Disruptive CEO Nation: Recent Episodes
Allison Summers
EXECUTIVE COACH + GLOBAL BUSINESS LEADER ADVISOR. SPEAKER. AUTHOR. GUIDING SMART PEOPLE TO GROW INFLUENCE & CREATE OPPORTUNITIES Over 30 years, I have had the opportunity to work with fantastic organizations, impressive individuals and key industry leaders across six continents. Sitting in the corner office in both corporate and non-profit environments, I’ve attained, delivered and coached success in both the C-Suite and international board rooms. My diverse experience has provided cross-cultural insights into the talents, skills and measures required by individuals not only to get to the top, but to THRIVE at the pinnacle of business… And now I am happy to share that knowledge and support you in your quest for influence, empowerment, and ultimately success.
Shireen Muhiudeen, Founder and Principal Corston-Smith-Asset Management - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Shireen Muhiudeen is an extraordinary individual. She was the first female chair of the Malaysian Stock Exchange and the former CEO of AIG Investment Corporation (Malaysia). She is an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) trailblazer, encouraging organizations to become ESG-sustainable, either as investors or as board members. Shireen’s book, We Are All Stakeholders, was named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top books to read for entrepreneurs who want to break the mold. We sat down with Shireen and here are highlights of what we discussed. - Why companies can be even more profitable and sustainable with proper governance structures and systems. - That a focus on environment, social and governance (ESG) does not require consultants or increased overhead, it just requires the right vision. - Founders and leaders must set the tone from the top. - Founders must also be aware of outside investors who come in with their own views about a company. If a founder's vision is not strong, the investor's ethos will take over. - That women on boards can elevate the business outcomes because diverse views will overcome groupthink and groupthink destroys businesses. - Business leaders must be aware of the rising concerns on sourcing and traceability of resources for products from certain parts of the world due to sanctions and problematic labor practices in the supply chain. Shireen Muhiudeen is the Founder and Principal of Corston-Smith-Asset Management. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Shireen guides companies seeking to expand and raise capital in the Asia-Pacific region. She has served on investment, nomination and governance, compensation, risk, and ESG committees within banking, port, plantation, property, and media companies. https://www.weareallstakeholders.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/shireen-muhiudeen/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to Placecube, a company that helps organizations work with modern technology on tight budgets, primarily in the UK public sector. The founder and CEO, Jason Fahy, discusses Placecube’s approach of building technology in a modular way using "cubes" or digital building blocks. Allison and Jason discuss Placecube’s use of open source technology and how it builds security around these systems. Jason also shares his background before founding Place Cube and what motivated him to start the company. He outlines Placecube’s vision, values and culture as the company has grown internationally. Here is what we explored: - An overview of what Placecube does, which is helping organizations work with modern technology on tight budgets. - An example case study of how Placecube built a customer relationship management system for a local authority. - How Placecube approaches building technology stacks in a modular way. - Placecube’s values and culture. - The vision for where Placecube could be in 5-10 years. Jason brings over 30 years of commercial, operational and relationship management experience to the business and considers himself adept at building great teams. Jason's focus is developing and delivering on strategic objectives alongside the Placecube Board and Leadership Team. Connect with Jason: LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jasontfahy?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F Website: https://www.placecube.com/ Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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What if you could completely redesign the way tech platforms process, think, and inform you? That is exactly the mission that Massoud Alibakhsh is on while leading the way in object messaging models. As a four-time company founder and expert in deep integration AI ( or AI fusion), Massoud is ready to place his fingerprint on the future. We caught up with him at a great time, as he is at a really exciting place with his new company, Xeba Technologies. Here is what we explored: -How the AI we see today is merely a magical word calculator, but is nothing compared to what is to come. -Every CEO in the world should be asking the question: how do we bring this technology in and apply it to our pain points? -The ineffectiveness and problems of current business communication models. -How Xeba’s technology will transform the management of systems and operations by building an intelligent partnership of machine, data, and pathways to better business outcomes. Massoud is a tech entrepreneur with a background in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Creating multiple software technology startups & building comprehensive operations consisting of production, marketing, sales, support, implementation and administration has given him a true and unique insight into the fundamental challenges and the urgent need for optimal and synchronized communication especially in tech producing organizations. Connect with Massoud: Website: www.xeba.tech Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/massoud-alibakhsh-7b139753/ Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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Chris Caldwell is on a mission to bring renewal energy to all, even those in remote and isolated regions of the world. As CEO of United Renewables, a leading renewable energy developer and cleantech investor, he has become known as a go-to authority in this space. In this conversation with Chris, we explored: - His start in developing little turbines with a small team to a globally recognized sector leader. - The team's passion for making a difference in the world’s energy transition. - Why building renewables and expanding clean tech, such as carbon capture and storage biological solutions, is very important. - The unfortunate truth that not everyone understands renewables are essential. - His role as host of Conversations on Climate, where he shares how to ethically leverage sustainability to attract new customers, talent, and increase profits. United Renewables is an established leader in the world of renewable energy. Their primary focus is on the improvement of lives in island communities through the generation of renewable energy. They develop, own, and operate renewable energy sites in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, and the Isle of Man, as well as operating in island communities globally. Prior to founding United Renewables, Chris was an investment banker and a corporate lawyer. As a part of the transition into entrepreneurship, Chris obtained an MBA from London Business School. Chris hosts the Conversations on Climate podcast series exploring the wide range of solutions to the global climate crisis through interviews with leading thinkers, researchers, builders, and makers who are tackling the issue of climate change from a range of perspectives. Connect with Chris: Website: https://unitedrenewables.co.uk/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-caldwell-a8a196/ Podcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@conversationsonclimate/videos Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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Patrick Daniel was a teenage gamer in the 90s who recognized the power of the world wide web to share ideas and so he started a website offering tips to other gamers when one day he was approached to run ads on his site for his audiences. From there his curiosity and drive to understand online engagement, optimization, and reach was born. In this conversation we touch on: -Just out of high school he and his business partner created search engine but as it was right around the time Google was building, they had to pivot. -The business channel they choose to stand in became helping brands position themselves on search engines and being able to guide and better manage the processes on their own. -What brands must consider winning in the online market and reputation space. -Insights into campaigns and why owned asset optimization is a formula for success. -Developing content for organic ranking purposes. -The right measuring stick whether sentiment, awareness, lift, affinity, or immediate ROI. -Why the best content does not interrupt but compliments and informs the online user. - The evolution and scale-up of growing a business to 400+ employees with a vibrant culture that has landed them on multiple best places to work lists. In 2001 Patrick Daniel co-founded Terakeet, which serves as the preferred owned asset optimization (OAO) partner for Fortune 500 brands seeking meaningful customer connections and online business growth. Patrick has guided the company’s product vision and innovation, co-leading the company’s growth from a dorm-room startup into a global Enterprise Optimization and Influencer Marketing technology firm. Terakeet’s products include Chorus, an enterprise SEO platform with unmatched publisher discovery and outreach workflow capabilities; Carina, a competitive backlink analysis and keyword research tool; and Perlu, the world’s first influencer community and collaboration platform that launched in the Summer of 2018 and was sold to Publicis Groupe in 2023. Connect with Patrick: Website: https://terakeet.com/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/terakeet/ Patrick’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickdanial/ Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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This episode concludes 'The Next You' series where Allison turns the focus on the Disruptive CEO Nations' listeners and their business goals. In part 3, Allison encourages the listener to think about 'high risk/high awesome' and why you need to make space for risk in your life. Allison shares her personal 'yellow post-it note' story insights including: - Why if NFL legend Charles Woodson can take a risk and build a new next you can too. - Understanding opportunity windows. - Why you need a framework for decision-making that serves you well. - If you have intentionality around time, money, and relationships so you can mitigate the chance of failure. - No success comes without pain and concern so recognize this and move forward anyway. - Have what you don't want in life push you as much as chasing what you do want will propel you forward. - Set your intentions on having the next 12 months develop a new you!
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This is the second episode in a series of episodes where Allison turns the focus on the Disruptive CEO Nations' listeners and their business goals.
In part 2, Allison encourages the listener to think about 'The yes line' and shares insights and thoughts into: - Life accelerates according to the yes line. - Get out of your own way and keep your ego in check. - Make space for new. - Activate the field of possibility. - Understand the success triangle. - Write out a question list that will pull you to your future.
Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
New boost
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This episode kicks off a series of episodes where Allison turns the focus on the Disruptive CEO Nations' listeners and their business goals.
In part 1, Allison encourages the listener to think about 'The next you' and shares insights and thoughts into: - Getting the motivation to set future goals. - How to see the field of possibility but not get lured away from the path to your future. - Thinking about the impact of technology on your future. - Finding people and resources that will help you see the future and meet it with success
Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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Mickey Balter is the CEO & Co-Founder of Oriient, an in-store navigation technology provider that offers hyper-accurate indoor positioning using the earth’s magnetic field and built-in smartphone sensors. Mickey is a serial entrepreneur and a veteran of the Israeli semiconductor industry, with over 20 years of experience in combining deep technology to solve business challenges. Prior to founding Oriient, Mickey founded and led Scientra which developed the world’s fastest High-Frequency Trading platform. Before that Mickey held senior leadership positions at Siverge Networks and Broadlight (acquired by Broadcom). In this conversation we touch on: - The beginning of indoor GPS. - Practical applications of the technology, inside and outside large retailers. - The principles that guide the staff at Oriient. - The need for speed and the willingness to share. - The future vision for Oriient and its GPS tech. Mickey started his career in the IDF’s elite cyber-security unit. Mickey holds an MBA from Tel-Aviv University and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Connect with Mickey: Website: https://www.oriient.me/ Social media: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oriient/ Mickey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/balterm/ Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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90% of cyberattacks start with human error. In this episode, we speak with the founder of Riot, a platform designed to protect your company by preparing your employees to deal with cyberattacks in a modern and engaging way. The number of cyberattacks exploded last year, and everything suggests it will be even worse going forward. Long before AI steals our jobs, it will enable hackers to craft much more sophisticated attacks at scale. These attacks will be far more personalized, far more difficult to discern, and far more devastating. Riot started at Y Combinator in 2020 and is now protecting more than 200,000 employees worldwide. In this conversation we touch on: -Benjamin's personal experience with the attack on his first company. -The mission of making cyber security accessible to everyone and affordable for small business and non-profits. -How an intelligent tool, 'Albert', makes the experience personable for employees by offering training in small bites based on the user's role and digital habits. -Why offering a first attack excerise for free can really sell a company on just why they need the service. -His experiences at Y Combinator and why having mentors who have already been where you want to go is important. -Insights into raising $15 million in Series A funding. Benjamin Netter is a cybersecurity expert and the founder and CEO of Riot, a cybersecurity training tool created for employee protection. Benjamin’s platform teaches employees about cybersecurity through mock phishing drills and cyber awareness content custom to each user. Last year, Riot protected cyber attacks across 500 companies. Connect with Benjamin: Website: https://www.tryriot.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/tryriotdotcom LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tryriot/ Benjamin's Twitter: https://twitter.com/benjaminnetter Benjamin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-netter/ Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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Dmytro Gryn, CEO at Jooble, Job Aggregator. Dmytro is an expert in the information technology industry with 15 years of experience. He joined the Jooble team in May 2007 as a Software Engineer, becoming the first employee in the company after its two founders. Before becoming CEO of Jooble Job Aggregator, Dmytro worked as an engineer, team leader of the development team, and CTO of Job Aggregator. It was our pleasure to speak with Dmytro about Jooble and what is like leading a global company whose international headquarters is in Ukraine. Here is what we covered: - Dmytro's personal commitment to the mission of Jooble and how he rose from his start as a software engineer, to be the CEO. - Why he believes part of their success story is their culture story. He explains that people are attached to the culture and that brings commitment. - Lessons learned from expanding into nearly 70 countries. - What it is like to be a wartime CEO to manage global operations and remind people to take care of themselves. - How the book The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz offered valuable insight for him as a tech CEO facing challenges. - How Jooble has its sights set on fulfilling the role of a job search product and expanding to meet all job search needs. As CEO, Dmytro led the international scaling of Jooble to foreign online recruitment markets, created and controlled all the necessary processes, and assembled and trained a team. Today, he continues improving the company's capability to create more value for Jooble clients. Jooble’s mission is to help people find work. The company is constantly working to ensure that the employment process is as comfortable and fast as possible for both the applicant and the employer. Every day, Jooble aggregates vacancies with more than 140,000 resources from around the world. Sources include corporate websites, social networks, classifieds, and other resources. Thus, all job offers are available in one place. Connect with Dmytro: Website: https://jooble.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmytro-gryn-7282802a/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DmytroGryn Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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Chloe Duckworth is the co-founder and CEO of Valence Vibrations, an AI startup delivering emotional classifications in real-time conversation to improve communication and promote empathy across demographics, including neurotypes. Chloe is personally motivated by democratizing access to wellness in every facet of what it means to be well. In the wake of the pandemic, she co-founded Hope Hearted, a Bay Area-based nonprofit that has provided PPE to thousands of unhoused people. Here is what we discussed: - Her path to becoming a computational neuroscience expert and how she was inspired by exposure to haptic feedback and sensory augmentation work. - What neurodiversity is. - Partnership on Vibes for Apple Watch. - How one function of their platform provides emotional subtitles in digital spaces to enable people to connect, and the details of how that works. - Her approach to pricing and having a fee-based app versus a free one that may sell data for money. - How a digital accessibility tool like theirs can break through discrimination in employment settings and also extend to elevating customer support. - Her take on the rapid development of AI and the opportunities to integrate with voice assistant tools. Connect with Chloe: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloe-duckworth/ Website: https://www.valencevibrations.com TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@valencevibrations Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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201 Mohammed Widdi, CEO of Soul Detox, Brooklyn, NY, USA The main purpose of business, in our guest’s opinion, is to make a difference in people’s lives. In this episode, Mohammed ‘Moe’ Widdi speaks about his latest business venture, Soul Detox, and his feelings about holistic healing and business practices. Always intrigued by the ways CEOs and high-performing business leaders manage stress, I was curious about what Moe would have to share. Here is what we discussed: - What does it mean to cleanse your soul? - Why we need to explore alternative ways to relieve stress. - How to choose the right kind of healing for you. - The interconnections of life- spiritual, physical, financial, etc. - Thinking of business as interacting with fellow humans instead of money moves. - Taking care of yourself and your business. Mohammed Widdi is a Brooklyn-based social entrepreneur with a background in fitness science. He has founded several startups. Mohammed is passionate about health, wellness, and spirituality, leading to him starting his latest venture, Soul Detox, which raised $400K in pre-seed funding. Soul Detox just celebrated the grand opening of its Brooklyn location in January 2023 and has plans to expand in the US and abroad. Connect with Moe: Website: https://getsouldetox.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moe-widdi/ Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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We are doing a happy dance at the Disruptive CEO Nation podcast because this is our 200th episode, and to celebrate, we made Allison the guest. In this episode, Bruce Corris from Market Domination takes the interviewer's seat and helps listeners get to know Allison better and what is behind the career that has enabled her to work with CEOs and senior leaders in over 90 countries. Through the conversation, we explore: - A glimpse into Allison's childhood and how that formed her life's work. - The unique position of being a first-generation college student and what that meant to her. - Her early years in business when she figured out her drive to want to achieve more. - Why she embraces the philosophy 'The start of amazing begins with a question'. - Lessons learned being a podcast host (and why she wishes there was a podcast hall of shame for bad guests). Allison K. Summers, CAE, is a global business expert and recognized association management professional with 30-plus years of experience on the international stage working with ground-breaking industry leaders across six continents. As the host of the Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast, she has interviewed 200+ company founders, CEOs, and cutting-edge thinkers on topics ranging from advancements in tech to leading in the #futureofwork. Allison is an international best-selling author of books such as Building Your Brand: Make Business Happen in a Global Economy and Connect to Influence. Allison is passionate about support systems for youth experiencing illness and their quality of care based on her own experiences with her son and his multiple auto-immune disorders. Connect with Bruce: Email: bruce@marketdominationllc.com Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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Eric carries more than two decades of experience in the healthcare advisory space and leading teams at Southwind and The Advisory Board Company. His background in financial operations, mergers and acquisitions, technology innovation, and traditional consulting services sets the foundation for creative and bold solutions. Here is what we discussed: - Why 'curiosity meets clarity' is important to the DNA of the business. - Insights into working with physicians and administrators and other key individuals to design better outcomes. - Why understanding data compared to the perception of data is so important when working with people and systems to find opportunities for an optimal future. - Why looking at data analytics alone without having the right subject matter expertise will cause failure and why you must have all the key stakeholders and players in the room. - How boldly walking away from a corporate job with a young family to start his own business ended up being the right equation for success, even with its challenges, but how the support of family made all the difference. - The growth journey for the company, from working his own network to becoming a recognized brand and why it is key that you do not try to make your business all things to all people. Eric’s passion for answering the “up-at-night” questions led him to build our company from the ground up. As a creative and strategic thinker, Eric leads his team to live outside the box to build innovative and sustainable solutions for our clients. When not sporting a colorful shirt or crazy socks around the office, Eric enjoys spending time with his wife, two kids, and their dog, CC. He loves biking the Natchez Trace with old and new friends, as well as “working” from the Cape in the summer. Connect with Eric: Website: https://www.ancorehealth.com/ Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
futurist #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #businesspodcast #podcast
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Dr. Nayan Kalnad has over 20 years of experience in healthcare. He began his career as a practicing medic, before transitioning into the world of pharma to work at the forefront of digital health innovation at Janssen. He is now CEO and co-founder at Avegen: a technology company that helps health organizations build digital health products that empower patients to manage long-term health conditions. We caught up with Dr. Nayan about digital health products and improving patient experience. In our conversation, he explains:
Improving Outcomes for Individuals with Long-term Conditions.
As many as 1 in 4 patients are living with long-term conditions and the cost of caring for those patients is increasing.
Digital health products (DHPs) are the answer but an ever-changing deployment landscape is holding innovators back.
Nayan is motivated by the needs of the patient, can empathize with the challenges facing clinicians, and is energized by how Avegen’s work enables data to impact lives. Avegen's products have been used by over 1 million people globally and include maternity monitoring tools, cardiac rehab apps, and digital HIV care programs. Be sure to check out Dr. Nayan’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Dr. Nayan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nkalnad/
Website: https://avegenhealth.com/
Connect with Allison:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/
Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com
Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #tech #AI #businesspodcast #podcast
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Steve Kahan is a marketing strategist, TEDx speaker, start-up guru, and author of Be a Start-Up Superstar and High-Velocity Digital Marketing. He has used his unique marketing skills to help grow 7 start-ups from the early stages of development to going public or being sold, resulting in a total value of over $5 billion. We caught up with Steve to talk about his book High-Velocity Digital Marketing. In our conversation, Steve explains:
Insights into how companies can increase their revenue in brutally competitive markets online by building relevant content and writing with SEO in mind.
How buyers today rely nearly 100% on digital marketing and a brand's digital presence for decision-making and so the content must be developed to capture the imagination of the buyer at all stages of the experience.
How his passion about economic development coming from the startup community has led him to work with the American University of Kiev to mentor entrepreneurs intent on rebuilding Ukraine.
Steve currently provides marketing advisory services to startup businesses including several Insight Partners portfolio companies. In his previous position as Thycotic’s CMO and Chief of Staff, he has helped guide the company through incredible growth and a successful exit at $1.4B. It’s been a similar story with the other companies where he’s brought his talents over the past three decades, including KnowledgeWare, PentaSafe, Postini, Quest Software, and The Planet. A previous board member of Target Hunger in Houston, Steve is passionate about making the world a better place by helping those who need it most. Be sure to check out Steven’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Steven:
Website: www.stevenmarkkahan.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevekahan/
TEDx Talk: https://youtu.be/n0FRyqF7e0w
Connect with Allison:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/
Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com
Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #tech #AI #businesspodcast #podcast
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Navid Alipour is the Chief Executive Officer at AI Med Global, a company focused on Artificial Intelligence Technology that improves healthcare and helps save lives. AI Med Global is a roll-up of two companies Navid co-founded, CureMetrix and CureMatch. He is also a founder of an AI-focused VC fund, Analytics Ventures. In our conversation, Navid explains:
The critical way that CureMetrix harnesses AI to address women’s health releated to mamograms and inidicators for heart health.
The use of intelligent data interpretation as a predictor for the best personalized cancer treatment care.
His founders journey from being in the investment world to leading cutting edge medical companies.
Insights as a business leader learned and what it means to him now as a partner at Analytics Ventures.
Be sure to check out Ronan’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Through the founding of multiple Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies, Navid is a long-time entrepreneur in the AI space with an emphasis on the convergence of AI and the life sciences, which is also called Wellness Science. He seeks to identify scientists and domain experts in their respective fields that are solving massive pain problems to take to market, by building companies from inception. While he is a VC and part of the founding of Analytics Ventures, he considers himself an entrepreneur at heart. Connect with Navid:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navid-alipour-a295777/
Website: https://aimedglobal.com/
Twitter: @aimedglobal
Connect with Allison:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/
Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com
Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
CEO # medtech #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #tech #AI #businesspodcast #podcast
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Ronan Burke is the co-founder and CEO of Inscribe, the leading fintech solution for fraud detection and risk management. He and his twin brother, Conor Burke, co-founded Inscribe in 2017 with the goal of creating a more fair and efficient financial services ecosystem. In our conversation, Ronan explains:
The mission to reduce fraud in the #Fintech space, for example, first-party and third-party application fraud that costs the industry countless dollars lost each year.
How smarter tech can lead to more fair and equitable practices for access to loans for more people.
The journey from Ireland to the US and why the relationship with his co-founder works.
Experiences with Y Combinator and how it changed the trajectory for the organization.
His philosophy of giving people autonomy and setting up the right environment for people to really flourish and do their best work.
Be sure to check out Ronan’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! A 2020 Forbes “30 Under 30 Europe” honoree, Ronan is a frequent guest on industry podcasts and has been featured in Fast Company, VentureBeat, and The Irish Times. He graduated from the University College Dublin with a Bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering and later completed the Y Combinator startup accelerator program. An Ireland native, Ronan currently splits his time between Inscribe’s San Francisco and Europe offices.
Connect with Ronan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rnnbrk
Inscribe: https://www.inscribe.ai/
Connect with Allison:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/
Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com
Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #tech #AI #businesspodcast #podcast
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Ross Maguire, CEO and co-founder of Azure Printed Homes, the first-to-market construction company to utilize 3D printing technology and recycled materials to create modern prefab units 70% faster and 30% less expensive than ever before, while making a positive impact on the environment. Ross holds an MS in Civil Engineering and has 13 years in construction, design and project management. He grew his London-based construction company for 8 years, and co-founded Azure in 2019. Azure initially bootstrapped its growth and raised a pre-seed angel earlier this year. The company generates $400K/mo in revenue and has $11.5MM in pre-orders. Mass production of the units will begin before the end of this year.
Ross holds over a decade of front-line construction experience - committed to ensuring client gratification, guiding design development to achieve & surpass client desires whilst always keeping two eyes on live & anticipated costs, two hands on swift & precise delivery whilst maintaining two feet on the ground - providing open and honest communication from beginning to end with every benefactor of the process.
In our conversation, Ross explains:
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure: the importance of recycling during the homebuilding process
Factory-made homes bring a level of consistency not found during the traditional homebuilding process
Word-of-mouth advertising is sometimes all you need to grow a business, as long as you have a product that sells itself
Using crowdfunding as a seed money source to maintain independence
Your family is your refuge; finding strength in loved ones
Be sure to check out Ross and Azure Printed Homes listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Ross Maguire LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-maguire-77093b40/ Azure Printed Homes: https://azureprintedhomes.com/ Azure LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/azure-printed-homes/
Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
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STILRIDE is a Sweden-based startup pioneering industrial origami – a cutting edge sheet metal shaping procedure using origami folding techniques, laser cutting and industrial robotics. Bringing innovation and disruption to the personal transport space, their products are built from sheet metal that has been folded to perfection by artisanal robots to deliver sustainably conscious electro-mobility machines that are designed for the future. We caught up with, CEO Jonas Nyvang in the semi-secrete lair to hear about their startup story. In this interview he explains: - How two friends decided to build a multi-national corporation building bikes with green metal - The importance of doing market research before charging forward with a product - Designing a manufacturing company that can be set up anywhere in the world - Using origami as a construction method, first as small paper, then as larger sheet metal - Creating local production hubs to satisfy local demand, reducing the need for transportation and shipping Jonas brings over two decades of fashion, marketing and business development experience to STILRIDE. He is the founder of several successful companies, including software engineering and digital product agency Ape Group. He has also been instrumental in developing the marketing, sales and business development at Fox Interactive Media, Starcom MediaVest and the Björn Borg group. STILRIDE officially launched in 2019 and has quickly made its presence known. Be sure to check out Jonas’ links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Jonas Nyvang: Website: https://www.stilride.com/ Jonas’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonasnyvang/ Stilride’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stilride Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stilride/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stilride/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/stilride Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: www.DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #tech #AI #businesspodcast #podcast
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Kazuki “Kaz” Ohta is the CEO at Treasure Data, a leading customer data platform and InfoWorld's 2022 Technology of the Year Award winner. Previously, he was the founding Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the company. Prior to that, in 2009, Kaz co-founded the world’s largest Hadoop User Group. In our conversation, Kaz explains: - The drive that took him from Japan to arrive as an unknown underdog in Silicon Valley. - Success principles for building a solid business. - The importance of a Customer Data Platform (CDP) when 70% of today's customer journey takes place online. - How in a demanding market, businesses must be more efficient and they can do that if they know their data. - The value of being a multi-company founder and how that has shaped his outlook on his business life. Kaz moved to America without even knowing how to speak English, where he overcame this obstacle and majored in computer science. During that time, his professor built the world’s faster supercomputer (essentially 500K computers combined into one), and Kaz was part of the team that built the file system. A long-time open-source advocate, Kaz has made numerous contributions to open source software and was instrumental in developing the open-source applications Fluentd, Embulk, and Messagepack. Be sure to check out Kaz’s links listed below. Enjoy the show!
