting Man in the World. Although she loved her job with Havas, she decided to go back to Columbia for business school. During her schooling is when The Drop was born. Today, she is working on another business that she is passionate about, Hunterz.io which helps startups with connections they need to grow their business. Listen in to hear more in-depth about Alexis’ awesome story!
Quote of the Episode:
“You can only make as much money as the hours you build”
Gauntlet:
Listen in for the best tips, tricks, and tools that Alexis used growing her business:
Branding/Design - Fiverr
Go-to-Market – Hunterz.io
Product Development – feedback from customers
Hiring - LinkedIn
Revenue and Accounting - QuickBooks
Fundraising - Carta
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Join the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where members can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips and get the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Equity Token - Helping early stage companies raise capital faster. Set up your company and fundraising deal once to build your company’s deal room. Then share it anywhere. Let Equity Token take care of the rest.
Audible - Visit www.audibletrial.com/AmbitionToday to download and keep any audiobook for free. Download your free book now!
The A-List - Join the podcast’s backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
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Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Automating Indoor Agriculture with Dan Nelson's Grow Computer
Packing for a nice relaxing vacation, you look around, and realize, you have these beautiful plants that you have worked so hard in growing, and you wonder, are they going to be thriving when you get home?
Dan Nelson I Founder of Grow Computer
Packing for a nice relaxing vacation, you look around, and realize, you have these beautiful plants that you have worked so hard in growing, and you wonder, are they going to be thriving when you get home? Our amazing guest today, Dan Nelson thought just that as he prepared for his honeymoon a few years back. There has to be a better way than having dead plants when you get back from vacation! This is the event that gave him a new chapter in life. After countless hours of studying under his belt, he helped create Grow Computer as it is today!
Dan didn’t always have the ambition to help automate agriculture, he grew up in Long Island where his father and grandfather instilled his great work ethic in him. He would help with the latest house project by wheelbarrowing supplies to them when needed. He had great hardworking role models and followed in their footsteps. Nelson graduated with a Masters Degree in accounting and an undergraduate in Economics at the University of Michigan. Before Grow Computer, he had many jobs, with one of his favorites being a virtual CFO because he has always loved helping people build better businesses. He even created a tool called Start of Economics 101. Tune in to this episode to hear more about Dan and his tips and experience in building his own company.
Quote of the Episode:
“If it [computer system] doesn’t talk to each other, it adds layers, complexity, transaction costs and stress and hassle, and reduces the efficiency in any business”
Gauntlet:
Listen in for the tips, tricks, and tools that Dan shares with us!
Branding/Design
Go-to-Market
Product Development
Hiring
Revenue and Accounting
Fundraising
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Join the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where members can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips and get the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Equity Token - Helping early stage companies raise capital faster. Set up your company and fundraising deal once to build your company’s deal room. Then share it anywhere. Let Equity Token take care of the rest.
Audible - Visit www.audibletrial.com/AmbitionToday to download and keep any audiobook for free. Download your free book now!
The A-List - Join the podcast’s backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Taylor Jacobson Shares How Focusmate's Virtual Coworking Creates Distraction-Free Productivity
Welcome to Season 3 of Ambition Today! My guest today is Taylor Jacobson. He is the founder of Focusmate, the app that helps you focus and in return be more productive. In this episode, we discuss with Taylor what in his personal life lead him to the idea of needing a solution like Focusmate, as well as his personal take on a lot of procrastination issues.
Taylor Jacobson I CEO of Focusmate
After a summer break, we are back with a brand new season of Ambition Today!
Season 3 brings with it some fresh new changes to the podcast, coming to you from our brand new podcast studio in the heart of New York City!
We have some exciting guests coming up and I can’t wait to share all of the great conversations & new questions with you! I hope you enjoy Season 3, now on to the episode!
Who struggles with procrastination? Did you know that studies show up to 95% of people struggle with procrastination!
My guest today is Taylor Jacobson. He is the founder of Focusmate, the app that helps you focus and in return be more productive. In this episode, we discuss with Taylor what in his personal life lead him to the idea of needing a solution like Focusmate, as well as his personal take on a lot of procrastination issues.
