Andrew Weinrich Is Predicting Our Future

Andrew Weinrich

On this episode Andrew Weinrich sits down with us at his offices in Brooklyn New York. Andrew is the founder of Andrews Roadmaps and the host of the new "Predicting Our Future" podcast. 

As a serial entrepreneur, Andrew created the first ever social network called, Six Degrees. At its height, SixDegrees had around 3,500,000 fully registered members before being bought by YouthStream Media Networks in 1999 for $125 million. In more recent years, Andrew has sold 2 more businesses including Xtify and Meet-Moi. He is currently the co-founder and Chairman of Indicative, a data analytics startup. He also hosts Predicting Our Future, a podcast about the next revolutions in technology. Andrew shares many incredible lessons from his experience over the last 20 years, such as: 

• How the first social network, Six Degrees, was created
• What it was like to exit a company for over $100 million
• How Social Networking has changed over the last 20 years
• The future of Social Media
• What ties all of Andrew's companies together
• How to ride the "wave" of new technologies as they emerge
• How he is Predicting Our Future

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:
"What advice do you have for people who are obsessing over getting rich and making a large amount of money to solve all of their problems?      
 

Quote Of The Episode:
"You want to be a critical thinker. Investors assume first and foremost, that whatever plan you have is wrong. That whatever you launch won't be right, it will require pivoting. The question is are you someone who is capable of pivoting? If you're a critical thinker, you will be capable of pivoting."

"Entrepreneurs take advantage of moments in history. They are not determinative of those moments." 
 

Links from this episode:

• Andrew Weinrich on Twitter
• Andrew Weinrich Linkedin
• Andrew's Roadmaps
• Predicting Our Future podcast
• SixDegrees.com 
• Founder Institute New York
• Toptal
• Audible

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…

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today on iTunes Store Apple Podcasts for iOS, on Google Play Music or Stitcher for Android. 

Listen to this episode now: 

Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:

Founder Institute New York

Toptal

Audible

Introducing Founder Institute New York 14

I am excited to introduce you to the 14th cohort of Founder Institute New York. Last Monday six new companies graduated FI NY. Companies from the 14th batch are listed below and span across industries such augmented reality, fashion, internet of things, hardware, SaaS, and real estate.

We are very grateful to the time and energy that is given to the graduating companies by our generous FI NY mentors. Congratulations to the new founders and companies of Founder Institute New York! This is just the start of your entrepreneurial journey and I look forward to working with you all going forward. 

Founder Institute New York 14

Ceeq - Luxury convertible bags to take you from professional to functional. 

Invoira - Automating the supplier payment process. 

Menusnap - Translating restaurant dishes through augmented reality.

MERE - Direct to consumer luxury knitwear brand for socially conscious consumers. 

Perceptive Things - Protecting real estate properties from damaging internal incidents.

Okupied - Helping rental property owners manage their business on the go. 

Protecting The United States International Entrepreneur Rule

Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington, Sergey Brin, Vinod Khosla, And Phil Libin 

After being officially passed in January, the "International Entrepreneur Rule" was set to take effect July 17th, 2017 in the United States. This week though, the new rule was delayed by the Department of Homeland Security. 

The International Entrepreneur Rule is a critical effort to ensure that the best and the brightest foreign-born entrepreneurs could more easily grow the companies that will create American jobs here in the U.S. while expanding our economy. The delay by the DHS is unquestionably a setback for the United States in the global race for talent. We should be encouraging innovators to bring their new ideas, expertise, and unique skills to our country, rather than incentivizing them to put their talents to work for our competitors abroad.

As the Managing Director of the Founder Institute in New York I can say from first-hand experience the proposed International Entrepreneur Rule would be a big step forward for America. Time after time I have watched as prospective international founders come to Founder Institute New York to start a high-growth tech-enabled company, only to be stopped from incorporating and progressing the new company by the limitations of current immigration laws.

With an estimated 3,000 international entrepreneurs expected to apply per year to start companies within the US, the impact of this reform will have an immediate positive impact as well as create a long-term attraction for global entrepreneurs to build their companies right here in America.

A reform to immigration such as the proposed International Entrepreneur Rule will undoubtedly increase the amount of technological innovation, job creation, and economic value in the United States of America.

Starting now, people can submit public comment on the Federal Register's site. I strongly encourage you to use it as an opportunity to send a strong message to the administration that people are paying attention and we are not happy about the decision to rescind the International Entrepreneur Rule.

Dennis Mortensen Is Hyper Focused On The Future Of Artificial Intelligence With X.ai

Dennis Mortensen

From the brand new Fulton Center in downtown Manhattan we bring you Dennis Mortensen. He is founder and CEO at X.ai, an artificial intelligence driven personal assistant named Amy who schedules meetings for you.