Connect with Kaz Ohta: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kazukiohta/ Twitter: @kzk_mover Website: https://www.treasuredata.com/ Forbes: https://profiles.forbes.com/members/tech/profile/Kazuki-Ohta-Founder-CEO-Treasure-Data/9fcb6c9e-d7af-44f1-b6a4-2b1344bc09df Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #tech #AI #businesspodcast #podcast
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Christopher Colbert is the CEO and Founder of DCP Entertainment, a media platform for underrepresented voices, including people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and other overlooked communities. DCP provides branded content services and hosts a network for podcast creators. Speaking to us from his studio in Times Square, Chris explains: - Having the confidence to start his own business after years of successfully building brands for others. - The importance of providing a platform and vehicles for underrepresented voices to have a space to build authority and grow. - The future of content creation and how brands need to rise above self-interest and noise to achieve meaningful engagement. - Tips for success in the age of on-demand ecosystems. - Common challenges facing entrepreneurs from decision fatigue to the stress of caring for people. Chris began his career at SiriusXM helping create Jamie Foxx’s comedy & music channel, The Foxxhole, before going on to create two new comedy channels and becoming the Director of Urban Talk & Comedy. Just before starting DCP, Chris served as the VP of Programming for the podcast company, Cadence13. Chris is an award-winning documentary host, producer, and writer of the podcast series, Say Their Name, and his passion for conversations surrounding mental health have led him to create the fireside series, Entrepreneur Struggle, where Chris talks about the various mental and emotional challenges that particularly impact business owners and executives. Be sure to check out Christopher’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Chris: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-colbert-dcp/ Website: https://www.dcpofficial.com/ Twitter: @DCPofficial YouTube: DCP Entertainment IG: dcpofficial Connect with Allison: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO
CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #founderstory #business #tech #AI #businesspodcast #podcast
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Dorian founded Squirro ten years ago, a company that focuses on building insight engines for financial institutions, to aid them in the process of analyzing and working with unstructured data. In the past ten years Squirro has established itself as a successful competitor in the industry and has been recognised by Gartner as a Visionary in their Magic Quadrant report. Apart from winning numerous awards such as; the Big Innovation AI Excellence Award, the SEF4KMU Label by the Swiss Economic Forum and many more, Squirro is also proud to count the likes of Bank of England, European Central Bank and Standard Chartered to its clients. Dorian himself has been selected among the top 100 Digital Shapers in Switzerland for the past three years and therefore was inducted into the “Hall of Fame'' by Bilanz & Le Temps. Dorian has also been named among the top 30 Digital Leaders in Switzerland. For his entire professional career Dorian has looked for ways to innovate industries and has done this fortuitously with other companies he has founded such as, Local.ch and Memonic. In our conversation, Dorian Selz explains: - Dorian’s marketing strategy for Squirro - Dorian’s best advice for a startup leader or business builder. - How one can invest in sustainable development funds Be sure to check out Dorian’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Dorian: Website- https://squirro.com/about/ LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/dselz/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Steve Gallion launched his second company, MedTrainer. His mission was to empower healthcare organizations through compliance automation. He is passionate about supporting all healthcare organizations, which have been put under enormous pressure and demands. With a 100% customer-inspired product, internal healthcare thought leaders, and custom curated content, MedTrainer set out with a mission to solve healthcare’s largest problems using a single platform. Today MedTrainer has grown to become a respected market leader in the healthcare community. MedTrainer’s success is attributed to over 200 dedicated healthcare SaaS professionals who strive to provide the best experience to our customers every day. MedTrainer and its management team continue to invest every day in the success of our people, culture, and customers, with a focus on our core mission: Being the best compliance solution for every healthcare organization. In our conversation, Steve Gallion explains: - How Steve got started with the concept of health care education? - The importance of finding the right talent for Steve's executive leadership team. - The next phase of growth for his company. Be sure to check out Steve’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Steve Gallion Website- https://medtrainer.com/about-us LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevegallion Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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At 24 years old, Jem Bourouh has spent the last four years launching and selling 7-8 figure eCommerce brands, with totals of more than $20 million in sales. After his massive success, he decided it was on to his next projects. He launched his marketing agency called Adcubator in 2018, which also acts as a VC and invests in smaller direct-to-consumer brands. Jem also has an education-focused entity called eCom Incubator. With extensive knowledge in marketing fundamentals, consumer behavior, branding and positioning, business strategy, media buying, copywriting, and creating landing pages, he and his team manage the entire Google Ads platform and take eCommerce businesses to million and multi-million-dollar success stories. His drive and motivation to dominate the industry make him an inspirational powerhouse with a talent for teaching others to think outside of the box and solve problems from a unique perspective. He leads with the belief that if you are working hard enough, it is not if you will succeed, but when. This makes him and his company unstoppable. In our conversation, Jem Bourouh explains:
What is the future of e-commerce like?
How do I show the respect of products benefits to a prospect?
An example of a brand that he has helped recently that he’s been really excited about.
Be sure to check out Jem’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Jem Bourouh: LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jem-bourouh/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Gillian O'Brien, Founder in Residence, Pilot, California, USA - Why companies can benefit from a Founder in Residence and why being loud about failure can lift up the startup community. At 27, Gillian has had more adventure in her career than others do in a lifetime. Pilot serves over 1,000 customers who are founders and business leaders with their accounting, finance and accounting needs. Having a Founder in Residence helps deliver insight, empathy, and meaningful ideation for their customer base. Pilot has a staff of 400 people strong and is valued at over a billion dollars. In our conversation, Gillian O”Brien explains:
Her experiences at Y Combinator and why founders need a community of supporters.
Her first startup Cherry, an HR Saas business, and her willingness to be public and 'loud' about lessons learned in failure as she had to shut down the company at the beginning of the pandemic.
Understanding resources needed by founders and helping them with investor conversations.
Be sure to check out Gillian’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Gillian LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-obrien/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Rabi is changing the way companies show their thoughtfulness in a way that captivates and engages customers and employees. His company, EvaBot, runs on AI-squared: The Artificial Intelligence to get deeply personal and he Actionable Intelligence to make better business decisions. In other words, it's the intelligence behind thoughtfulness. Rabi is a serial entrepreneur. Working alongside his current founding team for 10+ years, they have used AI to build recommendation engines, social platforms and enterprise software. His first startup iDubba/iCouchapp was a “TV show recommendations + social engagement” app that had 2M+ monthly active users at the time it got acquired. Rabi then made a bold move to Silicon Valley to start a new company. While there, Rabi became frustrated that the ability to build relationships lacked technological innovation and intelligence. And so, EvaBot was born.
EvaBot is an emotionally intelligent gifting relationship solution that enables thoughtful companies to accelerate the key relationships that increase both growth and competitive advantage. With a platform built to generate emotional engagement and to collect actionable intelligence, they are the standard in amplifying the customer and employee experience, creating an unforgettable journey for the recipient and truly valuable insight for the company. In our conversation, Rabi Gupta explains: - How Rabi built his company, and the steps it took for him to do this. - How Rabi created his start up in a new city, on his own in San Francisco, CA. - The specific roles Rabi and his Co-Founders take on with EvaBot Be sure to check out Rabi’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Rabi Gupta LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabigupta Website- https://www.evabot.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 0160 Emily Bibb Emily is an award-winning marketer and passionate entrepreneur who is empowering the next generation of work. She has reimagined the way projects are outsourced, creating the first agency marketplace for high-value, high-consideration transactions online.
As Co-Founder of Breef, Emily uses innovative technology to empower brands and agencies to work better, together — improving productivity, business outcomes and relationships. Her leadership has grown the company's network to 5,000 digital and creative agencies globally with users in over 20 countries in less than two years, while securing significant venture funding for expansion.
Prior to Breef, Emily brought early-stage startups into culture as a digital marketing leader, working with some of the most sought-after brands, including VSCO, POPSUGAR and S'well. Here she experienced firsthand the challenges in-house marketers face to keep up with the demands of modern marketing. In our conversation, Emily explains: - How COVID and the opportunity of remote work helped Emily grow her business! - Emily’s push of making her company as innovative as it can be. - The idea that good things take time, and how success stories may not come over night. Be sure to check out Emil Bibb’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Emily: Website- https://www.breef.com/emilybibb Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 159 Ziga Fajfar Ziga is the co-founder of Flowout, an Unlimited Webflow design & development subscription service. From an early age, Ziga was always passionate about entrepreneurship. After discovering the power of coding, he joined one of the fastest-growing marketing agencies in Slovenia straight after college where his career kicked off. With acquired knowledge and network, he went ahead and started multiple successful tech ventures.
As a developer, Ziga saw the opportunity in the no-code space where his coding background gives him a big advantage. No-code tools helped him create new products and prototypes faster and with ease. This led him to be more successful in testing the market, finding a product-market fit, and thus solving consumer problems In our conversation, Ziga explains: - His partnership with his co-founders and how it took a few failures to finally achieve the right formula for the business they were destined to build. - The mission of Flowout, and how changing the pricing model to offer tiers of service and a subscription/retainer model was right for them and the customer. - The vision of becoming a company that builds more products client-solutions products while still benefiting from being a services company business model. Be sure to check out Ziga’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Ziga: LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/zigafajfar Instagram- zigafajfar Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Shriya Sekhsaria Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 158 Shriya Sekhsaria Shriya Sekhsaria runs Lumhaa: The Memory Jar Company, which helps people create and save memories together in "memory jars" (online folders/albums). Lumhaa was founded based on her award-winning research from Princeton which showed that even 10 minutes with memory jars made people happy -- it's one of the first social media platforms (if not the only social media platform) that shows statistically significant improvements in psychological well-being. Aside from powering users across 190 countries (and ranking in Apple's Top 50 Social Apps in 90 countries), her company has helped a few dozen artists in Indian villages find dignified income through their physical memory jar product orders. Shriya is 25, currently lives in India, and has won awards like 2021 Superwoman of the Year award (in association with the Indian Govt) and 2020 STEM Woman Entrepreneur of the Year (AWIS In our conversation, Shriya explains:
Why Shriya decided to create her company Lumhaa, and how she built her company up to where it is today!
Why Shriya wanted to create a product that makes people happy and brings them joy.
The idea of design thinking, understanding from people and their needs.
Be sure to check out Shriya listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Shriya Sekhsaria: LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/shriya-sekhsaria-22964ba7/?originalSubdomain=in Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 157 Blima Ehrehtreu Blima Ehrehtreu is the Founder and CEO of The Designers Group, an interior design firm based in New York, Miami, and Toronto. As an MWBE (Minority/Women Owned Business Enterprise) owner in the commercial real estate industry, she knew she had to build a brand that required acceptance and respect in such a male-dominated industry. Investing in the community and supporting women in the construction industry is something she is very passionate about. Blima opened The Designers Group in Toronto, Canada, back in 2009. After establishing the company in Canada, she took the company internationally by opening an office in New York in 2016. Cementing their presence in a design hub like New York proved to be a game-changer for The Designers Group. Since then, TDG has designed over 200 residential, healthcare, hospitality, and commercial projects. We have an incredibly diverse portfolio and are always looking for innovative ideas to stay on the cutting edge of design.
In our conversation, Blima explains:
Blima’s bold ambition to grow her company internationally and the lessons she learned along the way.
What motivated Blima to create The Designers Group.
Blima’s creativity and her experience in design.
Be sure to check out Blima’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Blima Linked In- https://www.linkedin.com/in/blimaehrentreu
Website- https://www.thedesignersgroup.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Vanessa Karel Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 156 Vanessa Karel, is a second-time Founder, Serial Entrepreneur, Storyteller, and Creative Producer. She was recently named as one of the 100 rising Latinx Startup founders to watch through her work founding Greether; a travel startup that helps women travel safer. Vanessa is also currently leading Girls in Tech, San Francisco as their Manager Director. Born in the USA, raised in Mexico City. Growing up constantly traveling, Vanessa always found an interest in exploring different cultures and expanding horizons. In 2020, she finally realized what had been lacking throughout her solo journeys, while traveling alone being stranded in Morocco in the middle of the pandemic. Which led to her founding a safety platform for female travelers around the world named Greether. The platform targets some of the most important SDGs and sustainable UN development goals, which are to reduce safety risks for women and to increase income opportunities for them through sustainable tourism. Having only worked on Greether for a year, the web application has organically grown users in over 80 countries and 300 cities around the world. In our conversation, Vanessa Karel explains:
Vanessa’s travel experiences in other countries and why she created Greether to keep travelers safe in unknown countries.
Vanessa’s journey into Silicon Valley and the other various tech startups she has managed.
Increasing job opportunities for women.
Be sure to check out Vanessa’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Vanessa Website- https://www.greether.com/vanessakarel
LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-karel/
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/greet.her/
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Melissa Bauknight Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 155 Melissa Bauknight is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, adventurer, mother, wife, and a Business and Life Coach. As a collegiate athlete, she graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Finance and has since earned an applicable Ph.D. in Life. She garnered over 15 years of sales and business development experience in the corporate world working across 6 states and consistently performing in the top 10% of her peers. Having checked many boxes on her life goals list - traveling the world, achieving corporate success, marrying a loving husband, and starting a family, she still felt anxious and incomplete. She knew there were untapped parts of her soul longing to be unleashed. Melissa chose to boldly follow that inner knowledge leaving her corporate career and went on to be in the top 1% of a social impact direct sales company, build a coaching business at The Ripple Connection, and coach over 1,000 women in sales, mindset, and life alignmen In our conversation, Melissa explains: - The most admirable common traits among successful women. - The more common barriers and roadblocks women may face in business and how to overcome them. - Using your own inner wisdom as your GPS. Be sure to check out Melissa’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Melissa: Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/therippleconnection Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/therippleconnection Website- https://www.therippleconnection.com/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 154 Josh Fraser, the founder and CEO of Estated (based in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada). Estated’s open-source API provides easy and transparent access for clients from a wide range of industries to integrate and implement property data into their workflows to start generating insights into their customers within minutes of signing up to our intuitive platform. Each property record contains hundreds of different data points from parcel and boundary information, structural building data such as square footage and roof type, historical deed information including sales and transfer of ownership, market value which uses an industry leading AVM to accurately valuate properties, taxes, and assessment data, as well as current ownership information. Estated works with a variety of industry leaders including State Farm, Capital One, Swiss RE as well as emerging proptech, real estate tech, and insurtech startups like Obie, Kin, and Blend Insurance. In our conversation, Josh explains: - How Estated operates and the various types of technology Josh’s company uses in the real estate market! - How Josh started Estated based on other companies he worked with, and how he built leads and advertising resources for Estated. - How Josh and his team find the best results and what they use for their development process Be sure to check out Josh’s below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Josh: LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgfraser Website- https://estated.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Paulina Walkowiak Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 153 Paulina Walkowiak is a co-founder & CEO of cux.io – the first-ever tool for UX Automation, a behavior, and user experience analysis application, currently operating in 102 countries. She's the only specialist training in behavior patterns analysis in CEE, who helps companies translate knowledge about users into specific business decisions. She supports enterprise-level organizations in data-driven transformations and developing analytical strategies. Paulina worked with, among others, TVN Media (Discovery Group), Prisjakt (Shibsted), and EFL. She's the author of the Product Analytics workshop “Data-driven design”, a TEDx speaker, and an academic lecturer. She has been featured twice in the Strong Women in IT 2019 and 2021 reports. Alongside her husband (and cux.io co-founder), she's won the 50 Most Creative People in Business Award. Furthermore, as a mom of two, she proudly calls herself #Mompreneur In our conversation, Paulina Walkowiak explains: - What lead Paulina to start her company and her inspiration to become a manager and be her own boss. - Paulina’s specializations and her expertise and knowledge in business. - Where she wants her company to focus their attention next! Be sure to check out Paulina’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Paulina LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulinawalkowiak Twitter- @plnwlkwk Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 152 Irete Hamdani is an entrepreneur and founder of askBelynda, a Google Chrome extension helping consumers reduce their carbon footprint by recommending sustainable products while they’re shopping online. She has a Computer Science MSc. with honors from Tel Aviv University and is an AWS Certified Associate Developer and Solution Architect. Irete uses her 25 years of tech experience to develop askBelynda. She believes in a greener future with the expansion of sustainable consumer goods. Irete resides in Denver, CO, with her husband and two daughters. In our conversation, explains: - The importance of reducing your carbon footprint and how people can do this! - Why Irete started her company and the different functions and services askBelynda provides! - askBelynda’s team structure and overall management process. Be sure to check out Irete’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Irete: Website- https://www.askbelynda.com LinkedIn- https://www.iretehamdani.com/about Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Christine Akselsen Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 151 When Christine Akselsen accepted her role as CEO of Kezzler, a leading product traceability technology provider, she set out to change the way that consumers and companies think about the global supply chain. It’s not just about getting an item to a buyer. It’s about ensuring that what they receive is safe, authentic, and produced sustainably. Fast forward to 2022: Amid a stagnant global supply chain, keeping track of products and assuring their quality can be the competitive edge that keeps an organization viable.
Kezzler’s traceability technology uses specialized codes on individual products to secure their validity. They utilize patented serialization technology to track products through their entire supply chains while ensuring the products we consume (such as food and pharmaceuticals) are safe prior to use. From source to consumer, data is associated with the product through the code. In our conversation, Christine Akselsen explains: - Christine’s role at Kezzler and the products Kezzler traces. - Why tractability is important and what it provides to supply chain technologies. - The problems with supply chain that Kezzler solves! Be sure to check out Christine’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Christine: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-charlotte-akselsen-b552288 Website: http://www.sweetprotection.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Martin Luenendonk Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 150 Martin Luenendonk is a 3x serial entrepreneur who founded the Finance Club (community of 1.6m finance professionals), Cleverism.com, and Founderjar.com. He loves to share his learnings about business model generation, entrepreneurship, and digital marketing. A product of his generation, Martin thrives in the world of digital communication, which is why marketing is his natural calling. Always sprouting a smile on his face, he gets way too excited about everything new in the marketing world. FounderJar helps small businesses grow faster by choosing the right software tools and with practical in-depth guides on how to start and grow a business.
In our conversation, Martin Luenendonk explains: - What his company Founder Jar is and how it operates! - The resources Founder Jar provides and how they help others start their own businesses. - The advice Martin provides to fellow entrepreneurs and business owners. Be sure to check out Martin’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Martin: LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinluenendonk Website- https://www.founderjar.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 149 Richard White is founder and CEO of Fathom. Video, a free app that records, transcribes & highlights your calls so you can focus on the conversation instead of taking notes.
Fathom was a part of the Y-Combinator W21 batch, is one of only 50 Zoom App Launch Partners, and is one of a small handful of companies Zoom has invested in directly via their Zoom Apps Fund. Prior to Fathom, Richard founded UserVoice, one of the leading platforms that technology companies, from startups to the Fortune 500, use for managing customer feedback and making strategic product decisions. UserVoice was notable for being the company that originally invented the Feedback tabs shown on the side of millions of websites around the world today.
Richard previously worked on Kiko, a company in the first batch of Y-Combinator, with Justin Kan and Emmett Shear who subsequently went on to found Twitch. Richard is passionate about designing intuitive productivity tools with delightful user experiences. Top of Form Bottom of Form In our conversation, Richard explains: - How his app Fathom works and how it improves customer communication within a company. - Why Richard decided to start Fathom and his business model. - Fathom’s strategy of giving some users advisor status within the company. Be sure to check out Richard’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Richard White: LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rrwhite Websites- https://kitcaster.com/richard-white https://fathom.video Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Ben Worthen Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 148 Ben is the CEO of Message Lab, award winning storyteller, he’s showing businesses and content entrepreneurs how to use data to tell stories and build audiences that produce business growth results. He’s sharing how to overcome the cultural and organizational obstacles to doing content marketing well.
Message Lab combines journalism, data and design to create content that resonates with the people their clients most need to reach. They believe engaging people around their interests is more effective than always trying to sell. They use their training as journalists to learn what people are interested in and then write, shoot and design stories they care about. They make sure the content they create reaches the right audience and apply a measurement framework that focuses on business outcomes to show their work gets meaningful results. In our conversation, Ben explains: - How to “talk right” when marketing your business and how to create a positive brand. - Becoming a seller that makes customers fall in love with your ideas. - Creating content for ROI and not just creating content for the sake of content. - How you can measure this ROI! Be sure to check out Ben’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Ben Worthen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benworthen Website: messagelab.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Andy Paul Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 147 Andy has been in sales for over four decades. His first sales job was selling women’s shoes at JC Penney. In his professional career Andy has sold everything from computers to small businesses to complex communications systems that sold for tens of millions of dollars to some of the world’s largest enterprises. Andy closed hundreds of millions of dollars in products and services before starting his own company. He has grown and managed large sales teams from scratch. He has coached average performers into being top producers. Andy is #8 on LinkedIn’s list of the Top 50 Global Sales Experts to follow. More than 170,000 people have signed up to follow the advice he shares there. His podcast, Accelerate Your Sales!, is on the top of every list of the best sales podcasts with over 2 million downloads to date, and was on INC Magazine’s list of the top leadership podcasts. His two award-winning books, Zero-Time Selling and Amp Up Your Sales, were both Amazon best-sellers. In our conversation, Andy Paul explains: - Andy’s book and its highlights! - The idea of having a “wrong mindset” as a seller. - How to listen to your buyers and help them achieve what they want to buy. Be sure to check out Andy’s listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Andy Paul LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/realandypaul Website- https://www.revenue.io/sales-enablement-podcast-with-andy-paul https://www.andypaul.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 146, Josh Gilbert An entrepreneur and thought leader in geospatial analytics and climate tech, Josh Gilbert is Co-Founder and CEO at Sust Global. He has spoken on these topics at events such as COP26 in Glasgow, and has helped Fortune 500 companies, NGOs and the UK Government to integrate cutting edge climate technologies. Sust Global’s mission is to democratize access to satellite-validated climate data, and Josh developed his idea for Sust Global through first-hand experience working with climate innovation and geospatial technology sets.
His previous experience includes his role as Environment and Resources Lead at Cleantech Group, go-to-market consulting at Orbital Insight, where he helped launch the market-leading Orbital Go product. In our conversation, Josh explains:
Transforming climate complexity into business intelligence.
The climate risks Josh’s company looks into and how they help companies manage their supply chains through these risks.
How Josh’s team operates and Sust Global’s company culture.
Be sure to check out Josh’s links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Website- https://kitcaster.com/josh-gilbert
LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshjgilbert/?originalSubdomain=uk
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 145 Kate Westad, Founder, Palette by Pak Kate Westad is the inventor and founder of Palette by pak, a refillable, reusable, sustainable beauty system. While packing for a trip after a long day at the office, she realized that there had to be a better way to bring, store, and reuse the many goops, glops & glam™️ she was taking with her on her vacation. As an attorney by trade, Kate began the research process and soon learned that the beauty industry was fueling its sustainability crisis. With statistics including the ones below, Kate knew she had to change the beauty industry from disposable to sustainable. She's a Forbes Next 1000 honoree, has been featured in Glossy, Martha Stewart, Travel + Leisure, Women's Health, Glamour, and more.
In our conversation, Kate explains:
Her packaging and inventory management with her products.
The steps she took when inventing her product and creating her brand.
How Kate balances her work life and home life as an entrepreneur.
The tips and tricks Kate has created in order to keep organized and build her company.
Be sure to check out Kate’s social links listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Kate Westad: Website: https://palettebypak.com/pages/contact LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katewestad/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 144 Nicky Senyard, Founder/CEO, Fintel Connect, Vancouver, Canada Nicky Senyard’s two core beliefs are contribution and growth.
Throughout Nicky’s career, these focuses have allowed her to achieve both commercial success and to create a business culture that fosters collaboration and personal achievement.
Not only has she had the fortune of growing a market-leading business organically over a 15-year period, she has also had the opportunity to positively influence the evolution of a lucrative niche industry through innovation and leadership.
