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Chris Fredericks founded Empowered Ventures, serves as president & CEO, and is a member of the board of directors. Chris has a diverse background in management, accounting and finance, business valuations, mergers and acquisitions, operations, people development, and strategy.
In 2010, he proposed and led the acquisition of TVF (www.tvfinc.com) on behalf of the employees using an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), which enabled a successful ownership transition for the founder. After overseeing a decade of success as an employee-owned company, Chris and TVF launched Empowered Ventures (www.empowered.ventures) in 2020 to grow and diversify the ESOP through acquisition. Inspired by TVF’s transformative employee ownership experience, Chris led Empowered Ventures to define its purpose which is to perpetually create life-changing financial and personal wellbeing outcomes for its employee owners.
Chris resides near Burlington, Vermont, having relocated from his home state of Indiana in 2022. He is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington’s Kelley School of Business with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. A former CPA, Chris started his career in public accounting in the nonprofit sector before joining TVF in 2005, where he served in various positions including chief financial officer, before serving as president from April 2010 through March 2021.
He's a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington Kelley School of Business with a bachelor's degree in accounting. As a former CPA, Chris started his career in public accounting in the nonprofit sector, before joining the company in 2005, where he served in various positions, including chief financial officer and President from April 2010 through March 2021.
We talked about the differences between a stock option plan and a worker ownership plan. Chris shared the differences between a company being worker owned and being worker managed. In addition, we discussed the differences between that and a co-op. Also, we talked about how he leads with open book management and creates alignment among different leaders and the team in general. And, we talk about what it means for an owner to sell to a worker owned company and what it means for the workers of the company that's purchased.
“We're in a fortunate position that when good opportunities arise that the fit our profile, …, both from a returns perspective, but and also all the other critically important…, orientations or requirements we're looking for in a business, that we're able to pull the trigger.” - Chris FredericksConnect with Chris on Twitter @esopchris and on LinkedIn
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Jeannie founded Funding U to provide a responsible loan option for academically achieving, low income students who needed last gap funds to complete college, but for whom the only available options were high interest rate credit cards. Her drive to solve this problem came from a decade of working in education nonprofits in Atlanta and an understanding that a mother’s education level holds the single strongest correlation to outcomes of infant mortality, child literacy, household employment and income, and likelihood to live in poverty.
Today, Funding U has originated $42M in affordable student loans to more than 4000 academically achieving undergraduates, 40% of whom are from families with income of $40,000 or less, and 60% are first generation 4-year college students. In 2020, the Company launched a Platform as a Service product, “Powered by Funding U,” which provides end to end data and technology solutions for organizations that want to provide outcomes based, income share repayment loan options for low income or other marginalized Americans.
Funding U has raised ~$80M in equity and debt financing from investors including Goldman Sachs, Mackenzie Scott and Deciens Capital.
Prior to starting Funding U, Jeannie was the first employee of the Atlanta Girls’ School in Atlanta, Georgia, where she acted as Founding Director of Admissions. She then became Director of Development for Literacy Action and then worked for the Rollins Center for Early Literacy at the Atlanta Speech School as a Strategic Consultant. She is a currently a Trustee of Atlanta Girls’ School, served on the Emory Board of Visitors from 2017 to 2019, was a Founding Board Member of Girls on the Run, Atlanta, 1998-2001, and was the first alumna trustee of The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, 1994-1996.
Jeannie is a graduate of Princeton University, where she obtained a B.A. cum laude, in English Literature and American Studies.
She has launched three other successful ‘startups’ - her children, Anna, Peter, and Robert - ages 22, 21, and 18.
Jeannie joins me today, we start at a very high level about the industry in this conversation, we get very tactical for early stage founders.
“I feel I fight and resist and tell my team to resist any binary conversations or a binary way of thinking.” - Jeannie Tarkenton
Connect with Jeannie on LinkedIn
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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David Blake operates at the intersection of the future of work and the future of politics. David Blake has spent his career innovating in formal education and lifelong learning. He is on a mission to future proof our workforce and use learning and skills to enable everyone to fulfill their personal missions.