As Taylor developed Focusmate, he found three major aspects of being more productive. One, you perform better when you need to complete a task in the presence of someone else. Two, if you commit to another person that you are going to do something, it is highly likely that you will complete it. And three, you are likely to increase productivity if you reflect on your work afterward. You know that you are going to have to review the job that you did, so in the moment of work, your actual focus becomes stronger. Focusmate is now helping thousands of people with all of these aspects! Tune in to hear more about Taylor and his company, Focusmate!
Quote of the Episode:
“These are the people {Co-workers} that have my back to grow into my best self”
Gauntlet:
This is a new section of my podcast for season 3, where I will ask my guest a tip or tool that they recommend for their business in each of the following categories. Listen in to hear Taylor’s answers:
Branding/Design
Go-to-Market
Product Development
Hiring
Revenue and Accounting
Fundraising
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Join the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where members can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips and get the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Equity Token - Helping early stage companies raise capital faster. Set up your company and fundraising deal once to build your company’s deal room. Then share it anywhere. Let Equity Token take care of the rest.
Audible - Visit www.audibletrial.com/AmbitionToday to download and keep any audiobook for free. Download your free book now!
The A-List - Join the podcast’s backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Deepfake Technology
Over the weekend I saw one of the best Deepfakes of my life. If you don’t know, the deepfake definition is when you combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a machine learning technique known as generative adversarial network. The phrase "deepfake" was coined in 2017. This is what I saw on Twitter on Friday and it blew my mind.
Over the weekend I saw one of the best Deepfakes of my life.
If you don’t know, the deepfake definition is when you combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a machine learning technique known as generative adversarial network. The phrase "deepfake" was coined in 2017.
This is what I saw on Twitter on Friday and it blew my mind:
Know I have know about deepfakes for awhile, but to be honest they are not normally that great. Last year I watched as Jordan Peele put words in Barack Obama’s mouth. But on Friday, what I saw was not just someone’s lips and vocals being altered. It was one of the first times my eyes actually deceived me. Deepfake technology is progressing really fast and I was intrigued by that Twitter thread. So I started to find some more deepfake examples:
This obviously works well with Bill Hader as he is an expert impressionist. Here he is again, this time deepfaking as Arnold Schwarzenegger brought to you by Youtuber, Ctrl Shift Face:
Here is Jim Carrey deepfaking in The Shining:
And here is a young Sylvester Stallone deepfaking the role of Terminator:
2O21: A SPACEX ODYSSEY with Elon Musk is also another fun DeepFake of Stanley Kubricks masterpiece; 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this scene, Elon Musk gets in a fight with the infamous A.I. supercomputer, Hal.
There is a longer conversation to be had around the long term implications of this technology and how we ensure it is used responsibly.
You can find more of these deep fake example videos here. It actually turns out that the deepfake technology to do this has been open sourced on GitHub. So if you are interested in learning how to use deepfake AI yourself, you can view this deepfake github project and give it a shot.
If You Could Automate One Thing In Your Business?
I started to wonder if it was possible to take a pulse of where the biggest difficulties still exist for startups in 2019 and came up with this little experiment I would love for you to participate in. I want to know your answer to one question. If you could wave a magic wand and automate one thing in your business, what would it be?
Building a company is hard, and honestly that can be a great thing! It is the very reason why you will be able to build something that numerous other people will simply give up on out of difficulty. That being said, the amount of tools and resources available to startup teams has grown dramatically over the past decade. Much of what used to be hard manual work, can now be automated.
So I started to wonder if it was possible to take a pulse of where the biggest difficulties still exist for startups in 2019 and came up with this little experiment I would love for you to participate in.
I want to know your answer to one question:
If you could wave a magic wand and automate one thing in your business, what would it be?
It’s up to you if you want to answer anonymously or not. And completing this questionnaire should take no longer than one minute. If you are interested in the results, simply let me know when asked below and I will be sure to share them with you!
Bryan Janeczko Is Helping Entrepreneurs Gro
Bryan Janeczko has a colorful portfolio of businesses including: NuKitchen, a food preparation service that helped people eat healthier, which was later sold to Nutrisystem. Gro Academy, an on-demand startup academy, Loeb, a new-approach to launching startups. Now, his latest venture that is currently in the seeding stage is Nunbelievable Foods, a baked goods company that turns their profits into feeding the homeless. Bryan was also recently named Top 23 LGBTQ people in Tech.