In launching their next venture, Fintel Connect, their mission is to disrupt performance marketing in the fintech space by providing greater transparency, scalability and growth. In our conversation, we discuss: Her company, Fintel Connect How culture creates connections to bind and drive a company What performance marketing is The lessons learned from building her first company The most important qualities of a leader Nicky’s vision for her business in the next five years Enjoy the show! Connect with Nicky: Website: https://www.fintelconnect.com/about-us/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/NickySenyard LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickysenyard Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 143 Ashif Mawji, Managing Director, Scale Good Fund, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Ashif Mawji is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, venture capitalist, mentor, and community builder. Ashif moved to Canada in 1987 and his parents instilled in him the idea that one can have anything they want in life, but to get there you must work and pay for it. Ashif has directly invested in over 100 companies globally, is invested in over 10 funds, and serves as a venture partner with Rising Tide, a VC firm in Silicon Valley. Ashif has built and exited several companies in the tech space. What Ashif has recognized in every country where he has interests is that the same problems of poverty, homelessness and addictions exist. His perception is that new solutions to the same problems need entrepreneurships and innovation, and this is the catalyst behind the formation of his starting the Scale Good Fund. In our conversation, we discuss: In the social impact fund, financial returns are expected, but the hope is for real social impact. Companies from all over the world, in any discipline, can take part if they have demonstrated a measurable way of showing social impact. His like for non-traditional pitch decks. A description of what makes a great pitch. The criteria for investing can vary from company to company. The hope to find entrepreneurs that are coachable and companies that have talented teams behind a strong leader. Participation in various networks and organizations. Enjoy the show! Connect with Asif: Website: http://mawjiventures.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashifmawji Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 142 Eddy Badrina, CEO, Eden Green Technology, Texas, USA Vertical farming is not a new idea. However, Eddy Badrina, CEO of Eden Green Technology is taking a novel approach that takes all the efficiencies of a greenhouse and adds the density of vertical farming that no other company does to provide produce that is affordable, partly because of its unique distribution model. Since running the company in 2019, retailers, researchers, cities, and governments have discovered how Eden Green Technology’s turnkey solutions can help them establish food safety, food independence, and sustainable farming, unlike any previous AgTech solution. Eddy’s background and education give him the foundation for cultivating deep relationships to support his person mission. His purpose and gifts include scaling organizations and understanding the cultural and global impact of their work. Our conversation includes wisdom from his education, operating other companies and the unique thinking behind Eden Green Technology’s fast scaling. Highlights include: The customers for Eden Green are the private labels and distributors that provide the private labels to retailers and grocers. The history of being co-founder of Buzz Shift. The three-step process used for scaling a company. The funding process and going out to raise $100 million in the next three to six months. The new locations for the greenhouse modules. The goal of having greens from harvest to your fridge in 72 hours and it lasts for weeks. Enjoy the show! Connect with Eddy: Website: https://www.edengreen.com/eddy-badrina-ceo-bio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddybadrina @eddybadrina Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 141 Jason Ash, CEO, Young Planet, UK Jason Ash is the CEO of a circular-economy app called Young Planet. The app encourages families to adopt a circular method of the giving and receiving used items. The app is free at the point of use and allows parents to upcycle unwanted clothes, toys, and other items. The app is a tech tool, but it’s also a tool for making community connections. Young Planet is a for profit company, but Jason believes that brings aligned incentives and drive. From being a professional rugby player to an outstanding leadership career as general manager and CEO for recognized brands, Jason is now on a mission to help individuals shift from depending on a linear economy to a circular economy mindset. Highlights of our conversation include: How the platform can be customized for corporations to support employees with CSR goals. The strategic thought behind building an advisory board. Thinking through why a company that is for good should be a non-profit or a commercial endeavor. Securing VC support and crowd-funding rounds to speed up success. Having trusted on-shore and off-shore business partners. The future view of Young Planet and how there are no barriers to wide and expansive growth if they stay true to their mission. Enjoy the show! Connect with Jason: Website: https://www.youngplanet.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-ash-6700922 Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 140 Bob Miles, Co-Founder, Salad Technologies, Salt Lake City, Utah Leaving his home in Australia, Bob Miles became the Co-Founder of Salad Technologies based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company’s mission is to build the foundational layer of computational resources (PC power) for Web 3.0. To start the effort, Bob enlisted the aid of gamers worldwide to share their individual computer power and to reward them with game gift card subscriptions. Salad is building mission-critical infrastructure that will help preserve the integrity of the Internet and democratize access to computational resources, a commodity that is becoming increasingly important to everyone’s digital life. The company started in the gaming space, but the vision is to become a more mainstream with consumers in the next two or three years. In our conversation, we discuss: Bob’s journey from Australia to Salt Lake City, Utah to lead in the world of distributed computing. His belief in expanding the sharing economy in the digital space. How the mission to engage gamers has engaged nearly 900,000 registered users and over 7,100 years of computing time. The big goal of changing an individual’s relationship with the Internet to be the easiest and most trusted platform in distributed computing. Elements of their startup journey, including building open-source code and seeking venture funding. Enjoy the show! Connect with Bob: Website: https://salad.com/company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/milesbob Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 139 Ron Rudzin, President and CEO Saatva, Texas and New York Sometimes disruption can lead to a chaotic marketplace and the mattress industry has been one of those places. In 2010, the mattress industry had less than 1% of annual sales online. Today, online sales in the US make up 21% of all mattress sales. However, the number of companies launched and failed are in the hundreds. With all the competition and confusion, we looked to Ron Rudzin, co-founder, President and CEO of The Saatva Company to share how Saatva has become a market leader in this space. This luxury mattress company started in 2011 was the fastest-growing major direct-to-consumer mattress brand from 2019 to 2021. In 2021, Saatva ranked 101 on Inc’s list of the top 500 retailers of the year. Ron is also proud of his partnership with Pencil, where he serves on the board of directors, and HACA in Austin, Texas. Both organizations provide educational and social support to young people. Our conversation touched on: The ‘why’ behind being a luxury, full-size mattress company that is an e-commerce first business. How Saatva intentionally and purposefully sought to be the next great “S” company in the marketplace. Ron shares the story of the company name, which in Sanskrit means “pure.” How they are performance marketers first with an efficient and effective growth strategy. The decision to invest in eco-friendly material sourcing. Expansion and working with 19 factories and 150 delivery hubs. The development of viewing rooms and the conversion strategy that makes them the highest-grossing mattress retailer based on space. Enjoy the show! Connect with Ron: Website: http://saatva.com Website: http://www.saatvamattress.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-rudzin-84880ab
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 138 Nicholas Mattingly, CEO and Co-Founder, Switcher Inc, USA and Switzerland Nick Mattingly, CEO and co-founder of Switcher Inc., is the creator of Switcher Studio, an exciting software that helps creators and businesses produce multi-camera production videos easily and affordably. Nick is based in Kentucky and his co-founder runs the team in Switzerland. Together, they support creators in 150 countries and have partnered with companies including Facebook Live, LinkedIn and Microsoft Stream. Switcher Studio lets users sync multiple iOS devices to capture video content and allows for real-time editing. Switcher Studio also integrates with streaming platforms and video conferencing tools. The company has been featured in TechCrunch, USA Today, Inc. Magazine, and BBC. Nick is also a member of the highly competitive Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Nick has great enthusiasm for marketing his product but believes that “It’s not about selling products, it’s about bringing joy and solutions to people.” Highlights of our conversation include: The two-year journey to develop the technology platform. Solo bootstrapping to reach the official launch. Cheers to his wife for being the first investor and vision supporter. How Nick found his partner based in Switzerland and why the partnership works. Benefits of Switcher Studio for multi-camera and multi-source video used for live selling, events, sports, worship, and many more applications. The significant potential to elevate reach through selling in e-commerce environments. How Asia is ahead, and live selling represents up to 30% of all revenue generated online. Customers will always be your best investors. Enjoy the show! Connect with Nick: Website: https://switcherstudio.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmattingly
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 137 Jennifer Mitchell, Founder-Natura Solve, Utah This episode is a discussion with a real trailblazer on a self-funded, solo founder, entrepreneurial journey. She is in the clean tech space revolutionizing the way on how we can create a clean and sustainable future. Jennifer Mitchell founded Natura Solve, a company with a product that cleans up some of the nastiest stuff on the planet while doing great things for soil and water conservation. She is an emerging leader with global impact in the new clean tech industry and growing fields of bioremediation and bio augmentation. Highlights of our conversation include: The importance of cleaning up pollutants, bacteria, and unwanted impurities from soil and water. How the product includes natural biological medium-beneficial bacteria and fungi, putting good biology back into the soil or water. How the product supports soil recovery in agriculture and the positive impact it has made on the Navajo Nation. Latest projects, including cleaning Utah Lake and the Save the Beer water conservation awareness campaign. Understanding water conservation. As an example, it takes 1,056 gallons of water from bean to brew to make one gallon of coffee. The founder’s journey, including self-funding, juggling multiple businesses, and growing Natura Solve. Enjoy the show! Connect with Jennifer: Website: https://naturasolve.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennlynn/
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 136 Grant Botma, Founder Stewardship Mortgage, Insurance Planning and Financial- Gilbert, Arizona Grant Botma, the founder of Stewardship, is an inspiring thought leader who twice has put his company on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies. He is the author of the best-selling book, The Problem Isn’t Their Paycheck, and in his latest book, Work-Life Harmony, Grant shares the systems he has put in place that allow him to have his definition of life and work balance. Grant has an unlikely founder’s journey. He grew up on a farm, attended a Christian college, worked as a collections cold-caller, and then became passionate about helping people with their finances through what he calls wisdom and love. Highlights of our conversation include: How his background influenced his passion to love and respect people and to build a business from that perspective. When you look at the Stewardship website or walk into their offices, the experience immediately differs from the look and feel of other financial service organizations. The importance of culture-building, including meeting the motivation hierarchy of employee need. His thoughts on firing people from his organization. The relationship with his co-founders and their focus to best serve the business. Enjoy the show! Connect with Grant: Website: https://stewardship.pro/grant-botma Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grantbotma?fref=ts LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-botma-33a1671b Twitter: @grantbotma Instagram: grantbotma Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 135 Aaron Templer, Founder- Three Over Four Marketing Agency, Colorado Aaron Templer, owner of Three Over Four, is a 25-year marketing veteran and a thought leader that works with people and organizations that have values at their center. This episode concentrates on how Aaron and his team help CEOs and founders rethink the pressures of heavily investing in social media. He speaks from experience and backed by data as explained in his new book, Leading in a Social World: Stop social media marketing and build social capital instead. Aaron is also an American Marketing Association professional instructor and past president and volunteer for their national Professional Chapters Council. He is a firm believer that we need to bring ethics back into marketing. The advice that Aaron shares about marketing is invaluable. Highlights of the conversation include: Only 26% of social media activity ties onto business results and why this should make all leaders pause and think. The flaw in how social media marketers measure their data and how data frequently comes from the platforms that want to sell you more. Why the solution is investing in building social capital. Social media is a not a platform for sales but for customer engagement, especially nurturing those who already love us. Sharing the experience of building a great company of expert contract employees who have a stake in the outcome. Enjoy the show! Connect with Aaron: Website: https://www.aarontempler.com/bio Website: https://threeoverfour.com/ Book: https://www.leadinginasocialworld.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarontempler Twitter: @AaronTempler Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 134 Carolyn Barbarite, Creator & President, JavaMelts, New York Carolyn Barbarite, Creator and President of JavaMelts, is an extraordinary example of entrepreneur perseverance. Starting her product concept in 2016, her hand produced flavored sugar product was reaching fast success and winning awards in the B2B and B2C market. She was gaining momentum and Covid hit, creating one obstacle after another, especially since she was near the epicenter of Covid, outside of NY City. Carolyn’s founder’s story is a roller coaster journey of rising, falling, and rising again, even stronger. It’s a lesson of committing to your vision, even when everything seems stacked against you. Carolyn is in the food industry, but her story about pivoting and changing applies to any entrepreneur. Highlights of our conversation include: The agony of losing production partners and how the negative turned into a positive product reformulation. Amazon is a critical player in the business, even though they once shut her storefront down. Her belief in the product, persistence and determination had her story featured in Entrepreneur magazine. How the business is growing with new products and additional industry awards. Enjoy the show! Connect with Carolyn: Website: www.javamelts.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyn-barbarite-4bb3a3147/detail/photo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolyn.barbarite Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/stores/JAVAMELTSFlavoredSugar/JAVAMELTSFlavoredSugar/page/891AE2E5-2316-4C54-9EAC-B4DD1FDA1C00 Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 133 Nuno Fonseca, Creator & CEO Sound Particles, Leiria, Portugal This episode is a conversation with a university professor in a small town in Portugal who contributed and changed the game of audio production in major Hollywood, film, and game studios because of his revolutionary 3D sound technology. Nuno Fonseca, a professor with a PhD in computer audio, is the creator, founder, and CEO of Sound Particles, based in Leiria, Portugal. Sound Particles software is an immersive audio software capable of generating thousands or even millions of sounds in a virtual 3D audio world that allows for major sound sequences to be created quickly and easily. This ground-breaking technology uses computer graphics techniques applied to audio. The software combines particle systems with a 3D Computer Graphics-like engine. The software is used by major Hollywood studios, in productions such as Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Frozen II and Dune. It’s also used by video game companies including Blizzard, Epic Games, and PlayStation. Nuno shares his journey and long-term vision, including: Using the top-down approach in reaching professionals in the target market. The urgency to start a company when others started to create similar technology. The risk for a professor to start a company. Engaging with professionals, growing relationships, and building community cost effectively. Enjoying the privilege of working with top professionals and Hollywood studios. The importance of focusing on technology while simultaneously working on the short and long-term goals of the business. How Sound Particles differentiates its 3D sound product and how the strategy integrates with the company’s long-term goals. Enjoy the show! Connect with Nuno: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nuno-fonseca-04250a30/ Twitter: @soundparticles Website: https://www.soundparticles.com/community/customers Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 132 Ninh Tran, CEO and Co-Founder Snapbrillia, USA Ninh Tran, CEO of Snapbillia, was born in Viet Nam, raised in the Czech Republic, traveled all over Europe, studied at Berkeley and now lives in King City, California. Ninh and his co-founders are on a mission to change the way people hire in tech, using their SaaS platform and taking advantage of its AI capabilities to mitigate systemic bias. The platform is an AI interviewing and assessment tool that speeds up hiring and embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workspace. The tool is called a hiring manager’s best friend and is aimed at helping engineering hiring managers, engineers, and interviewers, plus recruiters and recruiting leaders. The big goal is to make it easy to help a million people get a job in tech. In our conversation, we discuss: An overview of the platform and how it differs from other similar platforms. The objective to bring humanity to business in all the ways Snapbrillia shows up and interacts with customers. The concept of building something that gives a user an easy winning moment to build emotional attachment to their product’s solution. Ninh’s experience as a three-time founder and the humility gained when a business doesn’t succeed. The benefit of all founders engaging and being aligned in the mission full-time. Enjoy the show! Connect with Ninh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninhtran08/ LinkedIn Company Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/snapbrillia/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snapbrillia/ Website: https://www.snapbrillia.com/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 131 Charlotte Journo-Baur, CEO/Founder Wishibam, Paris, France After traveling around the world, Charlotte Journo-Baur came back home to become the CEO and founder of her tech company, Wishibam, when she was only 25 years old. Charlotte graduated from one of the top French business schools, EM Lyon. She started her career as a strategy consultant in the retail practice of AT Kearney in Paris. Wishibam works with real estate companies, local authorities and retailers who want to increase profitably by using technology. Her platform helps retailers rethink the customer experience with a solution that brings the convenience of e-commerce and the complexity of their physical stores together. The French government has labeled the solution as necessary for retailers to recover post-Covid. Charlotte is part of the French Forbes 30 under 30 and a member of the executive board in charge of communication and public relations at the French Prop Tech. She operates in five European countries and is expanding to other continents. Charlotte’s experiences apply to many entrepreneurial leaders. In our conversation, we discuss: How she drew on the strength of her family’s business background in retail and real estate to reconcile online and physical retail challenges. Her mission to help independent and large retailers re-think their business model and extend the physical point of sale into greater opportunities. How the easy-to-use tech platform helps clients reduce the expense of being visible online and offers seamless transactions and stock reconciliation. Raising investor dollars to scale and working on another seed round. Acknowledging that as a founder, everything can be more difficult than you imagined, and you can feel alone. Her advice - put together a great team and support system. Enjoy the show! Connect with Charlotte: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-de-wishibam/ LinkedIn Company Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wishibam/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wishibam/?hl=fr / Twitter: https://twitter.com/Wishibam / Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 130 Ashley Crowder, CEO and Co-founder Vntana, USA and Europe Ashley Crowder is the Co-Founder and CEO of VNTANA, the world’s first 3D content management system with patented optimization that makes 3D fast and easy to scale for eCommerce. She has worked in the mixed-reality space for over 10 years helping Fortune 1000 brands, including Adidas, Lexus, and AT&T, to launch XR applications to increase sales. Ashley has 14 patents on mixed reality technology and leverages her engineering background to guide VNTANA’s overall direction and technology development to shape the future of e-commerce. Allison had an incredible conversation with Ashley, learning how her company’s groundbreaking services are helping businesses move products and make profits online by making it easy to create a 3D version of every product imaginable. Highlights include: An explanation of the Metaverse in simple terms. Why CEOs need to invest in the development of 3D assets as part of their value proposition. How VNTANA solutions support 3D creation and distribution, including their Smart 3D compression. Serving as a thought leader in your market space can attract and grow new business. How the team holds meetings in VR to keep things lively. (Visit www.rec.net or www.vrchat.com) Finding and sharing support with other female entrepreneurs. Enjoy the show! Connect with Ashley: Website: https://www.vntana.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-crowder-55a9875/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 129 Grant Blaisdell, CEO Copernic Space and Coinfirm, Poland The space economy is going to touch everyone and there are entrepreneurs other than Bezos and Musk who are making a difference. One of those entrepreneurial pioneers is Grant Blaisdell, CEO of Copernic Space and Coinfirm, based in Poland. Grant knows that we need the democratization of space, and the concept of space democratization developed by his grandfather, one of the first aerospace professors in Poland, inspires him. Grant is an early innovator in applying blockchain technology to various industries. By applying innovative models and technologies such as blockchain, Copernic Space makes digital space assets such as satellite imagery and or even fractional ownership of a satellite accessible and easy to acquire for millions around the world. We bring the conversation down to earth with exciting concepts that Grant is bringing to all of us. Highlights of our conversation include: How his platform can allow the average person and the mass market to become economically involved in space through tokenized payload space. Space tech is green tech. Applications can provide actionable results for people on earth. Viewing himself as a creator makes him a better founder and business builder. The mistakes and failures of prior startups have helped him achieve a profit in his recent ventures. Enjoy the show! Connect with Grant: Website: www.copernicspace.com Website: www.coinfirm.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 128 Eliane Luggasy, CEO & Co-founder Witco, Paris, France Eliane Lugassy is CEO and co-founder of Witco. The company, based in Paris, offers a customizable web and mobile app enabling interactions between tenants and building managers, real-time data, and analytics to improve building maintenance and management, and user metrics to improve tenant satisfaction. The app is proving to be essential, especially with hybrid work expansion. Wito clients and partners include multi-tenants, coworking spaces and managed residential buildings such as Amundi, Swiss Life, IPSEN, Guerlain, AXA IM, Covivio, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Union Investments and Unibail URW. Witco is finalist of the PropTech Europe Awards 2020, winner of the Bouygues Viva Tech Award and has featured on the Wavestone Smart Building Startups since 2019. In our conversation, Eliane shares her journey from studying business law and working in mergers and acquisitions to entering the entrepreneurial tech space. Highlights include: Lessons shared from self-financing to raising $14 million in Series A. Starting in France, now in Spain, Germany, UK and moving to the U.S. Company expansion starts with five team members in each country responsible for sales and marketing. A key to success-hire people with skill sets that are better than yourself. Continuing with self-improvements-networking, having a coach, and listening to podcasts. The importance of having a team and running it properly to be successful. Enjoy the show! Connect with Eliane: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elianelugassy Website: www.witco.io Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 127 Dominic von Trotha Taylor, Chairman & CEO, IOV42, United Kingdom & Austria Dominic von Trotha Taylor, Chairman and CEO of IVO42, leads a team which is building blockchain-inspired tools to revolutionize public services, including everything from finance to healthcare. In 2018, the European Commission brought IVO42 in to support the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). Dominic’s company is based in the UK with a subsidiary in Austria. During this conversation, Dominic was working in Malta. We discussed applications and trend of blockchain today and business insights including: The importance of business trust and reducing fraud through use of blockchain. The value exchange of the Internet and how blockchain supports IP (intellectual property) protection, digital product passports, industrial identity, and verification of workers. A timber industry case study on how blockchain can support credibility and product traceability. His four pillars of advice on leading companies for founding CEOs. His path from years on a navy submarine to leading major tech companies. The work of IOV42 today and the platform’s ability to provide scalability, sustainability, and flexibility. Enjoy the show! Connect with Dominic: Website: https://iov42.com/ Email: dominic@iov42.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 126 Jillian Michaels, International Entrepreneur and World’s Leading Fitness Expert Welcome to 2022! To kick off the new year, we have a conversation with the remarkable and brilliant entrepreneur Jillian Michaels, as well as provide some tips to set yourself up for success in the new year. As the world’s leading fitness expert, Jillian Michaels is committed to helping people to be the best versions of themselves and live their happiest and healthiest lives. Jillian has dominated the health and wellness space in every realm of media–apps, podcasting, streaming, television, print, publishing, and social media with a collective community of over 100 million strong. The Fitness App created by Jillian is the top-rated diet and exercise app for women, having won best-of awards from both Google and Apple. In 2008, Jillian launched her company, Empowered Media, LLC, with her business partner Giancarlo Chersich. Over the past decade, Empowered Media has become a monumental wellness empire dedicated to total-life solutions comprising all aspects of living well, including nutrition, fitness, self-help and overall lifestyle. The company has invested in like-minded companies, including Thrive Market, Lucky Jack Coffee, AQUAHydrate, Flywheel, and Alaya Naturals. In this episode we discuss: Jillian’s first big, bold move when she started her company and how she financed it. The relationship of ‘pivot, adapt and shift’ to long-term relevancy for your business. The philosophy that how you deliver on your brand promise is EVERYTHING in the success of your business. That you are the brand, so you need to pay attention to all that you do. Jillian is an Emmy nominated television talent. Her extensively successful fitness DVDs are the highest grossing, best-selling home workouts in history. She is the author of 8 New York Times best-selling books, and host of the Apple award-winning podcast, Keeping It Real: Conversations with Jillian Michaels. Enjoy the show! Connect with Jillian: Websites: www.jillianmichaels.com, www.fitfusion.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillian-michaels-6795b3165/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jillianmichaels/ Instagram: Instagram: @jillianmichaels @thefitnessapp Twitter: @JillianMichaels YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JillianMichaels Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keeping-it-real-conversations-with-jillian-michaels/id418368811 Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 125 Sagi Eliyahu, CEO & Co-founder, Tonkean, Israel Sagi Eliyahu, CEO and co-founder of Tonkean, has created a software that is known as the operating system for business operations. Tonkean AI autonomously coordinates, executes and manages business workflows across data and people, so nothing falls through the cracks. Tonkean is a platform that allows companies in different industries and sizes to take ownership of how they solve problems in their organization and improve their business processes. Instead of buying software products that don’t integrate with each other, Tonkean offers a solution that enables teams to build and compose their own customized solutions that is easy to execute and does not require coding. In our conversation, we discuss: The importance of recognizing that business processes are about people, not data. The concept of how the software works as a composable building block. Sagi’s journey in the software industry from serving in the Israel Defense Force to startups. Growing with his co-founder, Offir Talmor. Building a network of mentors and learning from their experiences. The vision of helping to close digital divides. Enjoy the show! Connect with Sagi: Website: https://tonkean.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tonkean/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliyahusagi/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 124 Alex Young, Founder & CEO Virti, U.K. & USA Alex Young, Founder and CEO of Virti, is a former surgeon turned human performance expert, who specializes in revolutionizing the way people learn, train and perform through immersive technology. His company is unique in how it builds training tools to improve how employees learn and retain skills. Virti is a cloud-based training platform which incorporates AI, computer-generated avatars, videos, gamification techniques, experiential learning and virtual reality. The backend includes measurement of employee engagement and retention. Virti has being named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2020 and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021. The company started with a focus on healthcare, but clients are using the technology in a variety of settings, leading the company to grow from a team of 10 to 50 people in six months. Highlights of our conversation include: Alex’s thoughts on why everyone should have a side hustle and how his side hustle while working as a surgeon changed his life. Virti’s funding journey from pre-seed to a $10-million Series A investment. The importance of company culture to human performance and success. Learning how to be a great CEO and leader and the critical action of delegating. Enjoy the show! Connect with Alex: Website: https://www.virti.com/ Twitter: @alexanderfyoung LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-f-young/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1QnKYxNXosv9ykUt_6wCMg Blog: https://blog.alexanderfyoung.com/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 123 Zak Holdsworth, Co-founder Hint Health In both technology and vision, Zak Holdsworth’s story is inspirational on how he went from a small farming community in New Zealand to fulfilling his dream of making it in Silicon Valley. Today he is working on democratizing the world of primary care physicians to free them from the complex world of US insurance carriers. Zak is a change maker, helping physicians cut out the insurance process by going direct to consumers and using the new model for direct primary called subscription as a service. Prior to co-founding Hint, Zak was VP Business Development at WellnessFX, the first direct-to-consumer clinical diagnostics/telemed company in the US, a startup he invested in during his time at Voyager Capital. Zak holds a BE (Honors) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Highlights of our conversation include: Complexities of disrupting any existing system, especially one with a trillion-dollar risk. How transformation requires support from the communities of people on the path of change with you. Challenges facing physicians who choose to step outside of the status quo and take the leap of faith to restart their practice from scratch under the new model. The relationship Zak has with his co-founder - how they went from professionals who butted heads to synchronized collaboration and trust. How the Hint platform provides a total business solution and integrations for physicians wanting a one-to-one relationship with their clients. How a mission-based sales process and providing an annual Hint Summit builds relationships with physicians that results in referrals and retention. Enjoy the show! Connect with Zak: Website: www.hint.com Website: www.summit.hint.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hint-health/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zakholdsworth/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/HintHealth Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 122 Salil Pande, CEO & Founder, VMock, Chicago, USA and New Delhi, India Salil Pande, CEO and Founder of VMock, has a passion to use AI and machine learning to create better career systems for candidates and corporations. The SMART Career Platform technology provides students and professionals with instant feedback and guidance. The company employs 120 people and operates between Chicago and New Delhi, India. Before founding VMock, Salil was the Head of Emerging Markets for Siemens, where he led the firm’s emerging market strategy. Prior to that, he was Director of Sales at the Corporate Executive Board, where he worked with Fortune 2000 clients. He is a frequent speaker at the Kellogg School of Management. In our conversation, Salil shares his founder’s journey, including a focus on: How VMock helps individuals in their ‘learning to earning’ journey by harnessing technological ‘tutoring’ through automated tools for resumes, interview skill feedback, and coaching. What it has been like building the company with a co-founder spouse and how undivided trust will pull you along. The value of placing a pause on investor money if you can accelerate the strategies and get your company to stand on its own. Envisioning the long game, securing patents, and the focus on constant improvement as a growth strategy. Viewpoints on trends for educational institutions to survive and thrive in the future - think fewer offerings and more highly branded expert programs. Enjoy the show! Connect with Salil: Website: https://www.vmock.com/site LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vmock-inc/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salilpande01/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 121 Lindsey Allard, CEO & Co-Founder Playbookux, New York Lindsey Allard, CEO and co-founder of PlaybookUX, knows the importance of finding unbiased user research. Lindsey is a former product manager for three innovation-based startups and has built a product that primarily serves product managers and user researchers. Her software is a video-based user feedback application that streamlines the user feedback process. The company started by serving small and medium-sized businesses, freelancers, and nonprofits and offers multiple price points. Major corporations are now part of the company’s growing portfolio. Highlights of our conversation include: The importance of user research democratization. How AI can provide a new level of user testing to companies of all sizes. Using AI can also remove creeping bias in user testing results. The slow and steady approach to building the company with her co-founder spouse led them to be fully self-funded. The philosophy of product excellence and how it led to organic, product-based growth. Being an entrepreneur is a marathon, not a sprint, and consistency is a key to success. Enjoy the show! Connect with Lindsey: Website: https://www.playbookux.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseyallard2/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 120 Brian Roland, Rounder and Social Entrepreneur Brian Roland is a natural entrepreneur who immediately started by building new sales methods by looking for gaps and figuring out to fill them. Following that method, his first clients included the US Army, Walt Disney Company and Oracle. Abenity, his privately funded company, co-founded with his brother, helps businesses large and small bring perks and benefits to employees and coordinates the complex partnerships on the backend. The technology handles data, privacy, changing tax rates, corporate compliance and more. The social mission for the business is a long-time partnership with World Vision that now exceeds $1-million in giving to fight extreme poverty. Highlights of our conversation include: The incredible partnership with his brother and why it works. Leading a remote team across 30 States. How being a people first company contributes to its success. The importance of giving teams a “why” and purpose, especially remote teams. Recognizing when it was time to hire a CEO for the company he built. Favorite resources to stay energized about business. Enjoy the show! Connect with Brian: Book: Text Rules to +1 615 802 6853 Free Rules of Engagement to help you build a connected remote team. Abenity.com – Use coupon DISCOUNT CODE to save $150. off first month’s service Free Giveaway: https://abenity.com/?utm_source=p_disruptiveceo&utm_medium=podcast&utm_interview_9/28&utm_content=brian Website: https://www.brianroland.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianroland/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 119 Shawn Harper, International, corporate motivational speaker Shawn Harper is a seven-year former NFL offensive lineman who played with the Rams, Oilers, Colts, and NFL Europe. He now owns and operates American Services and Protection, a multi-million-dollar security services firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Shawn is a leading motivational speaker whose lessons from the NFL locker room to the corporate culture of the boardroom prove that one can win both worlds by using the same principles and strategies. Shawn has a high energy and spirit that makes our conversation so memorable. He shares his journey of overcoming adversity and deciding to win in life. That decision took him from barely making it out of high school, to the NFL and outstanding success in business. Our conversation includes Shawn’s journey from being a silent investing partner in a security business, to becoming a leader, taking personal responsibility and ownership, and navigating challenges. We also discuss insights from his book, The Winning Edge, including: How winners look for the edge in tactics and strategies. The best leaders know their opponents and competition even better than themselves. How to center yourself and build capacity. Enjoy the show! Connect with Shawn: Book: The Winning Edge https://shawnharperspeaking.clickfunnels.com/opt-in Website: https://www.shawnharper.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawnharperspeaks Instagram: @shawnharperspeaker LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnharper75/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/shawnharper075 Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 118 Robert Kaul, Founder and CEO Cloud DX, Canada and USA Robert Kaul is founder and CEO of Cloud DX, a leading North American provider of virtual care and remote patient monitoring solutions. The Cloud DX tech platform uses virtual care to address chronic illness, post-surgery care and maternal/natal care. Chronic illness is the number one healthcare challenge worldwide and is the largest cost in healthcare budgets. The company’s mission is to deliver quality healthcare that improves outcomes for patients on a large scale, is easier for clinicians to use and is less expensive. Robert has nearly 30 years of experience in sales, marketing and operations leadership, including a successful 17-year track record of leading early stage technology companies. Founded in 2014, Cloud DX is Robert’s sixth startup. Robert has a BSc in Biology and a certificate in Operations Strategy from MIT-Sloan. In our conversation, Robert shares how Cloud DX is disrupting the healthcare space and insights learned as an entrepreneur. We discuss: Overcoming barriers to disrupt the healthcare industry. How COVID-19 helped accelerate the transition to virtual care. The strategy for finding the right market fit. Advice for entrepreneurs: team up with a great co-founder, use investors who can be mentors, and find the right team. Pitching investor insights: find networks of people who understand your mission. Next marketing steps: educating and finding patients qualified for virtual chronic care. Enjoy the show! Connect with Robert: Website: https://www.clouddx.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clouddxinc/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cloud.dx/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloud-dx/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CloudDX Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #business #businessstrategy #growthstrategy #entreprenuer #entrepreneurship #entreprenuerlife #tech #technology #startups #startupstory #AI #machinelearning #founder #femalefounder