David is the co-founder and CEO of Degreed. Millions of individuals and hundreds of organizations use Degreed’s platform to discover and answer for all of their learning and skills. Prior to Degreed, he helped launched a competency-based, accredited university and was a founding team member of university-admissions startup Zinch (acquired by NASDQ: CHGG). David was selected as a Top EdTech Entrepreneur by the Stanford d.School EdTech Lab, sponsored by Teach For America and NewSchools Venture Fund.
He is the co-author of the book, The Expertise Economy: How the smartest companies use learning to engage, compete, and succeed and the co-creator of the Skills Quotient. He is a sought-after expert on the topic of the future of work and learning, speaking at companies such as Google, Deloitte, and Salesforce and at conferences globally.
David joins me today to discuss the surprising downside of curiosity, how artificial intelligence impacts learning and earning. Also, we talked about the growing skills gap, the best way to hire, how he learned to be a founder, and the book he thinks best captures what it's like to be a founder.
“I find, the best way to get started is to be intentional and to have a goal.” - David Blake
Connect with David on LinkedIn and Twitter or email David at [email protected]. To find out more about David’s companies visit degreed.com or bookclub.com.
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Nikhil is the technical cofounder of Hearth. Hearth was founded to give home improvement contractors and businesses the tools to achieve the American Dream. Hearth does this by providing an all-in-one tool suite for owners to manage their operations covering: lead management, quoting, customer financing options, invoicing, contracts, payments, and checking accounts. Nikhil has operated the business since its inception seven years ago, from individual contributor to VP level in product, data, revenue operations, and customer success. Over his time there, Hearth has grown to serve over 14,000 users, a $23M revenue run rate, and raised over $60M in venture capital funding.
Nikhil joins me today to talk about finding product market fit, how a founder’s role evolves over time. We discuss the importance of feedback loops and how to build them into your business. As well as the best advice you ever received as a founder.
“Data is an asset, and you want to collect as much of it as possible upfront to create a full profile of your customer base and really understand them.” - Nikhil Pat
Connect with Nikhil on Twitter and LinkedIn
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Normally on Startups For Good, we interview external guests. Today, we turn the mic back around and focus on Purpose Built and what we're up to. Recently, we did a webinar called “Ready to Build. How do I know if I'm ready to be a startup founder?”
Have you had a nagging feeling that you'd one day like to start a company or have people told you they want to work with you or for you? Perhaps you're in a moment of a career transition where you're exploring your next steps, you could consider yourself a future founder. But how do you know if you're ready? And what are the things you should consider?
I'm CEO and co-founder of Purpose Built, joined by Reini Chipman, Head of Human Capital in the webinar, and we talked about what makes a great startup founder, what common misconceptions there are and when to know you're ready. Part of what was fun for me is being able to incorporate some of the previous episodes that we've done, Episode 86 with Noam Wasserman, author of The Founders Dilemma. We referenced Alex Lazarow, author of Out-Innovate episode 20 and Ali Tamaseb, author of Super Founders episode 64. Check out that one as well. If you want to learn more about purpose built there's our website. And you can also listen to the Access Ventures Podcast that I was interviewed for their More Than Profit December 8 episode.
Taylor’s HBR article about MVPs is online here.
Today on Startups for Good we cover:
What makes a great startupMyths about VC backed foundersCareer GoalsKnowing when you are readyFirst steps to starting a businessThe value of a startup studioThe process that Purpose Built Founders go throughSubscribe, Rate & Share Your Favorite Episodes!
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or
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Adam Jackson is the co-founder and CEO of Freelance Labs, builders of Braintrust, the first user-controlled talent network that provides enterprises with the highly skilled technical and design talent they need.
Prior to founding Braintrust, Adam co-founded Doctor on Demand, the popular video telemedicine provider, with daytime talk show personality Dr. Phil, as well as his son Jay McGraw. Other notable ventures include DriverSide, the first website specifically designed for car owners, which was acquired by Advance Auto Parts in September of 2011 and MarketSquare, the first online local shopping destination on the Internet which was acquired by Intuit in September of 2006. Adam is a passionate Angel investor in 45+ companies including LTSE, SuperHuman, Automatic, Apero Health, Zenefits, and more.
