Startup Grind

Oliver Percovich first skated in an empty pool at the age of six, while growing up in Papua New Guinea. In 1995 he competed in the Mystic Cup, an international skateboarding contest in Prague. Prior to a life-changing move to Kabul, Oliver worked at the Centre for Risk and Community Safety on emergency management projects for various Australian government departments. In 2007 Oliver moved to Afghanistan from Australia when his girlfriend took a job in Kabul. Bored, he would skate the beleaguered city, and became a sort of pied half-piper, attracting street kids who would follow him around and ask for rides. Shortly after, Oliver founded Skateistan, a grassroots 'Sport for Development' project on the streets of Kabul. Today, Skateistan has more than 50 employees worldwide and is an award-winning international organization with projects in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. The organization is the first international development initiative to combine skateboarding with educational outcomes. Skateistan is n

Ben Branson is the Founder of Seedlip and Æcorn Aperitifs, the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirits and aperitifs. He gained inspiration from his family’s 300 years of North Lincolnshire farming heritage, and grew up alongside his two younger brothers, eights dogs, horses, rabbits and guinea pigs. Stoically a country boy, Ben now lives with his girlfriend and two dogs in a 15th Century cottage in the Chilterns, bringing his heritage with nature to the forefront of his new business venture.With offices in the Chilterns, Los Angeles, and Sydney, Seedlip is now available in over 35x countries and served in many of the world’s most awarded bars, restaurants and hotels including 350x Michelin * Restaurants & 9/10 of the world’s best cocktail bars. In just 5 years they have become a leader in the drinks industry, keeping the environment and nature at the heart of what they do. In January 2018, Seedlip announced plans for the launch of a new Non Alcoholic brand to complement the existing portfolio, and

Brad Feld lives in Boulder, Colorado and Homer, Alaska with his wife and is on a quest to run a marathon in every state in the US.Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of TechStars. In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, co-chair of Startup Colorado, and on the board of UP Global. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes the widely read blogs Feld Thoughts, Startup Revolution, and Ask the VC. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 23 marathons as part of h

From supercomputers to innovating at incredible speed, Alex Dreiling’s work at  Clipchamp may sound like something from a Douglas Adams novel, but his successful startup began with an everyday idea and a down-to-earth attitude.He shares that they created something no one else was doing, and managed to take it from an idea they had over lunch – to running software that’s been solving problems for millions around the world since they launched in 2014. It’s been an exciting – sometimes nail-biting – journey so far and the team has plenty of ideas of where they’ll go next.Learn more about Oracle for Startups(Interviewed by StartupGrind's Chris Joannou).

Eric originally hails from Lawrenceville, Georgia. While he’s moved around the country a bit, Atlanta has always pulled him back. He currently lives with his wife, Shirley, and their dog, Maize, in Atlanta, Georgia. The Co-founder and COO at Flatfile, whose mission is to remove barriers between humans and their data. Hundreds of enterprises use Flatfile products to aggregate, import, and normalize data from disparate and variant sources. Previously, Eric was the first product lead at Envoy, whose workplace products help thousands of companies create delightful and welcoming office experiences. Other prior work experiences include RentPath, FullStory, RelateIQ, ProsumerGrid, Crimson Hexagon, and Epic. Eric attended college at Emory University and received his MBA from Georgia Tech in 2015.Learn more about Oracle for Startups(Interviewed by StartupGrind's Alex Gorden).

Maximilian Tayenthal is co-founder and CFO of N26. Together with his business partner and friend Valentin Stalf, he has built one of the fastest-growing mobile banks in the world. Their vision is to create a bank that 100 million people around the world love to use, giving people the power to live and bank their way. Previously, Max worked in a variety of consulting and financial roles at leading professional services firms, including CMS and Booz & Company. Max holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics and business administration from the University of Vienna. He also has a master’s degree in economics from the Community of European Management Schools, as well as a law degree from the University of Vienna. Max is a CFA charter holder. While Max is based in Berlin he enjoys skiing in the mountains of Austria and Switzerland. (Interviewed by StartupGrind's Chris Joannou).

After growing up in Cairo, Egypt, she earned a PhD in Cambridge University, and then joined the MIT Media Lab as a research scientist, where she spearheaded the application of emotion recognition technology in a variety of fields, including mental health and autism. She left MIT to co-found Affectiva and is a passionate advocate for humanizing technology, ethics in AI, women in technology and diversity. Rana has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list, Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech, Inc.’s Female Founders 100 list, and named one of the three Global Business pioneers by Bloomberg in 2017. Rana is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a Young Presidents' Organization member, and co-hosted a PBS NOVA series on AI.Learn more about Oracle for Startups(Interviewed by StartupGrind's Chris Joannou).

Amy is Co-founder, former President, and a current board member of Medallia, a public enterprise SaaS company that pioneered Experience Management and is the leader in helping organizations capture and act on customer feedback.  At Medallia, Amy built and ran many key functions from Marketing and Sales to HR and Talent Acquisition. Since its founding, Medallia has grown to 1,500 employees and over $400M in annual revenue, and trades on the Nasdaq exchange (MDLA).Prior to founding Medallia, Amy served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, an Aide on Capitol Hill, a consultant for BCG, and an Associate at Goldman Sachs. She holds an undergraduate degree in History from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford. Learn more about Oracle for Startups(Interviewed by John Rampton, CEO of Calendar.com  ).

Howie Liu is co-founder and CEO of Airtable, the platform democratizing software creation. Over 60,000 organizations, including half of the Fortune 1000, currently use Airtable to power their most ambitious operations. Launched in 2015, Airtable has raised over $70M in venture funding, and was recently added to Forbes’ “Cloud 100” list of the private companies leading cloud computing in 2018.  Learn more about Oracle for Startups(Interviewed by Alexa von Tobel, CFP® is the Founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital ).

Morgan DeBaun, Founder & CEO of Blavity. Fresh out of college, she headed to Silicon Valley to learn from the best and brightest about Product Management and Design. The St. Louis native became a growth hacker and small business advisor to aspiring entrepreneurs. In 2014, she launched Blavity - the largest media startup and lifestyle brand for black millennials. Under her leadership, Blavity has successfully acquired 2 companies, raised over 9 million in venture funding, and reaches millions of people a day online. Today, Morgan manages a team of over 65 employees and 100 contractors with offices in LA, ATL, SF and NYC.Morgan is one of the first 15 American women to raise one million in venture funding. Her list of accolades includes: The Root Top 100 Most Influential Black Americans, Ebony 100, Black Enterprise Founder of the Year, Forbes 30 under 30, Silicon Valley Top Women in Tech, and has been profiled in Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, WSJ, Forbes, and many more. Learn more about Oracle for Sta

Ryan Smith co-founded Qualtrics in 2002 with the goal of making sophisticated research simple. As CEO, he has grown the company from a basement startup to one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the world. Qualtrics has more than 8,500 enterprise customers including over 75% of the Fortune 100, 1,800 colleges and universities worldwide, and 99 of the top 100 U.S. business schools. Qualtrics has received $400M in investment from Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Insight Venture Partners. Ryan was named to Fortune’s 2016 40 Under 40, a list of the most powerful, influential, and successful young people in business, and was listed as one of Forbes’ “America’s Most Promising CEOs Under 35” in 2013. He is a frequent contributor to Fortune Magazine and has been featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Inc., The New York Times, TechCrunch and USA Today, and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and FOX Business. Ryan is a graduate of Brigham Young University and

Scott Belsky is an executive, entrepreneur, author, and investor (and all-around product obsessive). He currently serves as Adobe's Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud. Scott's passion is to make the creative world more productive, connected, and adaptive to new technologies. Scott co-founded Behance in 2006, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. Millions of people use Behance to display their portfolios, as well as track and find top talent across the creative industries. After Behance's acquisition, Scott helped reboot Adobe's mobile product strategy and led Behance until 2016, when he spent a few years as an investor and advisor to multiple businesses.Alongside his role at Adobe, Scott actively advises and invests in businesses that cross the intersection of technology and design - and help empower people. He works closely with a number of venture capital firms including Benchmark and Homebrew, and is an early advisor and investor in Pinterest, Uber, sweetgr

Chris Saad – Former Head of Product, Uber Development Platform.Chris is an Australian living and working across Brisbane and San Francisco. Formerly the Head of Product at Uber Development Platform, this highly driven entrepreneur is also a strategic advisor, product developer, author and pod-caster.The self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur received accolades from Anthill when he was featured in 30 Under 30. Chris was described as, ‘one of Australia’s most impressive young web entrepreneurs”. His idealization and dedication to web standards was touted as having a, “profound impact on the evolution of media in the digital age”. He was applauded for his contribution to the industry when he was named in the Advance 50 for the Future list which honours Australians that have generously given back in supporting growing companies.His 14 years across the startup ecosystem saw him build several companies including Echo (Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer), Faraday Media (Co-Founder and Director), RedShift (Founder/CEO

Sage Group plc. is the UK’s largest tech firm with 12,000 employees serving over three million customers across 23 countries worldwide.Debbie Wall is the EVP of the Sage Foundation, one of the largest corporate foundations globally. It is the corporate philanthropic division of Sage . It is the corporate philanthropic division of Sage Group.Debbie"s approach called ‘action philanthropy’ is a model based not only on corporate financial giving but focused on making a more meaningful impact through employee time and expertise. As part of this approach, Debbie introduced the UK’s largest corporate volunteering scheme, offering every Sage employee up to 5 days of paid time to volunteer in their local communities. In 2020 alone, they have given 14,000 volunteering days from colleagues around the world. Debbie would be happy to talk about some of the programmes introduced and executed by the Sage Foundation to help local communities worldwide. These are based on maximising the tech skills of their employees to help

Lucy established her industry credentials as an investment consultant at the China International Capital Corp (CICC), China's first joint venture investment bank. Her competitive edge and organisational skills won her the trust of the most prestigious investors and corporate clients in Asia.She co-founded Airwallex in 2015 , which provides foreign-exchange transactions at a lower cost than traditional banks to help internet companies, as well as small and mid-size enterprises, to collect and settle payments when conducting business overseas.Airwallex's recent valuation is $1.8 billion and the total capital raised is more than $360 million. The cross-border payment startup joined the unicorn club after crossing the $1 billion valuation mark a year ago.Airwallex's headquarters are in Melbourne, Australia. It has opened new offices in Tokyo and Bangalore, while exploring the Middle East market. While Asia-Pacific continues to play a crucial role in the company's growth plans, it also will accelerate growth in Eu

Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder is one of the world’s most influential innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the way established companies do business and how new ventures get started. Ranked No. 4​ of the top 50 management thinkers worldwide, Osterwalder is known for​       simplifying the strategy development process and turning complex concepts into digestible visual models. He invented the Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Business Portfolio Map – practical tools that are trusted by millions of business practitioners from leading global companies. Strategyzer, Osterwalder’s company, provides online courses, applications, and technology-enabled services to help organizations effectively and systematically manage strategy, growth and transformation. His books include the international bestseller ​Business Model Generation​, ​Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want,​ ​Testing Business Ideas​ and

Pete Newell is a nationally recognized innovation expert whose work is transforming how the government and other large organizations compete and drive growth. He is the CEO of BMNT, an innovation consultancy and early-stage technology incubator that helps solve some of the hardest real-world problems in national security, state and local governments, and beyond.  BMNT is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington DC, Boston and London. He holds holds a BS from Kansas State University, an MS from the US Army Command & General Staff College, an MS from the National Defense University and advanced certificates from the MIT Sloan School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is  also a founder and co-author, with Lean Startup founder Steve Blank, of Hacking for Defense (H4D)®, an academic program taught at 22+ universities.In addition, Pete is a Board Member for Solace Power, a wireless power technology company; and Hacking for Defense Incorporated, the 501c3

Jennifer received her BA from Harvard University cum laude and MBA from Harvard Business School and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughters Aurora and Selene.She co-founded Rent the Runway in 2009 with Jennifer Fleiss, and has since raised over $525 million in capital, growing the business to over 11 million members and a valuation of $1 billion. In her role, she sets the strategic priorities of the business and leads the company in growing all areas of the business, including marketing, technology, product and analytics. Under Hyman’s leadership, Rent the Runway’s offerings have expanded to over 600 labels, including Proenza Schouler , Marni and Victoria Beckham . Brands work with Rent the Runway via wholesale relationships, revenue share arrangements on the Rent the Runway platform, as well as co-manufacturing of designer collections exclusive to the Rent the Runway ecosystem.Hyman has been honoured with recognitions like the “TIME 100” most influential people in the world, Forbes “12 Most Disrupti

 Since 2004, Mike has served as Business Manager for the multi-platinum hip-hop artist Nelly. Through restructuring Nelly’s apparel line Apple Bottoms from from a production firm to a licensing entity, Mike was able to grow the business from $2M in revenue in 2004 to over $100M in 2008. In early 2015, Michael Chaffin and Mark Cuban co-launched the THREE COMMAS apparel line, a concept derived by Mark Cuban based on the fact that there are 3 commas in a billion dollars.  The line is the first developed for the aspiring entrepreneur.While Three Commas came from the fact that there are three commas in a billion, the money is not what it is about. It is about the entrepreneur - from the place where the dream began, to where the dream becomes a reality. Three Commas is about the journey and seeks to encourage people to achieve their goals, pursuing the American Dream. There is no other place that gives everyone this great opportunity to succeed. It's not about having a billion dollars, but the daily reward of hard

Kate founded One Young World 10 years ago whilst Global President and UK Group Chairman of Havas Worldwide, in response to what she saw as a growing leadership vacuum in business, politics and civil society. Its goal is to identify, promote and connect the world’s most impactful activists to create a better world, with more responsible and effective leadership.During her time at Havas,Kate was the world’s most senior woman in advertising. Taking inspiration from her mother, the first woman in South Africa to become a Board member, she has always fought for young voices to be heard – and her policy of inviting under 30-year-old’s to join the Havas Board was a first of its kind.From its work in peacebuilding with the European Commission, to creating the world’s largest ever investment in youth-led SDGs initiatives, One Young World has become the definitive voice on young leaders – with a community of over 10,000 under-35-year-old activists from over 190 countries.  As a result, it has garnered the support of so