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 117 Muna AbuSulayman, Saudi Arabian Entrepreneur and Media Icon It’s a privilege to have a conversation with one of the most influential woman from Saudi Arabia, a serial entrepreneur and media superstar, Muna AbuSulayman. Muna continues hosting the seven years running, number on television show in the Arab world that centers on social issues. Muna is internationally recognized as an expert in management, education, sustainable development, female empowerment, and has spoken at the World Economic Forum, UN, and The World Bank. Muna created five centers of Islamic Studies at Harvard, Georgetown, Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities. She has also launched, managed, and scaled multiple businesses and is running a consultancy that focuses on solving problems in education, gender issues, media, and entrepreneurship. Muna’s mission is to transfer outside knowledge to Saudi Arabia, especially to female entrepreneurs who are bringing transformation to the country. She shares her story of being a media icon to entrepreneurship, and explains how being a social impact investor, and the importance of social entrepreneurism, can provide solutions from both profit and non-profit sectors. We discuss a wide variety of topics, including: · The launch of Adri with her New Zealand co-founder. · Using AI to translate thousands of pages in minutes. · Muna’s personal ethics of how she works with people. · Invest in the legal documents for setting up a business and set roles properly. · The media pressures of an entrepreneur and the downside when creating a “successful image.” Enjoy the show! Connect with Muna: Website: https://adri.nz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriinstitute Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muna_abusulayman/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Show Notes Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast with Allison K. Summers Episode 116 David Wood, Founder, Focus CEO Who would think that so much wisdom could be shared from discussing and smiling about Dracula and The Gong Show! This episode is with the world’s number one life coach David Wood, founder of Focus CEO. David has thousands of coaching hours with high-performers from around the world. He explains his philosophy of what it means to be “living in” business by moving from a pure money and systems focus to being more “human.” David shares relatable examples, plus thoughts from his new book, The Mouse in the Room. Highlights from our conversation include: · A framework for courage-if you wait for competence, nothing happens. · Overcoming the imposter syndrome and being more courageous. · Prep like a bad ass and get the win! · How focus propels you to succeed faster. · The importance of a coach and what to consider when hiring yours. · Why you need to be aware of the small things around you. Take advantage of David’s gift basket listed in the notes. Enjoy the show! Connect with David: Website: https://focus.ceo/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/focus-ceo/ Freebie Goodies: http://www.myfocusgift.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Mitch Russo has been featured in Forbes, Inc. Entrepreneur and Fortune throughout his career as a CEO and thought leader. In 1989 and 1991, he was nominated for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year. In 1985, Mitch co-founded Timeslips Corp, which grew to become the largest time tracking Software Company in the world. Ten years later, Timeslips was sold to Sage Plc. and while at Sage he served as Chief Operating Officer, a division with 300 people with a market cap over $100-million. Mitch also worked behind the scenes as CEO with Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins. Together they created Business Breakthroughs, Int’l, a company serving thousands of businesses a year with coaching, consulting and training services, generating over $25-million a year in revenue. Today, Mitch serves world-class leaders who want to take their business to the next level with his coaching and wisdom. Here are some highlights of our conversation: · The most important role when you’re a CEO. · How to build your team culture and tribe. · Sell nothing unless you know what you’re selling next. · How a podcast can solidify your brand and start client conversations · Three critical traits of a disruptive CEO. Mitch also shares how he balances business with being a world class photographer. You can view his work at https://lenstraveler18.smugmug.com/Travel Enjoy the show! Connect with Mitch: Website: www.MitchRusso.com Books: www.InvisibleOrganization.com and www.PowerTribesBook.com Software App: www.ClientFol.io Podcast: YourFirstThousandClients.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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There’s a wealth of information in this episode for start-up entrepreneurs building consumer brands, and those who value using automation and quantitative analysis in marketing tools. David Fink gives insights to both worlds, first from being a founding partner at Science Inc. and working with over 75 consumer internet companies, including the Dollar Shave Club, Jessica Simpson and other top brands. Today he is CEO and Co-Founder of Postie, where his team uses direct mail to transform brands including Lyft, Casper, Warby Parker and more. The conversation starts with David giving a great perspective in explaining the difference between a new business being opportunistic versus a disruptor or problem solver, and which has a better chance of succeeding. We also cover other topics, including: · The elements that predict a successful startup: Solution, TAMS (Total Addressable Market Size) Clear business model, Team players. · The rise of social media as a transformative place and the Dollar Shave Club example. · Postie delivers direct mail solutions for data conscious digital marketers. · Marketers need to control engaging brand storytelling in impactful ways. · Brands are investing in budgets to use storytelling on social channels. · Platforms like Tech Crunch keeps his thinking sharp. So does his library of 2-thousand books! Enjoy the show! Connect with David: Website: https://postie.com/index.html LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlfink/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Nora Herting, CEO and Co-founder of ImageThink, is a pioneer in using visual imagery as a method to create personal and organizational change. Nora and her entrepreneurial team work primarily with Fortune 100 companies, using a design thinking method as a catalyst to help unlock human potential. In our conversation, Nora gives examples of how the process works and how it leads to easier facilitation of ideas and moving a company’s vision forward. Nora is an international thought leader and has presented at Cannes Lions, SXSW Interactive, WBENC, and is often featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and MSNBC. Highlights include: · The neuroscience of how the brain is wired to process visual thinking. · How imagery can expedite forward movement and change. · How visual thinking can move teams from different realities to shared understanding. · How the ImageThink Method™ is a great diagnostic and storytelling tool for leaders to engage internal and external stakeholders. Enjoy the show! Connect with Nora: Website: https://www.imagethink.net/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nora-herting-imagethink/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Dan McGaw, CEO of McGaw.io, is an award-winning entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in marketing technology and marketing analytics. Dan was formerly the head of marketing at Kissmetrics and was head of growth at CodeSchool.com which was acquired by Pluralsight. He’s also a 500 Startups Mentor. Dan has been called one of the original growth hackers and godfathers of marketing technology. He has helped thousands of companies over his career, and in today’s episode he helps to demystify marketing tech. His company helps customers choose their tools, integrate and operate them, and then leverage their tech stack to grow their business. Check out the notes below as Dan is giving listeners a free download of his latest book, Build Cool Sht. Think of it as a short executive guide on how to use your tech stack to grow your business. Highlights of our conversation include: · Being an entrepreneur is tough, but you get to Build Cool Sht. · An entrepreneurial ecosystem requires building a culture that allows for failure. · Your brand value must be clear on the customer journey. Make things easy for the customer. · Design marketing systems and funnels to measure and track. · Dan’s practice of being an avid reader and how that can help you grow. Enjoy the show! Connect with Dan: Free Book Offer: Build Cool Sh*t. Text Martech to 1.415.915.9011 Website: https://mcgaw.io/ Website: https://web.utm.io/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmcgaw/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/danielmcgaw Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Benjamin Talin is truly a technology disruptor and digital futurist. Based in Switzerland, Benjamin is the founder and CEO of More Than Digital.info, which helps companies survive the tech future by providing access to knowledge about technology trends. Benjamin and his team have over 1.7 million people in 100 countries sharing expertise about the digital world. His team is also working on highly scalable solutions to help companies and individuals with new technologies and services. Their goal is to be sure that no company is left behind and that every individual has access to education and knowledge sharing. Benjamin promotes the topics of digitization, digital transformation and innovation internationally. He is an Advisory Board Member for the University of Digital Science in Berlin and a member of the Digital Society Initiative, University of Zurich. As a Member of the Global Panel of Massachusetts Technology Review and the Harvard Business Review, he works with leading executives around the world to share knowledge on technology trends and the impact on businesses. Highlights of our conversation include: · The journey of building the More Than Digital community. · The truth of platform building-99% of businesses fail and it takes five years to see revenue. · Starting as a young entrepreneur, the “f*ck ups” along the way, including fighting the status quo, bouncing back and listening to criticism. · Why CEOs and C-suite executives need to network with other industries. · Future vision–to change the education system. Enjoy the show! Connect with Benjamin: Website: https://morethandigital.info Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Achal Patel, Co-founder and CEO of Cabinet Health Brand, has a vision to provide high-quality medicine with environmentally sustainable packaging that makes people feel cared for. Along with his co-founder, they started with two over-the-counter products on Amazon, and within a year became an eight-figure healthcare digital brand. Achal attributes part of the company’s early success to listening and communicating directly with customers. Cabinet Health is committed to showing transparency that every medicine sold is free of carcinogens, toxic metals and allergens such as gluten and soy. Both partners have previous experience in the supply chain process, which gives Cabinet the advantage to oversee quality control, purity and traceability of ingredients. In our conversation, we discuss: · Growing and serving customers with a product first mentality. · Communicating to consumers that Cabinet’s products have extra quality controls, including third party testing. · The responsibility of a B corp to its team, partners, and customers. · Creating packaging to combat the estimated 150 billion bottles of waste from medications. · The three-part vision for the company. Enjoy the show! Connect with Achal: Website: https://cabinethealth.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/achalapatel/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cabinet-health/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearecabinet/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wearecabinet Twitter: https://twitter.com/achal_patel1 Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Everything about the Boxabl story is disruptive and unconventional. It answers the problem of the major housing shortage in America. It is being funded by investors sourced from social media. It has multiple patents because of how it’s constructed and shipped, developed and launched with team members found on freelance Internet sites, and that’s just part of the story! Galiano Tiramani is the co-founder of Boxabl, a patented system that delivers factory-built rooms, all fabricated and ready to open on-site in just hours. Boxabl is the world’s most advance modular house that provides versatile residential and commercial solutions, with floor plans and architectural styles chosen by the customer at extremely competitive prices. Galiano started Boxabl with just ideas on paper, doing Internet research and is now ready to open the manufacturing facility in Las Vegas. Galiano shares his incredible story, including: · How Boxabl solves a major problem in the US. · How the California market immediately responded with open arms. · Designing with shipping concerns immediately addressed. · This is not a tiny house. It’s a building block process. · The investment strategy and scaling up. · The patent process. · 40-thousand people are already on the waitlist. Look at the great videos listed below to spark your imagination. Enjoy the show! Enjoy the show! BOXABL IS CONSIDERING UNDERTAKING AN OFFERING OF SECURITIES UNDER TIER 2 OF REGULATION A. NO MONEY OR OTHER CONSIDERATION IS BEING SOLICITED, AND IF SENT IN RESPONSE, WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. NO OFFER TO BUY THE SECURITIES CAN BE ACCEPTED AND NO PART OF THE PURCHASE PRICE CAN BE RECEIVED UNTIL THE OFFERING STATEMENT FILED BY THE COMPANY WITH THE SEC HAS BEEN QUALIFIED BY THE SEC. ANY SUCH OFFER MAY BE WITHDRAWN OR REVOKED, WITHOUT OBLIGATION OR COMMITMENT OF ANY KIND, AT ANY TIME BEFORE NOTICE OF ACCEPTANCE GIVEN AFTER THE DATE OF QUALIFICATION. AN INDICATION OF INTEREST INVOLVES NO OBLIGATION OR COMMITMENT OF ANY KIND. A COPY OF OUR PRELIMINARY OFFERING CIRCULAR MAY BE OBTAINED HERE, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1816937/000109690621000494/box_1aa.htm Connect with Galiano: Website: https://www.boxabl.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boxabl/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/_boxabl Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_boxabl/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boxabl/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/boxabl
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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The advancements of healthcare technology are changing the way people have accessibility and affordability to healthcare. Tess Cosad has tremendous insights into the disruptive health tech space. She is a FemTech founder based in the UK, the CEO and co-founder of Bea Fertility, a venture-backed startup which brings fertility treatment that’s affordable, safe and administered at home. Tess previously founded Emberson Ventures, a B2B marketing agency specializing in tech sectors. She also created Hers By Design, a female-led, female-focused FemTech brand, and in 2018 was the first woman to lead a digital marketing-focused accelerator program in Saudi Arabia, on behalf of the Growth Velocity Academy. In our conversation, Tess shares her passion for being able to solve anything that doesn’t strike her as fair, the behind-the-scenes work required in a startup, marketing insights and more. We discuss: · The co-founder’s responsibility to sell and keep the vision. · Being a medical device company going direct to consumers. · Putting a spotlight on FemTech is necessary, but someday the focus should just be on healthcare. · Funding the pre-seed round and now ready to start the seed round. · Product positioning and strategic marketing based on market segmentation. Enjoy the show! Connect with Tess: Website: www.beafertility.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beafertility/ Twitter: @beafertility Instagram: @beafertility LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tess-isabelle-cosad/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Marina Tran-Vu is an environmental super hero based in Viet Nam. She is the founder of EQUO, a company that creates better solutions for plastic and paper products. Marina has an incredible story of being a female founder, a Viet Nam TechStars and Shark Tank contestant, and a marketing expert who understands what it takes to innovate and bring eco-friendly products to market. For over 10 years, Marina worked in brand management, including Unilever, Bacardi, LG Electronics and Spin Master. She is a recipient of the SME100 Fast Moving Companies Award, featured on FORBES, admitted as the first Vietnam-based company backed by TechStars, named to Vegpreneur’s 25 Vegan Companies You Need to Know, and is one of Flik’s 21 Women Entrepreneurs to watch in 2021. Our conversation covers a range of topics from Marina’s initial product idea to global execution, including: · The path to innovation, starting EQUO, and manufacturing opportunities in Viet Nam. · The Viet Nam TechStars and Shark Tank experiences. · Branding sustainable, eco-friendly products to be fun and attractive. · The responsibility of being a sole female founder and encouraging investors to support women. · Working in both the B2B and consumer markets. · Using experts in a variety of distribution channels to scale responsibly. Enjoy the show! Connect with Marina: Website: https://equointl.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marina.tranvu Twitter: @marinatv_ Instagram: @marinatv_ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinatranvu/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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American Blake Sherwood was 17 years old and living in Shanghai as part of the National Security Language program sponsored by the US State Department. After graduating and back in the States, Blake checked in with his Chinese host family and heard about COVID-19 months before it was on the radar of North Americans. When he saw nurses stapling masks together, he knew there was a better way to do things. His friends in China sent him 500 masks, and he began his PPE journey. Blake immersed himself in learning supply chains, shipping logistics, government relations, quality control, and fraud in the industry. His first major client was the State of Illinois and thorough networking, he became a Strategic Partner with Nix Covid, a leading medical equipment provider. Now, at age 22, Blake continues his consulting and working with the team to introduce a Covid detection technology using AI. Blake’s story as a young entrepreneur is remarkable and inspirational. In our conversation, we cover a wide range of topics, from how he executed this project to insights on what it takes to be a successful businessperson. We discuss: · The study and process of supply chains and logistics. · Essential entrepreneurial fundamentals. · The unique partnership and how Nix Covid operates. · Overcoming PPE industry fraud. · The next Covid detection technology using AI. · Giving back to the community by donating PPE. Enjoy the show! Connect with Blake: Website: www.nixcovid.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nixcovid LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-sherwood/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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I’ve interviewed entrepreneurs and leaders from all over the world, and the successful ones are those who keep to their core values, find that inner wisdom to keep focused, and remain calm under pressure. My guest, Nevsah Fidan Karamehmet, helps everyone from leaders, business owners, corporate employees, and celebrities tap into self-mastery through her courses and breathing techniques. Based in the UK, Nevsah is the President of International Breath Coaching Federation and meditation expert who launched a unique meditation with breath app during the lock down called Breath Hub. She is a faculty member at The Breathing Sciences Faculty - Graduate School of Behavioral Health Sciences, the Vice President responsible for UK and European Operations of the Graduate School of Behavioral Health Sciences, and the national representative of the International Breathwork Foundation. Nevsah is also the author of best-selling book, Awakening is Not What You Think. In our conversation, we discuss: · Living and working wisely. · The shortcut to self-mastery. · Lessons learned from Ted Baker. · Launching the app with celebrities, influencers and raving fans. · The importance of having a personal connection to the brand. · A breathing exercise to practice any time of day. Enjoy the show! Connect with Nevsah: Website: https://nevsah.co.uk/ App: www.breathhub.app Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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There is a global resonance, a societal energy behind the topic of diversity and inclusion. Yet it remains a challenge for people to get the diversity inclusion equation correct in the workplace. Frans Johnasson, Founder and CEO-The Medici Group is creating a great disruption to changing organizations, especially large-scale global companies meet the diversity challenge with his successful program called Renaissance. Frans knows that diversity inclusion drives innovation. He is a breathing testament with his long-time work on the subject and is influenced with his own background of being raised in Sweden by a Swedish father and an American/Cherokee mother. Frans is also the author of two books–The Medici Effect and The Click Moment. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He is an international speaker and has been published in Harvard Business Press. Diversity inclusion is an urgent challenge in the world today, and so is the need to innovate, grow and adapt. I hope you will accept the challenge and learn from this very insightful conversation. We discuss: · Diversity looks differently depending on where you are in the world; however, working with teams from many countries doesn’t mean you’re inclusive. · How do you activate diversity? · How do you activate innovation? · How to make behavioral shifts in the workplace to scale ideas forward and generate positive business impact. · The necessity of building community and networking in the technology industry. · How the Renaissance program removes the pain points of change management. Enjoy the show! Connect with Frans: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fransjohansson/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Frans_Johansson Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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French native Nicolas Mendiharat is on a mission to democratize and demystify the world of fine wine. In 2017 he founded Palate Club and developed an unheard-of approach of using data science to help match individual tastes and preferences with sustainable wines. In our conversation, Nicolas shares a real behind-the-scenes look at how the North American wine industry works, and how he is disrupting both supply change issues and opening the door for the average consumer to truly enjoy consuming wonderful wines without the snobbery. And Palate Club members have a great time learning about their palate! Nicolas previously launched and led five startups, including Europe’s most successful ski vacation booking site with over $100-million revenue, and 300 thousand customers during his leadership. Nicolas shares his insights on topics including: · Being successful depends on customer service and satisfaction. · The US wine supply chain - insights on markups, marketing, and subpar products. · The science of Taste Matching Technology. · Combing talent-mathematicians, sommeliers, neuroscientists, and mathematicians. · How blind tasting kits create a curated portfolio of wines to satisfy your palate. · The App #1 AOS ranking in Android for “Wine” · #1 AOS ranking in Android & iOs for “Wine Club” Enjoy the show! Connect with Nicolas: Website: https://www.palateclub.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mendiharat/ Instgram: @mendiharat Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mendi Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Thejo Kote was a co-founder of Automatic, which was sold to Sirius XM for $110 million. Although Thejo was a success, he experienced a lot of painful lessons about running a company and knew he wanted to do it better next time. The most inefficient area he saw was non-payroll spend and that no one had designed a fully articulated, consolidated software solution to fix this broken process. That gave Thejo the idea to start Airbase. Today, Airbase is the leading spend management platform for small and midsize companies. It combines comprehensive accounts payable, an advanced corporate card program, and employee expense reimbursements into one system. Airbase automates accounting and operational workflows for a faster close, real-time reporting, and a consistent platform experience for all non-payroll spend. So far, the company has raised $30.8 million in venture funding. Highlights from our conversation include: · Team collaboration over nine countries and 100 individuals. · The reason behind having a free tiered version for smaller companies. · Favorite tools for working remotely, Slack, Notion and Asana. · Insights on venture funding. · Asking people in your network to open doors for your business. · The value of case studies to sell your brand. Enjoy the show! Connect with Thejo: Website: https://www.airbase.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejo/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/airbaseinc/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AirbaseHQ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Christian Giordano, Co-Owner of Mancini Duffy, is one of the most innovative and influential people in the architecture and design space today. Christian is revolutionizing the industry with Toolbelt, a patent-pending software that allows users to explore and manipulate 3D models collaboratively. It enables clients to put on VR goggles and stand in 3D models of their architectural projects and change plans in real-time. Christian has put Mancini Duffy, a 100-year-old company, into the forefront of design and is listed as one of Building Design + Construction’s “40 Under 40” for his leadership. He has also launched Design Lab, an incubator which brings together designers, technologists, and clients to leverage technologies like Virtual Reality, 3D Printing, Drones, Generative Design, and Artificial Intelligence. Highlights of our conversation include: · Defining a new model of differentiation for customers using new technologies. · Eliminating the need or desire for flat drawings. · How the gamification of architectural design accelerates the understanding and consensus for client approval and sign off. · The power of finding great intrapreneurs to drive brand success. · Being a leader requires setting a vision for your brand. Enjoy the show! Connect with Christian: Website: https://www.manciniduffy.com Website: https://thetoolbelt.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manciniduffy/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cdgiordano/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mancini_duffy/
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Ken Wentworth, aka Mr. Biz, worked his way up to the top three percent at a Fortune 15 company when he took the leap to become an entrepreneur. Ken credits his confidence to make that bold transition because of his competitive athletic career and holding six world records in the sport of bench press! Ken is the award-winning host of Mr. Biz Radio, which airs 55 hours each week across six different networks. Ken has a social media following of over 280 thousand and has been featured on Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Fast Company, The New York Finance, and American Express. His most recent book, Pathway to Profits, provides an actionable blueprint to excel in any economy. Based in Columbus, Ohio, but working globally, Ken shares insights on cash flow, sales, marketing, and other topics including:
How Fractional CFO/COO/CEO services can support growing startups and provide multiple returns to the bottom line.
When choosing outside expertise, consider what you gain in security, protection and exponential income.
Don’t DYI (do it yourself) with everything in your business.
Understand your talents and be honest about how additional expertise will grow your business.
The importance of a strong balance sheet, improved cash flow and budgets.
Make intellectual property trademark a priority.
Enjoy the show! Connect with Ken: Website: www.MrBizSolutions.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MrBizSolutions/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mr-biz-wentworth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrBizTweets
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Brett Harris Wigdortz, OBE is the co-founder and CEO of Tiney, a UK digital B-Corp focused on reimagining at-home childcare and unlocking the potential of all children. Previously, Brett founded and is the Honorary President of Teach First, an educational charity working to break the link between low family income and poor educational attainment in England and Wales. He was CEO of Teach First from its launch in 2002 until October 2017. He is originally from Ocean Township, New Jersey and is a dual US/UK citizen. Brett has the philosophy that a good business story is written by having good people around you, and he shares that in our conversation. Other highlights include: · The vision for Tiney, a B-Corp, and creating a new model for finding quality pre-school teachers to be trained, registered and licensed. · The due diligence to find the right co-founders and interviewing 40 plus candidates to find the right CTO. · Tiney is also a Fin Tech company running invoicing and banking through the app. · Startup support from the UK government and business. · The prior experience of founding Teach First. Enjoy the show! Connect with Brett: Website: https://www.tiney.co
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Dr. Jeffrey Magee CBE, CSP, CMC, PDM is often referred to as one of today’s leading Leadership Strategists. Dr. Magee believes that in both the start-up to mature-growth market business sector, the number one resource companies have is human capital and successful leaders bring out the best in people to help organizations thrive. Dr. Magee is the author of over 30 books, three college graduate management textbooks, four best sellers, and is the Publisher of PERFORMANCE/P360 Magazine. He was recognized as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce and twice selected to represent the United States at the World Congress as a Leadership Speaker. In our conversation, we discuss leadership topics including: · 13 questions to ask before going into business with a partner. · How to cut through the noise and create a clear mind for decisions. · The four points customers look for in your business. · The number one question to ask when making a business decision. · Considerations when choosing your mentors. Enjoy the show! Connect with Dr. Jeffrey: Website: http://www.jeffreymagee.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjeffspeaks
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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Kizzy Parks, PhD, owns and operates multiple businesses and has secured over $50 million in government contract awards. Dr. Kizzy started K. Parks Consulting, KPC, ten years ago because of an unexpected government consulting contract. Today, through her GovCon Winners program, she helps service-based small business owners learn how to bid and then win profitable federal government contracts. Dr. Kizzy knows first-hand that there are thousands of opportunities and it's overwhelming to find the correct agencies that need small business services, projects that need fulfillment and surprising opportunities for what she calls low-hanging fruit. Some topics Dr. Kizzy and I discuss include: · Why pursuing government contracts may be right for your business. · What types of government contracts are available. · Key insights on how to approach the application process, including timelines. · Government contracting and necessary documents. · Why a leader needs to choose to lead from a point of humility. Enjoy the show! Connect with Dr. Kizzy: Website and free gift: https://www.govconwinners.com/7-mistakes-to-avoid-in-government-contracting/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DKP2007 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kizzy/ Twitter: @KizzyKPC
Connect with Allison: Website: www.allisonksummers.com
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Victor Fredung is a Sweden-based FinTech innovator who co-founded Zensed and is currently serving as the CEO of Shufti Pro, an AI-driven identity verification service provider. Because there is so much fraudulent activity in finance, banking, and other businesses, there is a need for real-time, dependable identity verification. This is an amazing story of how within two years, Victor and his team developed a breakthrough technology platform that now serves clients in over 150 countries. In our conversation, we discuss: · How the Shufti Pro solution can support 3,000 types of ID documents in over 150 languages. · How harnessing AI transforms commonly used high-touch manual processes to a swift, seamless solution. · Various types of verification needs and processes, including Know Your Business, KYB, Know Your Client, KYC, MFA, biometrics, etc. · The development of new tech platforms, including design, piloting, and marketing. · How a start-up needs to build trust, PR, and attraction in its early days. Enjoy the show! Connect with Victor: Website: https://shuftipro.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheShuftiPro/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shufti-pro YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShuftiPro Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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At the start of the pandemic, everyone started thinking of the best ways to clean and disinfect our environments. Those harsh chemicals and cleaning products aren’t healthy for the professional cleaners that use them, don’t reach all the places that need to be cleaned, or consider the effects on the environment. Using his background in mechanical engineering, Grant Morgan developed a portable and financially enticing product for disinfecting hospital areas. Within six months, Grant and his co-founder developed and booked over $5 million in sales, raised $15 million in capital and started a company, R-Zero. The company’s lead product, Arc, is a Hospital-grade UV-C power device, proven to destroy surface and airborne pathogens in a thousand square foot room in just seven minutes. The UV-C disinfection unit can destroy over 99.99% of pathogens to make commercial space as safe as possible for employees and customers. It incorporates IOT connectivity and data science to automate workflows. R-Zero is a biosafety company with the mission of developing technologies and products to reduce deadly pathogens such as the Coronavirus, Influenza, norovirus, E. coli, common cold, and other common infectious diseases. And that’s just the start of Grant’s story. In this episode, Grant shares this rare pandemic success story including: · Innovation and speed to market comes from asking the right questions. · Making a product financially feasible to other businesses using a hardware as a service model – meaning equipment rental verses ownership. · Moving from a $1.6 million seed round of funding to $15 million in investors. · The benefits of data intelligence being incorporated within the product and accessing data in real time. · Future company growth beyond the Coronavirus pandemic. Enjoy the show! Connect with Grant: Website: https://rzero.com/ Facebook: @rzerosystems LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/in/grant-morgan-63707439 Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
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We are living in a fast-changing world where everyone needs access to information, knowledge and expertise in a way that is fast and accurate. As an example, think about how everyone needed information from around the globe regarding the pandemic. Cenk Sidar, Co-founder and CEO of GlobalWonks, has a technology platform that removes barriers to accessing information, while creating equity in the global workforce. The platform allows information and expertise to be shared within minutes. Before starting the company, Cenk spent 12 years as a global risk executive. His work includes assisting top financial institutions, multinational corporations, risk management firms, and legal firms operating in high-risk regions. Cenk’s extensive degrees includes a Master’s in international economics and international relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, a postgraduate in European studies from SAIS’s Bologna Center in Italy, and a Bachelor’s in business administration and international relations from the Istanbul Bilgi University. Highlights from our conversation include: · Moving from a Minimally Viable Product, MVP, to a global network of over 27,000 experts. · How the proprietary system harnesses human intelligence, AI and data so people can quickly connect to experts and insights. · Working in emerging markets and pay equity for all. · How the platform creates workplace equity for women. · The lean organizational structure and fundraising. Enjoy the show! Connect with Cenk: Website: http://www.globalwonks.com/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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What if a financial app could help a user take the stress out of finances, by helping a user look at saving and spending habits from a holistic, health and wellness approach? Maia Monell is the Co-founder and CMO of Nav.it Money App. It helps users track and improve financial habits, just as a fitness routine can help keep one healthy. Maia and her co-founder, Erin Papworth, are taking a fresh approach to Fintech, making Nav.it a relatable, trusted and approachable, money management app. They base the approach on behavioral science and support it with peer-to-peer learning. Maia is devoted to closing wealth gaps perpetuated by a system not built for most Americans and is driven to make an impact in the lives of those less fortunate than herself. There is so much to learn from Maia’s story and the approach to developing this app. In our conversation, we discussed: · The startup process as a female founder in the FinTech space. · Developing apps and being “top of phone.” · Launch and quick pivot strategies made because of the pandemic. · A delayed revenue strategy that actually added more users and strengthened the app’s features. · Extending the brand through partnerships. Enjoy the show!
