Sançar's Sahin, Co-founder at Oliva, a B2B2C startup that provides on-demand therapy, coaching, and classes. It has previously worked with employees of companies like HubSpot and Sifted. Oliva focuses on effective process matching to build a value-based platform. 

In today’s episode, Sançar shares his personal story of experiencing burnout while working in a fast-growing startup and the importance of addressing mental health in the workplace.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [01:26] Sançar's personal story and getting to work on Oliva.
• [06:19] Maiko's Mental health journey.
• [07:39] Getting Mental health support, Online Therapy.
• [12:50] How Oliva Works.
• [19:08] Sançar's Perspective.
• [24:57] Oliva's differentiation factor.
• [30:09] Achieving wide adoption within a company.
• [35:27] Onboarding solution.
• [36:59] Insight into acquiring the first 10 customers.
• [38:50] Hardest lesson Sancar had to learn.
• [41:09] The future of Oliva.

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “There are many bad things about the pandemic, but one of the good things is that it accelerated reducing stigma around talking about mental health and accessing help.” [10:09]
• “Mental health is one of the most important things affecting a business.” [23:05]
• “To make a meaningful impact on your mental well-being, you can't just focus on preventative  and content-based care.” [25:12]
• “Bad matches in online therapy cause people to opt out completely because they believe it isn't them."  [26:17]

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In today's episode, I speak to Rodney Williams, who's the co-founder, chairman, and president of SoLo Funds, which is a B-Corp-certified community finance platform that's now used by more than 1 million users. Members can borrow and lend money between themselves rather than go to traditional lenders, loan sharks, or banks.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[01:16] Rodney's personal background
[03:18] What other alternatives exist
[04:50] How does SoLo work?
[07:25] When and how do your customers use SoLo
[08:56] Difference between Credit score vs SoLo score
[11:50] Fighting the step crisis
[14:27] SoLo's plan for the future
[16:15] SoLo’s expansion to Nigeria
[18:22] SoLo's approach to fundraising & growing revenue
[19:53] Investors' feedback on the business
[24:36] How did SoLo approach investors
[27:53] How did Solo get to become
[33:04] Undeniable product market fit
[37:32] 10-year vision


KEY LESSONS & QUOTES


" You can't build wealth without growing it. " [12:12]
"Subprime product, underserved communities, helping people that usually doesn't sound like a big business you’d want to invest in." [19:44]
"Our goal to market strategy is done right and do good because if you can't buy users, you need users to really like what you do.” [21:46]
“A challenge that has made this extremely difficult is that the same financial system
that has created the market that we live in today has created so much discrimination.” [20:30]
“The majority of the group who use this predatory product, tend to be women. Women are taking advantage of these products significantly more.” [26:30]
“All of the impact investors who have turned down Solo, I think they're a joke.” [24:57]
“As we made the consumer experience better, our growth rate accelerated and that's when I knew it was an undeniable product market fit.” (35:01)

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Mark Horoszowski, the CEO and co-founder of Moving Worlds, a platform that's supporting social enterprises by connecting them to corporate content and pro-bono professionals that can really help them get ahead.

In today’s episode, we discuss how their platform can help social entrepreneurs or if you're in a corporation, how you can actually work with social entrepreneurs all over the world. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [00:54] Mark's personal background & journey
• [09:56] Moving World's impact in transforming business
• [16:12] How does Moving Worlds work? 
• [22:08] How do corporate partners measure success working with social enterprises?
• [26:16] Mark's advice on social enterprises understanding how corporates work
• [31:01] Mark's advice for social founders on when to scale up
• [36:17] Common mistakes social entrepreneurs make working with corporates
• [38:53] How can social entrepreneurs join Moving Worlds?
• [40:11] Mark's (Moving Worlds) 10-year vision

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “You don't need to wait for all of your partnership, create a series of assumptions of who is my target buyer, and do some customer discovery then validate whether that is a repeat business model” [28:59]
• “As the pilot is starting, what does success look like for you? And if you hit it, what happens next? So you're actually designing for the pilot to be successful and designing for your next sales activation model in place because as soon as you have a data point, not that you've achieved it, but that you're tracking to achieve it.” [32:28]
• “Often entrepreneurs will get into the room with someone, they will speak so clearly about their mission, passionately about their product or service, eloquently about their organization and they'll walk out not understanding the actual needs of the person that they were just talking to.” [36:57]

