Startup Grind

Aaron Levie, CEO of Box at Startup Grind’s Global Conference earlier this year. Aaron has been CEO since co-founding the cloud storage company in 2005. Aaron served as the company’s product and platform strategy visionary. His plan incorporated traditional content management with elements of social business software. Aaron is also an advisor at 8 Partners and used to serve as an intern at Paramount Pictures. Aaron studied Business at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.  Lets listen into Aaron Levie live at Startup Grind’s Global Conference Earlier This Year Interviewed by Fortune’s Michal Lev-Ram:   This podcast is brought to you by HBX ­ Harvard Business School’s digital learning initiative. Introducing “Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen,” an engaging and interactive online learning experience from Harvard Business School’s HBX. Learn to create winning strategies to position your organization for long­term success by applying proven disruption and innovation t

Hey there and welcome to Monday’s episode of the startup grind podcast. Today we have a great interview with Tina Seelig, acclaimed stanford professor and bestselling author brought to us in Partnership with the Futurecast series a collaboration between the ATT Foundry & Ericsson. Tina Seelig is the Professor of Practice in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. She is also a faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the entrepreneurship center at Stanford University's School of Engineering.  She teaches courses on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Tina also teaches and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Tina earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University School of Medicine where she studied neuroplasticity.  She has worked as a management consultant for Booz, Allen, Hamilton, as a multimedia producer at Company Computer Corporation, and was the founder of a multimedia company called BookBrowser. She has also w

Today we have a great conversation with Des Traynor the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder of Intercom. Intercom has raised over $66 million dollars to fundamentally change how businesses communicate with customers. A lot of businesses seem to agree as Intercom has over 10,000 paying customers so far. Des’s main focus is on the product side and he has written extensively about managing product builds and iterations through Intercom’s series of books. Des studied computer science in college, and is a designer by trade. His favorite and only hobby is soccer.  Lets listen into Des Traynor speaking live from Startup Grind’s Global Conference earlier this year. 

Eric Schmidt, the now chairman of Alphabet and former CEO of Google from 2001 until 2011 speaks on stage with Startup Grind’s Founder Derek Andersen. Eric’s credentials’ and biography expectedly take a long time to describe, so here is an excerpt:    In addition to his well documented role at Google, Eric is a founding partner at innovation endeavors, founder of tomorrow ventures, chairman of the new america foundation. He is on the board at the economist group, the US foundation for inspiration and recognition of Science & Tech, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute for Advanced Study.    Eric has been the CEO of Micro Focus, CTO of Sun Microsystems, CEO of Sun Technology Enterprises, and a Principle at Bell Laboratories.    Eric has also served on the board of Apple & Siebel Systems. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and his Graduate and Doctorate degrees from UC Berkeley.    Let’s listen into an illuminating

  Today we have a conversation from our 2016 global conference with SoftTech VC Partner & Principal Stephanie Palmeri. Stephanie has over a decade of experience working at the intersection of marketing and technology. Stephanie joined at SoftTech in 2011 and served as its a Senior Associate. Previously, she served as an Associate at NYC Seed and launched the NYC SeedStart incubator.    She also worked at Lot18, Accenture, and Estee Lauder and has built SaaS applications for SAP AG, JP Morgan, and Diageo. Her early experiences include Accenture's market data practice working with investment banking clients like JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.    Stephanie represents SoftTech VC as a board member for Niche, Ubooly, Chariot, Envoy Commerce Corp., Educents, Fatherly, and Spoon Media Inc. Stephanie holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Villanova University with joint degrees in Marketing and Management Information Systems.   Lets listen into Stephanie Palmeri live from

Joanne Wilson a prominent angel investor in New York City. Joanne has had several careers on her way as an investor. She started as a buyer at Macy’s, went on to run a company in the rag trade, and eventually ended up spearheading sales for a start-up magazine/events company called Silicon Alley Reporter. She has sat on a number of profit and non-profit boards and has been involved with a variety of big real estate transactions from beginning to end. Joanne has been blogging since 1994 under the name Gotham Gal and has been involved with the start-up community as an angel investor and adviser ever since.   Many of the companies she works with are owned or started by women. Companies like Food52, Dailyworth, The Sweeten, Windowfarms, Scoot, Blue Bottle Coffee, Lover.ly, littleBits, Nest.io, Le Tote, Curbed (Eater/Racked) as well as Ricks Picks, several restaurants and The Moon Group. She is the Chairperson of Hot Bread Kitchen and sits on the board of the Highline.   Lets listen into Joanne Wilson interviewed

Archana Vemulapalli, the Chief technology officer for the Mayor’s office for the district of columbia. The office manages over 10,000 employees overseeing 21 Departments, 33 independent agencies, roughly 69 legislatively mandated offices and 5 regional bodies.  These include all city services, public property, police and fire protection, District of Columbia Public Schools, The University of the District of Columbia and the UDC-Community College. The mayor's office oversees an annual city budget of roughly $8.8 billion. Prior to serving as DC's CTO, Archana served as the CTO for Pristine Environments with over 1,000 employees and as the CEO of Intelleva. Ms. Vemulapalli was selected to participate in Leadership Greater Washington's Class of 2015 and the Women in Technology’s Leadership Foundry Class of 2014. Ms. Vemulapalli serves on the Trustees Council of Penn Women at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a NACD Board Governance Fellow.   Archana has a MBA from Georgetown University, a masters from UPenn,

Today we have a conversation with Sarah Bird, CEO of SEOmoz.inc better known as just Moz which has really become the number 1 source for SEO content and tools. Sarah has overseen the growth of Moz from a few hundred to over 23,000 passionate customers from all over the world. She serves on the board of the Washington Technology Industry Association. She regularly speaks about culture, entrepreneurship, search marketing, and business models. Her credits include the University of Washington, Fledge, Startup Weekend, the Microsoft Accelerator Program, Seattle Tech Meetup, the White House Summit on Working families, Seattle Interactive Conference, and Defrag. She was named a Top 100 Women in Tech by the Puget Sound Business Journal.    Lets listen into Sarah Bird interviewed in Seattle by Director Mike Grabham. 

Today we have a great conversation with Silicon Valley Legend Vinod Khosla, co-founder of sun Microsystems and subsequently Khosla Ventures.    Vinod has run Khosla ventures since 2004, prior to that Vinod spent time at the VC firm Kleiner Perkins. Vinod studied engineering in India and at age 20 failed to start a soy milk company. After receiving degrees from in Electrical Engineering from IIT New Delhi, Biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business Vinod started Sun Microsystems in 1982 which eventually sold to Oracle for over $7 Billion.    Lets listen into Vinod Khosla interviewed in Silicon Valley by Startup Grind’s founder Derek Andersen. 

Today we have a conversation with Jessica Herrin the co-founder of WeddingChannel.com and subsequently the stella & dot family of brands which does over $300M in annual revenue and empowers over 50,000 independent business owners.    Jessica has been recognized for her entrepreneurial accomplishments and her passion on Oprah, in Fortune Magazine, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour Magazine and more. In May , Jessica released her first book: “Find Your Extraordinary: How to Dream Bigger, Live Happier, and Achieve Success on Your Own Terms By Embracing the Entrepreneur In You”. She thrives on the mission of revolutionizing flexible opportunities for women with home parties that are hip. Jessica Graduated from Stanford University.    lets listen into Jessica herrin interviewed by her wedding channel.com co-founder and freestyle capital partner jenny lefcourt. 

CEO and the founder of America Online, Steve Case in Silicon Valley. Steve recently released his first book, The Third Wave, on what the next era of the american startup ecosystem will look like for entrepreneurs. Steve is now the founding partner of the investment firm, Revolution partners which bets on tech entrepreneurs outside of Silicon Valley. So far they’ve backed startups like LivingSocial, Sweetgreen, Bigcommerce, and Handy. Steve became CEO of AOL in 1991 and led the company until the Merger with Time Warner in 2001 in a $164 billion deal that was eventually deemed one of the worst mergers in history. Case attended the prestigious Punahou School, where Barack Obama also went to high school. In 2011 the president appointed him to lead the Startup America Partnership, a nonprofit aimed at spurring the growth of new companies. His Case Foundation is devoted to employing the Internet for more effective and efficient philanthropy. Steve attended Williams College where he received a Bachelor’s degree.  Le

Today we have a conversation with Peng T. Ong, one of the most successful entrepreneurs to come out of Singapore. Peng is the founder and CEO of Interwoven, which went public on the NASDAQ. Prior to Interwoven, Peng was co-founder of Match.com which was acquired by IAC. After Interwoven, Peng founded Encentuate, the leader in the enterprise identity management. The three businesses he started now generate annual revenues that total more than $1 billion.  Peng earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Illinois. Peng is also a passionate music lover and digital hifi fanatic.  Lets listen into Peng Ong interviewed by our Singapore Chapter director earlier this year.  Toptal is an amazing company. They've got over 2,500 developers and designers in their network.  They've screened them extensively so that you get to work with only the top 3%. So basically you just let Toptal know what you're looking for, they understand your busine

Today we have a great interview with Ben Einstein, general partner and co-founder of Bolt, an early stage venture capital fund that invests and the intersection of hardware and software. Prior to starting bolt, Ben ran Brainstream Design, a product design and development consultancy in Massachusetts. Ben has been directly responsible for bringing a long list of products to market covering diverse sectors including consumer electronics, high-performance audio, sporting goods and green energy. Ben developed his engineering skill sets at MIT.  Lets listen into Ben Einstein interviewed by our Startup Grind Boston Chapter director Carlos Cardenas.  Toptal is an amazing company. They've got over 2,500 developers and designers in their network.  They've screened them extensively so that you get to work with only the top 3%. So basically you just let Toptal know what you're looking for, they understand your business and technical requirements and they search for the right person for the job.  You don't have to do all

Owner and General Manager of the Seattle Sounders, Adrian Hanauer.  Prior to becoming the owner of the Sounders, Adrian was a seed stage investor in aQuantive Inc. and an early investor in Amazon.com.  He is also the Director at the Cambridge United Football Club Limited and sits on the Board of Trustees for the Museum of History and the Industry Advisory Board at the of The University of Washington. Overall, Adrian has 15 years of business experience in a variety of industries and has invested in numerous early stage technology companies in gaming, advertising, infrastructure, and wireless communications. Adrain has earned an Intercollegiate Sports Master's degree.  Lets listen into Adrian Hanauer interviewed by Startup Grind Seattle Director, Mike Grabham.  Toptal is an amazing company. They've got over 2,500 developers and designers in their network.  They've screened them extensively so that you get to work with the top 3% of developers and designers. So basically what happens is that you let Toptal know

Today we have a great panel discussion between Simon Rothman, Partner at Greylock VC, Andrei Hagiu of the Harvard Business School, and Al Roth Nobel prize winning economist.  Simon is a partner at Reid Hoffmans Greylock Venture Capital firm where he oversees their marketplace investments in companies like lyft and sprig. before greyloc simon built eBay motors from the ground up into a 14 billion a year global business.  Andrei Hagiu is a professor in the strategy group at the Harvard Business School and prinicipal at Market Platform Dynamics. Andrei received a PHD in economics from Princeton University.  Al Roth is the George Gund professor of economics and business administration at Harvard university. In 2012 he won the Nobel prize in economics for his work in matching doctors to hospitals, kidneys to patients and kids to high schools.  Lets listen into Andrei, Simon and Al at Startup Grind’s Global Conference.  Toptal is an amazing company. They've got over 2,500 developers and designers in their network. 

Amy Banse, Managing Director of Comcast ventures. Comcast made news recently when it was announced that their NBCUniversal arm would be buying DreamWorks Animation for 3.8 Billion dollars. Prior to leading Comcast’s corporate venture arm, Amy spent more than 20 years as an in house attorney for Comcast responsible for programming acquisition including brands like E, the golf channel, versus, G4 and more. Amy received her BA from Harvard and her JD from the Temple university law school.  Toptal is an amazing company. They've got over 2,500 developers and designers in their network.  They've screened them extensively so that you get to work with the top 3% of developers and designers. So basically what happens is that you let Toptal know what type of developer or designer you're looking for, they understand your business and technical requirements and they search for the right person for you. You don't have to do all the screening and interviews that you normally would and they make it really easy for you. You

Today we have a presentation & Q&A with Christine Tsai from the VC stage at Startup Grind’s Global Conference earlier this year. Christine Tsai is a managing partner at 500 Startups, where she oversees the accelerator program and distribution growth team. Prior to 500 Startups, Tsai was in product marketing at Google and YouTube for many years. Before life in consumer internet, Tsai worked in international sales at OSIsoft and ChevronTexaco. Tsai earned a Batchelor's degree in Cognitive Science from the University of California Berkeley. Christine also has has a hobby of ballet dancing, which she has participated in for over 20 years. Lets listen into Christine Tsai from our Global Conference chapter earlier this year. Toptal is an amazing company. They've got over 2,500 developers and designers in their network.  They've screened them extensively so that you get to work with the top 3% of developers and designers. So basically what happens is that you let Toptal know what type of developer or designe

Today we have a presentation from our 2016 Global conference with Johan Brenner, General Partner of the European based Venture Capital Fund Creandum.  Johan is one of Europe’s most experienced venture capital investors who has worked across a broad set of industries globally. He has built a number of successful businesses as an entrepreneur and has also been a Partner in several other  leading venture capital firms.  Before Creandum, Johan spent more than 4 years as a General Partner at Balderton Capital (previously called Benchmark Capital Europe) with investments in companies like MySQL, Rebtel, Zopa, Habbo Hotel and Wonga. Lets listen into Johan’s presentation on the European Startup Ecosystem at Startup Grind’s Global Conference earlier this year.    Toptal is an amazing company. They've got over 2,500 developers and designers in their network.  They've screened them extensively so that you get to work with the top 3% of developers and designers. So basically what happens is that you let Toptal know what

Iliana Montauk the co-founder and chief operating officer of Gaza Sky Geeks, the first startup accelerator in Palestine launched with support from Mercy Corps and Google in 2009. Before arriving to Gaza sky geeks, Iliana helped launch Wamda’s Research Lab. She has previously worked at Google, the Monitor Group, which is now part of Deloitte Consulting, a startup that failed, and a microfinance nonprofit. She graduated from Harvard in 2006 and claims to speak five languages.  Lets listen into Iliana Montauk talk about founding Gaza Sky Geeks from Startup Grind’s Global Conference earlier this year.  Quick question. How many emails do you have in your inbox right now? A hundred? A thousand? Twenty thousand?  If your email is anything like mine used to be, the answer is too many. But here’s the thing—even though I knew I wanted to do something about it, I didn’t know how. I knew I’d miss something important if I just deleted them all, and there were too many emails to go through one at a time.  Thankfully I foun

Today we have a conversation from the VC corner stage at Startup Grind's Global Conference held each year in Silicon Valley. Joining us today is a presentation by Clara Brenner co-founder and CEO of the Tumml Urban Solutions Accelerator which has supported supported companies like HandUp, Chariot, and Popupsters solve problems specifics to cities and dense populations.    Prior to founding Tumml, she worked in real estate development – at a real estate tech startup called Fundrise, as well as at AECOM, GVA Advantis, and Monument Realty.    Clara earned her MBA from MIT Sloan and her BA from NYU. She is a member of the MIT Sloan Alumni Board. In January 2014, Forbes listed her as one of its “30 Under 30” for Social Entrepreneurship.   Lets listen into Clara Brenner live from the VC stage at Startup Grind’s Global Conference