Connect with Maia: Website: https://navitmoney.com Instagram: @maiamonell Twitter: @maia_maude TikTok: @LetsNavit Clubhouse: @maiamaude
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Elnaz Sarraf, CEO and founder of the award-winner Roybi Robot, has an incredible story, not only for her drive as an entrepreneur, but as an immigrant from Iran to the U.S. who had the tenacity to achieve success. Roybi Robot is the world’s first AI powered smart toys to teach children language and STEM skills. It’s listed as one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions in Education, on the 2019 CNBC Upstart 100 list as one of the world’s most promising startups, and on Fast Company’s 2019 World-Changing Ideas. Elnaz is a Board Member at the Consumer Technology Association, Small Business Council, and a member of the Forbes Technology Council. In our conversation, we discussed: · The story of her first company, iBaby Labs, featured in 10,000 store fronts. · Leaving to devote her attention to Edu-tech and providing active learning experiences for children. · Attracting investors with only a prototype. · The perseverance of pitching to 2,000 investors to become funded. · Usability and user experience in children’s product development. · How she drives success with a lean team of 20 people across multiple countries. Enjoy the show! Connect with Elnaz: Website: https://roybirobot.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elnazsarraf/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elnaz_sarraf/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words and visuals are a key deciding factor in consumer purchase decisions. For every company where visual imagery is important, it would be incredible for those companies to harness AI to place facts behind the images that are chosen to improve customer sales conversion rates. Jehan Hamedi, Founder and CEO of Vizit, is the world’s first visual intelligence agency. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), the technology can measure and analyze the effectiveness of visual content and design for many marketing communications and product concepts. Jehan has more than a decade of experience in computational social science and artificial intelligence. His innovations have led to important advances in AI and computer vision, consumer insights and e-commerce, resulting in eight patents and an award-winning software platform. Before launching Vizit, Jehan led growth and innovation for Crimson Hexagon (acquired by Brandwatch), one of Fast Company’s 10 Most Innovative Companies in Web, working with leading global brands, retailers, technology and media companies, including Google, Twitter, Walgreens, Toyota, and Paramount Pictures. This technology is exciting and groundbreaking. In our conversation, we discussed:
How Vizit’s AI platform dramatically improves customer conversion including ecommerce, packaged goods, marketing messages, etc.
The history of building the platform and the team.
How the AI works to run images through an AI generated audience lens.
The three-year effort to develop the database to offer predictive views verses human subjective views.
Enjoy the show! Connect with Jehan: Website: https://vizit.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10811155/admin/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/VIZITLabs Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark Cann is the CEO/CTO of CryomatiKs Inc., a product development firm that uses the air we breathe to power a Zero Emissions Range Extender for electric vehicles (EVs). The Liquid Air “fuel” that powers their Range Extender is unlimited, because the air we breathe is unlimited. The Range Extender allows for five-minute quick refueling that is safe and convenient. Mark wrote and submitted the patents of the core technology and is a highly skilled specialist in mechanical energy systems with over 20 years of hands-on experience in design and installation for specific automotive vehicle technologies. Mark has a passion for the clean tech space and knowing that he can help transform the automotive industry. In our conversation, we discussed: · Moving from napkin design to the real-world execution including funding approaches. · Taking your great idea and pivoting to meet the market and develop solutions. · Insights on intellectual property, patents and “trade secrets.” · Working with the government to create a substantial change in the clean tech space. Enjoy the show! Connect with Mark: Website: www.CryoEnergy.Tech Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kevin Condon is an experienced chief executive officer with a history of working in fintech, transportation policy, B-2-B media and public policy. Kevin is the inventor of PayByCar and Efficient Vehicle Assessor (EVA) platforms that change how consumers do business from their cars. PayByCar is an in-vehicle transaction company that makes in-vehicle payments easy, safe and fast. All it takes is a toll transponder and smartphone, but if you don’t have a transponder, you can use PayByCar’s non-toll tag. I caught up with Kevin right as PayByCar is getting ready to tip into greater scale. Here are the highlights of our conversation: · The massive market of in-vehicle transactions. · The future opportunity-U.S. citizens spend $800 billion annually while in their cars. · Developing and vetting the concept. · Building a two-sided marketplace. · Getting the word out: earned media and enrollment partnerships. · The social aspect of building a small ‘d’ democratic tech solution that the masses can attain. Enjoy the show! Connect with Kevin: Website: https://www.mypaybycar.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-condon-35526a4/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyPayByCar/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyPayByCar PayByCar: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/paybycar/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If you enjoy music with crystal clear sound, then note USound, a company that has a mission to change the world by making audio systems better. Ferruccio Bottoni is Co-Founder and CEO of USound GmbH and Fauna Audio GmbH, strong-growing Austrian high-tech companies revolutionizing the personal audio field with their MEMS speakers-based products. Ferruccio is a physicist who understands how to engineer a product that will disrupt and revolutionize the audio industry. Ferruccio and his two partners are growing the company rapidly because of their business models. They are also entering the Wearables market. In our conversation, Ferruccio shares the company’s background and growth, including: · The journey of USound to advance audio technology to change the acoustic world. · The approach to manufacturing and worldwide distribution. · A viewpoint on having three co-founders and the strength and talents of his two partners. · The importance of a mission driven company and leaving egos behind. · Collaboration is everything–working with 75 team members representing 18 nationalities. Enjoy the show! Connect with Ferruccio: Website USound: www.usound.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/usound-gmbh/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/USoundTech/ Twitter: @USoundTech Website Fauna: wearfauna.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearfauna/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/wearfauna/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wearfauna/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alejandro Laplana, Founder and CEO of technology and investments company, Shokworks Inc., has developed over 150 digital platforms and apps for exciting brands, entertainers, sports teams, growth start-ups, enterprises and broadcasters. Some of his clients and co-investors include, The Colombian National Soccer Association, DIMAYOR Colombian National League, Millonarios FC, FC Barcelona, La Liga, Real Madrid, PSG, Kinesis Money, Start-Up Chile, Dupont Chemicals, The Las Vegas Raiders, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, The Pittsburgh Steelers, Fox Sports, and HBO. The company has also worked with The United Nations and the Governments of the UK, Mexico and Panama. Shokworks holds a staff of over 250 full-time employees that design, develop and operate highly scalable software solutions including mobile, web and AR/VR. Shokworks and its portfolio of companies have generated over $100-million in revenue. Alejandro’s journey as a founder is impressive. This episode provides his insights into: · Moving from startup to over 300 full-time employees worldwide. · Scale and disruption of technology- AI, IoT, and blockchain. · The future impacts of blockchain to remove middleman and decentralize finance. · Don’t raise money until you are in a position of strength. Enjoy the show! Connect with Alejandro: Website: shokworks.io LinkedIn: Alejandro Laplana Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Marisa Santoro is a TEDx speaker, author, career coach, Gutsy Leadership Trainer and motivational speaker. A former Wall Street executive, she is the founder of the career platform, In Our Shoes and the online school, Gutsy Leadership Academy. She trains and coaches workplace professionals, small business owners, and sales leaders. In our conversation, we start with the concepts in Marisa’s book, Own Your Own Authority: Follow Your Instincts, Radiate Confidence, and Communicate as a Leader People Trust. We discuss how we can accelerate our confidence and authority, and as Marisa puts it, “follow a navigational path to becoming an expert.” We also discussed: · The importance of being intentional and having clarity. · What immigrant thinking means and how to continue after hearing a “no.” · Create better conversations with proper word choices. · Be aware-you are always marketing yourself. · Leading with instinct and intuition. Enjoy the show! Connect with Marisa: Website: www.inrshoes.com Book: Own Your Own Authority: Follow Your Instincts, Radiate Confidence, and Communicate as a Leader People Trust. Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lars Ronning, Co-founder of Ailuna, has a personal mission to make more environmental-friendly choices to help save the planet. He also wants to create a community where people can help each other create long-term habits that contribute to healing the environment. Lars has a long history of working in the tech space, working with teams from around the world. His unique approach to creating the Ailuna app calls upon an expert in behavioral science to help people create and keep habits. The Ailuna app is being used by consumers in 50 countries. The vision for the app’s development is to encourage citizen engagement by businesses, schools, local governments and charities. In our conversation, Lars discusses the development of the app including: · Building technology with a purpose. · The challenges of building and working with a remote team. · Citizen engagement technology-building a network of connections with common purpose. · How software and apps can use behavioral science to change personal habits. · The special meaning behind the name Ailuna. Enjoy the show! Connect with Lars: Website: https://www.ailuna.com/Lars/ Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The fourth industrial revolution is the RPA, which stands for Robotic Process Automation. Leading the revolution is Harel Tayeb, a serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years’ experience in the technology ecosystem, and CEO of Kryon, an enterprise automation software provider. Harel is leading Kryon’s aggressive growth strategy while building a world-class team of curious, innovative problem solvers. The company, based in Israel, has 10 offices worldwide and serves clients including HSBC, Allianz, AIG, Great Eastern in Asia-Pac, Wyndam Hotel and several Telcos. Prior to joining Kryon, Tayeb was an investor and advisor at Plus Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing tech startups. He has held several leadership positions at AVG (acquired by Avast for $1.3B) and Como (CondulT Mobile), a mobile app platform. The idea of RPA is to have virtual workers. These “workers” do the boring jobs so that employees can focus on more innovation, communication and creating things that are more impactful for the employer and organization. In our conversation, Harel shared: · The growth of RPA and its role in Covid-19 vaccinations in Israel. · Encouraging RPA development with low code or no code interfaces. · The opportunities of the “citizen developer.” · The future of RPA and the workplace environment. · Leadership insight as an accomplished entrepreneur and company builder. Harel also addressed the fears people may have when a new technology is introduced that might replace traditional workers. With his examples, people will easily see the advantages and new opportunities for RPA. Enjoy the show! Connect with Harel: Website: Kryonsystems.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aline Muylaert is the co-founder of CitizenLab, a civic engagement platform. The software meets the need of local governments that want to connect with citizens digitally, in a safe and efficient way. CitizenLab’s technology allows increased transparency within governmental processes, and to engage citizens in policymaking. 150 local governments in over 50 countries currently use the software. Aline is on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for social entrepreneurship. Her journey has so many lessons for entrepreneurs. We discussed: · Standing firm in your social mission while measuring both revenue and impact goals. · The need to digitize democracy to increase citizen engagement. · Harnessing AI for data aggregation to make data-driven decisions. · Having diverse teams and being aware of biases that can influence coding and products. · Start up funding, Impact VCs, and rapid expansion. · Building initial brand trust by piloting and sharing relatable, success stories. Aline’s journey started like so many other entrepreneurs. She found a problem and set out to solve it. And then she found a way quickly to grow and monetize. I hope you’ll learn from her experiences. Enjoy the show! Connect with Aline Muylaert: Website: http://www.citizenLab.co Email: Aline@citizenlab.co Connect with Allison Summers: Website: allisonksummers.com
socialentrepreneurship #founderstory #Forbes #Forbes30 #startup #BusinessBelgium #Brussels #AI #data #tech #coding #socialimpact #voting
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For this episode we head to Singapore to speak with Yeoh Siew Hoon, a remarkable businesswoman, friend of young entrepreneurs, and the founder of Web in Travel (WiT). WiT launched in 2005 and was acquired by Northstar Travel Media in 2104. Siew Hoon continues to lead the platform, having extended editions across the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe. Siew Hoon started the company based on her interest on how technology was changing the way people book and plan their travel but over the years expanded the focus and the product lines while staying true to the company’s brand message - Our purpose is to take your mind to new places, so that together we can accelerate travel innovation. In our conversation, Siew Hoon shares her story of how she built her company and provides insights on the Asian entrepreneur community. We discuss: · Building a community around travel technology and trends. · Telling your company’s story and repurposing content across media platforms. · Supporting Asian entrepreneurs with the WiT Startup competition. · Supporting startups by matching investors, sharing expertise and building relationships. · Cultural aspects of entrepreneurs in Asia compared to places like the U.S. Siew Hoon believes everyone should express his or her creativity. She expresses hers by writing books, including Around Asia In One Hour: Tales of Condoms, Chilies & Curries, and her children’s books, Adventures of Habibie The Turtle, and The Story of Baitong and Boon. You can learn more about travel in her podcast, A Life In Travel. Enjoy the show!
Connect with Yeoh Siew Hoon: Website: https://www.alifeintravel.net/ Website: https://www.webintravel.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siew-hoon-yeoh-b11b69/ Facebook @yeohsiewhoon Instagram @yeohsiewhoon Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
CEO #founder #travel #traveltech #travelasia #Singapore #businessasia #travelpodcast
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Priszcilla Varnagy is the founder and CEO of Be-novative, a Design Thinking Process Management Platform. Priszcilla is recognized by Forbes 30 under 30, and is a winner of several competitions including Singularity University’s first Global Impact Competition in the CEE region in 2012, The Next Web’s Innovation Challenge, TechMatch Europe Silicon Valley, Morgan Stanley CTO Summits. Priszcilla graduated as a psychologist, so she has a unique take on human nature and the intersection with technology. Be-novative is being used in over 500 Open Innovations projects. This software represents the future of work. In our conversation, Priszcilla explains how the software uses design thinking and how companies can engage teams to innovate and problem solve. We also spoke about: · Design thinking and how companies can engage teams to innovate and problem solve · The connection between creative people and self-confidence and happiness · Product development for a tech platform · Scaling focused on quality of clients not just quantity · Leveraging competitions for brand awareness and fundraising · The intersection of AI development and human intelligence · Singularity University and why you should check it out Be sure to check out Priszcilla’s free Skillshare class listed below. Enjoy the show! Connect with Priszcilla Varnagy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priszcilla/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHB9BMnXtziEO9g-TMNLbJw Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vpriszcilla/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/priszcillav Skillshare: skl.sh/34VlZko Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
tech #SAAS # business #designthinking #AI #creativesociety #teambuilding #CEO #startup #startupstory #founder #futureofwork
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Patricia Osorio is the Founder & CMO at Birdie, a venture backed startup that develops proprietary AI (artificial intelligence) models to help brands understand what consumers think and want from brands and their products. Patricia is also the co-founder of GVAngels, an Angel investment Group with 200 plus members that have invested more than $2-million in 20 startups in Brazil. Patricia’s tech startup journey started in Brazil, continued in South America, and expanded to the U.S. One of her clients is Samsung electronics. Our conversation covers Patricia’s tech journey and understanding the data aggregation process. We discussed:
Scaling a tech company and aggregating third-party data using AI to understand how consumers actually use products
How brands can use customer insights to improve their products
Funding and mentoring from VC resources and groups like 500 Startups
The cultural differences when working in South America or the United States.
Patricia is a great example of being a tech disruptor. Enjoy the show!
Connect with Patricia Osorio Website: https://birdie.ai LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciaomg
Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
dataanalytics #AI #consumerelectronics #Tech #marketing #500startups #Entrepreneur #startup #startupstory #CEO #founder
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Mathew Sweezey, Director of Market Strategy-Salesforce, is one of the leading thought leaders on the future of marketing. His visionary insights into consumer behavior, technologies and business strategies have changed the way startups, Fortune 500 and nonprofit organizations have customer conversations. He frequently writes for the Economist, Forbes, HBR, The Observer, and AdAge magazines. In our exciting conversation we covered the new world of marketing, including: · Consumers own the media environment; not businesses. · Consumers are the largest creators of “noise.” · Why messaging is changing and using terms such as available, personal and authentic. · Marketing co-creation. · Creating communities. Mathew’s book, The Context Marketing Revolution: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media from Harvard Business Review Press is exceptional. I hope you’ll use his insights to help in your marketing. Connect with Mathew Sweezey: Book on Amazon: The Context Marketing Revolution: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media To find out more about the book, visit this link: https://www.amazon.com/Context-Marketing-Revolution-Motivate-Infinite/dp/163369402X/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-rsf-lq2a1_0?crid=2BW97BDIGZL0&cv_ct_cx=the+context+marketing+revolution&dchild=1&keywords=the+context+marketing+revolution&pd_rd_i=163369402X&pd_rd_r=414832de-e3af-47dc-ac9b-54e858b9babe&pd_rd_w=bYRtK&pd_rd_wg=efy0d&pf_rd_p=52f9c563-bb87-44f4-9d9d-e1c03402d90f&pf_rd_r=JK6Z99Y8FS553GKP5QSY&psc=1&qid=1610748976&sprefix=The+context+%2Caps%2C174&sr=1-1-d3e58e83-6458-471c-a87e-175495b96a10 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewsweezey/
Connect with Allison: allisonksummers.com
marketing #CX #HBR #media #AI #brand #business #saleforce #ex #consumer #marketingtransformation #future #futurism #contentcreators
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Technology is pushing many industries to the edge, including the toy market. Yuting Su is the Founder and CEO of Thinker-Tinker, an Educational-Tech gaming company. Yuting is the genius behind Octobe, a patented character-based smart toy learning platform. Yuting is using all her skills as entrepreneur, inventor, and storyteller with a background in digital and physical game design, experience design, and bioinformatics to bring this smart, cuddly creature to market. In 2017, Yuting was listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30–Games Category. Her company is in the heart of Hollywood, which brings her closer to partners in the entertainment industry. Thinker-Tinker’s unique hardware-software tech solutions bring kids’ favorite characters to life with an expandable content library. The company was part of the Comcast Techstars accelerator and is now working with Universal Brand Development to create new, interactive experiences. In our conversation we discuss: · Smart toys and game design solutions. · Product development and patents. · Yuting’s perseverance as an entrepreneur. · Lessons learned and working with contractors. Yuting’s tip for entrepreneurs? Be open-minded and talk to people, consume knowledge in multiple places. Website: Tinker-Tinker.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suyuting/ Social handles: @thinkertinkerinc, @playoctobo, @musicstarsgame
#CEO #startupstory #entrepreneurlife #business #toys #kids #gamedesign #octobo #play #learningthroughplay #game Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation we speak with mergers and acquisition expert Michelle Seiler Tucker about her new book Exit Rich. Michelle is passionate about supporting business owners building a business that is scalable and salable. She covers the principles of the Six P's Method that she believes, if followed, a founder can guide a business to a positive valuation and future sale. Michelle Seiler Tucker is the Founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker Inc. She holds a M&AMI (Mergers & Acquisitions Master Intermediary) title and as a 20-year veteran in the M&A industry, she has a wealth of experience regarding buying, selling, fixing, and growing businesses. Her and her firm have sold over a thousand businesses in almost every vertical and have a remarkable track record of success. In addition to being featured in INC, Forbes, and USA Magazine, Michelle is a Keynote Speaker and makes regular radio and TV appearances on Fox Business News and CNBC. Connect with Michelle Seiler Tucker: Personal Facebook, Business Facebook Page, Instagram, Twitter, & LinkedIn Website: www.seilertucker.com Book: www.exitrichbook.com Connect with Allison: Website: allisonksummers.com
Exitrich #business #businessbuilder #founder #owner #valuation #DisruptiveCEONation
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For this episode, we headed to Ghana to speak on social entrepreneurism with the Founder and CEO of 1 Billion Africa, Prince Adu-Appiah. Prince shares his vision of ‘Turning problems into projects’ and how he approached developing a movement whose projects and activities have impacted over 12,500 Africans, with the majority being youth, women and children. We discuss his love of leadership, his tech background, his start up story, branding, marketing and how he activated a base of supporters, donors, and leaders. We also discuss leadership principles and what it means to inspire Africa’s Youth to find problems in their communities and to turn them into projects. Prince Adu-Appiah is a social entrepreneur, a thought leader, a development worker, and a tech consultant whose passion is to help eradicate poverty in Africa and to raise young leaders. He is the Founder and CEO of 1Billion Africa (www.1billionafrica.org). His work has attracted honors and recognitions both locally and globally including; receiving the JCI 2015 Top 10 Outstanding Young Persons in Ghana Award, recognized as part of JCI World's 2015 Top 20 Outstanding Young Persons in the World, recognized in 2015 Top 30 Under 30 Future of Ghana young talents in Ghana, recipient of Unsung Hero People of Distinction Humanitarian Award, USA, and listed in Leadership Expert Gordon Tredgold's 2014 TOP 10 F.A.S.T Leaders list. Prince is a 2-time TEDx Speaker, a 2017 Kumvana Fellow, a 2016 Brightest Young Minds alumnus, an Ashoka Changemakers Scholar, and an Associate Fellow at the Royal Commonwealth Society. He holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Ghana Business School in Organizational Leadership & Corporate Governance.
Connect with Prince on LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/princeaduappiah or via social media: Facebook: www.facebook.com/princeaappiah Twitter: www.twitter.com/princeaappiah Instagram: www.instagram.com/princeaappiah
socialentrepreneur #CEO # founder #startupstory #nonprofit #ngo #Ghana #SDGs
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We head to Vienna, Austria to meet Francisco Webber, founder of multiple companies, Natural Language Understanding (NLU) expert and inventor of Cortical.io’s proprietary Retina technology – a technology applies the principles of cerebral processing to machine learning and natural language understanding (NLU) to solve real-world use cases related to big text data. In this episode, we discuss big data and the problems that need to be solved to sort through and interpret that data. Francisco provides insight into semantic folding processing and how Cortical.io (www.cortical.io) is pushing forward smarter machine automation. At Cortical.io solutions are based on the actual meaning of text, rather than on statistical occurrences. We also discuss how the business was built and how they have harnessed a multi-national team to collaborate and innovate. Francisco’s interest in information technology developed during his medical studies, when he was involved in medical data processing. Over the course of two decades, he explored search engine technologies and documentation systems in various contexts but became increasingly frustrated with the limitations of state-of-the-art statistical methods. In 2005 he founded Matrixware Information Services, which developed the first standardized global patent database. In 2007 he set up the Information Retrieval Facility with leading academic expert in information retrieval Professor Keith van Rijsbergen. Francisco recognized that the brain was the only existing reference system when it came to processing natural language. While closely following developments in neuroscience, he formulated his theory of Semantic Folding, which models how the brain represents language data. Cortical.io provides natural language understanding (NLU) solutions that enable large enterprises to automate the extraction, monitoring, and analysis of key information from any type of text data reducing the time and human effort it takes to complete business-critical data search and review processes. Coritcal.io has been implemented at multiple Fortune 100 businesses and featured in the Economist, Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg and Gartner. Cortical.io has offices in Europe (HQ in Vienna) and in the US (New York and San Francisco). Connect with Francisco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciscoeduardodesousawebber/
Tech #bigdata #automation #NLU #machinelearning #Fortune100
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In this episode we head to Sri Lanka to speak with Vidusha Nathavitharana. Vidusha is a vibrant and motivating leadership and human resource expert who possesses a wide corporate background that has served as a positive foundation to launching his businesses. He is also the author of over 50 books and a TedX speaker. We have an open and honest conversation on his first startup High5 Consultancy and the lessons learned that he improved upon in his second venture Luminary Learning Solutions, which has scaled up and delivered executive training, team building and other services in 25 countries and counting. Vidusha has pioneered the concept of ROI based leadership training and boasts the ability to offer quantifiable and verifiable ROI after each of his signature leadership programs - possibly a first across the globe. We also discuss the influence of his father on his business life and why he is so passionate about training the next generation of business leaders and offers all his books for free - honouring his fathers’ request to ‘payback’ for the free education he received in his normative years. Vidusha holds a bachelor’s in business management from the University of Lincoln, UK, a master’s in leading innovation and change from the University of York St. John, UK and a MBA from the University of Wales Trinity St. David, UK. He started his career in branding and marketing, moved to manufacturing and finally ended in HR and HRD, with his last corporate role at Sara Lee Courtaulds. Vidusha founded High5 Consultancy (www.highfiveconsultancy.com) in 2005 where his clients include The World Bank, The UN, MAS Holdings, John Keells Holdings, HSBC, Deutsch Bank, BRAC University, CARE International, top corporates and INGOs. In 2018, he founded Luminary Learning Solutions (http://www.luminarylearningsolutions.com/). Vidusha was also a lecturer for the CIM program in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He was on the Board of Advisors for CARE Sri Lanka, and helped form Chrysalis (a social enterprise focusing on Women and Youth) as one of the two founding Directors. Connect with Vidusha on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidushanathavitharana/.