Adam joins me today to talk a lot about marketplace dynamics in web two and web three. We also discuss how he's taken his learnings from growing his marketplace businesses before into a new world aligning incentives in the web three world we talked about compliance risks. We also talked about management challenges, and about advice that he has for founders on how to become a better storyteller.
“You have to be telling a big, powerful story, there's a disconnect with founders, it's the art of the possible. What if this could exist? How cool would that be? With VCs, It's the art of the probable. How many bets do I need to make? And what do they need to look like for me to return the fund and hopefully raise the next one? So there's, there's a little bit of misalignment there.” - Adam Jackson
Today on Startups for Good we cover:
Braintrust and it’s uniquenessHow the tokens workDifferences in extracting more value than you are providingCommon mistakes when pitching to investorsHow to approach competitionConnect with Adam on LinkedIn
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Shannon Farley is an experienced social entrepreneur. She was the founding Executive Director of Spark, the world's largest network of Millennial philanthropists. Prior to joining Spark, Shannon helped start The W. Haywood Burns Institute, a MacArthur Award-winning juvenile justice reform organization. Shannon holds a BA in American Studies from Georgetown University and an MS in Gender and Social Policy from the London School of Economics.
Shannon joins me today to chat about tech nonprofits, and often startup tech nonprofits. Fast Forward celebrates nine years of accelerating dozens of tech nonprofits. And in this episode, we discuss when to choose a for profit versus a nonprofit model. We discuss that definition more in depth, we talk about the capital crunch that many experience and how to solve it, we talk about compensation levels in nonprofits, and we talk about the new program at Fast Forward.
“It's a terrible, great idea, a nonprofit for nonprofits to advance nonprofits. But it was needed.” - Shannon FarleyToday on Startups for Good we cover:
Selecting for profit or non-profit business modelMain differences between for profit and nonprofitCapital landscape for tech nonprofitsCapital requirements at a tech nonprofitThe tradition of giving away wealthThe donor’s view on compensationOther obstacles that are missingIn person vs. online collaborationConnect with Shannon Farley on LinkedIn
To find Shannon’s Tech Nonprofit Playbook visit this website
To listen to Miles on the Access Venture podcast More Than Profit
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Anna Counselman is co-founder at Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST), a leading AI lending marketplace that partners with banks to improve access to affordable credit. Upstart helps millions of consumers who don’t have access to credit, pay too much for it, or take on credit they can’t ultimately afford. Anna leads business operations where she drives focus on operational scalability, employee experience, and culture-strategy alignment. Since co-founding Upstart, Anna has led Operations, People/HR, and myriad other initiatives before taking on Business Operations. Prior to Upstart, Anna led Gmail Consumer Operations as the business grew from 150 million to 450 million users and launched the global Enterprise Customer Programs team. Anna received a White House Champion of Change award and was recognized as one of Silicon Valley Business Journal's 40 under 40. Anna graduated Summa Cum Laude from Boston University with a BA in Finance and Entrepreneurship.
Anna joins me today to talk about a lot of great topics, including the best advice she got for mentors, how to scale yourself as a founder, changes in culture and operations when you run a public company versus startup. But how do you keep running at the same speed just as fast as a startup as your larger company? And how do you stay together as a co-founding team for the long term.
“Make sure you keep a problem space that you are deeply interested in. Startups take longer than you expect. And so making sure that you select something that makes enough of a difference in the world, that it will keep you engaged and going as your business model might change.” - Anna Counselman
Today on Startups for Good we cover:
Running a company after is goes publicManaging regulatory riskShifting the vision of the productPreparing for the founders experienceFacing challenges during an economic downturnConnect with Anna on LinkedIn
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Before coming to YU, Noam was a professor at Harvard Business School for 13 years. He was also the founding director of the Founder Central initiative at the University of Southern California and the Lemann Chair in Entrepreneurship there. He won the MBA teaching awards at both Harvard and USC, and has written two bestselling books, The Founder’s Dilemmas (2012) and Life Is a Startup (2018).