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs in Denmark, Dennis initially strove to be a game engineer at IBM. He soon failed to resist the call to entrepreneurship though as he started and sold three of his first four companies. Dennis is now changing the way people interact with artificial intelligence by pioneering it's future. After raising $30+ million and growing the team to 93 people, he is hyper focused on building X.ai to rescue people's time. It is clear that focus is something he excels at from some of the unique lessons he shared: 

• Growing up in Denmark in a family of entrepreneurs
• Difference between being a serial entrepreneur and a first time founder
• The impact immigrants can have creating jobs in the United States
• Importance of doing one thing really well 
• Keeping a clear mind is one of the keys to success
• Why this wave of artificial intelligence is different from any before it
• Where the future of Artificial Intelligence is going
   

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:
"As a serial entrepreneur how do you manage your life and prevent burnout?"

Quote Of The Episode:
"I take pride in the mental freedom Inbox Zero provides me every day. You can start to think again, and really good ideas come with that" 

Links from this episode:

• X.ai
• Dennis Mortensen on Twitter
• Dennis Mortensen Linkedin
• Founder Institute New York
• Audible
• Toptal

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…

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS, on Google Play Music or Stitcher for Android. 

Listen to this episode now: 

Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:

Toptal

Audible

Founder Institute New York

 

Protecting Your Time

Both for better and for worse, the way we work in the new digital age is changing fast. The freedom to work anywhere is causing us to work everywhere. The result is that too often we find ourselves being pulled from email to meeting, to text message, to social media notification, to lunch meeting, to viral meme of the day, to phone calls, and so on. In what feels like the blink of an eye 8:00 am becomes 8:00 pm. We end the day having been incredibly busy. But are we really being productive (getting shit done) or creative (having original ideas), both of which are essential to building a strong business. 

Time is the scarcest personal resource in existence. Unlike money, which every year the government prints more of, your time is finite. You can never get more time than the amount you were born with and therefore it is priceless. It is your duty to protect it.

Protecting your time so your mind has time to actually think and your body has time to actually get shit done is something which can be a bit tricky. I recently blew up my calendar to make some lifestyle changes in the pursuit of being more efficient, better focused, and having a greater clarity in the way I work. I have been finding these new changes very effective, so I thought I would share them with you. 

Monday:

After the weekend it is important to start the week organized. Aside from one global call with the Founder Institute Directors from all over the world, Monday is reserved for E-mail and getting organized. Reaching inbox zero each Monday allows the peace of mind later in the week to know I am not missing anything urgent that may have come up this week. While answering and archiving e-mail, the action items from them get moved onto my to-do list for the week. 

Tuesday:

Starting Tuesday with the peace of mind that my inbox is in great shape is incredibly refreshing. Especially because there will not be much time for e-mail today. Tuesdays are for meetings! I try to schedule all my meetings and coffees exclusively on Tuesdays. Back to back meetings can make for an exhausting day, but I have found I am able to give much more attention to being present & attentive during meetings, as I am not thinking about e-mail throughout the day. Again, the action items from my meetings get moved onto my to-do list for the week.  

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 

With the bulk of e-mail and meetings behind me for the week, it is now time to get shit done. It's time to throw on my headphones, a great playlist, and to start crossing tasks off of my to-do list. I use Todoist, which provides karma insights into how productive I am being week to week. I have seen a big uptick in the amount of actual productive work I have been getting done. 

This time is also for getting your creative brain power flowing again. I have been finding that around Thursday afternoon I have usually accomplished enough tasks that the original ideas start to come flowing naturally again. These moments are essential if you want to actually innovate on your business in unique ways, as opposed to just doing what everyone else is.

Weekend: 

Spend time with family and friends. Taking the time to maintain your personal relationships is vital to playing the long game of life. It will be a lonely and difficult journey without them. Many an entrepreneur have missed the mark here and you need to make sure you're not one of them.

Be bored! I mean it. To clarify though, watching Netflix is not being bored. That's just called relaxing. I am talking about actually letting your mind wander. This is when the best original ideas come to you. For you, this might be while in the shower. For me, this is at the gym, while I am driving, or while I am walking around New York City. You need to give creativity the room to strike you. 

More: 

• Over-ear headphones make a difference. I love my Apple Airpods while walking around the city, but they do a lousy job preventing you from hearing distractions like side conversations while you're working. Getting even a cheap $20 pair of over-ear headphones will help you focus. 
• Work to accomplish tasks within specific blocks of time. We have a shot clock style timer in the office we set when doing work. You may not always get your tasks done within the set amount of time, but regardless it will give you self-awareness into how long tasks are taking and how much you are actually getting done. 
• Tracking your progress is the only way to know how you're getting better. You can use services such as Escape or RescueTime to track how often you're getting distracted. And a to-do list app such as Todoist to track how many tasks you're accomplishing. 
• Set up something to block websites you traditionally find distracting. There are many to choose from but I have recently been using one called "Go F**cking Work" because I liked its motivational tone. 
• If you really need help pulling away from the addiction of technology then be sure to use Onward. A new app which helps you change your overuse behavior in 1 minute per day to achieve tech-life balance!