CEO #founder #entrepreneur #startup #training #HR #HRD #business #SriLanka
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Retail is a sector that has experienced unprecedented shifts related to customer behaviors, changes in loyalty, digital strategies, AI advances, the rise of influencers and more. For brands it is no longer only important to get a product on the shelf and for stores the stakes are now high on how to engage and entice the in-person purchase experience. Retailers need tailored solutions and guidance on how to innovate for the world of tomorrow. Enter The Navio Group founded by Carlos Castelan. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation we speak with Carols about his founders story and his vision to establish a lead boutique firm focused on helping retailers transform their business, drive cost savings, reinvent core business, and develop innovation. Through The Navio Group, Carlos supports clients range from Fortune 500 retailers to high growth direct-to-consumer businesses. Prior to Navio, Carlos was a Partner & Chief Strategy Officer at Conlego, a premier negotiations and partnership firm. There he advised on growth strategy, negotiated key agreements and was the principal partner to open new accounts. Carlos previously founded & was the Managing Director at Noma Consulting Partners (acquired by Conlego Consulting in 2016). Carlos has worked at The Boston Consulting Group and at Target Corporation. He holds a B.A. and B.S. in International Studies and Economics from the University of St. Thomas and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Find out more at www.thenaviogroup.com. Connect with Carlos on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carloscastelan/
retail #customers #B2C # #Harvard
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From college student to world domination and all the tough work that takes place in-between, this is the story of Oleksandr Kosovan. For this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we went to the Ukraine to speak with this tech-entrepreneur who has achieved what only others have dreamed of. As the creator of CleanMyMac, Oleksandr has witnessed his app pass the count of 4 million users, in fact, every 5th Mac on Earth has a MacPaw app installed on it and there is at least one MacPaw user in Antarctica. Oleksandr shares his founder’s journey which began as a hobby project spending one year developing his first app over nights and weekends and once ready, he chose to allow open access to it. His journey is an amazing one that covers product development, distribution, customer feedback, and accelerated growth, all while bootstrapping his way to leading a 260-employee organization. We also discussed the careful balance of the life of an entrepreneur, starting a family, and giving back. MacPaw is headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine. The company develops and distributes software for macOS and iOS and is one of the biggest software developers on the Mac market. MacPaw's flagship app, CleanMyMac 3, cleans 614 TB of junk every day - two times the size of the Library of Congress. In 2017, MacPaw launched Setapp, the first subscription service for Mac apps. Today, Oleksandr invests in the local IT field, providing funding and mentorship programs for young specialists. He has co-founded SMRK (smrk.vc), a venture capital fund with global reach. Though SMRK he has invested in world-famous projects like AJAX.Systems, Madberry, Amazing Hiring, and Allset. Connect with Loeksandr on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/akosovan/?originalSubdomain=ua and visit www.macpaw.com.
tech #CEO #founder #entrepreneur #startup #MacPaw #macOS # iOS #apple #apps #setapp #business #Ukraine
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Whether you are in startup, scale up or running steady and strong, every business builder needs to be a great leader. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we speak with Tim Spiker, author, trainer, team builder and leadership development expert. As the founder of The Aperio, Tim can uniquely relate to entrepreneurs and the decisions and pressures on their shoulders as they navigate business. He also shares his own story of planning his leap from receiving a paycheck to writing the check for others. Tim’s book, The Only Leaders Worth Following, reveals that 77% of leadership effectiveness comes from who a leader is and not what they do. Using this principle, Tim helps people become, be, and stay leaders who are actually worth following. Tim has worked with leadership teams in North America, Australia, and Asia. Tim’s work includes delivering keynote talks, creating unique and customized learning experiences, and guiding long-term development journeys including teaching on the Who Not What Principle. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and four children. Connect with Tim on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/timspiker/. Visit his company www.theaperio.com. Follow on Twitter @TimSpiker.
Leadership #Business #Founderstory #Atlantabusiness
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A big part of any business is the basis for its tech framework. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation we speak with Karolyn Hart, an award-winning Canadian entrepreneur, technology executive, activist, speaker, author and Founder of InspireHUB. Our conversation transverses topics of digital experience platforms, data security, data ownership, and how to have a simple, organic, business ecosystem that allows start-ups and small business owners focus on their objectives and customer care rather than risks and stumbling blocks of the tech framework. We also talk about Karolyn extraordinary journey as an entrepreneur and founder that included being sought out by the Mandela family to bring her skills to a very special project in South Africa. With a vision to ‘Fred Rodgers’ the business world, Karolyn is a person to know in your network. She has also made "The Ultimate Small Business Survival Guide" available to help navigate crisis management and shore business continuity plans: https://www.inspirehub.com/en-us/small-business-survival-guide Karolyn has spent two decades building a unique skill set around engagement including as a technologist with experience implementing large scale projects in financial services, automotive and healthcare; an entrepreneur launching a national television show; an award-winning economic developer working in community engagement; and a startup founder designing and working with the latest in Progressive Web App technology. Karolyn has been covered in the Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, The Globe and Mail, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, GCN and SD Times. She was recognized as one of 99 Limit Breaking Female Founders by Arianna Huffington's Thrive Global and was featured as a Top Female Disruptor in Authority Magazine. Her technical white papers have been published by various industry magazines, and her 2017 white paper garnered the support and participation from leading engineers in Google Chrome and Samsung Internet. You can listen and learn from Karolyn on the "Big on Small" business podcast. Visit her company at www.inspirehub.com and connect with her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karolynzhart/.
entrepreneur #smallbusiness #tech #dgital #DXP #datasecurity #CEO #founder #canadabusiness #womeninbusiness #female founders #DisruptiveCEONation
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For this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we head to Texas to speak with Jeff Chastain, founder of Admentus and a professional Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS®) Implementer. We have a candid conversation with Jeff about his own career and the motivation to establish his own business. We then focus on the challenges faced by all business builders and approaches to ease stress as a business grows. We all know that it takes very different skills to start a business then to sustain one, and that if you don’t have the right advice, cracks can show up rather quickly. Complementing fifteen years in the technology space, Jeff founded Admentus to help entrepreneurs and business leaders embrace systems that can predict success. Jeff is a big believer in the EOS Model™ and mentors and trains founders and business creators on the Six Key Components™ that must be managed and strengthened to be a great business: vision, people, data, issues, process and traction. Of course, here at Disruptive CEO Nation, we also would add networks and coaching to that equation because business builders at every stage need to hear from those that have gone before them to help make their own path a little clearer. You can connect with Jeff on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffdchastain/ and visit his company at www.admentus.com.
entrepreneur #Texasbusiness #startup #CEO #EOS #EOSmodel #founder #DisruptiveCEONation
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What can you learn from a recognized Silicon Valley thought leader and strategist? A whole lot about market domination strategies. In this episode, we talk with Theresa M. Lina. the author of the best-selling book Be the Go-To: How to Own Your Competitive Market, Charge More, and Have Customers Love You For It. Every business builder knows they need to find that perfect edge to their value proposition and using ‘The Apollo Method for Market Dominance’, we discuss with Theresa what elements it takes to achieve success as a premium Go-To brand. Her tips and insight on how you shouldn’t be competing on price are good reminder for all our listeners that you constantly need to evaluate the course of your mission. Theresa M. Lina is the CEO of Līna Group, Inc., which specializes in market dominance strategy. Over her professional life, she has served as chief strategy and marketing officer for several technology startups and has advised hundreds of companies. She began her career at Accenture, where she helped found, lead, and grow the firm’s communications industry group, now a multibillion-dollar business unit. Theresa is a frequent speaker and workshop leader on strategy, market leadership, innovation, and technology topics. Always helping those coming up behind her, Theresa has been involved at Stanford University since 2006 as a course facilitator at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, teaching courses on Marketing, Strategic Leadership, Critical Analytical Thinking, and Principled and Purposeful Leadership. To connect with Theresa on LinkedIn visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresa-lina/. You can find her on Twitter under @theresa_m_lina. Be the Go-To is available on Amazon and other bookstores.
Business #CEO #marketing #Stanford #businessstrategy #valueprop #dominance #leadership #startup #founder #entrepreneur
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Chris Locke is an innovative business growth and start up expert who has a legacy of working with corporates and individuals to build powerful, sustainable, and socially minded organizations. But aside from being a wealth of knowledge, we love the ease at which he approaches his conversations and clients – it makes him a pleasure to know. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we talk with Chris about the current economic environment, evolving business models, opportunities, rapid shifts in customer bases, and the tenants for a successful business. Chris share case studies (Nokia), data (the average age of successful entrepreneurs is 45) and talks about businesses focused on solving problems and delivering positive impact under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (check out their SDG Compass program). At Rainmaking, Chris and his team work with corporates by implementing a systemic approach to driving innovation and developing new business models to unlock future growth. Under the ASPIRE program, the Rainmaking team has an ambitious goal to help individuals displaced by redundancies and reductions to be gain the knowledge they need to launch their own companies. Since 2006, Rainmaking has helped scale and build over 900 tech companies and hundreds of other companies across a variety of sectors. Prior to Rainmaking, Chris led Pearson's award-winning Global Innovation Team, leading the company through its transition from print to digital. He also founded Startup Republic, a UK focused edtech company, which enabled students to unleash entrepreneurship and build startups whilst studying.
Connect with Chris Locke on Twitter @clocke78 and LinekdIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-locke-28680517/ To learn more about ASPIRE and Startupbootcamp visit https://rainmaking.io/aspire/
CEO #business #founder #startup #techstartup #entrepreneur #business #motivation #success #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurlife #smallbusiness #businessowner #hustle #ASPIRE #Rainmaking #SDGs #socialimpact #startuprepublic #Nokia #redundancies
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Sometimes we meet entrepreneurs who amaze us and Jonathan Ogurchak, the Co-founder and CEO of http://stackpharmacy.com/, is one of those people. Jonathan stepped away from a lucrative career as a pharmacist to build a platform that could transform the way #pharma business gets done, and he did so as a father of two children with one on the way and he literally started this great business in his garage (and here we must pause for quick salute to his wonderful wife). In this episode, we hear the #startup story of Stack, a compliance management software designed to simplify the “outside of the dispense” complexities associated with running successful pharmacy organizations; however, the principles and functions of the STACK information ecosystem principles can translate to multiple industries. Jonathan is also Managing Partner of Rhythm Group, a consulting and technology solutions organization, and is a Certified Consultant with Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC). Jonathan has designed programs and services for both Accredo and PANTHERx Specialty Pharmacy focusing on implementing innovative uses for technology, including high-touch pharmacist-driven programs focused on dosing efficiency, clinical monitoring of patient outcomes, and integrated patient engagement. He is on faculty for the Master of Pharmacy Business Administration (MPBA) program through the University of Pittsburgh, leading the Specialty Pharmacy Management curriculum. He currently serves on the editorial board for Specialty Pharmacy Times, holds CSP Certification through the Specialty Pharmacy Certification Board, and serves as an Educational Consultant for the National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP). Jonathan is a disruptive entrepreneur you just may want to follow @stackpharmacy and connect with via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanogurchak.
CEO #founder #business #startupstory #tech #pharma #pharmacy #entrprenuer #medtech #healthcare #h2p #Pitt #Pittnow #DisruptiveCEONation
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Pedro Pico is both an inspiring businessman and gem of a woman. For this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we head to Lisbon, Portugal and meet Pedro, whose motto is ‘My secret to get things done is getting started’. Pedro is a creative adventurer who has built a business out of his love affair with food. He produced his own cooking show on YouTube which led to founding Tasty Studio, a company specializing in branded food and beverage media content. He has also hosted hundreds of home-cooked dinners for people from around the world all of which has led to his latest business venture: Drag Taste. Featured by Airbnb as one of the top experiences in the world, Pedro developed Drag Taste with spouse Nikolay (a.k.a. Irina Ganache). They have an amazing team of the best drag queens from all over the world and, under a chandelier of red high heels, they host events such as "Drag-up Cooking Class", where they transform every guest in drag and host a Portuguese cooking class and event. Not to be side tracked by COVID, the team converted the event experiences to virtual and are now the top online Airbnb Experience with ‘Sangria and Secrets with Drag Queens’, where they actually dramatically increased their revenue beyond the ability of the restaurant. Next up? Opening Drag Taste locations worldwide. To connect with Pedro visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedropico89/, however, to connect with Teresa al Dente visit www.dragtaste.com or sign up with Sangria and Secrets at https://www.airbnb.com/experiences. You can also follow the adventure on social at @DragTaste Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
You know what they say, ‘Begin with the end in mind’ and that’s how you need to approach building your business. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we speak with Patrick Ungashick, author of Dance in the End Zone: The Business Owner’s Exit Planning Playbook, and the award-winning A Tale of Two Owners: Achieving Exit Success Between Business Co-Owners. Patrick works with company founders and business owners to prepare for and achieve happy and successful exits. As a business owner himself, he founded and leads two separate companies. As a speaker, Patrick typically addresses more than 50 groups per year, sharing exit advice and solutions to owners of privately-held companies from several million to over a billion in revenue. Additionally, he has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Financial Week. During his nearly 30 years’ career, Patrick has helped hundreds of business owners achieve exit success. Outside of work, even though he cannot juggle nor play a musical instrument, Patrick is a proud member of the Atlanta Distinguished Clown Corps, a group of full-time business leaders and part-time clowns that raise money and lift smiles at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the largest pediatric hospital in the U.S. Patrick is a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball and the University of Georgia football teams. Patrick has three boys, and lives with his wife Maggie in the Atlanta area. For more information, visit www.patrickungashick.com. To connect with Patrick, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickungashick/
Business #founder #CEO #Entrepreneur #business #owner #company #exitstrategy #NAVIXconsultants
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Sumaira K. Isaacs is a woman who knows the world and a woman the world should know. When we booked her, our intent to was to explore the close correlation between a country’s open borders and lively tourism to the opportunity for entrepreneurs to achieve business success, but we just happened to schedule this call amid the global COVID-19 pandemic and ended up with a rich conversation about what happens to business when borders close and events cancel.
The movement of people is critical to success of business and unless business tourism returns, can there be a full economic recovery? Afterall, one in ten people in the world work in a role that is part of the hospitality and tourism industry. And with the potential for 75 million hospitality jobs to be lost worldwide and forecasts of half the global airlines closing down, what does the post-COVID-19 global scenario look like?
Originally from Pakistan, with a long base of business in Dubai, and now residing in Canada, Sumaira is an International tourism industry veteran with over 25 years’ experience establishing companies, growing international brands, strategizing mergers and acquisitions, and serving as an expert consultant and advisor. She has worked with companies, tourist boards, associations (serving on several industry boards) and local governments in Africa, Middle East, India, Europe, and North America. Now through the platform of Global Tourism Forum (WoTF Brand) Sumaira is making a difference alleviating poverty and creating jobs by creating a tourism legacy in the developing countries.
Connect with Sumaira on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumaira-isaacs/ and visit https://www.globaltourismforum.org/. You can also find her on Twitter as @Sumairaki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We invite you to spend time with Anna-Mieke Anderson, a B Corp founder and CEO of MiaDonna & Company and The Greener Diamond (www.miadonna.com). Named by Entreprenuer Magazine as one of their 100 Powerful Women in 2019, we thoroughly enjoyed discussing how the passions that inspire the birth of a business still require sound strategies to keep that mission alive.
Based in Portland, OR, USA, Anna-Mieke is globally recognized as the pioneer of the lab-grown diamond (LGD) industry. After learning the conflict origin of her own earth-mined diamond in 2005, Anna-Mieke challenged the notion that gemstones, particularly diamonds, could only come from a place of unnecessary hardship. In 2007, she launched MiaDonna and pushed the quality of lab-grown diamonds to the highest levels. Today, ten percent of net profits are given to their non-profit foundation, The Greener Diamond, which helps free women and children oppressed by the active conflict diamond mining industry.
Anna-Meike is a dedicated mother of 2, an avid philanthropist and successful entrepreneur, who is internationally recognized as a humanitarian and activist who works tirelessly to inspire other young women to follow their entrepreneurial spirit. Connect with Anna-Meike via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/annamieke You can also find her via Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/annamiekeanderson/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/annamiekeanderson/ and Twitter @MiaDonna_CEO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ron Carucci is a voice of wisdom for founders whether they are seeking Series A Funding or managing a mature business. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we explore topics such as founderism, strategy, growth and the insights into how 15% of your efforts can be the secrete sauce to success if you lift your head and lead the way you should. Ron also shares how investors are evaluating your business to spot a winning team, a winning leader, and a winning idea and challenges business leaders to understand their differentiators and firmly know why you have a right to win business. As co-founder and managing partner at Navalent, Ron has been working with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations, leaders, and industries. From start-ups to Fortune 10's, turn-arounds to new markets and strategies, overhauling leadership and culture to re-designing for growth, he has worked in more than 25 countries on 4 continents. In addition to being a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and Forbes, and has been featured in Fortune, CEO Magazine, Business Insider, MSNBC, Inc, Business Week, Smart Business, and thought leaders. You can connect with Ron at www.navalent.com or via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/roncarucci/. Honestly, he is one of the smartest cookies we have met his year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Julian Fisher is the founder and CEO of jisp, a lifestyle app that digitizes products and experiences to bring the best of online into physical spaces offering digital baskets, gamification, and the ability to tap product labels and have instant information. In this episode Julian shares insight into his entrepreneurial journey, growing companies, and product development in the digital space. What we appreciate about Julian (aside from the smile in his voice) is the rich history (and frankly love story) he has with technology which is rooted in his launching the UK’s first internet exhibition in 1994. Since then his work has remained inexorably linked to technology, improving sales and payments, and tackling compliance issues for a wide group of blue-chip companies. Today, the jisp solution serves many of the UK’s biggest and well-known stores such as JD Sports, H&M, Topman, Whittard of Chelsea, Crew Clothing and Yankee Candle. You can connect to Julian through www.jisp.com or on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/julian-fisher-901270. Or follow in social media @jispapp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Join us as we head to the UK to discuss socially conscious business with Farah Asemi, founder of ecofleet, a sustainable mindful B to C logistics service using carbon-neutral electric cargo bikes and vehicles. In this episode we transverse topics of product development, white label service, warehousing in a city like London and management of a unique workforce. Currently, ecofleet riders do 12,000 laps of the world every year. But what we love oh so much is the branding – it is worth checking out. We also cover the question of why enter the #greenbusiness space and Farah shares if the trigger moment when she knew there needed to be a call for change. When we caught up with Farah she was entering her first round of fundraising after starting the company with personal seed money and a government grant. We also cover the unique process to hire riders that will fulfill the mission in rain or shine – ok, this is London – so in rain or rain. Prior to ‘cycling into action’, Farah had a successful career within property development and real estate. She trained as an interior architect at the Mount Vernon School of Design in Washington DC. And then specialized in the renovation of London apartments. Farah’s desire to improve living conditions continued with her focus turning to our environment, a cause which Farah has been passionate about all her life. Connect with Farah on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/farah-asemi-973a50193/ and visit Instagram at theecofleet.
Startup #entrepreneur #green #London #sustainablebusiness #femalefounder #CEO #Founder #UKbusiness
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Will Bachman is a brilliant mind at work connecting other brilliant minds to business today. As co-founder and Managing Partner of www.Umbrex.com he has brought together a global, collaborative community connecting 800 top tier independent management consultants across fifty countries. He is also the host of How to Thrive as an Independent Professional, which has over 270 published episodes. If you want to know how to set up a successful solopreneur practice in a gig economy, this is the man to know. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we touch on the principles Will has employed to grow this impressive ecosystem of independent professionals that anyone can use to grow business in your market niche as well. We discuss the value of content creation as a door opener to more meaningful client relationships and how providing your client community a platform to engage and connect will extend the value of your brand. But we also love that Will is simply an interesting CEO. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Business School but from 1992 to 2000, he served in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear-trained submarine officer, making major deployments in support of national security and receiving three Navy Achievement Medals. Post military he moved on to McKinsey and then launched UMBREX. You are invited to listen to Unleashed – How to Thrive as an Independent Professional https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/. Will is also happy to accept LinkedIn connection requests from listeners of Disruptive CEO Nation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willbachman/
business #consultants #CEO #founder #podcast #businesssolutions #McKinsey #consulting #gigeconomy #professionals
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Nikolaus Kimla – Pipeliner CRM and Salespop Nikolaus Kimla is a business Rockstar, innovator and influencer that you should know. Crossing from Austria to California, Nikolaus has created six businesses in the tech space and in this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, he shares insights into what it took to conceive and launch his latest endeavor, serving as the founder and CEO for Pipeliner CRM. As an expert in process efficiencies, digital workflows and CRM, Nikolaus has designed a solutions platform to enable sales teams to navigate complex sales processes in the B to B space and beyond. He shares views on tech design and how better adoption rates are achieved with a deep knowledge of the user perspective. Also the founder of Salespop, Nikolaus shares insight into how to leverage content creation for community building as Salespop articles can have tens of thousands of views and professionals the world over visit the platform’s educational portal: https://salespop.net/sales-management/. Nikolaus is the kind of entrepreneur we love as he is driven by creating companies that serve people. He has published three books in both German and English on the subjects of salespeople, the IT revolution, and on economic principles and their application and speaks on these topics regularly. His organization also partners with institutions like DePaul University. Find out more at www.pipelinersales.com and connect with Niklaus at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikolauskimla/ and on Twitter @kimlanikolaus.
sales #salespeople #salesgoals #CRM #business #tech #founder #CEO #leadership #entrepreneur #DisruptiveCEONation #Startup #Salespop #Pipeliner #Californiabusiness
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How can artificial intelligence help strengthen roads and infrastructure? On this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, RoadBotics co-founder and President, Dr. Ben Schmidt shares his unlikely journey to revolutionize the way local governments assess and maintain their roads. RoadBotics was spun out of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Robotics Institute in 2016 and has raised $11.4M in venture capital investment to date. Ben shares insights into how the company developed including his theory about ‘brain trusts’, raising capital, protecting intellectual property, and working with governments. He also shares how machine learning from companies like Roadbotics can help government make better data driven decisions. Ben studied bioengineering in college and received his PhD in that same field, but halfway through his PhD program, he realized that academia was not for him. He completed his dissertation, earned his title, but he wanted to do more. Instead, he took that knowledge decided to start a company. To learn more visit www.roadbotics.com or connect with Ben at https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidtbt/ or on Twitter @RoadBoticsNA.
roads #AI #machinelearning #roadconstruction #CarnegieMellon #Founder #CEO #Startup #entrepreneur #govtech #publicworks #civictech
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In the future of work, culture will drive everything, and Dr Tiffany Jana will be there advising clients on how to optimize their workplace and community environments to benefit customers, stakeholders and staff. A lifelong diversity and inclusion expert, Dr. Jana is a proven business builder, highly sought-after speaker and prolific author whose latest book, Subtle Acts of Exclusion, is now available. We also will say she is one of the biggest bundles of energy we have ever met! In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, Dr. Jana shares how she founded and built www.tmiconsultinginc.com. She is an expert on ‘interpersonal competencies’ and touches on the process to identify engagement gaps, human equity gaps and systems gaps. She discusses problems in the workplace, such as microagressions, that can kill teams. Dr Jana also insights into how she became an author and why being an author is good for your business. Dr. Jana is the Founder of TMI Consulting and has helped orchestrate the firm’s tremendous growth over the past 17 years. This includes establishing a national network of consultants and spearheading the company’s transition into the world’s first Certified Benefit Corporation with a diversity and engagement focus. Dr. Jana has positioned TMI Consulting as the global leader in social enterprise, values-based engagement. As TMI's leader, Dr. Jana oversees the development of the firm's strategy, client relationships, and team. Dr. Jana also serves as a strategic advisor on client engagements, and has deep expertise in diversity and inclusion, marketing, leadership, and stakeholder engagement. To connect with Dr, Jana visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanyjana/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Broomhead is the co-founder and CEO of Trade Hounds in Boston, a startup that’s created a mobile app and social network for America’s 13-million construction and trade workers, providing them an online forum to share their work and life experiences. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, learn how the team at Trade Hounds approached developing a platform to serve as a digital ‘Town Hall’ that lets construction workers, contractors, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc. connect with each other to discuss their jobs, new work opportunities, their families and work issues. Broomhead grew up in a small, blue-collar town in Australia and at an early age gravitated towards the family construction business. Immigrating to the U.S., Broomhead was at Babson College earning his MBA, when he began engaging in conversations, research and development with both workers and employers to deliver what the market was missing. For more information visit www.tradehounds.com or connect with David on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-broomhead-63839730/
TradeHounds #construction #app #Tradespeople #work #contractor #startup #CEO #founder
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May Al-Karooni is the CEO & founder of Globechain, a reuse marketplace that connects corporates to charities, small businesses and people to redistribute unneeded items, generating social impact data. In this episode, May describes the organization’s journey from inception to scaling across multiple countries and continents while providing insight into holding the vision as the founder, building technology platforms, and knowing when and how to seek investors. May shares how last year 5,100,000 kilos were diverted from landfills by being redistributed through Globechain’s 10,000 members, demonstrating the need for being Commercial with a Conscience ®, May is a global citizen who has previously worked within the investment banking and asset management industry, fundraising monies for venture capital, property and hedge funds for the last 10 years totalling over £120 million in funds raised. In 2015 May set up Globechain after seeing a demand for a new online circular economy within the waste management industry after her own bank employer expressed a need to reuse items in a more collaborative way. In 2019, Globechain launched in Spain, United Arab Emirates, hosted a panel at COP25 Madrid and won multiple awards including May being recognised as one of the Women Leading in Real Estate. To learn more visit www.globechain.com and follow on Twitter @Globechain. To connect with May, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/may-al-karooni/.
innovation #reuse #reusemarketplace #sustainability #reducewaste #circulareconomy #green #greenkey #sustainablefashion #CEO #Founder #womeninbusiness
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In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we speak with Ishu Singh, founder of Innstal. Innstal is an app that seeks to revolutionize the commercial and retail sales industry. Recognizing the disconnect between sophisticated electronics coming with printed manuals, Ishu had a vision that would alter the way instruction guides, warranties and receipts could be accessed and stored for the consumer all while reducing millions of tons of paper waste a year for manufacturers. Ishu shares insights into the road he took to move from vision to product development and encourages founders that you can’t compare the timing of your journey to others. If you are interested in starting an app, then this episode is for you. Now based in Toronto, Canada, Ishu has been an entrepreneur for the last 14 years. During his corporate career, he built the management systems of many companies, handled the projects of a few thousand to multi-million dollar projects while dealing with major corporations like Nissan, GM, etc. Innstal has been featured in Inc. magazine, Global TV Morning Show, Yourstory, iheart radio and other media. Learn more about Innstal from by visiting www.innstal.com Get in touch with Ishu here- https://twitter.com/iamishusingh?lang=en
Innstall #Tech #Apps #GooglePlay #DisruptiveCEONation #business #Manufacturing #businessowners #warranty #manuals #founder #entrepreneur #CEO #podcast #interview
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In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we speak with Rebecca Liebman, co-founder of LearnLux, a fast-scaling startup that empowers modern workplaces to offer financial wellness tools and education as an employee benefit. Rebecca shares the story of how she lived in Kenya and studied microfinance in an informal economy and completed research in Germany, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Then, along with her brother Michael Liebman, she became determined to democratize access to financial guidance and make expert resources available to all. Starting their company while they were still in college, Rebecca provides insights into the journey to build an impactful and profitable organization, including how they secured the company's last round of funding which was led by Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures and Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff. LearnLux scales and goes to market by partnering with the world’s best companies to offer valuable benefits that help employees do their best work every day because they feel confident in their finances. LearnLux offers lessons and resources that are built to be engaging, interactive and jargon-free, and approved by Certified Financial Planners Ⓡ. Rebecca has been honored with accolades such as Business Insider’s One of 7 Women Business Leaders Under 40 to Watch in 2019 and the 2016 Forbes "30 Under 30" list for education. She worked at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and founded Take Back the Tap at Clark University to reduce half a million plastic water bottles from landfills. She has spoken around the country at events related to the future of work, HRTech, Fintech, Women in business, impacts of financial stress in the workplace, and innovation in financial wellness. Discover more about LearnLux by visiting www.learnlux.com or follow on Twitter @LearnLux and @BestofBecca. Connect with Rebecca at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaliebman/
LearnLux #Fintech #finance #womeninfinance #DisruptiveCEONation #business #money #businessowners #founder #entrepreneur #CEO #HR #podcast #interview
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In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we speak with Skyler Ditchfield, co-founder and CEO of GeoLinks. Skyler is an award winning, lifelong risk taker and entrepreneur delivering innovative telecom solutions. He shares how GeoLinks was started in 2011 with $550 in startup capital and a bold vision and now stands as a highly recognized change maker in the network connectivity marketplace. Our conversation covers his founder’s journey, company growth, culture, team building, taking on the big guys, the value of serving on boards, keeping money in the company, the decision for outside funding and his passion for closing the digital divide by reaching underserved communities and offering price competitive services. GeoLinks has revolutionized the way data is transferred from global data centers to its final delivery destination. GeoLinks builds custom solar powered and wind turbine relays as part of their mission of providing a green network footprint and as solar relays don’t require connection to the electric grid it has allowed them to be recognized for emergency connectivity service during severe wildfires. GeoLinks has been ranked on Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America three-years running and they have also been recognized as one of the Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America by Entrepreneur Magazine 2018 and 2019. GeoLinks delivers Enterprise-Grade Internet, Digital Voice, SD_WAN, Cloud On-ramping, Layer 2 Transport, and both Public and Private Turnkey Network Construction. Skyler dove into the world of technology at the age of 13 when he set up a bulletin board system (BBS) to service 200 members of his local community with dial-up Internet. Directly after high school, he accepted a Network Engineer II job at the Private Network Management Center (PNMC) of MCI Worldcom in Silicon Valley where he was the youngest technician at the maximum-security PNMC and then quickly promoted to Network Engineer III. From there he started, sold and bought companies and has become highly recognized receiving honors such as 40 under 40 2019 – Pacific Coast Business Times; Most Influential Leaders 2018 and 2019 – San Fernando Valley Business Journal; 30 Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs of 2019 – Insights Success; and Top 100 Innovator in Diversity and Inclusion - Inc. 5000 2017, 2018, 2019. Discover more by visiting www.geolinks.com or follow on Twitter @GeoLinks_usa or @SkylerJesseD. Connect with Skyler at https://www.linkedin.com/in/skyler-ditchfield-9aa7b946/.