Noam grew up in Los Angeles, received undergraduate degrees in engineering and business from the University of Pennsylvania, and worked as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist before attending Harvard for his MBA and his PhD. He has 8 children and 8 grandchildren."
Noam joined me today and we discussed how to make a startup successful, to avoid the biggest pitfalls around team dynamics and people. We also talked about what's changed since his book came out. Are founders born or made? Is it good to found a business in a recession? How to have hard conversations, why it's worth it, and how to split equity with other founders.
“I tend to think of the core of entrepreneurship as being a three legged stool…, there are a bunch of other things around it that are important supports, but the core of it is those three things. Those are the financing of the product and the people.” - Noam Wasserman
Today on Startups for Good we cover:
Can entrepreneurship be taught?Having the right people at the right time in a startupHaving the ability to recover from mistakesEarly doubts from foundersPitfalls of founding teamsWays to prepare for personal life eventsCharacteristics of a good founderThe rise in coaching and mentorshipLearn more about Noam through his podcast and his book
Subscribe, Rate & Share Your Favorite Episodes!
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Entrepreneur and investor with a love of learning, a passion for making dreams become reality and having a positive impact on the world. Husband, father and book addict.
Miles is founder/CEO of Purpose Built Ventures Studio where he co-founds winning mission-driven companies with passionate entrepreneurs.
Miles is an Investor in early-stage startups. As Founding Partner of Purpose Built Ventures, he previously invested in tech startups working to make people healthier or wealthier. He has invested in and advised dozens of companies at the earliest stages including Honor, Brightside Health, Remix, Notable Health, and Balto Software. Additionally, he has helped seed nonprofits such as Issue One, One Acre, and MakeHaven.
Miles is an Entrepreneur. Starting his career as an entrepreneur while still a college student, he co-founded Higher One in his living room. As senior exec and later board chair, he led the company from idea to $200mil+ revenue, 750+ employees and IPO including making multiple acquisitions. He was proud to campaign internal culture and values including open communication and client service. Higher One also ranked highly on the national Great Place to Work list twice as well as Inc 500 and multiple other fast growth lists.
Miles went on to start two other venture-backed startups: SeeClickFix (SaaS for government) where he serves on the board and OneUni (higher education via smartphone).
Miles was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year regional winner and national finalist.
Miles is a Podcast Host: Startups for Good is a podcast exploring high-growth and high-values ventures. Join us to hear how startups can be a force for good. Guests include founders of mission-driven companies, creators of startup nonprofits, and their investors/donors plus other inspiring thinkers and doers. http://startupsforgood.com/
“The lesson for social benefit startups more broadly, is to make sure that your solution is full of other benefits besides positive externalities. Don't expect people just to want to do the right thing.” - Miles LasaterToday on Startups for Good we cover:
Attracting early adopter customersPricing for valueBe optimistic and trust yourselfDon’t confuse stocks and flowsBuilding relationshipsLinks mentioned in the show:
Forward Obsessed Podcast featuring Miles
Look forward to hearing him on an episode of the More Than Profit podcast by Access Ventures
Vision of Failure
A Quantitative Approach to Product Market Fit article
Start Ups for Good website
Miles' website
Newsletter: https://mileslasater.substack.com/
Writing: www.venturepatterns.com
Personal Website: http://www.mileslasater.com
Podcast: http://www.startupsforgood.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mileslasater
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you...
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Jon has over 15 years of experience in energy investing and project finance. Prior to launching Carbon Direct, he was the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of BBL Commodities, a commodity hedge fund. Jon started his career at J. Aron, the commodities division of Goldman Sachs where he managed a large proprietary trading book across global macro markets with an emphasis on commodities. Jon was then a partner at Glencore, managing the firm’s US derivative business prior to its IPO.