Obviously, this is a pretty rigid schedule that can be hard to maintain. And yes, there are weeks where meetings happen on a Monday, work happens on the weekends, or e-mails get answered on a Thursday, but think of this more as a goal. When you find what works best for you and you start to constantly follow it effectively, I promise you will start to get some of your brain power back for yourself. Allowing you to dictate your future as opposed to everyone else dictating it for you. 

What Happens When Every Accelerator In New York City Comes Together

Supporting startup founders to help them grow their companies is my biggest passion.

Through my work as Managing Director of the Founder Institute, a startup accelerator in New York, I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to do just that for a few years now. Doing this well requires a lot of work and even more help. It would not be possible to support our amazing founders without the remarkable dedication of our team, our tremendous mentors, monthly events, partnerships, supporting sponsors, and so much more. There is an exorbitant amount of effort that goes into making any great startup accelerator tick.

So I, along with a few other NYC Managing Directors got to thinking about how can we bring the same level of support we give to our founders; to help support the Accelerators, Incubators and Innovation programs themselves. If we can help improve them, then perhaps we can make a pretty big dent in helping to grow the entire overall New York City startup ecosystem. 

Without further ado and after months of work, I am happy to announce to you; the New York City Innovation Collective! We have officially incorporated a nonprofit to form an alliance of NYC's top technology organizations working together to support and grow our amazing community. The Collective is now comprised of over 80 incredible New York City accelerators, incubators, and platforms of innovation. It is our mission to shape and strengthen the entire startup ecosystem through increased collaboration, transparency and access for everyone involved. 

So what happens when all these organizations come together?

For founders and everyone involved it looks like better access to local accelerators, incubators, and innovation programs. It means superior mentors, more connections to investors, stronger curriculums, deeper partnerships, improved events,  and more. All of this additional support resulting in stronger companies throughout the local startup ecosystem! 

If you want to see for yourself what this looks like then please join us for the NY Annual Startup Ecosystem Summit to be held on Friday April 28th in New York. 

I personally could not be more excited for the future of the startup ecosystem in New York City and everything that is happening here! It has been an incredible journey thus far, and on the macro level, we are just getting started. If you would like to get involved with the Innovation Collective in New York City or in another city let me know! I can't wait to hear from you! 

From Israel to Silicon Valley, Niv Dror's Journey To Conquer Social Media

Niv Dror, Shrug Capital

Season Two of Ambition Today is happy to welcome Niv Dror, head of social media for Product Hunt. Niv boasts an impressive resume in both startups and finance, stemming from his education at UC Santa Barbara.  After moving to Silicon Valley at a very young age, Niv had surprisingly little involvement in the tech world. It surrounded him entirely and thus he never noticed it, as water to a fish.  However, after auditing a few hedge funds and VC funds as a CPA, he knew where his skills truly belonged.

Niv Dror’s taste of the tech community flourished very quickly, landing non-engineering jobs at DataFox, Meerkat, and Product Hunt. He aspired to add value without asking anything in return, and was rewarded with the experience and skills to climb the ranks at multiple organizations, currently aiding the curation of the world's most cutting-edge technology on Product Hunt. Kevin and Niv explore what's behind this drive, the man he gives credit to involuntarily kickstarting his success, and much more:

• Growing up in Israel and moving to the U.S. at a young age.

• Pursuing a finance degree and applying it to the startup world.

• Getting exposure to the tech industry by auditing a successful VC.

• Building an engaging community around a product.

• What changes we can see in social in 2017.

• The war of pronunciation for “gif”.

• We why all love gifs and how Twitter is the perfect platform.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:
"Should people optimize for learning or for earning?"

Quote Of The Episode:
"Community is everything. Without the community, Product Hunt wouldn't work."

Links from this episode:

• Niv Dror Twitter

• Product Hunt

• Niv's Tattoo in TIME Magazine

• Shrug Capital

• Kevin's Product Hunt Live Chat

• Founder Institute New York

• Audible

• Toptal

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…

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS, on Google Play Music or Stitcher for Android. 

Listen to this episode now: 

Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:

Toptal

Audible

Founder Institute New York

Startup News Essentials

At the start of every new cohort of Founder Institute New York I like to share some of my favorite news sources with the new founders. For many founders starting out, consuming the right news from the right sources can really help to plug you into the global startup and tech community.

If the old saying, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” is true, then one of the incredible advantages of the internet is the fact that you can customize whose opinions and knowledge you decide to spend the most time with.

The below list could easily be hundreds of links, but for the sake of simplicity I am going to focus on the core recommendations of what I read everyday. I am also going to focus mostly on news sources. I might do another post on the topic of specific blogs and which individuals to follow in the future. Feel free to add any more news sources that you love in the comments below and up vote the best ones! 

For Everyone: 

Nuzzel - This is my favorite news source! Nuzzel's algorithm finds trending articles from your personal network. And even better, they make it really easy to see the trending articles in influencer's networks as well.