Moving World’s Program- Website

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In today's episode, I speak to Krish Himmatramka, the founder of Do Amore, a direct-to-consumer startup that sells engagement rings with conflict-free diamonds. Each ring also funds water projects, which can be traced using GPS coordinates and photos that prove there's an actual impact.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[01:05] Krish's Journey
[03:47] How the Water Project Happened
[07:50] Approaching Do Amore with Traceability
[11:56] Verifying source and responsibility of Diamonds/Gold
[15:01] Outsourcing Lab Created Diamonds
[16:14] Future for mined Diamonds
[17:26] The Journey of a Diamond
[22:07] Blockchain Tracking
[25:17] Hardest lesson building the company
[29:49] Acquiring first customers
[32:15] Current playbook
[34:52] Marketing and growth channels on Organic SEO
[36:16] The Future of Do Amore
[38:20] Way to change big companies
[29:49] Acquiring first customers
[32:15] Current playbook
[34:52] Marketing and growth channels on Organic SEO


KEY LESSONS & QUOTES


"The hardest thing I learned is that social impact can only take you so far. To really succeed, you have to go beyond it." [25:23]
"When you have so much passion for something, It's very easy to only care about that. But the thing is most of your consumers might not." [26:41]
“We got our very first customers by doing things that we didn’t expect to scale” [30:49]
“My biggest lesson from starting as a company that had to be profitable was knowing that to really make the mission work, the economics of scale had to work.” [34:09]

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Eleanor Kaye, Executive Director of the Newton Venture Program. Program helping people from underestimated and overlooked backgrounds break into the venture capital industry and also advance their careers once they are in the venture capital industry.

In today’s episode, we discuss her journey in the venture capital industry and talk about some of the challenges in the industry and how the Newton Venture Program is curbing them. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [00:41] Eleanor's personal background & journey
• [06:17] What is the Newton Venture Program?
• [11:43] Who is the Newton Venture Program for?
• [15:35] Root problems of the diversity challenge in the industry?
• [19:02] Barriers into the VC industry blocking people from underestimated backgrounds
• [23:35] Are VC roles advertised or relationship-based?
• [26:55] Work experience’s impact on role growth in the VC industry
• [29:42] Structural barriers within the VC industry preventing role-growth
• [33:02] Advice for founders fundraising from underestimated backgrounds
• [35:12] Eleanor's 10-year vision

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “I think there are misconceptions around venture capital. It's not a get-rich fast, side of a career.” [22:03]
• “Venture capitalists need to bring in specialist partners to be able to identify good products in these new trends” [30:4]
• “A massive step is understanding if you want more diverse candidates, then you're gonna have to go to the places that collect the diverse candidates, and that's very cool” [27:29]
• “It's not even about finding the roles, but it's how you stand out and I think that's quite difficult if you haven't got the background as an investment banker or, potentially, any  experience in venture capital.” [27:56]

Newton Venture Program - Website

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Rene Haas, the co-founder, and CEO of NeoCarbon. A company that has created a product that removes CO2 from the atmosphere by retrofitting industrial cooling towers with direct air capture devices. Direct air capture has been promoted as one of the most promising solutions to climate change.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [0:47] Rene Haas’s background.
• [4:33] Do entrepreneurs have to start from bigger companies before committing to start-ups?
• [7:45] Intentionality of building a company around your life
• [11:07] How does NeoCarbon work?
• [14:49] How far along is the technology? 
• [15:50] NeoCarbon business model
• [18:16] Business benefits for cooling tower manufacturers
• [19:06] Clients benefits from using NeoCarbon
• [20:24] Next steps to achieve target cooling tower solutions
• [22:16] Inflation reduction act client's impact 
• [23:44] Lessons learned along the journey
• [29:57] Co-founders therapy, how does that work?
• [31:31] Is a business start-up exciting or not?
• [32:58] Rene’s 10-year vision  