Jon's focus on climate change and negative emissions extends to his work at Columbia University where he sits on the board of the Center on Global Energy Policy. He has been a lecturer on energy issues at the university and helps steer the Carbon Dioxide Management program. He is also an advisor to Lawrence Livermore National Lab on negative emissions.
Jonathan joins me today to discuss the combination of advising and investing and how you put those two pieces together. Also, what skills are needed in the climate space. We talked about the impact of the new law, the IRA, what he thinks of voluntary carbon credits. Finally we chat about some of the biggest challenges in building the company.
“Our approach has always been that for carbon management to scale, and that's ultimately the goal of our firm is to enable a vibrant carbon management ecosystem.“ - Johnathan Goldberg
Today on Startups for Good we cover:
Carbon Management IndustryBusiness opportunities in climate techManaging conflicts between regulatory and commercial interestsFuture of carbon credit disclosuresThe importance of aviation fuelWhat’s missing in CFO type skills in early stage companiesTo learn more about Carbon Direct on their website
Subscribe, Rate & Share Your Favorite Episodes!
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Rafi Levi, BSc. Mechanical (Technion, Israel), MSc. N.A.M.E (University of Michigan, USA), has over 35 years of Engineering, project management, business development, and business management experience, in Israel and worldwide.
Rafi joins me today to talk about how much fertilizer is wasted and turns into pollution because farmers don't have the data. The difference between agriculture tech and climate tech and how they can be merged. We discuss doing business in different countries and cultures. We talk about how important it is to be optimistic as a startup founder or employee, and about working with scientific co-founders and how to find early adopters.
“My wife always says, '' You're so optimistic, you never plan for the worst. And I say no, no, I'm so optimistic because I completed planning for the worst. And now I hope for the best. I always plan for the worst.” - Rafi Levi
Today on Startups for Good we cover:
Current fertilizer assessment protocolsDots technologyBusiness sweet spotsSelecting the right business modelAg tech innovationsDistinguishing between science project or companyImportance of trusting a partnerConnect with Rafi on LinkedIn and on the Dots website
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Erin Levine is the CEO & Founder of Justice Tech company, Hello Divorce. After 16 years as a divorce lawyer, Erin knows just how broken, toxic, wildly inefficient and unreasonably expensive the family law system is - with Americans spending 30 billion a year on legal fees alone. No longer wanting to be a complicit participant in a process that routes spouses through war, Erin set out to revolutionize how consumers access the law and provide a kinder, easier and cheaper pathway to divorce. Ultimately, Erin's mission is to help people reorganize their lives and families with less stress and mess - providing a bridge to financial independence and emotional well being.
Erin and I talked about the mission of Hello Divorce and why it's important barriers to more legal tech, or justice tech innovation. We talk about their fundraising process, and we dive into how to have hard conversations and why it's so important to founders.
“We offer a new and different opportunity for people to get divorced, find solutions that are rooted in fairness, without necessarily making a huge mess out of their divorce.”
- Erin Levine
Today on Startups for Good we cover:
Income differentialsDivorce trendsFinding solutions rooted in fairnessHelping couples come to an agreementInnovations in legal tech Challenges in building the businessHaving hard conversationsBig barriers to amicable divorceSome books recommended by Erin are Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly and Dare to Lead. Also, Glennon Doyle’s Untamed
Connect with Erin on LinkedIn and Instagram or on the Hello Divorce website
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Dr. Seth Feuerstein is the Founder and CEO of Oui Therapeutics. He has expertise across multiple areas of medicine, technology and business. . He is a founding board member of the Center for Biomedical and Interventional Technology at Yale and Executive Director of the Center for Digital Health, Innovation and Excellence. He teaches at the medical school and is the faculty advisor for Innovation in Healthcare at the Yale School of Medicine and has an appointment in the Department of Defense. He works across multiple sectors in healthcare including health insurance, healthcare startups, healthcare investing, clinical care delivery innovation and early-stage emerging medical technologies. He sits on multiple for-profit and nonprofit boards.