Techmeme - If you want to know what the whole industry is talking about on any given day, then this is your one stop! The essential tech news of the moment curated by a mix of editors and an excellent algorithm. 

Launch Ticker -  Efficient tech news broken down to the most important three sentence summary of the original article. Really good at extracting the most important, essential, and relevant information from news to save you time. 

Hacker News - Social news website focusing on computer science, tech and entrepreneurship. 

Axios Pro Rata - Dan Primack's daily newsletter breaks news about deals and dealmakers from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road.

Fortune Term Sheet - Fortune's daily newsletter about venture capital deals and dealmakers.

Product Hunt - Because it is one of the most fun sites on the internet! And because Product Hunt is a curation of the best new products, every day. You will almost always leave the site with something new and exciting to check out. 

Angel List - It is quickly becoming the case that if you want to "exist" in the startup world then you need to be active on AngelList. You can find trending companies, make a hire, invest in a syndicate, connect with other founders, and more. They recently acquired Product Hunt too! 

 

For New Yorkers: 

Digital NYC Voices -  Tips and thoughts from the leaders in NYC business and government. 

AVC - The only blog on this list because Fred Wilson's insightful posts have become daily reading. The comments from the community are often just as good as the original content. 

NYC Innovation Collective - A semi-monthly newsletter that is the byproduct of over 70 NYC startup accelerators, incubators, innovation programs coming together to share resources and news! 

Gary's Guide - Weekly collection of all the startup and tech events happening in New York. Gary does an excellent job curating the information each week, and oh by the way he wears a red tie you can advertise on IRL! 

Charlie O'Donnell's Weekly Newsletter - A curated list of NYC innovation community events each Monday morning.

Gothamist - Never miss a NYC meme again. From breaking news on the cronut, to mayoral soda tax scandals, to changes in the subway system, to Banksy's central park popup stand, the Gothamist constantly has you covered! 

Announcing Founder Institute New York 13

Founder Institute New York Fall 2016 - credit: Sally Kung

I am excited to announce that Monday of this week, eight new companies have graduated from Founder Institute New York.

Companies from the 13th batch of Founder Institute New York are listed below and span across industries such as fin-tech, diamond trading, fashion, e-sports, artificial intelligence, social, real estate tech, and more. 

As always we are extremely grateful to the time and energy given to the new companies by our generous FI NY mentors. Congratulations to the new founders and companies of Founder Institute New York! This is just the beginning of the journey and I look forward to working with you all going forward.

Founder Institute New York 13

Access Square - Improving investor access to the management of public companies.

BucketCheck - Create and accomplish your bucket list with your friends.

Diamond Hedge - The first price comparison with over $5 Billion dollars of diamonds to choose from.

GameBase - Developing localized mobile e-sports games.

Klothe - Connecting consumers with new and independent fashion brands. 

LocaHolic - Artificial intelligence to make sharing great restaurants easy.

Minque - Connecting curious minds with educated answers.   

ViaHome - Platform connecting investors with sponsors of affordable housing developments. 

Founder Institute New York 13 Photo Credit: Sally Kung

The iPhone Is Ten Years Old

Steve Jobs, 2007

The general consensus in the technology industry is that the expontential growth of mobile has finally peaked, after years of driving massive technology growth and value for venture capitalists. While it is undeniable that the hyper growth mobile experienced during the past decade (which venture capitalist rely on) has slowed, I have fought the notion that mobile has truly peaked. Today for the first time though, it hit home for me that maybe mobile phones have reached most of their potential by something I didn't see coming; time.

The iPhone is officially ten years old this week. I know, I can't believe it has been ten years either. I still remember when new iPhones were the hottest thing you could get your hands on. You could touch it with your fingers to use it. It had pinch to zoom and slide to unlock! Included a 2 Megapixel camera, headphone jack, single home button, accelerometer and a proximity sensor. It talked to the internet and all of it was in your pocket! 

The past year has shown that investors are looking for new industries and technology sectors to invest in. Fred Wilson has predicted artificial intelligence will be the new mobile. As proof of this, Amazon's new home speaker that you talk too, the Echo, was one of the most popular products of the year. Other technologies with the label artificial intelligence seem to be creeping into many of our existing products. For example, my to do list app, Todoist, now uses A.I. to learn from me overtime and automatically reschedule my tasks that become past due. 

This implication means many things to Apple and it's need for new product lines.  The Apple Watch was a mild success/failure depending on how you view it. Airpods seem to be a new favorite and I personally love mine, but deep diving into Apple's future is much more then we need to get into here. Instead I would like to recognize it's past. In honor of the ten year anniversary of the iPhone I found Steve Jobs keynote from 2007 and shared it below. I encourage you to watch the first few minutes to remind yourself just how revolutionary the new iPhone was at the time and how funny Steve Jobs was while announcing it.