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

“Hardware is different to scale than software for manufacturing companies” [16:05]

“Big companies and manufacturers have crazy high margins on their products hence easier for them to do service maintenance on their equipment” [18:29]

”Our next step, is going from lab to the real environment as fast as possible, because we started, prototyping super early, before we had proper models” [20:44]

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In today's episode, I speak to Max Stossel—an award-winning poet and filmmaker, as well as the founder and CEO of Social Awakening. Max has spent the last year speaking in front of more than a hundred thousand students, parents, and educators, talking about how social media and social media addiction affects our lives. With Social Awakening, he has made it his mission to help teenagers thrive in a digital world where apps are radically optimized for engagement by leveraging addictive behavior.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [1:05] Max Stossel’s background & Journey
• [4:20] Lessons learned from working in the social media industry
• [6:41] How does the social media Economy work for companies?
• [8:35] Mechanisms behind social media
• [11:11] Max's views on the world learning to adjust to social media 
• [13:54] What lessons/advice do you give kids struggling with social media addiction
• [16:09] Action plans for how to combat social media addiction
• [18:59] What do social media Apps do differently in engagement
• [21:54] Advice for social media impact-driven founders
• [26:32] Net positive hours 
• [27:57] Strategies to help in handling social media usage
• [32:30] Max’s 10-year vision  

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “I’d love to live in a world where all data in social networks was being used to help us improve our lives, to help illuminate new experiences and opportunities.” [12:11]
• “Having social media values helps when I show up whichever way in the world. I feel good about it regardless of the outcome, if it goes my way or if anybody else joins me.” [26:46]
• ”You already know there is one app on your phone that you're like, I know I should delete that one, but you're just not doing it, stop it, go delete it now.” [28:28]

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Tess Cosad, the co-founder and CEO of Bea Fertility. A company making fertility care more convenient and affordable. The company is leveraging a method called IntraCervical Insemination or ICI, which has proven to actually have a 50% success rate at only a 10th of the cost of IVF.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [0:30] Tess Cosad’s background.
• [1:56] Fertility & Infertility, who actually has this problem?
• [3:43] How do existing solutions work?
• [6:27] Why was IUI the go-to treatment?
• [9:07] Strategy behind bringing back the treatment into the market 
• [12:03] Challenges and barriers in launching the product
• [14:57] Success factors for the business
• [17:48] Experiences during a biassed system during fundraising
• [19:52] Advice for other female founders in that field of work
• [20:55] Challenges or lessons in building a company 
• [25:23] Thoughts on learning and same time navigating dysregulated environment
• [27:42] How do you navigate customer feedback vs your perspective
• [30:15] Future challenges that you need to overcome to make a step forward
• [32:42] Tess’s 10-year vision  

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “ Fertility is not a women's health issue, and when we make it that we take away the responsibility from men, for their fertility” [2:32]
• “In the US you're looking at 3,4, $5,000 for a round of IUI. What we're trying to do is deliver this treatment straight to people's homes for a 5th to a 10th of the cost of IVF. ” [4:40]
• ”90% of treatments, require heterosexual intercourse, to be used. What that means is people for whom intercourse is not a part of their family building story, cant benefit from the treatment” [10:21]

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Chieu Cao is the co-founder of Mintago, a financial wellbeing platform for employees offering financial education, financial planning tools and pensions through salary sacrifice. He’s worked for many years at some of the world’s most renowned brands like Amazon,  Microsoft and Yahoo. Before Mintago, he co-founded PerkBox which became one the fastest growing employee service platforms.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [1:17] Chieu Chao's background.
• [4:07] Next step after leaving Perkbox.
• [6:04] Lessons learnt from Perkbox.
• [10:34] Overcoming mental hurdles as an entrepreneur.
• [13:32] Dealing with mental hurdles as a founder.
• [15:45] How to look for an advisor.
• [20:18] Step by Step process to building a profitable business.
• [28:10] Pushing the presale concept.