Seth joins me today to discuss Oui Therapeutics, they built out their research based solution and they're in trials with adults, including the military. We handle a tough topic today around suicide and suicide prevention. If you or anyone you know are having suicidal thoughts, you can call 988, which is the new national crisis hotline or you can text the Crisis Text Hotline at 741741. We speak about mental health, we speak about behavioral health, we think about digital therapeutics, how you transition from academics to business and his journey.
“It helps retrain them in how they identify when they're at risk, how they prevent being at risk, and what to do when they are at risk. Not unlike what happens, you know, when people have cardiac conditions, they learn about how to identify when things are going badly and when to go to the doctor.” - Seth FeuersteinToday on Startups for Good we cover:
Understanding the rise in suicide rates Challenges and stressors on the brainWhat interventions are availablePatient experiences for those using Oui TherapeuticsThe limits of certain therapeuticsThe importance of university support of a projectHow to help someone who is sufferingConnect with Seth on LinkedIn
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Jeff is a Co-Founder and CEO of Fig Tech. Fig creates onramps for underbanked Americans to repair their credit score and regain access to traditional financial services. Fig started as a collaboration with the United Way in Houston and became the first fintech to be both B Corp certified and a US Treasury recognized Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Fig's investors include Techstars, Upper90, Village Capital, and Purpose Built.
Prior to Fig, Jeff previously worked at the Boston Consulting Group in strategy and consumer products. Jeff holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from MIT and an MBA in Applied Data Analytics from the Wharton School.
Jeff joins me today to discuss his company Fig. They serve 400,000 customers. One of their products is a loan which average is $400 in size, so unsecured short term loan, they do all of this to serve all these customers with only about 15 employees. There's a lot to learn in this episode about picking your co-founder, his approach to prioritization, thinking about how optimistic to be trade offs in growth and profitability, and why their mission is so important.
“Imagine someone judging you based on your driver's license photo, and only that. We're looking to help these people update that photo, we're looking to help them make their credit score look like who they are today and who they want to be tomorrow. And in that sense, unlocking their financial potential. - Jeff ZhouToday on Startups for Good we cover:
Short term loansRealizing potentialCredit reporting servicesEmergency loansWhy are people still utilizing predatory loans?Learning about the needs of the customerCycle of borrowingShiny Object SyndromeConnect with Jeff on LinkedIn
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Born to immigrant parents in poverty, Jonathan and his family quickly learned the value and need for community (something he discovered later on was very hard to come by for folks on the street). Receiving an opportunity to study at the University of Michigan, Jonathan earned a degree in Informatics, specializing in UX design. After producing a documentary on social change ("Talim" on Amazon), Jonathan developed a tool for restaurants to convert surplus food into funding for local food banks called FoodCircles. From there he helped create Samaritan, with the goal to give people without a home the social and financial support needed to leave the street. Through all this, he wants people to meet Jesus and come to know His unconditional love for them.
Jonathan joins me today to discuss the causes of homelessness, ways to address homelessness, how volunteers can help a person without a home, why they chose a for benefit corporation rather than nonprofit and what some of the challenges have been, as well has his advice at the end.
“We just find that, if you have a social home, addressing that financial poverty becomes a lot easier and higher likelihood that the person is able to do that. And then the physical home can follow thereafter.” - Jonathan KumarToday on Startups for Good we cover:
Why Jonathan is drawn to helping the homelessPaying generosity forwardCauses of homelessnessLeaning on people to help you through tough timesDoes mental illness and substance abuse play a role?How Samaritan worksRaising capital as a public benefit corporationConnect with Jonathan Twitter and LinkedIn
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Misha is the founder of Effective Government California. He believes government is a vitally important institution, and that our responsibility as citizens is to help improve it.
Today Misha will make the case that startup skills are partially transferable into the political and policy domain and encourages you to consider it when it's the right time. And perhaps some issues will be better served, better impacted through advocacy, politics and policy than through startups.
“Let's look at the landscape and understand whether there are existing organizations that we can just partner with, because there's great people there and great, they already have a cadence of performance and out driving outcomes, or whether there needs to be something new.” - Misha ChellamToday on Startups for Good we cover:
Why should startups care about politicsChanging minds about money in politicsGoals for a new advocacy organizationChallenges when building a political startupConnect with Misha on Twitter and subscribe to their newsletter
The book that Misha referenced is: The Captured Economy by Steve Teles and Brink Lindsey
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Millennial, Immigrant, Uber driver (36000 mi) turned Techstars fintech startup founder @Line Financial. Previously Product Leader @PayPal (75 consumer fintech patent publications). Dad, Husband, Brother, Proud son of parents who came from extreme poverty, worked hard to give us great education, tolerant values and culture.
Akshay joins me today to discuss his company, the product and how it works. We talked about what motivates him and the growth of the company. We talked about how to include the voice of the customer inside the company and do that in a systematic way.
“Look for problems or several other problems, right around you. If you go down the path of identifying problems, and trying to solve them, you will be on the right path.” - Akshay KrishnaiahToday on Startups for Good we cover:
Lending in a alternate wayHow they have grown What he learned at PayPalIf the patent system promotes innovationHow to keep the team focusedConnect with Akshay Linkedin and Twitter
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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After working in private equity and investment banking, Jacob Sills’s passion for criminal justice reform led him to start Uptrust, a communication and engagement platform focused on ending mass incarceration. To date, Uptrust has helped over 300,000 people across 22 states navigate the criminal justice system and avoid violations that could send them to jail or prison. Jacob received his B.A. from Cornell University and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jacob joins me today to discuss how he investigated the market at the beginning to learn how to be a bails bondsman. He actually went to see a bail be set and did the research to understand the market. We talk about finding a co-founder and early customer decisions he's made to protect the mission. We also discussed the importance of market sizing.
“A lot of research has shown that, … If you punish them for five years, instead of two years, it doesn't actually negate it. It's not like a supply demand curve where if the price goes up, you know, demand goes down.” - Jacob Sills
Today on Startups for Good we cover:
How to change the criminal justice systemThe efficacy of deterrence on crimeReasons for people not showing up for their court dateSelling to the governmentHow does low churn and long sales cycle affect growthApproaching investorsConnect with Jacob at @jacobrsills on Twitter or on Linkedin
Subscribe, Rate & Share Your Favorite Episodes!
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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Adena Hefets is the co-founder & CEO of Divvy Homes, a proptech company on a mission to make homeownership accessible to everyone. Today, Adena is one of the few female founders to reach double unicorn status and to be valued at approximately $2 billion.
Adena set out to solve a problem she saw in the market: fewer people can afford to purchase a home today than two decades ago. To solve this, she came up with a new way to finance a home purchase through a rent-to-own model that allows renters to gradually build up ownership in their future homes.
Prior to founding Divvy, Adena joined Square in 2013 and was responsible for building out Square Capital, a merchant cash advance platform with billions in loans outstanding. Prior to joining Square, she was part of the large-cap buyout team at TPG, a private equity firm, where she helped purchase companies in the real estate sector. She started her career as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.
Adena holds a Bachelors of Science, Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University and a Masters of Business Administration, Stanford Graduate School of Business. She was named 40 Under 40 by Fortune and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Capital, and Caffeinated Capital. She currently lives in Oakland, California.
Adena joins me today and we discuss profitability, first growth trade off, co-founder relationships, the role of a CEO, getting and learning from mentors, along with a lot more.
“I think the trade we make, and why that's acceptable to us as a business is we end up getting tenants who think act and feel like homeowners.” - Adena HefetsToday on Startups for Good we cover:
The high expense of housingThinking about growthHow investor background helps fundraisingSelf awareness to keep up company growthFinding mentorsFinding the right co-founderWorking with a startup studioThe downside to CEO-nessConnect with Adena on Twitter @AdenaHefets
Books mentioned on the show:
Seven Powers by Hamilton Helmer
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Subscribe, Rate & Share Your Favorite Episodes!
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.
Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.
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