Bryan Janeczko
Bryan Janeczko was recently named one of the Top 23 LGBTQ people in Tech, along side other notable figures such as Tim Cook, Peter Thiel, and more. He has built a strong track record for building great businesses including: NuKitchen, a food preparation service that helped people eat healthier. NuKitchen was later sold to Nutrisystem and pioneered the market long before Blue Apron or Plated even existed.
Now Bryan is the Founder of Gro, an on-demand startup academy. As part of the Loeb.NYC family, a venture studio in the heart of New York City, Bryan is helping founders at all stages. In a new partnership between Tony Robbins and Loeb, they have also launched Nunbelievable Foods, a baked goods company that turns their profits into feeding the homeless.
Bryan grew up in Milwaukee, started a candy selling business in High School where he would at times bribe the teachers with a candy bar in order to sell more candy bars at the beginning of each class to his fellow classmates. It was such a popular business, that he started having distributors, which eventually had the principal pulling the plug on his first entrepreneurial experience. However, that didn’t stop his entrepreneurial spirit! After school, and a summer abroad in England, Bryan decided to make the big move to NY! He had a place to stay for one week and a credit card, and the rest is history! Tune in to hear more of Bryan’s story:
Learning resourcefulness early on
His life changing trip to England
Starting and selling his company, NuKitchen
Co-founding Startout
His time as the Director of Founder Institute New York
Working with Loeb NYC
Founding Gro Academy
Working with Tony Robbins and Nunbelievable Foods
Quote of the Episode:
“Every founder brings their unique set of traits and many of us become entrepreneurs because we may not make it in more traditional jobs…”
Ambition Today Question of the Day™ :
”What advice can you give an entrepreneur at the beginning stages of building their first business?”
The Single Greatest Piece of Advice:
Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!
Links from this episode:
Listen to this episode now:
The A-List
Join the shows A-list backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice this guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…
Transcript:
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.
Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:
Skip Hop's Michael Diamant Innovates Baby Products
From being forced to layoff his whole staff, to selling his company for $140 million, our next guest, Michael Diamant, has great insight on how he became successful. Michael Diamant created a well-known brand with his wife, called Skip Hop, which was sold to Carter’s for $140 million.
Michael Diamant
From being forced to layoff his whole staff, to selling his company for $140 million, our next guest, Michael Diamant, has great insight on how he became successful. Michael Diamant created a well-known brand with his wife, called Skip Hop, which was sold to Carter’s for $140 million. It all started with a diaper bag in 2003. Michael and his wife wanted a diaper bag that was fully functional, however, also appealed to a fashion savvy crowd. The company continued to grow for 15 more years creating several more innovative baby care products before they were bought by Carter’s. Now both Michael and his wife continue to work with Carter’s to help grow the brand Skip Hop.
Before Michael created a very successful brand, he had a great career and started multiple companies. He has a background in advertising and was a happy employee at MTV. Tune in to find out more about how Michael became successful…
Growing up
The world of advertising
Working at MTV, and the impact it had on Michael
His first company – T3 Media
How he was able to start iClips
How it felt to have to lay off 35 employees
His Skip Hop Journey
Ambition Today Question of the Day™ :
What advise would you have for other entrepreneurs who are trying to find product market fit?
The Single Greatest Piece of Advice:
Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!
Links from this episode:
Listen to this episode now:
The A-List
Join the shows A-list backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice this guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…
Transcript:
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.
Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:
Australia's Benjamin Chong Helps Startups Excel With Right Click Capital
Today, my guest is a fellow Founder Institute Director, Benjamin Chong. Benjamin has been the director of Founder Institute in Australia since 2011 and is also well known as a partner at Right Click Capital.
Benjamin Chong
Today, my guest is a fellow Founder Institute Director, Benjamin Chong. Benjamin has been the director of Founder Institute in Australia since 2011 and is also well known as a partner at Right Click Capital. Right Click Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups. He is an active technology startup community member that has served as a mentor and guest speaker at many different entrepreneurial programs in Sydney, South East Asia, and the United States.