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “It takes a lot to be an entrepreneur and to really dedicate yourself to this craft. It's not for everyone but if you find it’s rewarding, you can kind of justify the hardships” [1:27]
• “It is more than just building a big business because there's so many options, so many ways to build a business, so many types of businesses. I'd say choose the model that really appeals to you on multiple levels” [1:48]
• ”Just having experience isn't enough.You need to have resilience.You need to have that resourcefulness,that drive” [5:01]

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In today's episode, I speak to Matt Semmelhack, the co-founder and CEO of Boox, reusable boxes, and shipping bags, eliminating single-use plastic and cardboard from eCommerce shipments. 

The rise of eCommerce has been massive in the last few years and further accelerated by the pandemic. We'll dive into some of the most sustainable options to reduce the negative environmental impact of shipment.

• [01:00] Matt's Personal Journey (How he started Boox)
• [08:09] Comparing the environmental impact of Boox to other solutions
• [09:41] Boox's initial market segment
• [12:33] How does Boox work? (Customer Experience explained)
• [14:39] Boox's value proposition for the retailer
• [19:16] Key strategies Boox uses to increase box return rates
• [23:23] Matt's biggest entrepreneurial lessons
• [29:22] Founding vs Operating - Where are you on the spectrum?
• [32:40] Boox's 10-year vision

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “Part of my entrepreneurial journey is finding something I really love to think about and & will outlive me” [01:42]
• “One of the special things about restaurants is that you get to see the customer's reaction to your product in real-time. I’m trying to apply in most of what I do ” [04:43]
• “Getting real-time feedback is a pretty unique angle into product development.”
• “There's ~200 billion shipments globally every year. If our solution works correctly, we have the potential to reduce the overall environmental impact of that shipment by 70% or more” [8:25]
• “When I was a kid, it wasn't cool to be sustainable. People weren't seeking out brands because of it but now they are” [11:48]
• “Switching to Boox improves your bottom line because of customer retention, acquisition, and loyalty.” [12:11]
• “If you approach a brand with an environmentally friendly solution but it drastically affects their bottom line, they're gonna say no; it’s just a reality of business today” [15:35]
• “Getting consumers to shift behavior is probably the biggest challenge we've had and will continue to have” [18:23]
• “An important thing about working on an impactful challenge is that we see other companies like that as partners, not as competition. Unless we all win, none of us win” [22:30]
• “Take care of your employees. There is no other greater resource that you have as a company” [24:13]
• “When you start to think of employees as expenses, your priorities are in the wrong order” [25:04]
• “As a startup, make decisive actions. You don't have to solve the future state yet. Just get over the next hump. [32:00]

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In today's episode, I speak to Khyati Sundaram the CEO of Applied, a platform helping businesses to take bias out of their recruitment processes through anonymized recruiting, and algorithms that help them predict which candidates will be performing best in their roles, based on objective criteria rather than anything subjective and any biases.

The company also offers AI-based tools to help write job descriptions that are likely to attract a diverse set of candidates rather than biasing towards a certain set of candidates. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [00:38] Khyati's Personal Journey
• [05:22] Most common recruitment biases in companies
• [07:33] Solutions for Debiasing Recruitment
• [11:27] Understanding how to test for skillsets in a non-biased way
• [14:56] Integrating Predictive Algorithms &Machine Learning into the Recruitment Process
• [17:42] Best way for early-stage startups to integrate debiased recruiting
• [21:45] Job descriptions 101: How to recruit more diverse talent
• [24:50] Biggest challenges for companies trying to adopt diverse hiring practices at scale
• [26:59] Applied in Action
• [31:09] Applied's 10-year vision

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “Working as a Developer in Google doesn't automatically mean you'll translate all those skills well in any other company” [06:08]
• “As an employer don't just screen based on the CV” [09:55]
• “We know that AI can aid in adding bias to the recruitment system.  We are working towards achieving the opposite; harm reduction” [16:41]
• "Most founders neglect the recruitment system - you're only as good as your team." [18:43]
• "Every company is a recruitment company & until they realize that, things will only get worse" [21:39]
• "We see Applied as an expression of a fairer society where there's level access to jobs" [31:48]

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