GEOLINKS #5G #clearfiber #DisruptiveCEONation #Industry40 #business #businessowners #founder #entrepreneur #CEO #network #wifi #connectivity #podcast #interview
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In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we speak with Dr. Maximilian ‘Max’ Pinker, founder and CEO of HiveNet.cloud. Max shares insights on his startup journey and the vision for HiveNet which is building an advanced distributed cloud computing network whose goal is to be a powerful future force in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency by allowing everyone with a computer to be able to rent out their idle machines and thus disrupt the billion dollar big cloud computing organizations. HiveNet is currently at its halfway mark on its roadmap to an anticipated public launch and Max excitedly shares insights into building the company, core development team and why they want to make a positive impact on the environment and society. Max firmly believes that as HiveNet increases the usage of available computers it can directly decrease the need for more new computers thus less electronic garbage will be created. Dr. Pinker is a scientist, polymath, and blockchain expert who is happy to make new connections and share the story of HiveNet. Discover more about HiveNet by visiting www.hivenet.cloud or follow on Twitter @HiveNetCloud. Connect with Max at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxpinker/ or https://www.linkedin.com/company/hivenetcloud/.
HiveNetCloud #blockchain #DisruptiveCEONation #business #businessowners #founder #entrepreneur #CEO #cloudcomputing #BusinessinGermany #machinelearning #blockrocket #cryptocurrency #podcast #interview
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The phrase ‘purpose driven business’ can all too often be thrown around as a marketing strategy, however, Saddleback Leather was born out of purpose. It is a brand with a presence, a personality, good people and a passion for outstanding quality. This episode of Disruptive CEO Nation enjoys a conversation with company founder Dave Munson. He tells of the unlikely journey of how an appreciation for a well-made bag led to years of figuring out how to make it work, selling products out of his truck, selling on eBay, and ultimately building a robust ecommerce platform. This episode also covers the challenges that can come when building a factory and production line in Mexico and operating an operations and sales team out of the US all while trying to maintain as much of a virtual workforce as possible. Dave Munson leads with the belief that ‘competing on price is a race to the bottom’. Saddleback focuses on nothing less than top quality and products have a 100-year warranty – it’s why their tagline is whose tagline is,“They’ll fight over it when you’re dead”. But Dave is always quick to say, they are a people business cleverly disguised as leather bag business. Today, Saddleback is a wonderful success story where true brand fans, word of mouth marketing and some interesting videos allow Saddleback to support over 200 workers at their factory in Mexico (where daycare is free and a school has been started). Find out why Saddleback Leather is one of the Newsweek Best Online Shops of 2020 at www.saddlebackleather.com or follow on Twitter @Saddlebackbags. Connect with Dave at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-munson-736600141/.
Saddlebackleather #leather #quality #fashion #DisruptiveCEONation #business #businessowners #founder #entrepreneur #CEO #leather #BusinessinMexico #ecommerce #leatherbag #ecofriendly #corporategifts #somethingdifferent #backpack #leatherpackback #Texasbusiness #Fortworth #Fortworthbusiness #100yearwarrenty
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What does it take to build a business driven by 1.5M+ design, development and data science experts from every country in the world? In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, we feature the business story of Mike Morris and how his team developed the world’s largest technology network and on-demand digital talent platform. Transparent about key learnings over seventeen years of preparation, scaling, acquisition and dedication to measurement, Mike provides honest insight into his world and that of the talented individuals who are a part of Topcoder’s global community.
A gig economy expert, Mike speaks worldwide about cultivating a passionate workforce to drive the transformative nature of digital innovation across every industry imaginable. He believes that when workers have better experiences that businesses have better results and he is an advocate for women in STEM. An active Boston College alumnus; guest lecturer at institutions like Harvard University, MIT, New York University and University of California Berkeley; and an engineer at heart, Mike continues to lead the open workforce revolution by empowering organizations with limitless software development possibilities and unprecedented access to Topcoder’s talented multinational technologists.
Mike Morris is the CEO of www.Topcoder.com and Global Head of Crowdsourcing for IT-services leader Wipro. Second only to his commitment to family—and perhaps waterskiing—Mike has served in leadership roles at Topcoder since 2002. Previously a GM|SVP at Appiro, Mike led its crowdsource offering (Cloudspokes) through the acquisition of Topcoder, and then managed customer, sales and services teams to solidify the Topcoder brand as the largest open workforce provider in the world. He was an integral part of Topcoder becoming a Wipro company through the acquisition of Appirio in 2016. Connect to Mike on Twitter @topcoder @mpmorris36 and via #LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/topcodermike/
Disruptive CEO Nation is searching the globe to introduce you to cutting-edge thinkers and entrepreneurs whose stories will inspire you to innovate in your own business life. Your host is Allison K. Summers. Having worked with and coached CEO’s and senior leaders from over 90 countries, Allison is taking her experiences to help today's CEO's and professionals meet the ever-changing demands of the future of work. Connect with Allison on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/. If you would like to be a guest or recommend a great company founder or business influencer write Connect@AllisonKSummers.com
Topcoder #datascience #technology #gigeconomy #opentalent #Futureofwork #Entrepreneur #Founder #Business #motivationalspeaker #Success #Leadership #Influence #Passport #DisruptiveCEONation #podcast #businesspodcast #startup #startuplife #startupstory #businessowner #businessstory #BostonCollege #WomeninSTEM
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The future of business will not only demand that professionals keep up with technology, it will require leaders to operate at the top levels of human performance as the environment accelerates. Our brains will be faced with ever increasing choices and challenges and that is where the science of NeuroSource steps in. Dr. Dale Foster and his wife, Lee Ann, founded NeuroSource in 2004, and together they have successfully helped clients who have struggled with many challenges, such as ADD, Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, Sleep struggles, Stroke Recovery, and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), but they have also aided executives in their quest to optimize the full potential of their brain. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation learn more about the field of Neurofeedback, QEEG Brain Mapping and how you can train your brain for improved health and performance. Hear from founders who share what it is like to grow a business where you must educate your customers, gain their trust and demonstrate scientific results. Dr. Dale is a Clinical Neuropsychologist who holds the highest certifications possible in QEEG and Neurofeedback who manages NeuroSource alongside his wife Lee Ann who holds a Master’s degree in Psychology and training in biofeedback, Wellness & Epigenetic coaching. To learn more about their company visit www.neurosource.net. To connect with the Fosters, you can find them on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-foster-4361288 and https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannfosterneurosource.
DisruptiveCEONation #business #businessowners #founder #entrepreneur #Memphisbusiness #CEO ##neurofeedback #epigenetic #brainhealth #QEEG #humanperformance
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Tobi Deckert – Engineer, Environmentalist & Extreme Sports Enthusiast = Shredrack Tobi Deckert is a man writing his own story in business. As the founder of Shredrack GmbH (www.shredrack.com), Tobi and his team are focused on building the most useful inflatable roof rack system in the world. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, Tobi provides heartfelt honesty about his founder’s experience. As an industrial engineer by profession, Tobi shares how he went about educating himself as an entrepreneur and then embarking on a journey that included navigating prototypes, patents, production and distribution. He provides tips on validating your patent (a method using blockchain technology), dealing with challenges in production quality, using project management tools like #Asana, and how videos have become one of their most valuable marketing tools. Tobi is a forward thinker and Shredrack has received a green product award and stands as an organization that values employing people with disabilities. Take a few minutes to get to know Tobi at www.tobideckert.de. Toby is a unique business personality who has combined the mindset of an engineer with key life learnings gained as a stuntman, extreme sports athlete/model, DJ and videographer. Connect with Tobi on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobideckert/, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/shredrack/, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SHREDRACK/, and Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/user/Deckardinhostuff.#DisruptiveCEONation #startup #entrepreneur #Germanbusiness #extremesports #outdoors #cars #patent #projectmanagement #sustainablebusiness #greenbusiness #founder #businessowner #business #videomarketing #productlaunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sue Baumgaertner-Bartsch is a woman who knows how to get things done. As a serial entrepreneur she has demonstrated that she can set a course, scale fast and make a bold impact. As the VP and Co-Founder of “Business Booster Today” magazine (together with her husband Christian Bartsch) she is on path to reach her goal of empowering 20 million professionals to grow and explode their businesses. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, Sue shares insights into her journey and how with extreme focus, Business Booster Today has risen to be the number one Germany based magazine for the global entrepreneur and has global readership with subscriptions and placement in seat pockets of major international airlines and on the bedside tables of five-star hotels. She also shares how she moved from a ‘no’ perspective to a ‘yes’ mindset which led her to live and work on three continents and move from a life of a corporate financial auditor to become a powerful business builder. Sue is someone you should add to your professional network and you can find her at www.businessboostertoday.com and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-baumgaertner-bartsch-114131/. Follow her business on Twitter @mybbtmagazine and Instagram @businessboostertoday. Sue is an international speaker, business coach, wife and mother whohelps people to boost their life and business and increase visibility and credibility in niche areas on a global scale. Her biggest superpowers are connecting with others, building valuable relationships, and empowering others to invest in themselves and their business so they can live their purpose, get results and be happier! She has been interviewed on radio and TV talk shows in Germany, London, France, USA and Canada and in magazines in order to share her story and to inspire others on their entrepreneurial journey. As an international speaker, she has been invited to business events and functions, and has shared the stage in Los Angeles with celebrities, such as Brooke Shields,Mark Wahlberg, Steve Wozniak, Mel Gibson, Christie Brinkley, where she had the opportunity to interview American rapper, actor, and real estate investor “Vanilla Ice” in front of over 2,500 business enthusiasts from over 71 countries. #Entrepreneur #Founder #Femalefounder #Womeninbusiness #Business #Businesstips Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What can you learn from Gordon Tredgold? A hell of a lot as he is one of the top leadership experts in the world and highly sought motivational speaker and executive coach. Often heard saying, “People are not afraid of hard work, they are afraid of failure,” Gordon inspires entrepreneurs and corporate leaders to keep it simple and follow the four key principles of his FAST leadership methodology: Focus, Accountability, Simplicity and Transparency. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, Gordon provides keen insight into leadership, achieving results and how to leverage LinkedIn (he averages 2,500 views per post), the formula for becoming an influencer (he has half a million followers worldwide), and tips on how to get into publications and media as an industry expert (he’s been translated into 21 languages). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Monica Weintraub – Down to Donate, Turning #Slacktivists into #Philanthropists Monica Weintraub wants to teach people to do good the easy way. As the founder and CEO of Down to Donate, Monica has delivered into the nonprofit space a charity subscription service whose goal is to redefine what it means to donate and stand up for causes. Her long-term vision is to create the world’s most extensive network of philanthropists, while helping each of Down to Donate’s vetted nonprofit partner organizations receive monthly gifts from the community. In this episode of Disruptive CEO Nation, Monica will share the story of her seven years in China where she founded her first company at the age of 23 in the ESL industry. Monica reflects on some of the challenges in the nonprofit space and how Down to Donate seeks to engage the slacktivist generation in a model that they are comfortable with while simultaneously educating donors about the world’s pressing issues through a crowdfunding-meets-subscription based platform. She believes that micro-donations and the set-it-and-forget-it method can lead to big impact. Take a few minutes to get to know Monica Weintraub at www.DowntoDonate.com. Monica’s writings and photographs have been featured in various outlets such as CNN, Elite Daily, Inc.com, and SheKnows. You can also check out her Good Work podcast which features social impact stories about good people doing good sh*t. https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/good-work-good-work-F1feLBrn59v/Connect to Monica on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-weintraub-437703a8/Instagram: @downtodonate Twitter: @downtodonate
Disruptive CEO Nation is searching the globe to introduce you to cutting-edge thinkers and entrepreneurs whose stories will inspire you to innovate in your own business life. Your host is Allison K. Summers. Having worked with and coached CEO’s and senior leaders from over 90 countries, Allison is taking her experiences to help today's CEO's and professionals meet the ever-changing demands of the future of work. Connect with Allison on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/. If you would like to be a guest or recommend a great company founder or business influencer write Connect@AllisonKSummers.com. #Entrepreneur #Founder #Business #girlboss #femalefounder #Success #Leadership #Influence #Passport #DisruptiveCEONation #podcast #businesspodcast #startup #startuplife #startupstory #getpublished #businessstory #dreambig #nonprofit #charity #philanthropy #Downtodonate #slackivist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sukhi Jutla is an award-winning entrepreneur and author of 3 books. She is the co-founder of MarketOrders, an online B2B platform for the gold and diamond jewelry industry. She is a leading international speaker, influencer and thought leader in tech and a qualified IBM Blockchain Foundation Developer. She is recognized by a number of industry awards including the Asian Women of Achievement Awards, Management Todays ’35 Women Under 35′ and named a Top 100 European Digital Pioneer by The Financial Times and Google. In April 2018 Sukhi made global headlines when she became the World’s First #1 Bestselling ‘Blockchain’ Author.
About MarketOrders
MarketOrders is an online marketplace helping independent retail jewelers to source the products they need faster, cheaper and direct from suppliers. Find out more at https://www.marketorders.net/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Martin is a pure-bred engineer. He has had the interest from a very early age. All the preferred toys let him tinker with something. The only logical step was to study engineering at university. After his second year, he started working as a mechanical engineer for Estanc, a company specialised in pressure vessels.
After that, he went on to work at Nordic Gas Solutions. There he continued with pressure vessels and constructions as a mechanical engineer but also climber the industry ladder by taking care of production management and client/supplier communications.
It was there when it became very clear for Martin that some things are quite skewed in the industry. The ordering process was very clumsy and time-consuming. This planted the first seeds for making a change in the industry. After sharing some early thoughts with friends a family, the overall outline of Fractory started hatching.
From there, a team of 3 co-founders was established, some startup competitions won and the journey got started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
TJ Hoffman is Chief Operating Officer at Sibme, a Houston, TX based SaaS and Professional Services company. Prior to joining Sibme, TJ spent 10 years working in public education as a teacher, school, and district administrator. He is passionate about the future of work and the specific challenge of eliminating the institutional barriers that get between people and the skills they need to advance professionally. TJ is a proud graduate of the Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business and a proud Houstonian. Sibme's mission is to change the way people learn at work by combining innovative, user-friendly technology solutions, implementation expertise, and ongoing support and partnership to connect people and transform the way they learn and grow professionally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Paul A. Dillon is a Certified Management Consultant with more than 45 years of experience in the professional services industry. He is the president and CEO of Dillon Consulting Services LLC, a U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs certified Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, based in Durham, NC and Chicago, IL. Paul is the creator of the concept for a veteran startup incubator in Chicago, called Bunker Labs, as well as the creator of the concept for a veteran entrepreneur support organization in North Carolina, called VetStart, which was recently rebranded as Bunker RDU.
Mr. Dillon created and teaches a course on veterans' issues, entitled “PubPol 830.05. Special Topics in Management: Public Policy and Veterans: Policy Challenges and Best Practices” at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.
Paul represents the nation's veteran community on the Kennedy Forum on Mental Health, and is a member of the Leadership Council of the Kennedy Forum Illinois.
His articles and quotes on veterans' issues have appeared in Forbes, HuffPost, Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business, the National Federation of Independent Businesses newsletter, Authority Magazine, Arianna Huffington's ThriveGlobal, We Are The Mighty, and USAA Magazine. He is a sought after commentator on national veteran matters on numerous radio programs and podcasts, including a recent appearance on CBS Radio's “Eye on Veterans” program on the work of the Kennedy Forum, as it pertains to veterans’ mental health.
Paul was the organizer and moderator for the Veterans Workshop and Symposium at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in March, 2018.
He is a former trustee of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and a former Public Member and Commissioner of the national Commission for Case Manager Certification.
An avid distance lap swimmer, Mr. Dillon's interests range from veterans to business ethics and governance to the media, the last of which stems his 14 years as the supervisor of elections to both the National Radio Hall of Fame and for the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the Emmy Awards.
Paul holds an A.B. degree from John Carroll University (Cleveland, OH), a M.S in Ed.. from Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL), and has served as an adjunct professor or visiting lecturer at Governors State University (University Park, IL), the University of Illinois at Chicago, and at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
A U.S. Army Reserve veteran, he served in Vietnam as a 1st Lieutenant, and was awarded 2 Bronze Star Medals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Phil Shawe co-founded TransPerfect in 1992. Today, TransPerfect is a global family of companies and the world’s largest privately held provider of language and business services. Shawe oversees the day-to-day operations of the company, headquartered in New York City.
Under Shawe’s leadership, TransPerfect has received numerous awards and distinctions. The company is a three-time honoree of the Inc. 5000 Award, a six-time honoree of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, and has earned multiple Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service. Crain's New York Business has ranked TransPerfect as one of the largest privately held companies, as well as one of the largest women-owned companies, six years in a row. TransPerfect was also three times named one of the fastest-growing women-owned/led businesses in North America by Entrepreneur and the Women Presidents' Organization.
In 2008, Shawe was named to the prestigious “40 Under 40 list” by Crain’s New York Business. He sits on the Board of Directors for Girls Who Code, an organization with a single mission: to close the gender gap in technology. Shawe has spoken at New York University and Columbia University, and is a member of the Association for a Better New York (ABNY).
Prior to his career in the language services industry, Shawe was a Financial Analyst at Chemical Bank and a Global Custody Consultant at Merrill Lynch. Shawe holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from New York University's Stern School of Business, and he received his BS from the University of Florida where he triple majored in Finance, Marketing, and Risk Management. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Karn is responsible for operations, business development, and growth at Cover. Karn is also responsible for investor relationships on behalf of the company. Prior to Cover, Karn led Stylekick--a large mobile e-commerce marketplace that was acquired by Shopify. Before entrepreneurship, Karn was a management consultant with the financial services advisory practice, Oliver Wyman.
Karn holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University where he graduated with Distinction, and a Master of Finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. Karn completed the Chartered Financial Analyst (“CFA”) program in the minimum possible time. He is also a Y Combinator Fellow, and YC Alumnus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jeffrey Hayzlett is a primetime television host of C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett and Executive Perspectives on C-Suite TV, and business podcast host of All Business with Jeffrey Hayzletton C-Suite Radio. He is a global business celebrity, speaker, best-selling author, and Chairman and CEO of C-Suite Network, home of the world’s most trusted network of C-Suite leaders. Hayzlett is a well-traveled public speaker, former Fortune 100 CMO, and author of four best-selling business books: Think Big, Act Bigger: The Rewards of Being Relentless, Running the Gauntlet, The Mirror Testand The Hero Factor: How Great Leaders Transform Organizations and Create Winning Cultures. Hayzlett is one of the most compelling figures in business today and an inductee into the National Speakers Association’s Speaker Hall of Fame.
As a leading business expert, Hayzlett is frequently cited in Forbes, SUCCESS, Mashable, Marketing Week and Chief Executive, among many others. He shares his executive insight and commentary on television networks like Bloomberg, MSNBC, Fox Business, and C-Suite TV. Hayzlett is a former Bloomberg contributing editor and primetime host, and has appeared as a guest celebrity judge on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump for three seasons. He is a turnaround architect of the highest order, a maverick marketer and c-suite executive who delivers scalable campaigns, embraces traditional modes of customer engagement, and possesses a remarkable cachet of mentorship, corporate governance, and brand building. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mr. Dean Grey has over 20 years of experience in The Science of Engagement. He is recognized globally as one of the leading experts in community-building for lifestyle brands.
Throughout his career, he has kept his finger on the pulse of the future – Because of this, he created several technology-focused organizations that facilitate change on a global scale.
Dean's sense of humor, pattern recognition, and ability to connect on a personal level with global audiences opened some large and rare doors at a young age as a futurist.
After a decade of flying around the world developing , and leading communities 3-4 times a week, Mr. Grey developed a global community of 35 million followers.
Dean documented 300-plus interviews with world influencers, coaches, military, pastors, and game designers in search of a solution to the rise of third party platforms who were Gamifying, Monetizing, and Owning their global communities.
Dean recognized platforms would become the massive disruptors in today's world, and set out on a mission to humanize technology through the application of The Science of Engagement – making the shift from the age of information into the age of transformation.
Dean launched Skylab, a game changing platform that serves as a living ecosystem that creates the conditions that engage users to take inspired actions. This results in sustainable engagement for brands, influencers, and communities.
In addition to being the Founder and CEO of Skylab Apps, Mr. Grey founded and exited successfully three other entrepreneur enabling technology based companies. He has traveled and presented to massive audiences in over 18 different countries!
However for those who truly know Mr. Grey ... he is an artist and entertainer at heart who is masquerading as a entrepreneur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bio:
Ryan Preisner is the co-founder and CEO of boldSOCKS. In his current role, Ryan oversees all of the backend business processes and operations needed to run and grow the company.
After graduating college, Ryan found a job in a corporate environment working for a large food service distributor as a Marketing Analyst. He found his interests and skills leading him towards opportunities to build efficiencies in business through systems and data. This prompted Ryan to go back to college to continue studies in Computer Information Systems. Ryan was promoted to become the Product Data Supervisor and was able to use his skills to help the organization solve complex data challenges. This included building systems used to create new product data for over 35,000 items by large teams requiring coordinated approvals and hand-offs. Although Ryan found success in his role, he lacked contentment and began dreaming of entrepreneurial ideas.
Using the skills obtained on the job and in school, Ryan began experimenting with starting his own venture on the side. This included buying and selling snowboards on eBay, buying pallets of returned electronics, building a snowboarding app, and eventually boldSOCKS.com. boldSOCKS was born out of Ryan’s desire to have fun with his work apparel and identifying an opportunity for a sock retailer to carry the best brands and patterns of socks. From the beginning, Ryan had a desire to use boldSOCKS for good and have a mission beyond simply selling socks. This originally started with what they called Bold Contributions, but has evolved into strategically supporting clean water initiatives with the Statement Sockwear brand, ensuring ethical production of their products, and developing a company culture that cares for all it impacts.
Ryan was born, raised and still resides in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area with his wife Sarah. They have three children (Breckin, Greydin, and Emberlynn). In his free time, Ryan enjoys playing hockey, hiking, helping his wife in their garden, and spending weekly one-on-one time with their kids.
Ryan Roff
Ryan Roff is a social entrepreneur with a passion for using business to create measurable change and social justice. He is an owner of boldSOCKS in Grand Rapids, MI and the co-founder of Statement Sockwear (a sock brand with a social enterprise model). Ryan represents the creative and marketing side of boldSOCKS. He currently oversees the strategic and creative development of the brands under the boldENDEAVORS umbrella (boldSOCKS.com, boldSOCKS, boldSOCKS Retail and Statement Sockwear) and casts the long-term vision for the company.
Before boldSOCKS, Ryan worked as a the packaging coordinator at a major foodservice distributor where he was able to blend strategic brand decisions, art direction, and project management while coordinating the creative development of over 1,000 pieces of packaging artwork and the redesign of four private brands.
He then moved to a mid-sized agency where he managed the strategic development and implementation of integrated marketing campaigns across various channels and tactics that included apps, web, print, trade shows, social media and videos.
Ryan now lives on the Northside of Grand Rapids with his wife Brooke and one-year son. Together, they enjoy biking, hiking, camping, climbing, cookouts and being outside. While on the Northside, Ryan and his wife enjoy connecting neighbors through social gatherings and recently developed the Northside Happy Hour—a group of more than 30 people that get together from the neighborhood to enjoy a cocktail every month.