Then just let it simmer that the iPhone is now ten years old- and what that means for the technology industry. Putting that number ten on the age of the iPhone makes it feel a lot more like my laptop in terms of excitement. As new innovations come from wearables it is only logical that mobile is going the way of desktop computers & laptops. My phone is now something I use multiple times a day, everyday, but just is not as exciting in the long run. 

Mobile will continue to grow as it expands into new markets and territories across the planet. But as with the greatest of technologies we rely on as a species, without large innovations it will fade into the background of our lives, perhaps even for he better. If mobile fades into something we use everyday without thinking, then maybe it can truly enhance our human experience instead of drawing us away from things we should be focusing on. It will go the way of electricity, where we just turn it on without thinking. To become such a utility in our daily lives that it just fades into the background, to be taken for granted the miracle it truly is.

See how it all began, complete and uncut.

🎊 🎉 Happy New Year 🍾 🥂

The consensus on 2016 seems to be the same everywhere you look. After a year of campaigns, Zika, Brexit, exploding batteries, the loss of greats like Muhammad Ali, Prince, David Bowie, Harambe and more; many people (so many people) have said 2016 sucked. Negativity has become rampant across society, but in my opinion; Sic Vita Est (Thus is life). 

Life is what you make of it and since we all only have a limited number of years to live, I refuse to declare one of them as having sucked. So with that I wanted to shed the negative and reflect on the wins of 2016! 

The biggest win of the year is that I had the most incredible woman in the world say YES when I asked her to marry me in July! We recently set the wedding date in 2017 and I couldn't be more excited. 

I am extremely happy to share that @colorsofcolleen said Yes when I asked her to marry me this weekend in Lake Como, Italy! 💍🇮🇹 #Blessed

A photo posted by Kevin Siskar (@thesiskar) on Jul 20, 2016 at 2:38am PDT

This year I was also blessed to be able to work with 35 great founders and help them start new companies as they joined the Founder Institute New York family. We launched the new FounderX program this year and Ramphis Castro and I were awarded Best Ecosystem Builders of the Year for New York City across Founder Institute's 150 cities.  

Last but certainly not least, I got to share my story and thoughts with you. There are now thousands subscribed to this blog. The Ambition Today podcast has shared numerous journeys to success over 25 episodes. Hopefully this has helped you, as that is always my goal.  As 2016 comes to a close I am grateful that you are each a part of this community. 

Even when it feels the world is not always so great, is important to still see the greatness out there, and within yourself.. So upward and onward into 2017! I am excited for the next year and hope you are as well! I can't wait to see where we take it.

Happy New Year! - Kevin    

Joe Fairless' Journey From Madison Avenue To An $85 Million Real Estate Portfolio

In keeping with last weeks' real estate theme, Episode 25 of Ambition Today finds us across the table from Joe Fairless, Real Estate Investor and Host of the Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show.  Joe set his roots in advertising after a bit of soul-searching during his undergrad years at Texas Tech.  Fighting complacency, he left Madison Ave. for the allure of real estate investing and entrepreneurship, and was met with incredible success, with due credit to his persistence and work ethic.

Owing his early sense of drive to his start in landscaping, Joe Fairless has always had an entrepreneurial mindset.  After leaving his teenage lawn-mowing business, J&J Landscaping, Joe tried to cling to his high school football career by attending a junior college near his home town of Dallas.  After transferring, he went on to graduate with a degree in advertising and quickly rose through the ranks of executive marketing, while investing in real estate as a side project and finding passion in that venture.  Joe applied his trademark tenacity to his newfound love of investing and now controls approximately $85 million worth of rental property.  Kevin digs into the factors behind Joe's success, and much more:

• The seemingly hidden on-ramp of landscaping as a teenage job to eventually invest in real estate.

• Exploring passions during college to find what interests you.

• Applying lessons from the corporate world to an entrepreneurial startup.

• Leaving a comfortable job to pursue your real dreams.

• How to break into the shark-infested waters of commercial real estate.

• The 75/25 rule of listening/asking when approaching mentors.

• Acknowledging your strengths.

• Acknowledging your weaknesses and surrounding yourself with people who help make up for them.

• The grit of making your ambition come to life.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:
"As a thought leader, how does ambition play a role in your life?"

Quote Of The Episode:
"Don't get caught up trying to be everywhere at once, find the platform that makes sense for your skill sets and what you enjoy doing. Then own it."  - Joe Fairless

“Be different before being incrementally better.” - Joe Fairless

Links from this episode:

• JoeFairless.com

• Joe Fairless on LinkedIn

• The Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show

• Kevin's Episode on Joe's Podcast

• The Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever: Volume 1

• Founder Institute New York

• Audible

• Toptal

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…

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS, on Google Play Music or Stitcher for Android. 

Listen to this episode now: 

Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:

Toptal

Audible.com

Founder Institute New York

How Matt Rodak Plans To Fund Every House Flip In America with Fund That Flip

Matt Rodak

Any amount of research into the seemingly eternal-growing market of real estate investment will almost surely make one familiar with Matt Rodak. The 2007 John Carroll grad is the founder and CEO of Fund That Flip, a company which allows anyone to apply for fast and affordable funding in the rehabilitative real estate investment business. The New York based startup had already raised $2 million by April 2016, shortly after graduating from Manhattan's Entrepreneur Roundtable Accelerator in the summer of 2015 and Founder Institute New York prior to that. Fund That Flip finds its niche by bridging the gap between accredited investors and vetted real estate rehab projects in the U.S.

On this episode of Ambition Today, Matt Rodak discusses his seemingly inevitable entrepreneurial roots (despite his "best efforts") as the son of a business owner. He explains how his relationship with his father, and him owning his own company before and during college, led to Matt's on-again, off-again kinship with business ownership. Today, Matt capitalizes on the experiences of his youth by taking action to solve the problems he notices in his industry, such as streamlining the loan application process for prospective "flippers".  We hear about his journey to where he is, his advice on how to get there, and much more:

• Maturing in an entrepreneurial-spirited family.

• Paying for college by advancing a teenage lawn-mowing gig to a profitable business that he was able to sell during his sophomore year at JCU.

• Being introduced to the real estate market through his early exposure to landscaping.

• What to study in college vs. what to leave to education via real-world experience.

• Bringing an entrepreneurial spirit to a non-entrepreneurial position at a large business.

• Using lessons from upper management to implement starting a business.

• Creating a business to streamline and eliminate the fallacies of market norms.

• Employing the JOBS Act to capitalize on a brand-new industry.

• Ownership vs. Accountability in life.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:
"How do you align the ambitions of your team with the ambitions of the company?"

Links from this episode:

• Matt Rodak on Twitter

• Matt Rodak on LinkedIn

• Fund That Flip

• Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

• Founder Institute New York

• Audible

• Toptal

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…

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS, on Google Play Music or Stitcher for Android. 

Listen to this episode now: 

Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:

Toptal

Audible.com

Founder Institute New York

The Spectacle Of Snapchat

Snapchat has come a long way to become the spectacle it is today. As the oldest brother of four I still remember when Snapchat was known exclusively by my youngest brother who was still in high school at the time. 

Snapchat in Times Square.

When Facebook offered Snapchat $3 Billion to be acquired founder and CEO Evan Spiegel surprisingly declined the offer. Overnight the company was a household name.

From there the growth continued. I watched from New York as they secured offices in the old New York Times building, one floor below where I was working at the time. A few months later most of the Times Square billboards were taken over by iconic white ghosts on yellow backdrops.

Around this time I started using Snapchat on a daily basis and so did a lot more people. Brands started to take notice. Snapchat started selling ads for more money then YouTube was charging for its famous homepage banner ad.

The company kept iterating on its mobile first platform without adding unnecessary distractive features. Like all great companies they made complex things feel simple. Adding augmented reality as face filters, gamification through badges, publicly accessible geotagging called geo-filters, QR codes rebranded as snapcodes and more. 

After fundraising millions and rebranding as Snap Inc they are now doubling down on their new mission to be a camera company. Their first hardware product, Spectacles, is slowly being released around the country by a surprisingly cool popup vending machine called "Snapbot". One of which just showed up in New York City! 

The line for @Snapchat @Spectacles in NYC is 3 hours long & wraps around the block along Central Park 👀 😎 pic.twitter.com/chUfQpqdMc

— Kevin Siskar (@TheSiskar) November 21, 2016

For me Snapchat has replaced Facebook as the way I stay in touch with friends and family. If you don't currently have some Snapchat streaks with your friends and family or know what they are I suggest you start some today. They are fun and effective for making sure you communicate with people each day. 

And recently the company has filed for an IPO. I have to say Snapchat, or Snap Inc. as it is now called, has become a company I am very fond of. They have come a long way from "that app where your photos delete themselves after 10 seconds". Snapchat has stayed true to the mission of making a great product that helps people connect. I am excited to see the company IPO and watch what they do next.

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Epilogue: If you want to check out my Snapchat adventures around New York City and the rest of the world you can add me by clicking here!

A Consciously Fresh Perspective

It is time for a consciously fresh perspective. 

I have always been extremely curious about what is happening in the world around me. 
In college I mixed that curiosity with scientific analysis when I majored in Cognitive neuroscience, the analytical combination of Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence. If that wasn’t enough, I then minored in Philosophy as I enjoyed solving deep and challenging logic problems. 

Fast forward to today and I work with startups. As a result over the years, I tend to have a habit of early adopting new technology before the majority of people get it. Some of which I have written about before such as Fitbit, Google Glass, Apple Watch, Boosted Boards, and several innovative companies. I do this because I believe there is an advantage while working in Venture Capital to experience and understand new technology first hand in order to be able to accurately see future trends.

Also, I live in New York City, which means that anything I can think of is literally accessible within walking distance of me every day.

Combining all of the above, if I were to describe myself today I would say I am an extremely curious, analytically scientific, deeply philosophical, and optimistically futuristic person. Side-note: I still like having fun too 😉 . 

The reason I have been thinking about this and am sharing it with you, is that along with 47.9% of America that went blue I did not see the U.S. election results coming. Brexit and the rise of populism have caught me by surprise as well.

The point of this post is not to dive into political waters though. So putting aside specific political candidates, echo chambers, inaccurate polling, my own personal beliefs, and more; what this post is really about is me reconciling that I failed to empathize with the other 47.2% of red America. 

To be clear, empathy doesn’t mean you need to agree with someone. It means you understand another person's experiences and emotions; the ability to share someone else's feelings. I have not done a good enough job of that in recent months. Last week was a sobering reminder for the need to stay constantly aware of the lens that one views the world through. 

It is important to keep a clear and honest perspective that balances the past, present, and future at the same time. To force oneself to take a step back and keep a consciously fresh perspective. To grow the personal self awareness to be able to see that at times there are differences between how your own experiences cause you to perceive the world, how other people are perceiving the same situation, and what is really happening.

Lastly, while personally working to view the world through that unbiased lens it is important that we talk to more people. Including those who disagree with our viewpoints. Exposure to the opinions and beliefs of others is the only way to gain a wider and more accurate view of the world. 

Lessons Howard Love Learned While Sitting On Both Sides Of The Table

HOWARD LOVE

Over the last 30 years Howard Love has founded 15 companies and invested in over 50 early stage startups. His new book "The Startup J Curve" organizes his experience into the 6 phases startups go through as they grow. Howard also is the Founder & CEO of LoveToKnow, a digital publishing firm with over 30 million monthly visitors.

With coal magnates and aviators as his ancestors, entrepreneurship has been in Howard's bloodline for generations. In this episode, Kevin speaks to Howard about what he has learned from sitting on both sides of the table, both as a founder and an investor. We also discuss the 6 phases all startups go through according to Howard's new book The Startup J Curve. We also hear about the value of getting a formal education versus learning directly from the real world and much more:

• Growing up in a family that encourages and breeds entrepreneurial spirit.

• Dropping out of college to get real world experience.

• Being resourceful in the startup space.

• The grit it takes to get your company off the ground.

• The knowledge and insight gained from writing a book.

• Advancing the dialogue of startup culture through understanding of the J-curve.

• The phases of a company: create, release, morph, model, scale, and harvest.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:

"When you think about the younger version of yourself, how do you reconcile where you are now, and where you thought you would be?"

Links from this episode:

• Howard Love on Twitter

• Howard Love on Facebook

• HowardLove.com

• The Startup J Curve

• Founder Institute New York

• Audible

• Toptal

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…

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS, on Google Play Music or Stitcher for Android. 

Listen to this episode now: 

Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:

Toptal

Audible.com

Founder Institute New York

I Just Voted. You Should Too.

I just voted and you should too.

I am not going to remind you to take action or that voting is the patriotic thing to do. 

I am just going to briefly stress to you of the importance of this election. I am going to ask you to take a step back from all the noise and distractions around this election. To find even three to five quiet minutes today to stop what your doing and think clearly about what you really want our country to be over the next four years and beyond. Use those quiet moments to find some clarity using both your heart and your brain. Not just one or the other. Apply empathy to your perspective. 

Take that clarity and go vote today for the people on your ballot who you truly believe will make this country a BETTER place for ALL 318.9 million citizens of the United States of America. 

Presenting Founder Institute New York 12

FINY12: Summer 16

Tuesday of this week we had our Graduate Showcase event bringing together the graduating companies of Founder Institute New York 12 (Summer 16), our New York Founder X Alumni, and our monthly Startup Founder 101 Meetup. Here are some of the great photos from our event: 

The Founder Institute New York Summer 2016 cohort came to an end with 14 new companies graduating. The twelfth batch of the Founder Institute New York includes companies from across several industries such as virtual reality, international food, HR-tech, weddings, fashion, social media, and more.

I would like to thank the great mentors here in New York for the incredible lessons, experience, time, and wisdom brought to each semester's graduates. Without any further ado, I give you #FINY12.

Founder Institute New York 12

Bridal Playbook - Tell us your vision, sit back and relax while wedding vendors send you quotes.

Candogram - Job match technology using unique machine learning & big data.  

Factual VR - Capture and reproduce crime scenes using Virtual Reality technology. 

Happo - Simplifying your children's birthday planning.

Home Abroad - Discover Africa through textiles. 

Home Matcher -  Find your dream home before it's for sale.

Moro Labs - Bringing ethnic foods to their global diasporas with Baegopa. 

Nekai Leon - A socially conscious & contemporary fashion brand with a personalized shopping experience.

ONYO - The power of choice is yours, always get the food you want.

Own Your Crisis - SaaS for pre-planning family emergencies

Paxi - Native tongue ride sharing for international visitors. 

SocioSpree - A curated marketplace for successfully crowdfunded products. 

Tagland Toys - Simple, organic, fun plush toys for babies. 

The Weekend SPIN - Automatically capture and share your weekend. 

A Full Day With A Brand New Boosted Board Version 2

Central Park, East Side Drive

I grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo and started driving as soon as I could. I paid off my first car while bartending in college and grew up being used to having the freedom of, if you just want to go somewhere, you simply get in your car and go there.

Then I moved to New York City, sold my car, and learned the ropes of public transportation. While I love public transportation and have mastered the ropes; the subway, buses, trains, and taxi's do at times force you to submit to their binds a lot of times. As a result of those limitations I still craved a way to get around New York City just as I used to be able to get around with my car, on my own terms. As of today, I think I might finally have that freedom back! 

I just got my brand new Boosted Board Dual + Version 2 and yesterday was my first full day riding it. You may have seen these magical all electric "vehicles" around YouTube as a lot of the content creators have them already. Here are some of my initial thoughts so far.

High Praise 🙌 ! WOW! I am blown away! As a life long skater I can honestly say this is the dream. I started skating in my childhood driveway from before I can remember and more recently I have been longboarding around New York City on a good old fashioned non-motorized longboard for the past 3 years. This new board though, it is no joke. 

Boosted Board Power Modes

To give you some quick background the Boosted Board Dual + v2 is an all electric longboard with 2 motors. It can go up to 22 MPH and comes with a 6-7 mile range on average. An optional extended battery can increase the range to 12 miles on a single charge.

The amount of acceleration the board has, is nothing short of impressive. I was immediately blown away by how fast it actually accelerated me. After that I also wasn't sure how the board would handle going uphill. I quickly learned. When I approached my first big steep hill in midtown manhattan, I jumped the boosted board up one mode from Beginner to Eco and it climbed it like a champ. Again, even accelerating while carrying me up the hill. And, if you put the board in PRO mode, you essentially fly.

Now while getting speed and acceleration on traditional longboards is almost always somewhat easy, stopping can be challenging. Stopping a longboard with your foot is a skill that takes some getting used to when you first start riding. But not with Boosted. The brakes are built into the throttle. And even better they are regenerative so when you are braking your are actually putting power back into the battery.

Perhaps most importantly though, one of my favorite things about the Boosted Board is the fact that you are getting around the city above ground. It really is a small electric vehicle. It can become easy in a big city full of public transportation to only orient your understanding of the city around the subway stops you magically pop out of the underground from. With a Boosted Board however, something that can only be described as "experiencing the great outdoors" of New York City's concrete jungle might be my favorite feature. Not only is it at times faster to get somewhere via bike lanes then taking either the subway, bus, or a taxi through traffic, but it is mind freeing. You can't stare at your phone like you would on the train or in the back of a cab, so you are forced to just experience the city around you. Which I love! 

The Boosted Board's basic functions have exceeded my expectations and I can't wait for my next ride. I am sure I will learn more about the Boosted Board as I continue to ride it, but my initial impressions are amazing. I truly love that it has the potential to expose me more to this great city I live in and I can't wait to explore more of it with my Boosted Board taking me there. 

Kelly Roach, From NFL Cheerleader To Million Dollar Brand

Kelly Roach

Kelly Roach is the founder of Kelly Roach Coaching and host of the Unstoppable Success Radio podcast. With a resume of NFL cheerleader, fitness enthusiast, and mother, Kelly doesn’t exactly fit the usual business coach profile. In Episode 22 of Ambition Today Kelly gives us some great insight into how she leverages her unique experience to grow her businesses, how she published an internationally bestselling book, and why she started the Unstoppable Success Radio podcast. 

Growing up in a financially struggling family, Kelly learned the value of hard work at a very early age while working for the NFL before she was 20. With an unparalleled work ethic she quickly climbed the ladder of success in Corporate America. Soon after she then realized her passion for aiding others in pursuit of their dreams. We cover how Kelly now does just that and more on this episode of Ambition Today:

• Going out and working for what you want at an early age.

• Applying her degree in Communications to create productive interactions in the business environment.

• The importance of travel in shaping a healthy lifestyle mentality.

• Lessons learned from holding multiple positions on an NFL team.

• Appreciating the value of lesser jobs to build knowledge before having your dream job.

• The inherent ebb and flow of startups.

• Lifestyle building via business development.

• Why building a personal brand is so important now.

• Publishing her bestselling book & starting a podcast.

• The necessity of human contact in growing your business.

Ambition Today Question of the Day™:

"What does Ambition mean to you and how do you satisfy your personal ambition each day?"

Links from this episode:

• Kelly Roach Coaching

• Unstoppable Book

• Unstoppable Success Radio Podcast

• Philadelphia Eagles

• Kelly on Twitter

• Kelly on Facebook

• Founder Institute New York

• Audible

• Toptal

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…

Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS, on Google Play Music or Stitcher for Android. 

Listen to this episode now: 

Ambition Today Episode Sponsors:

Toptal

Audible.com

Founder Institute New York