Every day, Jason Calacanis and Molly Wood cover startups, technology, markets, media, crypto, and the all the hottest topics in business and tech. They also interview the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors and innovators.
https://thisweekinstartups.com
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 52 days 15 hours 42 minutes
E992: The Next Unicorns: Expanse CEO & Co-founder Tim Junio reduces exposure to online threats by providing “attack surface visibility”, shares insights into current threats from China & Russia, potential 2020 election tampering, reasons for cybersecurity
0:50 Jason intros Tim Junio
1:44 Tim explains what Expanse does and how "attack surface inventory" is the first step in their cybersecurity platform
5:20 Tim explains the Dyn cyber attack
13:20 How many Fortune 500 companies have been blackmailed via cyber attack?
19:32 "White-hat" hackers impact on the cybersecurity industry
23:12 Human-made passwords are the weakest link
29:09 History of Russian interference
33:16 Why Gmail is good for...
E991: #StartupTuneup with Urban-X: Waste-reducing marketplaces, traffic liability reduction, recreational sharing spaces, firefighter safety software & energy cost saving AI
0:41 Jason intros the #StartupTuneup with Urban-X companies
2:33 David Rodriguez pitches Food for All: food marketplace to reduce waste & help restaurants sell unused food
12:43 Jim Selevan pitches Pi-Lit: innovating transportation thru a wireless lamp system
26:33 Caroline Hansen pitches Hubbster: providing easy access to outdoor games & gear
41:24 Patrick O'Connor pitches 3AM Innovations: safety software for firefighters
50:52 Michael Lee pitches Evolve Energy:...
E990: SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie on driving growth by listening to customers & employees, importance of a strong & diverse board, direct listings v. IPOs, lessons learned from WeWork; plus LAUNCH Scale Partner Talk featuring Yosiat Gimbernard from Odoo
1:45 Zander’s take on the recent volatility in the public markets
3:38 What are the lessons learned from the WeWork disaster in terms of corporate governance?
6:09 Importance of diversity on BoD
10:18 Where does WeWork go from here, and how will the situation resolve?
12:35 Why Venture investing is so skewed towards growth, and why the best investors focus on gross profitability
14:41 What is SurveyMonkey’s current business, and why did they go into Enterprise...
E989: The Next Unicorns: Culture Amp CEO & Co-founder Didier Elzinga is building an employee analytics platform that keeps workers satisfied & motivated, shares insights on the changing role of culture, what modern employees value & maintaining culture wh
0:52 Jason intros Culture Amp's Didier Elzinga
2:44 How Didier's prior career in Visual Effects led him to start Culture Amp
8:24 Issues with yearly performance evaluations
14:15 Did Silicon Valley take culture too far?
17:35 What defines good culture?
24:24 Generational differences in workplace culture
28:30 How should companies view the gig economy in terms of culture and compensation?
37:12 How should compensation work in this era?
43:20 Didier...
E988: Aileen Lee, Founder & Managing Partner of Cowboy Ventures, pioneered actionable change to diversify tech & VC, shares early days innovating in e-commerce, insights on current funding landscape, dangers of prioritized growth over sustainability, & le
0:51 Jason intros Aileen Lee
1:36 Aileen on her time at MIT, early bias against women in math
5:56 What brought Aileen to San Francisco & working at GAP in the early days of the Internet
9:40 Aileen on working for Mary Meeker & what makes her special
10:25 “All companies that leverage technology are not the same...
E987: The Next Unicorns: Upgrade CEO & Co-founder Renaud Laplanche is empowering users to better understand credit through his consumer credit platform, announces the Upgrade Card, shares insights on taking LendingClub public & how startups have changed s
0:51 Jason intros Upgrade CEO Renaud Laplanche
2:07 Renaud goes over the idea of his previous startup, LendingClub, and taking it public
9:57 What happened at LendingClub after the IPO?
11:18 What is Upgrade? How did it grow out of LendingClub?
12:40 Are credit scores an outdated metric?
14:11 What is the Upgrade Card?
15:30 Are modern credit card companies sinister in their approach?
24:54 Renaud's thoughts on Crypto
27:40 Where does Upgrade's...
E986: StockX Co-founder Josh Luber is building a stock market for things, shares insights on the two cultural shifts that brought sneaker culture mainstream, attracting Mark Wahlberg, Eminem & Steve Aoki to invest along with Google Ventures & Marc Benioff
1:00 Want to work at LAUNCH? gettheseat.com
2:28 Jason intros StockX's Josh Luber
3:14 When did the sneaker crazy start?
6:37 What is StockX?
9:19 What should Jason wear courtside? And why not Kawhi's?
14:13 Most $ Josh has spent on pair of sneakers? What were they?
18:15 What is StockX's take on a standard transaction?
18:44 Meeting Co-founder & Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert
19:58 Attracting Mark Wahlberg, Eminem, etc...
E985: #AskJason! Recognizing great founders as an investor, dealing with a lack of updates, raising capital through crowdfunding, the ideal makeup of today’s founder, how Angel Investing has changed since the release of “Angel”, standing out in slow-to-ad
1:00 Jason intros #AskJason and today's questions
1:47 How to differentiate a great founder from an okay one? - Darius
7:40 Dealing with the lack of updates as a syndicate Angel Investor? - Said
15:54 Bomani calls in and asks Jason about raising through crowdfunding
22:20 What will the new ideal makeup of a founder be after recent events (WeWork, JUUL, etc...
E984: Vice Ventures Founding Partner Catharine Dockery raised $25M to invest in vices: marijuana, sextech, gambling, alcohol, vaping; shares insights on hacking her way into VC through cold emails & a strong investment thesis, capitalizing on early market
0:47 Jason intros Catharine Dockery
4:29 How Catharine came up with Vice Ventures
7:00 What was the response when Catharine began raising her first fund?
7:19 What does harm-reduction mean for Vice Ventures?
9:21 Getting Marc Andreessen to invest in her fund
13:32 Strangest emails Catharine has received since starting Vice Ventures
16:01 Investing in cannabis
20:15 Investing in psychedelics
26:33 Investing in gambling
31:16 Who are...
E983: The Next Unicorns: Zola CEO & Co-founder Shan-Lyn Ma shares insights on growing her all-in-one wedding platform in a $100bn market, adapting to changes in wedding demographics, balancing growth and profitability while keeping her team focused, raisi
0:51 Jason intros Shan-Lyn Ma
3:17 Starting Zola and competing in a crowded space
5:14 Jason and Shan go through LAUNCH President Sam's Wedding Registry live on air
6:30 How Zola's registry and business model work
9:10 How does Zola look at Amazon's wedding lists
14:29 What has changed in wedding demographics, and how does Zola keep up?
21:26 Jason and Shan share thoughts on romantic proposal locations
25:37 How working for Kevin Ryan at Gilt impacted...