Benjamin Chong grew up in Australia and says his life-changing entrepreneurial moment was when he was in a program called Young Achievement in High School where a few select students from multiple schools got together and created a business, they had to sell stock, and make it profitable, which was a success. He graduated from the University of South Wales and has been unstoppable. Listen in to learn more about Benjamin’s successes…
Early years in Australia
Young Achievement program in High School
Working at PWC
Co-founding iMega
Directing Founders Institute since 2011
Is startup life different in Australia
How important mental health is
Ambition Today Question of the Day™ :
What was it like to make the switch from Founder to Investor?
The Single Greatest Piece of Advice:
Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!
Quote Of The Episode:
“Relationship in businesses are critical, it takes time to build relationships…”
Links from this episode:
Listen to this episode now:
The A-List
Join the shows A-list backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice this guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…
Transcript:
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.
Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:
Michael Loeb's New Approach To Launching Billion Dollar Companies
Joining us today is Founder and CEO of Loeb.NYC and Loeb.ATL, Michael Loeb. Loeb Enterprises is an early stage venture investing company and an incubator for startups.
Michael Loeb
Joining us today is the Founder and CEO of Loeb.nyc, Michael Loeb. Loeb.nyc represents a new approach to launching early stage startups that pairs capital with the support of experts across a wide range of disciplines. Prior to this, Michael Loeb co-founded Synapse in 1992 with Jay Walker. Synapse then became the largest seller of consumer magazine subscriptions worldwide and now is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Along with Jay Walker, Michael Loeb also assisted with the creation and early stage funding of Priceline.
Although Michael Loeb was born in St. Louis, MO, he has been in New York since the age of one year old. However, it was not until he was fired from Time, Inc that he realized his entrepreneurial potential. Tune in to this episode of Ambition Today to learn more of Michael’s amazing story:
Growing up in New York City.
Working at Time, Inc.
Why being fired can sometimes be important.
Creating Synapse.
Co-founding Priceline.
Expansion of Loeb Atlanta
Selling his company for $800 million & becoming a billionaire.
Creating Loeb.nyc to help build new companies.
Why New York is a unique startup ecosystem.
Ambition Today Question of the Day™ :
I have heard you say that you wish you had bet on yourself earlier in your life. How old were you when you quit Time and how can people bet on themselves earlier in their own life?
The Single Greatest Piece of Advice:
Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!
Quote Of The Episode:
“It is hard to be an entrepreneur in your 30’s, if you didn’t have a big win in your 20’s.”
Links from this episode:
Listen to this episode now:
The A-List
Join the shows A-list backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice this guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…
Transcript:
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.
Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:
Brian McCullough How The Internet Happened & What Is Happening Today
Approaching two decades later, our guest, Brian McCullough’s company is still going strong. Brian is CEO of ResumeWriters.com which is the longest lasting company for this service, shout out to Brian.
Brian McCullough
Approaching two decades later, our guest, Brian McCullough’s company is still going strong. Brian McCullough is CEO of ResumeWriters.com which is the longest lasting company for this service, shout out to Brian. Not only is he a successful entrepreneur, he is also the Author of How The Internet Happened book. In 2016, he became a Ted Talk Resident, and is also known for his podcasts: Internet History Podcast and Techmeme Ride Home, which is a News Aggregator that now gives you a daily dose of tech news.
Brian McCullough grew up in Florida with no entrepreneurial background as his parents were both hard working teachers. Brian went to college to get a degree in Film, which he did, however, it was when he had to write his thesis to graduate, that he ended up becoming an entrepreneur instead. Tune in to hear more about Brian’s story:
Life background
Interviewing people for his book
Internet History Podcast
Techmeme Ride Home
History of the internet
How The Internet Happened book
Ambition Today Question of the Day™ :
With regard to the venture capital industry whose job is to depict that future, what advice would you have for them based on the history of the internet?
The Single Greatest Piece of Advice:
Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!
Quote Of The Episode:
“We live in the world where entrepreneurs are rock stars”
Links from this episode:
Listen to this episode now:
The A-List
Join the shows A-list backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice this guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…
Transcript:
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.