Here are our social channels:
https://www.instagram.com/boldsocksdotcom/
https://www.facebook.com/boldSOCKSdotcom/
https://www.pinterest.com/boldsocks/
https://twitter.com/boldsocksDOTcom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oscar Macia, Cofounder & CEO, ForceManager
Oscar Macia holds a nuclear engineering degree from the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona (UPC) and an Executive MBA from IESE Business School. Oscar has more than 20 years’ experience in sales management. He founded ForceManager, the personal sales assistant app, in 2011 with the mission to transform the way field sales teams sell on the road - making the process leaner and easier for the sales rep, while providing greater visibility and real-time data to their managers. Today, he leads ForceManager, a company with 150 employees and clients in 36 countries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dawn W. Dickson is CEO of PopCom, an automated retail company that uses facial recognition, A.I, and blackchain technology to help retailers collect valuable customer insights. The first CRM, data, and analytics software provider for unattended retail, PopCom has developed technology to make kiosks and vending machines intelligent through data and analytics at the point of purchase. As a serial entrepreneur with over 16 years of experience in marketing and business development, Dawn launched four successful cash flow positive companies since 2002. Her most recent ventures include Flat Out of Heels (rollable flats for women to get relief from painful hears, and PopCom, after identifying a need to make vending machines more intelligent.
Dawn has received numerous awards and accolades for her business savvy and pitching skills, and has been invited to speak on numerous panels and workshops and featured in countless media outlets including the cover of the June 2018 issue of Black Enteprise, Forbes, Fortune, Venture Beat, Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, The Miami Herald, CNBC/Yahoo series 'The Biz Fix' with Marcus Lemonis, and MSNBC 'Your Biz' Elevator Pitch.
A recognized leader in entrepreneurship and digital marketing, Dawn is featured in Who's Who in Black Columbus, Who Who's in Black Atlanta, honored as one of Legacy Miami's Top 40 Under 40 Leaders in South Florida, listed among the '50 Young Visionary Women Leaders to Watch' by Innov8tiv Magazine, and named as one of INC Magazine's 100 top female founders for 2018.
Dawn received her B.A. in Journalism from The Ohio State University. Additionally, Dawn was selected to participate in some of the nation's top accelerator programs for entrepreneurs including the NewME (San Francisco), Canopy Boulder (Boulder, Colorado), Techstars (Los Angeles), Brinc (Hong Kong) and is recognized as one of the nation's top entrepreneurs on the rise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Misha Kaura, PhD is a 26-year old, award-winning designer who creates made-to-measure and ready-to-wear apparel and accessories for women who know their worth. A pure bloodline descendent of the Kauravas, one of the two Indian founding families who later ruled over Punjab as royals until the Amritsar invasion, she is proud of her heritage. She is also a Chopra, of the cotton business and Indian politics, on her mother’s side. Misha’s design aesthetic is informed by her unique upbringing at the intersection of color, country, and culture. In addition to her training in law, management, and industrial engineering, she is a design specialist who apprenticed at Christian Dior Couture and studied the full spectrum of sculpture, fine arts, fashion, textile, embroidery, handbags, and fine jewelry. Her visual-spatial abilities help her to create from the big picture viewpoint of form, texture, geometry, and symmetry, and her quantitative insights allow her to merchandize, categorize, and customize colors, styles, and silhouettes onto individual clients. Her expertise is in dressing the over 35-year old woman in a flattering manner and her business objective is to level the playing field for older women.
Misha strives to translate her artistic creativity into commercial and cultural relevance, focusing on permanent designs that appreciate in value over time. To this end, hour-by-hour valuations of her Level 1 to 4 Swarovski crystal covered evening handbags may be tracked via The Handbag Stock on Instagram at @thehandbagstock. Level 5 and 6 handbags are restricted to made to measure clients only. All collaboration handbags with other designers and organizations are placed outside of the Level system and are sold exclusively via external websites and retail partners. In order to best serve clients and to protect their privacy, the Misha Kaura Club is an invite-only, exclusive shopping experience offered online and in person. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Andres Lares is the Managing Partner/CEO at Shapiro Negotiations Institute. While successful, SNI’s leadership understood it needed some radical changes to meet the evolving demands of the marketplace and bring innovation into the equation. Today, new technology is the firm’s biggest driver of growth with products such as virtual reality negotiation simulations that utilize AI and measure physiological reactions via biometric monitors to deliver effective training results. Lares also shares his personal journey (he hails from Venezuela) to leading a multi-national organization and what he feels are key negation techniques that every entrepreneur and business leader should use. You can contact Lares at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreslares/ or find his company at www.shapironegotiations.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Syed Irfan Ajmal is a digital marketing consultant working at the intersection of Content Marketing, SEO,and Digital PR. He and his boutique marketing agency has generated up to 7 figure annual revenues (in terms of USD) for various American and British e-commerce and SaaS startups. Passionate about paving the way for others to achieve success, Syed is a prolific speaker and writer whose articles have been published in Forbes ME, the World Bank, HuffPost, Business.com, SEMrush, TechWyse, Aurora, and several others.
In this episode, Syed shares his founder's journey which included breaking free of traditions and cultural mindsets, leaving his home country for an education and business experience in Europe, and then to returning to Pakistan and founding profitable companies. He also provides insights into what companies should think about when it comes to leverage content and campaigns. To learn more about his corporate services visit: www.syedirfanajmal.com. Syed welcomes new connections - find him on Twitter @SyedIrfanAjmal and LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/syedirfanajmal/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ari Meisel is a self-described, “Overhwhelmologist” who helps entrepreneurs who have opportunity in excess of what their infrastructure can handle, to optimize, automate, and outsource everything in their business, so they can make themselves replaceable and scale their business.
Ari is the Founder of Less Doing, and author of the best-selling books, “The Art of Less Doing” and “The Replaceable Founder”. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, an Ironman, and a devoted husband to Anna and father to four children, Ben, 6, Sebastien and Lucas, 4 and Chloe, 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gautam Rao is currently co-founder and CTO at Pursuit, a technology startup enabling skilled workers to access global opportunities and fulfill their potential. Before this, he was co-founder and Head of Product at Finvoice, where he helped create a first of it's kind software for the small business lending industry, and helped steer the company towards profitability. At Pursuit, he's raised money from investors such as Sequoia, Angellist Spearhead and an early investor in Dropbox. He is a Stanford graduate and has lived and worked in 4 different countries on 3 different continents before moving to the US. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Or grew up in a humble Israeli family. His mother was an elementary school science teacher, and his father a travel agent. At the age of 21, Or found himself at a crossroads, either pursue a degree or find a job. He knew that attending college would be a financial strain on his family and felt that the employment opportunities available to him were disappointing, so he took a leap of faith and decided to move to NY to follow his dream of becoming a real estate mogul.
Or began his career working for a small boutique rental agency. His job was to lease apartments to young professionals and students. Being a quick learner, it took him merely a year of working in the field to confidently start his own business. He began leveraging residential properties and offering them as alternative accommodations for tourists. This way lodgers could avoid steep hotel bills and save money when they travel. While business was booming, and his company was growing fast, Or, still eager to learn more about real estate, took the next logical step in his career and joined GFI, a commercial real estate brokerage.
Not long after joining GFI, he had an idea he believed would fundamentally change the way people live. In his own life, he had moved between 7 apartments in just 6 years and describes the experience as needlessly stressful and expensive. Or's vision was to provide end-users with turn-key apartments, and to constantly improve the user experience by integrating user information. This way, renters would save both money and time while enjoying a more flexible, user-friendly, living environment.
Or believed so strongly in the success of this venture, that in April 2017 he decided to invest all his life savings into it. He worked on improving the concept for almost 6 months before embarking on his first Friends & Family investment round. Following his best friend's advice, he named the company Roomrs.
Today, Roomrs is a well-known real estate co-living operator which manages more than 400 rooms across 40 buildings. The team quickly grew from 3 people into a 25 people operation. Recently, it secured a seed round of 2.5M. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kurt Phelps, CEO of GNR, one of the nation's most successful high tech recruiting firms, has over 20 years experience working with executives to build some of the most powerful corporate teams in the industry. Over the last 2 decades, Kurt found that executives rarely put the same time and effort into networking, developing their digital presence, and establishing their own personal brand as they did for the companies they work for. To solve this problem, Kurt created Phello, the world's first SaaS platform, which allows professionals to organize their years of contacts, communicate with their network on a regular basis, and develop their personal brand and digital presence—laying the groundwork to be top of mind when new opportunities arise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Impish Lee is NY-made custom apparel brand that enables shoppers to design their own intimates and loungewear online. Sisters Noelle and Kali are the designers and owners of Impish Lee. With a love for innovative fashion, the pair set out to build a company that would reflect their artistic spirit and interest in co-creation.Impish Lee has been handcrafting custom lingerie and lounge apparel for years and, in 2015, it launched the online design tool that makes the process of customization simple, exciting, and interactive. Impish Lee seeks to empower women by mainstreaming inclusivity and individuality in the fashion industry.
Kali Ventresca is the CCO and Co-Owner of Impish Lee, a customizable intimate apparel brand that enables women to design their own lingerie and loungewear online. Kali, along with her sister and business partner, Noelle, launched the Impish Lee design tool in November of 2015 after successfully funding their Kickstarter project. Kali received her BFA from SUNY New Paltz and has been working as a designer and a photographer since graduating in 2011. When Kali is not in her studio making lingerie, she can be found behind the camera at fashion shoots and weddings. Kali has applied her skills in photography and graphic design to create the Impish Lee brand, mainstreaming inclusivity and individuality in the fashion industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Eric Brown, Founder and CEO of Aliant Payment Systems (http://aliantpayments.com)Founded in 2003, Aliant is a leading payment processing company that processes credit card, debit card, cryptocurrency, and automated clearing house transactions for over 7,500 merchants, with annual card volume totaling $800 million. Aliant was one of the first payment processing companies to offer merchants the ability to accept cryptocurrency payments, with its solution available to over 137,000 merchants worldwide. Aliant is currently developing its own domestic, fully compliant solution that processes crypto payments, converts cryptocurrency to USD, and offers merchants next day payouts. For the last 15 years Eric has served as the CEO of Aliant, and he has been a guest speaker and on panels at multiple finance conferences, with the most recent being Litecoin Summit. He has also been featured in Business Insider, Digital Transactions, and dozens of industry sites. You can also check out this blog, which explains a little more about the Aliant story:https://www.aliantpayments.com/aliant-payment-systems-celebrates-15-years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Elyse Petersen is an advocate for transparency in the global food system and currently works with tea farmers to improve the quality of their products and access market opportunities. As the Founder of Tealet, she has made direct trade available to small-scale farmers, businesses, and consumers around the world. She is a food scientist and returned Peace Corps volunteer that is committed to building a sustainable future for agriculture and communities. She has a B.S. in Food Science and Technology from Cal Poly Pomona and a Japanese-MBA from the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Connor Gillivan is the CMO of FreeeUp.com. He has sold over $30 million online, has hired hundreds of freelancers to build his companies, is a published author, and is the owner of ConnorGillivan.com. He currently lives in Denver, CO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
One of the co-founders of Eat Your Coffee – creators of the original, naturally caffeinated snack bar. Founded as coffee-deprived college students rushing to our 8am classes, we were looking for a better way to stay energized throughout the day. We joked about eating our coffee, started developing some recipes in our dorm, and sold them in the library for a semester. About three years later now, we've officially graduated from Northeastern University, sold our bars into over 600 retail stores and 700 offices around the country, raised nearly $3M, and sold over 1 million bars and counting. It would be great to learn more about the book you're working on and if there's a fit for our story Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rahul is an entrepreneur, investor and mentor based out of Zürich Switzerland. He is currently building a corporate venture, GOKONG, of one of the largest private banks here in Switzerland. Prior to co-founding GOKONG, he invested in impact ventures in Asia, gaming ventures in Europe and advised academics out of University of Zurich building the next gen measurement metrics platform - FINEXUS within the sustainable finance space.
Rahul actively mentors entrepreneurs and investors on business models, strategy, scaling and operational excellence.
Rahul holds a Bachelors degree in pure mathematics and a Masters in mathematical finance and has been a high impact researcher focused on financial systemic risk. His research has not only been covered by popular news papers like the Boston Globe but has also found applications across many central banks across the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tatsuya Nakagawa is an accomplished entrepreneur, author, and expert on innovation & marketing.
He is the co-founder of Castagra Products. Castagra develops, proves and delivers, game changing innovations for the building materials and coatings industry.
http://www.castagra.com/
http://castagraroofing.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatsuya/
https://twitter.com/tatsuyanakagawa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kari DePhillips is a digital marketing expert and the owner of The Content Factory, as well as co-founder of Workationing. She's been called a "limit-breaking female founder" by Thrive, and NBCNews has referred to her as a "CEO who takes job perks to the max" for her approach to managing her companies. All employees of TCF and Workationing work from home – or wherever – and Kari lives as a digital nomad traveling the world while working on her businesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Annie Eaton is the CEO of Atlanta-based future technologies company Futurus, where she creates immersive, engaging and interactive experiences in virtual reality, augmented reality and 360° capture. Annie earned her degree from The Georgia Institute of Technology in 2010. In 2014, she created XR Atlanta, which now boasts over 1,100 active members. Annie is involved with GeorgiaVR, Women in XR Atlanta, and is a re:imagine/ATL Alliance member. She currently serves as an advisor to the TAG Digital Media and Entertainment society and is a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council. Earlier this year, Annie received the Women in IT Rising Star award and was named the Technology Association of Georgia Young Professionals’ 2017 Technologist of the Year. Annie has vast public speaking experience, having been invited as a speaker to engagements including General Assembly, Georgia State University, Hospitality Executive Exchange, Talk NYC, Federal Reserve, OrlandoiX, FutureX Live and Atlanta Tech Edge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Davis holds a bachelor’s degree in International Marketing, a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Huntington University and a credential in Executive Coaching. She holds a certificate from the National Institution of Health in Protecting Human Research and was named to The Wall Street Journal’s Women of Note database as an innovative woman who shares her expertise and inspiration. In 2015, she was featured by American Express’s Thinking Outside the Box Forum.
But it isn’t just her education and credentials that qualify her to do what she does for others. Davis is a self-starter and has always been her own boss. At 18 she became a licensed realtor for the state of New York and sold real estate for 3 years. She later became a contractor for Mazda USA and traveled the country for six years as an automotive product specialist and speaker. Simultaneously, her entrepreneurial spirit led her to create Hoo-Kong in 2013, a jewelry line designed to empower its buyers to be the unique, world-changing individuals that they were born to be. While designing jewelry and managing her small business, Davis sought to fill a void in the fulfillment of her passions and launched the Never, Never Give Up campaign as a social responsibility endeavor under the HK umbrella. The campaign quickly gained traction and eventually overtook the jewelry line as the centerpiece of Davis’s business. Hoo-Kong organically evolved into the digital media platform it is today.
Hoo-Kong now provides tools, resources, and services to help individuals help themselves; discover, learn and grow. This fall Hoo-Kong will be expanding to offer Online Leadership Consultations anytime, anyplace, from any device. By developing this online tool and app it’s aim is to provide confidential support to executives, entrepreneurs, and emerging leaders so that may effectively perform within their organizations.
Fueled by the desire to instill confidence in others, especially women and girls, Davis spends her spare time volunteering and donating her energy and resources to different causes. In 2015 she sponsored the suicide prevention stage play To Die Alone. She has also led pro-bono workshops on personal and professional development for disadvantaged youth in New York City and volunteers as an English conversation tutor at AAFSC, empowering women through literacy and language development. Davis believes education is a powerful tool and volunteers with GED preparation at Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow where she assists adults in acquiring the academic skills necessary to lift themselves out of poverty and create a better life for themselves and their families.
Davis makes a concerted effort for her team to discover and share free business and tech courses to bridge gaps between readers and opportunities for growth.
When asked her favorite quote Davis sites Itochu, “I am one with infinite missions, my workplace is the entire world.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Octavia Conner is a financial management strategist, speaker, author, and accountant. Her movement, mission, company, and superpower – is helping businesses Say Yes To Profits. Here is where she strategically combines financial consulting, with proven money management and business growth strategies.
After spending 10 plus years in corporate America, helping to build the dreams of multimillion-dollar businesses as their “go-to numbers girl”, Octavia decided to ditch the 9 to 5 in 2011 and build her dream business instead.
Recently awarded one of the Top 50 Cloud Accountants in North America, her bold and fearless decision to launch Say Yes To Profits has allowed her to help hundreds of businesses around the global align their business dreams with a financial strategy that enabled them to achieve financial abundance and accelerate business growth. She specializes in closing the financial gaps and located hidden money leaks in order to significantly increase cash flow and profit margins. . As a typical result, clients increase cash flow, boost profit margins and grow their business by 50% or more in six months.
There is no denying - Octavia Conner is America’s leading expert on profit maximizing for small businesses. Are you ready to Say YES To Profits? Then connect with Octavia Conner today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rita Kakati Shah started her career at Goldman Sachs in London, where she has been a dedicated advocate for diversity and equality issues in the workplace. She was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Citizenship and Diversity Award for her outstanding contributions during her 10-year career at the firm. After a segue into the healthcare industry, Rita moved to New York City, took a career break to raise her children and now helms Uma, a company whose mission is empowering women to succeed at life and work after a career break or transition. Uma holds networking events that allow attendees to share valuable stories, lessons and contacts, and be part of a supportive community. Uma Academy workshops help polish skills in a constantly changing work environment, providing practical tools, clear career direction and emotional support. Finally, Umaships are curated job experiences with select companies across diverse fields, that help bridge the gap between current lifestyles and return to work. With offices in New York, London, and San Francisco, the community continues to grow every day. Rita has created an international movement by identifying pain points and challenging the status quo. From income disparity to paid family leave, she is not afraid of asking tough questions and making bold suggestions to help women succeed in life every day. Rita also advises companies on diversity, inclusion and retention strategy, and is a regular speaker at global events. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As co-founder and CEO, Natalie leads the direction, culture, and team happiness for Wildbit, makers of Beanstalk, Postmark and Conveyor. With 28 team members across 5 countries (15 cities) working on multi-million dollar products for developers, she’s proving that you can grow an extremely profitable business while focusing on shorter work days, an enjoyable work-from-anywhere environment, and staying small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michele is a Colorado native and 2x entrepreneur with unyielding ambition and a strong drive for success. She is the co-founder and COO of RevoKind (Revolutionary Humankind) which is an intelligent internet infrastructure that uniquely combines blockchain and artificial intelligence into a spatially-mapped platform called the RevoVerse. Michele is passionate about social impact and the potential for blockchain to empower the individual. Recently named one of Colorado’s Top 20 Female Founders to Watch in 2018, she brings energy and enthusiasm to everything she does. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Max Masure (they/them) is a gender inclusion strategist and co-founder of Argo Collective. They train organizations to use creativity, empathy and collaboration to tackle gender inclusion challenges by helping them find actionable solutions for their own issues, combining the power of Design Thinking Methodology and their lived experience as a transgender nonbinary person.
They started their career working as a User Experience and Design lead, guiding Design Thinking workshops for an array of organizations, from startups to Fortune 50 companies. They led Design Thinking workshops for the innovation departments of Essilor and Johnson & Johnson, worked with Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse on award-winning mobile banking tools and co-created the first online therapy app, Talkspace, which has successfully helped thousands of individuals connect with an online support system.
At the time, they were perceived as a woman.
When they started to live their life authentically as a transgender nonbinary person, it shifted their entire world. They realized that they could be the change and solve gender inclusion issues using their very unique perspective in the society. That’s how they co-founded Argo Collective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kerstin Oberprieler is an entrepreneur, gamification expert, PhD students, and martial artist. She is Co-Founder of PentaQuest, a company that uses gamification to help clients improve productivity, staff engagement, and build positive culture. Kerstin is a sought-after expert in using gamification to motivate and nudge behavior, having spoken in various countries and even having spoken on the TEDx stage. Kerstin is also a black belt in 3 martial arts (and studying 2 more). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Colette Nataf is the CEO and Co-Founder at Lightning AI. Previously, Colette was a User Acquisition Manager at MileIQ. After the company was acquired by Microsoft, she managed the Demand Generation team at Intercom. Colette is now helping marketers scale their businesses through Facebook, Google AdWords, and other channels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Founder & CEO Gnatta
Founder & Chairman FM Outsource
Founded his first company in 2012, now runs two successful, profitable businesses with a combined turnover of £5m. Both have been built entirely self-financed, taking on no debt or external investment.
He founded his first business due to the belief that the way customers and organizations communicate was broken – this has turned into a passion of his and he now runs a successful digital outsourcing firm and a successful technology business producing superior call center technology.
Jack is a thought leader, regularly sharing his views on customer communication, and the customer service industry in general.
A large part of Jack’s success so far has come from his focus on hiring the right talent (especially developers, initially a challenge for someone with no coding background) and creating the right culture for each business: one a 400 strong outsource operation and one a 30-strong tech team. His success in doing so has taken both companies to where they are today and his honest, engaging style has played a massive part in this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Success By Design: Designer Water “Embodies Alkaline Water Benefits”, Experts Say
CENTURION, SOUTH AFRICA, May 7th, 2018 – While high PH alkaline water has long been regarded as a “miracle of nature” by those well-versed in holistic medicine, it’s been only recently that it’s become the subject of extensive scientific research. One prime example that is packed with “vitamins, bio-available minerals, antioxidants, and incredible healing properties” is Designer Water, the high alkaline pH bottled water produced using the best available filtering methods in Centurion, South Africa.
“Water is the essence of life – but I dare say that this phrase should be more specific. High pH alkaline water is what provides the full spectrum of water’s life-enhancing qualities. Our micro-clustering technology ensures that each and every bottle we produce contains the highest quality high pH alkaline water, meaning its nutritional profile and amazing properties remain intact” said Mr. John Thompson, Founder and Managing Director, Designer Water.
High pH alkaline water benefits have not gone unnoticed by celebrities, either. Mark Wahlberg, Hollywood’s highest paid actor, sat down with Mr. Thompson in December 2017 to discuss how alkaline water changed his life, and how he decided to make selling it one of his many business ventures.
However, Mr. Thompson was quick to note that high pH alkaline water’s popularity has transcended the realm of exclusivity, seeing as people of all walks of life have come to embrace it as an inextricable part of their lifestyle.
“We’ve received emails and video testimonials from people from all around the world who rave about the transformative ways with which high pH alkaline water has improved their health and overall well being. Whether they were looking to increase their mental clarity and focus or address the symptoms of various health conditions impacting their quality of life, our customers have stated, time and again, that they will be consuming Designer Water for life.”
In addition to bottled high pH alkaline water, Designer Water further offers alkaline water products, alkaline water machines and water ionizers through its e-Shop.
Those wishing to find out more about Designer Water products and its franchise opportunities can do so by visiting the company’s website or by calling 087-550-1231.
To learn more about Designer Water, please visit: www.designerwater.co.za Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Brendan Ciecko is the founder and CEO of Cuseum.
Ciecko founded Cuseum in 2014 with the mission of helping museums, public attractions, and nonprofits engage their visitors and members using the power of digital. Today, Cuseum works with over 100 cultural institutions around the globe, has raised over $1.4M in funding, and is backed by Techstars, one of the world's top startup accelerators.
Prior to Cuseum, Ciecko started Ten Minute Media, an agency that specializes in digital media and creative services for the music entertainment industry. Since its official establishment in 2003, Ten Minute Media has acquired a flourishing list of clients including some of the biggest names in entertainment.
Ciecko’s entrepreneurial career and projects have gained the attention of the national press. In October of 2008, Ciecko appeared on the cover of Inc. Magazine in the feature article, Cool, Determined, Under 30: Meet the brains behind America's smartest new companies. He has also appeared in Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, New York Times, The Guardian, BMW Magazine, Boston Globe, PC Magazine and was a national finalist of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards. He holds two patents in the area of mobile technology.
He currently sits on the Steering Committee of the Museum Council at Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Digital Advisory Board at the Neue Galerie New York, and Community Advisory Board for the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts. Ciecko has also served on the Massachusetts "It's All Here" Advisory Board, Board of Washington Gateway Main Streets, Boston’s ONEin3 Council, and Regional Leadership Team of Technology for Obama.
Ciecko's work has been exhibited at the Commonweath Museum in Boston, MA and is in the digital archives of the Klingspor Museum in Germany.
Brendan currently lives in Boston, MA with his wife Elizabeth and their little dog Misiu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amanda Curtis is the Co-founder and CEO of Nineteenth Amendment. As a fashion designer she went from New York Fashion Week designing for Richie Rich, DVF, and A-list celebrities to bringing a solo designed collection all the way at London Fashion Week in her first season.
Nineteenth Amendment is the result of the collision of the fashion and tech worlds; a platform & business model that gives brands a smart way break into the fashion industry with the least amount of time, effort, and money (what she calls Stiletto-Strapping), while growing domestic manufacturing and bringing amazing, undiscovered fashion from the runway to closets of fashion lovers. This 'fashion-as-experience' has led to partnerships with over 500 fashion brands across 30 countries, and global companies like Disney, Macy's, Microsoft, and Dell.
Amanda is Forbes' 30 Under 30 2016 for Retail & E-commerce, Apparel Magazine's 30 Under 30 2016, and the National Retail Federation's Person Changing Retail's Future 2018. She is a mentor with Techstars and AOL's Built by Girls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Expert in PR. Public Relations and Growth Hacking. Founder of several multi-million dollar Internet 1000 retailers, including CanvasPop.com. Also launched top 1% iOS app PopKey. 500 Startups mentor. I can help you get massive exposure and launch your product right. I’ve been featured dozens of times in Techcrunch, Mashable, CNN, The Verge, WIRED and my products have appeared on CSI:NY, Today Show, Good Morning America, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many more. I've helped my companies generate 100's of millions of free media impressions. I know how to help you get in front of the right journalists, at the right time with the right angle. I also will help you get traction quickly and generate revenue. I love working with and helping entrepreneurs like you kick ass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kurt Uhlir is a growth catalyst - generating over $10 billion in value for investors and clients, with a personal mission to help grow the new generation of passionate leaders.
Kurt's recognized track record as a successful serial (and parallel) entrepreneur, investor and strategic advisor allows him to help spectacular companies reach their next stage of growth. He is known for building and operating businesses from start-up to over $500M annual revenue, building teams across six continents, an IPO ($880M) and multiple acquisitions.
Kurt has particular expertise in driving product experience and technology vision, increasing the customer base while lowering acquisition cost, reducing monthly churn, and increasing ARPU and lifetime value. He is the lead inventor of disruptive technologies in 4 industries, including being recognized by leading publications such as TechCrunch for three foundational patents covering Waze, check-in/location services (e.g. Foursquare, Facebook, etc.), and location-based advertising. In addition, Kurt co-founded Sideqik - one of the first influencer marketing platforms.
As a Keynote Speaker, Kurt has spoken to thousands of people at both private and public events. He speaks all over the world at conferences, corporate retreats, and professional associations on topics such as "Thriving in the Age of Industry Disruption and Technology", "Increasing Your Cadence as an Entrepreneur", "Thriving in the Influence Economy", Influencer Marketing, Autonomous Vehicles and more. Conferences consistently rank him in the top 10% of all speakers.
Toss in a history of dozens of outside and internal startups/skunkworks, some fun outside hobbies and a strong bent for serving to know more of why he jumps out of bed every morning.
After taking 18 months on sabbatical, Kurt is actively working with a number of high-growth companies and organizations. You can read more about his journey at kurtuhlir.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices