Category: Podcasts

How to push the limits while remaining true to the business mission.

Paul Hanges is the CEO of JibJab, a leading independent provider of social expression content specializing in digital branded entertainment eCards, satires, messages and now, personalized books! As an accomplished digital media, marketing and technology leader, Paul has a wealth of experience overseeing growth strategies for large-scale content production studios, and has been on the forefront of the digital branded entertainment experience for more than a decade.

Paul joined JibJab in 2016 as its chief operating officer where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the studio, in addition to direction and performance of the legal, accounting, paid media acquisition and customer service teams. Since starting at the company, Paul has introduced new performance management processes, revamped budgeting and forecasting modeling, and secured several new production financing deals for the company. He was named CEO in January of 2019 after the company was acquired by Catapult Capital.

Pramod Raheja, is the CEO & Co-Founder of Airgility, Inc., a company focused on artificial intelligence and aerial autonomous systems based in the Washington DC Metro area and a spinout from the University of Maryland. He is an entrepreneur of 20+ years and a longtime member and past president of the Entrepreneur’s Organization of Washington DC.

He is a graduate/mentor of the Founder’s Institute, Mass Challenge US Air Force Labs and the Fedtech Accelerator Program. He holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland and is a graduate of the Entrepreneurial Master’s Program at MIT. Pramod thinks of himself as half geek and half sales guy and believes Airgility is at the forefront of an aerospace revolution. He lives with his wife in Potomac Falls, VA and just became an empty Nester with two awesome boys attending Virginia Tech.

How can consumers become empowered patients?

David, a Navy Gulf-war veteran, is a seasoned technologist with more than 22 years of experience. He has participated in two IPOs and delivered more than 10 applications to market in the Salesforce eco-system. Over the last decade, Franklin has focused on cloud computing and machine learning for health care applications.

He has studied at Moody Bible Institute, Penn State, and MIT. His recent venture, knowRX, was formed after losing his father in 2018, due to a medication side-effect. Here, his desire is to help empower patients, improve conversations, health literacy and the quality of life while taking a medication.

Can human sellers be replaced by AI?

Josh Blank is a third-generation entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Otto. Otto is the content creation layer for sales and business development, leveraging NLP and ML to improve outbound messaging through personalization. Prior to founding Otto, Josh was a member of the business development leadership team at Celonis and a Co-Founder of Inflow.

What is Product Led Growth and how can it benefit B2B and mainly B2D companies as the main go to market strategy.

Shimon Tolts is the CEO & Co-Founder at Datree, which prevents Kubernetes misconfiguration from reaching production.

After receiving his first PC at 8 years old, his first act was to disassemble it and connect the different parts. At 15 Shimon started his first company, providing web hosting on top of Linux servers in the pre-cloud era. He established and managed the Software Engineering Infrastructure department for 400 engineers at ironSource. Also as an AWS Community Hero, Shimon runs the largest AWS user-group worldwide and an avid speaker at conferences. Shimon co-leads the Israeli CNCF chapter.

As an immigrant from Canada and first generation American along with citizenship to Lithuania/EU, Eric Chebil graduated University of Washington with a BS in Construction Engineering, double minoring in Architecture and Finance. Prior he was on the U.S. national rowing team and understands firsthand what it takes to overcome challenges and teamwork. Eric has over 10 Years of experience in real estate including managing teams and projects while working for top global general contractors including Kiewit and Swinerton Builders, and brokering real estate homes at Christie’s International and mortgage loan originations at Chebil Realty.

Eric has a background in the fields of engineering, general contracting, construction management, and green building consulting. Credentials include a California Bureau of Real Estate Broker’s license, mortgage loan originator’s license and certification of LEED AP BD+C status. Previously has founded Chebil Realty managing several Realtors, Eric understands and lives in the housing crisis firsthand in LA.

Can data & privacy co-exist? with Harrison Tang, CEO @ Spokeo.

Harrison Tang is Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Spokeo. He started Spokeo with his college roommates Mike Daly (CTO) and Eric Liang (CIO) in 2006 in his parents basement in 2006. and serves as Spokeo‘s Chief Executive Officer.

Harrison guides Spokeo‘s product vision to build an experienced team that helps the company realize its mission of making the world around us more transparent. Under his leadership, He Harrison has helped build and scale Spokeo ’s user base from zero to serving tens of millions of users. He is passionate about building products that help customers get their jobs done.

Harrison earned a B.A.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Economics and a M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.

The virtual event marketplace as a bridge uniting professionals in the event industry.

Pedro Góes is the CEO of InEvent, a Y Combinator venture-backed company providing an event, marketing, and sales platform for Forbes 2000 Global companies, including Amazon, Coca-Cola, KPMG, Santander, Unilever, Boeing, Embraer, and Citibank.

Early in his career, and during college, Pedro started a company with which he had more than 10,000 monthly active paying users. He is a Y Combinator Alumni, a 40 under 40 founder by Association Magazine, a UK Event Tech Award Winner, and a Gold Crocodile Award Winner.

