Startup Grind

  Today we have a chat between our seattle chapter director mike grabham and the CEO of RedFin Glenn Kelman. Glen started his career at the stanford technogloy group after graduating from UC berekely. STG was then acquired by IBM which spurred glenn to co-found his own company Plumtree. Plumb tree  then became a large publicly traded company in which glenn held various roles as an engineering lead, marketing lead, business development, and product management. Glen most recently Joined red fin as their CEO and is working to completely reinvent the real estate industry towards the consumers advantage. lets listen to this inspiring chat with a great founder. 

Today we have a chat with SoftLayer’s chief startup evangelist Joshua Krammes. As Softlayers startup evangelist Joshua creates awareness for soft layers efforts towards fostering innovation and investment in the global startup ecosystem. Specifically he serves as an advisor, mentor, friend and liaison for early stage startups.     He has partnered and mentored with several globally recognized startup organizations such as: Y Combinator, Founder’s Network, TechStars, 500 Startups, the Global Accelerator Network, and many more.      Joshua is interviewed in Detroit by our Startup grind chapter direct Anamarie Sabagh 

  Today we have a great chat between 5 different tech stars partners including co-founder david cohen. The guests include David Cohen, Ari Newman, Jason Seats, Mark Solon, Nicole Glaros. Tech stars is one the worlds top accelerators with locations in over a dozen cities. It also powers vertical focused programs with partners like Disney, Qualcomm, Mike, Ford, and many more. Lets listen into this great chat with 5 top partners in one 1 room at our startup grind chapter in Boise Idaho. The discussion is moderated by boise director jess whiting. Lets listen. 

Today we have an enlightening conversation with the Editor at Large of TechCrunch which is the biggest breaking news sites about the hottest tech companies.    Mike has been named one of the Top 50 most influential Britons in technology by The Daily Telegraph. As well as being a long-time Writer, Broadcaster and Editor Mike is also co-founder of TechHub (@TechHub), a project to merge a thriving community with office space for fast-moving startups. Mike has written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman.   Mike arned his B.A. degree in History and English Literature from Australian National University.

Today we have a conversation between Kevin Gibbon the co-founder of shyp and seed investor Hunter Walk. Kevin co-founded shyp in attempt to revolutionize the shipping industry by making shipping any item as easy as snapping a picture of it. They raised over 60 million dollars from firms like sherpa ventures, home-brew vc and, and Kleiner Perkins. With markets in a few cities in the us they are quickly expanding to help make shipping goods as easy as possible. Hunter walk is the co-founder of and partner at Homebrew VC. He lead product at YouTube for several years and interviews keyin at our chapter in San Francisco. Lets listen in.      A quick break from Kevin Gibbon of Shyp for some recent startup headlines. 

Today we have a great presentation from our 2015 Global Conference. Paul Ahlstrom is an entrepreneur and investor who has focused his carreer on understanding the inner workings of early stage startups. He’s founded multiple high-technology startups and investment funds in the United States and Mexico.    Paul’s current focus is opening up capital sources to Mexican entrepreneurs and supporting Mexico’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.      In his presentation Paul discusses 3 ways to guarantee that your startup will fail. Lets listen in to this short but impactful talk. 

Today we have the Managing Director of the female centric crowdfunding site, Plum Alley. Plum Alley is a site specifically made for women consumers and women looking to crowdfund from other women. It further differentiates itself by offering expert help to crowdfunders which has created a funding success rate of near double kickstarter and quadruple that seen on indiegogo. Jan has also held high level positions at non-profits including the Girl Scouts, Teach For America, the Sierra Club and as the CFO of Planned Parenthood International. She then went on to found the 6 figures women network and her own client relations and brand management consultancy called Swig.      Jan is interviewed by our Tampa Bay Chapter director Joy Randels. Let’s Listen in. 

Today we have a chat with a canadian based founder Ethan Song. Ethan is the co-founder of the popular menswear club Frank & Oak. Frank & Oak is a mens lifestyle brand that makes it easy for men to receive the latest fashions and trends right to their door. They also have a few retail locations which Ethan touches on as a core element of their brand as it bridges the gap between online and offline experiences.      Ethan is interviewed at our Startup Grind Ottawa chapter by director Franco Varriano. Let’s listen in. 

