Launch Pad

You’ve got a great new job, and you move to a new city—say, New York or San Francisco. You don’t know anyone. You don’t know the neighborhoods. You don’t have a community. Where do you live? The new answer is Common. Founded by Brad Hargreaves, former co-founder of General Assembly, Common is creating a new kind of residence: co-living. In Common’s co-living apartments you get your own bedroom, then you share the kitchen, living areas, and “a whole long of common space,” according to Brad—all at a lower price point than a studio apartment. Plus cleaning of all common spaces, utilities, wifi, and furnishings are thrown in, making it a very good deal indeed. The intangible, of course, which also comes included with the rent, is the community. Basically, with Common, you get to “keep the fun things like having potluck dinners, hanging out with friends, meeting new people, but take away all of the annoyances.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Davis Smith gives Karl his elevator pitch for Cotopaxi, where he's selling "Gear for Good"--quality outdoor gear made with a social mission, and funding a social mission. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Cotopaxi, founder Davis Smith G'11/WG'11 is "looking to build a world-class example of how to have social impact through a company." He and Karl Ulrich have a fascinating conversation about ventures that integrate social impact into their business models, as Cotopaxi does--a certified B Corp, Cotopaxi designates 2% of revenue "to help alleviate poverty around the world," (as the website explains). Want to know more? Hear Davis dig in to why the social impact piece is crucial to him as a founder, and the several ways he's tried out for implementing it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Meat grown directly from animal cells. It sounds like science fiction, but like so much else in this age of marvels, this hopeful fiction is turning into actual science, at Memphis Meats. A former cardiologist, founder Uma Valeti was part of a study that was trying to inject cells into patients’ hearts to regrow heart muscle, and he took that idea of growing muscle cells… and ran with it. Meat grown in a laboratory, rather than raised as livestock, addresses the environmental, ethical, and health issues that plague our current means of getting meat on the table. As Uma explains: “We're detaching slaughter from meat production.” This is a true moon shot, a potential disruptor of global proportions. According to Uma, 90% of the world’s population eats meat, and in order to supply that meat, 57 billion land animals are slaughtered every year. What if that all just—stopped? Listen to Uma and Karl dig in to the scientific, cultural, and business challenges that Memphis Meats faces. And keep an eye out: Uma’s goal

What's a guy supposed to do when he sells his first startup to Google for over $80 million, just 2 years after graduation? Found another company, Flatiron Health (which has so far raised $228 million from, among others, Google Ventures) that is working to cure cancer using big data. This is the life story, so far, of Nat Turner W'08. Listen to hear him talk with Karl Ulrich about choosing your funding strategically ("taking investment is much more than just capital"), the benefits of being an industry outsider ("I think, honestly, it's an advantage that we did not come from the industry"), rising healthcare costs ("maybe this crisis, maybe this opportunity will actually give rise to some innovative thinking and some better solutions. We can all be hopeful for that."), and more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Karl is terrifically excited about Blake Scholl's startup, Boom, which is building a new generation of supersonic airplaines that are significantly more efficient and affordable than Concord ever was. Boom promises New York to London in just over three hours, instead of the seven hours the trip takes now--but for the same price you pay now for a business class ticket. Listen to hear Blake explain how he's making this possible. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Blake Scholl gives Karl his elevator pitch for Boom, where he's building a supersonic aircraft that could travel from New York to London on three hours and 15 minutes instead of seven hours--but for the same price you now pay for a business class ticket. This is dramatically affordable high-speed travel. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Neel Premkumar built his startups "more like a software company, less like a packaged goods company." And that's the secret to his success--instead of years spent perfecting a product, he got an MVP in the hands of consumers, and then tweaked until he got it right. Listen to Neel and Karl talk about how Stur kept Neel's wife hydrated during her pregnancy--and how Forto keeps them both caffeinated now that the twins are born. As well as how to bring packaged foods to market, a must-listen for any aspiring food entrepreneur. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Who shops at Stone and Strand? Founder Nadine McCarthy Kahane, WG’12 describes their customer: “The urban woman who buys jewelry for herself and cares about fashion. So she wants jewelry that fits into her wardrobe and looks beautiful.” It’s an interesting spot in the market, and a relatively new one: “We're doing is, in a sense, bringing fast fashion to fine jewelry while keeping the quality that people expect from a higher end purchase.” Listen to Karl Ulrich and Nadine McCarthy Kahane discuss the changing landscape of jewelry, how to attract Millennials, and how Nadine used her Wharton MBA to switch careers, from healthcare marketing to jewelry entrepreneur. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Slava Rubin W'00 gives Karl his elevator pitch for Indiegogo--and goes into a deep dive on equity crowdfunding, how Indiegogo is implementing it, and where he thinks companies will meet with the greatest success using it--in this excerpt from Launch Pad. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Back in 2006, Slava Rubin and his Indiegogo cofounders asked a very interesting question: “Why not just maybe use that ultimate democratization tool, which is the internet, to create a marketplace?” Unfortunately, the Securities Act of 1933 made that impossible--then. So they found another path forward, and kicked off the crowdfunding industry (Kickstarter, in case you were wondering, launched in April 2009). A decade later, the rules have changed, and Indiegogo is finally doing what Slava and his cofounders first envisioned: equity crowdfunding. Listen to Karl and Slava talk about equity crowdfunding, how Indiegogo is implementing it, and where he thinks companies will meet with the greatest successes using it. Plus everything you've ever wanted to know about the beginnings of crowdfunding. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Your kid draws a picture (or you do). Or you take a picture of, say, a half eaten breakfast sandwich. You send that picture in to Budsies, and in just two weeks you get back a stuffed animal of the picture. You can imagine how adorable this gets. And if you can’t, check out Budsies.com, and you can see how awesome it truly is. Listen to Alex Furmansky and his former Wharton prof, Karl Ulrich, talk about where the idea for Budsies came from, how he tested it—and what happened when, a month before Budsie’s first holiday season, the factory making the Budsies closed. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What does Curalate do? It makes pictures shop-able. Why is this awesome? Because unfortunately, as Curalate founder Apu Gupta, WG’05 says, “The pictures are not aware of the products that are inside of them.” This means that when you see a picture of a great microphone or a cute sweater online, you may have to do some serious sleuthing to find out exactly which microphone or sweater it is—let alone how to buy it. Curalate solves this problem. With Curalate, you can hover over the coveted item, and suddenly a “shop” button appears. Click; buy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“We hear from parents that their kids are literally putting down their iPads and running to the mailbox to get their package. They are incredibly engaged.” That’s how children respond when their monthly Little Passports envelope arrives, says Co-founder and Co-CEO Amy Norman. Hear Karl and Amy talk about the growth spurt Little Passports has had over the past couple years--and how they're working to keep the company culture trust-based and family-friendly. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What CB insights does sounds daunting: a software and data company, they mine immense amounts of unstructured data, like patents, venture capital financing, news media, or government grants, to try to predict technology trends. Hear Karl talk with Anand about why computers are so much better than humans at doing these kinds of analyses. And why the original company name, Chubby Brain, didn't last. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Deb Bardhan WG'11, Founder of Xpand, gives his elevator pitch to Karl Ulrich in this excerpt from Launch Pad. Want to listen to the full interview? Find it on Soundcloud, iTunes, or Google play. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What's the fastest way to get new employees up to speed? Deb Bardhan got the idea for Xpand through his own work experiences, and seeing how long it took for companies to get employees--including him--through the onboarding process. Xpand is an employee onboarding and readiness solution targeted for large enterprises that are hiring at scale. Hear Karl Ulrich talk to Bardhan about what Xpand does, how he created it, and how it's changing HR as we know it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ever wonder where the ads in your Facebook and Twitter feeds come from? Karl Ulrich interviews Jesse Pujji C'06/W'06 about his company, Ampush, a marketing solutions provider that powers customer acquisitions for some of the world's most disruptive brands and companies. And yes--makes those ads that show up in your social media feeds, and tailors them just for you. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Karl Ulrich interviews Cory Levy about his startup, After School, the largest social network for teens. After School is a place for teens who want to be themselves, make new connections, and participate in positive activities--both online and offline. It's a private social network that allows American high school students to share and connect with fellow students at their same school. And millions of students, in more than 80% of U.S. high schools, use After School. Listen to hear how Cory built After School, and how he knew, after many other entrepreneurial ideas, that this one was a winner. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Karl Ulrich interviews Holly Shelton about her startup, Movewith, which helps fitness instructors build personal brands and thriving careers both in the studio and beyond. Bonus: As a former Apple employee, Holly’s in a position to answer a question that’s been bothering Karl for years: does Apple really not talk to customers? You have to listen to find out. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.