Stefan Kalb is the CEO and co-founder of Shelf Engine. Kalb co-founded Shelf Engine in 2016 to address the global food waste pandemic he experienced first-hand with grocers. Prior to Shelf Engine, Kalb spent 7 years as the CEO of Molly’s, a healthy grab-and-go food company he started in 2009. While Kalb grew the company to more than 400 regional retail locations, food waste was eating into Molly’s bottom line. Hungry for a solution, Stefan and Shelf Engine co-founder Bede Jordan developed a model to considerably improve perishable food forecasting.

After successfully cutting Molly’s food waste in half, Kalb and Jordan quit their day jobs to launch Shelf Engine with a mission of transforming the food supply chain by helping grocery stores reduce waste and increase sales through intelligent forecasting. Today, Shelf Engine has nearly 200 employees and manages orders for leading grocers at thousands of locations nationwide.

How having the right niche community makes sense within the world of dating apps.

Leigh D’Angelo is CEO and Co-Founder of Dig – The Dog Person’s Dating App and Tabby – The Cat Person’s Dating App. Leigh started Dig and Tabby with her sister and co-founder Casey Isaacson. Dig and Tabby build relationships so pets and pet lovers live healthier, longer, and more joyous lives with the humans who love them. On Dig, find compatible matches, meet up in the digital dog park, and plan dog-friendly dates. On Tabby, hang out in the Cat Tree, get tips and tricks from vets and trainers, and find someone who is compatible with your cat-forward lifestyle. Both apps also have deals from local pet companies so you can win over their dog or cat from the start with a unique treat!

Leigh has a background in investigative journalism and TV news reporting, homeland security and emergency response management, and nonprofit development. She also supports the web modernization team for NASA and is an anchor on NASA TV.  Leigh’s background helped form the way Dig and Tabby celebrate the passion and commitment of dog and cat lovers through the Dig and Tabby apps, with dog-friendly events nationwide, and by building a dedicated community of single cat-lovers and dog-lovers. Leigh lives in New Orleans, Louisiana with her German Shorthaired Pointer Penny and husband Adam.

Joel Nkounkou is the CEO of EcoText. He is a technical, product-centric founder with ambitions to uplift edtech to increase opportunity for the modern learner.

Joel is passionate about growing and transforming technologies from design phase to real applicable market implementation. A global observer and an innovative learner, he deems himself as a “young executive in training” aiming at building something truly awesome!

How can software engineers, startup founders, and virtually everyone empower themselves to overcome failure?

Aaron Guyett is the CEO of Pedestal. He is a technical startup founder with experience crafting numerous small businesses. He believes the future of work is going to be dependent on connectedness and guidance.

With his technical expertise, he routinely crafts projects in the blockchain and enterprise space. Right now, he is helping individuals grow in their professional spaces through mentorship.

Can AI help us better understand animals around us and increase empathy in the world? with John Honchariw, CEO & Founder @ Companion

John Honchariw is the founder and CEO of Companion. John was trained in mechanical, aeronautical and systems engineering, but has spent the majority of his career in product and business development taking new types of technology and business models to market. Most recently, he worked at Google with the early technology units (Google[X], Research and Robotics) on thinking through first products and applications. He started off his career at Bain & Company in San Francisco and then launched into helping develop silicon-nanostructure Li-Ion batteries for clean-energy applications at Amprius (KPCB).

After that, he helped launch a new type of cloud platform at AppDirect. Now he’s completely focused on helping people connect more meaningfully with their pets using Companion. John loves getting outside in the SF Bay Area and spending time with his wife, son, cat and dog.

Effective recruiting across the board has always been challenging, particularly when assembling a rocking team. How has COVID forced the recruiting world to adapt to the global circumstances?

Andres Blank is the co-founder and CEO of Fetcher, a recruiting platform that automates recruiting processes. Previously he was the founder and COO of Pixable a consumer photo application with over 5 Million users that was acquired for $30M in less than 3 years from starting the company.

Andres started Pixable while he was pursuing his MBA at MIT. Before moving to Boston, Andres started three companies in Venezuela, the first one, a site for college students at the age of 18, and the last one, a lumber trader and exporter.

Personalizing screens and tech to our well-being, so that users feel and perform better with Hannes Bend, CEO @ Breathing.ai

Hannes Bend founded breathing.ai to integrate healthier habits into our everyday screen interactions. He suffered years of anxiety after trauma, and used breathwork, meditation and yoga to live a healthy and happy life. From 2014, he worked with hundreds of data- and neuroscientists, psychologists, UX/AI researchers, designers and engineers to develop award-winning (Stanford 2016) XR biofeedback technologies.

Since 2019, Hannes and breathing.ai’s team have been developing patented technology using webcam and AI to detect stress, to offer simple short personalized breaks and adaptive screen experiences. Hannes recommends a deep breath and a letting go exhale to get an immediate energy boost.