Today we have a really interesting fireside chat with a great arizona based entrepreneur. Hamid Shojaee is the iranian born founder of axosoft which makes the successful live chat software pure chat. Hamid is an ASU graduate and former microsoft employee. He’s very passionate about supporting the entrepreneurial community in Arizona and started the website aztechbeat and even an arizona based incubator. Lets listen into this great chat with hamid interviewed by our phoenix chapter director christie kerner.    Before You Go I just wanted to let you know that 2 for 1 tickets to  our global event go on sale tomorrow. They are the cheapest tickets we have to offer and the event sold out early last year. Come and hear from key note speakers like the founders of the social + capital partnership, wanelo, thumbtack, cloud flare, joyous, Plus clayton christensen steve blank and the editor at large for the atlantic. Get tickets and more information at startup grind .com/conference. 

Today we have one of my favorite startup grind fireside chats. We recently had the honor of hosting Brad Feld of tech stars and the foundry group at our chapter in denver colorado.    Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding the foundry group he co-founded mobius venture capital. Brad has been active with several nonprofit organizations and is currently chair of the national centre for women at information technology, and is on the board of up global.    He’s also completed 23 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states.     Lets listen into this great interview with the amazing brad feld 

Today we have bryan johnson the co-founder of braintree.  Braintree is an online and mobile payments provider that prides itself on allowing it’s merchants to accept more payment types than anyone else.  Bryan co-founded and helped Braintree work with some of the best customers in the world such as uber, github, opentable, airbnb, and opentable.  in this interview Bryan discusses his goal of retiring at the age of 30 in order to allow himself to help others for the rest of his life.    Our startup grind chapter director tom denison interviews bryan in chicago. Let’s listen in. 

Today we have the 2nd part of our podcast with the Co-founder of VaynerMedia and venture capitalist Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary's  first step as an entrepreneur was when he helped grow his family liquor store into a multimillion dollar enterprise and then launching winelibrary.com, one of America’s first wine e-commerce sites. After wine library, Gary founded VaynerMedia with his brother which today is one of the biggest digital shops focused on social media.Recently Gary launched VaynerRSE, a $25 million seed fund that will invest in and launch the next generation of world-changing technology companies.  In part two of the interview, Gary discusses the importance of staying in your lane and the danger of pretending to have expertise in area's you don't know enough about.     Gary is interviewed in LA by Startup Grind LA chapter director Joe Famalette.

Today we have Co-founder of VaynerMedia and venture capitalist Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary first step as an entrepreneur was when he helped grow his family liquor store into a multimillion dollar enterprise and launching winelibrary.com, one of America’s first wine e-commerce sites. Gary then went on to found VaynerMedia with his brother which today is one of the biggest social media focused digital shops aiding Fortune 500 brands in their marketing. Recently Gary launched VaynerRSE, a a $25 million seed fund that will invest in and launch the next generation of world-changing technology companies. Gary has written three New York Times bestselling books as well.   In the interview, Gary discusses the importance of as a VC sticking to your instincts on what you know will be a big hit and why certain investments are worth the risk when the gains are so high.     Gary is interviewed in LA by Startup Grind LA chapter director Joe Famalette.

Today we have the CEO and co-founder of OfferUp Nick Huzar. OfferUp is a platform that aims to create the simplest and safest marketplace to buy and sell locally. OfferUp has grown rapidly to become the largest peer to peer mobile marketplace in the country. Previously, Nick was co-founder and CTO of Konnects, Inc, an early social networking startup where he raised $6M in capital and scaled to over 1M users within 18months. Earlier in his Career Nick held positions at T-Mobile and Microsoft.As a new father with a pile of unwanted things, Nick Huzar realized that there was no easy way to buy and sell locally. With that motivation, OfferUp was born with one mission in mind: to make buying and selling locally as easy as taking a photo. In this interview Nick discusses the importance of company culture and how being a good leader involves hiring the right people and getting out of their way.Nick is interviewed in Seattle by Startup Grind's Seattle chapter director Mike Grabham

Today we have the CEO of Spirit Airlines Ben Baldanza. Spirit Airlines is the largest Ultra Low Cost Carrier in the western hemisphere. Prior to joining Spirit, Baldanza held executive positions at other airlines including US Airways, Continental Airlines and American Airlines. Baldanza earned his BA in economics from Syracuse and an MA in transportation and economics from Princeton. In the interview, Ben discusses the importance of knowing your product and marketing exactly the service you offer. Spirit airlines has been able to distinguish themselves by unbundling their services and offering only the essentials allowing them to provide significantly lower fares, thus they also transformed their branding to demonstrate to customers what makes them different.  Ben Baldanza is interviewed in Miami by Startup Grind's Miami chapter director Jason Ibarra.