Passion Play Profit: Recent Episodes
Peter Yuan Lu
Nothing feels better in life than discovering your passion, playing the game of business, and earning a paycheck. Join Peter Lu, the 19-year-old serial entrepreneur as he interviews both young and grizzled entrepreneurs alike to extract hyper-practical insights to excel in business and life. Whether you’re looking to start your own company, need strategies for improving your business, need help motivating your team or just want to catch up on events in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and beyond, your journey should begin here.
George Mathew is a managing director at Insight Partners, who focuses on venture investments in AI, ML, analytics, and Data. He has over 20+ years of experience developing high-growth technology startups, including most recently being CEO of Kespry. Prior to Kespry, George was President & COO of Alteryx, where he scaled the company through its IPO (AYX). He has driven company strategy, led product management and development, and built sales and marketing teams.Thanks to the help of the LCL team at Cornell, we were able to host this recording session live at Ehub with over 60+ guests!
Laura and Wil are the hosts of Partner Path, a podcast that extracts insights from the venture capital and growth equity ecosystem and covers everything from sourcing and investment strategies to market trends and best practices. Laura is an associate at Spring Mountain Capital, a series A/B tech investment firm, while Wil is an investor at Apax Digital, a technology, internet, and software growth equity and buyout investment firm.
You can check out the Partner Path podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pOVa1E3o5Bjo0trJGxgO0
Weston Baker is the Founder and CEO of Morphic, the leading no-code website builder behind Wix and Squarespace. He is a creative and business and product leader with experience partnering and mentoring startups, tech giants, VCs, PE firms, real estate companies, fashion houses, and brands. He also created a startup studio, 15 Finches, which has worked with dozens of successful startups in various industries.
Siddhant Trivedi started on Wall Street at Barclays Capital, advising tech, media, and telecom companies and spending time on both the buy-side and sell-side of major deals, from mergers and takeovers to corporate debt and equity financings. He then worked as a PE professional at Symphony Technology Group, and investor at Omidyar Tech Ventures.
Allen Miller is an early-stage/growth investor at Oak, a venture and growth equity firm investing in companies driving transformation in healthcare and fintech. He is a board member at several of his investments and was formerly a management consultant at McKinsey.
Dan Simpkins is the Founder and CEO of Dwellwell, which offers a smart home product that monitors entire residential buildings, including every major system in a home, and provides insights to owners and property managers of real estate portfolios. He was formerly the founder and CEO of Hillcrest Labs, the Founder, and CEO of SALIX Technologies, and is currently an angel investor.
Sean Cai is a fellow class of 2025 student at Cornell University. He is the CEO and founder of Tourable, an online 360 video conferencing platform building personalized, live, and comprehensive virtual touring and college discovery options for everything from consultancies to international schools and universities. However, most Cornellians know him as the leading man behind start-up office hours at Cornell and the President of Life Changing Labs. Beyond that, he is a VC fellow at 406 Ventures and Conscience VC and an analyst at 186 Ventures.
Zuhair is a Product Manager at JP Morgan Chase and Co., specializing in sales technology. He also led business development at Cornell’s premier Consulting Club, and was the founder of a new club at Cornell about technology and work.
Rob Futrick is the Vice President of Platform Engineering at Anaconda, which is the world’s most popular and trusted Python/R platform for data science, machine learning, and AI. He was also the founder of two companies, Immersive Technologies and Cycle Computing, which were acquired by Microsoft in 2017.
Lorraine Bardeen is the Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft’s worldwide Industry Solutions Group, responsible for strategic customer relationships and digital transformation across global industries. She was previously the General Manager of engineering for industry solutions built on Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform. She also led engineering and product teams to envision, build, ship, and support Microsoft’s Mixed Reality and computer vision Business Applications for HoloLens.
Bijan Tadayon is the CEO of Z advanced Computing Inc., which is a disruptive 3D image recognition & search platform based on Cognitive Explainable-AI. He has had decades of experience as a Director of IP and patent filing at numerous companies and companies he founded himself, which all happened after he worked as a patent examiner in the US Patent and trademark office. Feel free to contact him below!
Bijan Tadayon, PhD, JD
CEO
Z Advanced Computing, Inc. (ZAC)
Tel. (301) 294-0434
Maryland, USA
www.ZAdvancedComputing.com
BijanTadayon@ZAdvancedComputing.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bijan-tadayon-69409b5/
Meredith Oppenheim is an HBS graduate who has been working in the senior housing industry for leading operators and owners and has served as a senior housing consultant to hedge funds, private equity firms, and foreign governments. Most recently, at Ventas, the largest healthcare REIT, she oversaw the multibillion-dollar portfolio of over 50 senior housing communities managed by Sunrise and Atria. And now, she is the founder of Vitality Society
Jacob Cooper is the Co-Founder and CTO of Flip, a disruptive startup providing companies with a smart over-the-phone voice assistant to bring to life their customer support. He was a software engineer at Amazon and holds a Master in CS from Cornell.
Adam Naor has over a decade of big-tech experience working with FinTech startups at AWS Startups at Amazon and on the Business Development and GTM team at Google. He is also the Co-Founder of two companies WFH advisor, an e-commerce startup that served over 250k clients and was acquired in 2022.
Dorothee Grant is the CEO and Founder of Kaveat, a software startup using NLP to help individuals better understand lengthy and convoluted legal contracts. She is a machine learning engineer, teacher, and researcher with a bachelor's in CS at Columbia and a master's at Cornell Tech.
Keni Thacker is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of 100 Rose from Concrete, a non-profit to connect people of color in the advertising, marketing, and PR industry. He is a champion, consultant, and visionary for Diversity and Inclusion within companies.
Chris Hemmeter is the Managing Director of Thayer Ventures, a VC firm that invests in early-stage travel and transportation. He was the President of iCare Marketing and founder and CEO of Dynamic Payment Ventures. He is currently the founder and chairman of E&O Kitchen and Bar and has his own $176 million dollar SPAC with ticker TVACU.
Susan Levy is the founder and principal of SBL Consulting group, which is a boutique consulting firm that develops and implements growth strategies in the consumer healthcare space. She was previously a Senior Director of New Ventures at Merch where she scouted for potential M&A opportunities to expand business. She was also the former Chair of United Way of Morris County’s Women’s Leadership Initiative and spearheaded initiatives to empower teenage girls and tackle homelessness.
Giuliana Rossi is the Founder of the Good Pour, a wine and spirits company that gives back to your chosen charity. Previously, she was Director of Marketing Strategy at GameDay Vodka.
Bell Chen is the CEO and Founder of ST Platform, a disruptive software startup using an AI-enabled virtual world system that lowers the cost of 3D production by developing a new 3D engine that is compatible with the neural network so we can train an AI to make a virtual world.
Ash Bose has a decade of experience at IBM and another decade as a founder. He is the Founder of AskNShare and ML Bose Memorial Health Foundation and the Co-Founder of AGR Health. This someone loves creating innovative product solutions and marketing them in a global market.
Samantha Lee is the CEO and Founder of Meili Technologies, a company using proprietary deep-learning models that utilize vitals to understand when a driver is incapacitated. She is a Princeton undergraduate, formerly a data scientist at AppNexus, and a research intern at Accenture.
Javier Correa is the CEO and Founder at Beacon, a tech company seeking to reimagine on-campus student engagement to create a more connected and inclusive university environment. He is a a founding team member of Visible Hands, and is a Top 100 Rising LatinX Founder.
John Peters is a fellow Cornellian and the founder of Amberjack, the company that made the number one ranked dress shoes by Rolling stones. He was an engagement manager at McKinsey, helped McDonald’s Corporate Strategy and Development, and was a strategic private equity advisor for Everglades Equity.
Eric is the Tech Group Senior Counsel and Vice Chair of Crypto Practice at Lowenstein Sandler LLP where he represents venture capital sponsors, private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, as well as private and public companies and crypto projects, in a wide range of transactions. Specifically, specifically, he focuses on crypto, NFT, DAO, venture capital, IPO imminent investment, growth equity, private fund, and M&A transactions.
Benjamin Yeo is a fellow Cornell student joining Evercore as an investment banking analyst after graduation. He was a full lieutenant at the Singapore Armed Forces, a leader within Cornell’s social business consulting club, and a investor in numerous blockchain projects.
Bruce Cohen is a Venture Partner at Xeraya Life Capital, the life sciences investment unit of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, the Executive Chair of Asepticys (asepysis), and the CEO of Statim (now Anergent) Pharmaceuticals. Before that, he was the founding President and CEO of Acacia Biosciences, Cellerant Therapeutics, and VitaPath Genetics. He was also the President of an electronic messaging company, served as a management consultant and was founding member of the Tufts Veterinary School. With a track record like that, there are few that can compete when it comes to executive leadership in health-tech and business development.
Eric Esteves is the Executive Director of the Lenny Zakim Fund, which seeks to build deep relationships to advance social economics and racial justice as well as to fund and provide resources to those who are most impacted by inequity. He is also the founder of Hella Black Trivia, which is an entertainment experience for Boston Professionals of Color who enjoy playing trivia and meeting new people. Previously, he’s been a leadership coach at numerous institutions and have founded his own IT consultancy group.
Teresa Ha is the founder of Basis Nuts who is working to introduce unique, lesser-known nut varieties to the European market. She has had extensive experience working for global organizations like UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, and the United Nations Development Programme. There is no better founder to bring taste back to the world of nuts.
Managing Director of NYU’s Entrepreneurship Initiative and the NYU Innovation Venture Fund, which is a seed-stage venture fund formed to invest in startups founded by NYU students, faculty, and researchers, Frank Rimalovski has more than 20 years of experience in early-stage venture capital and technology commercialization. Previously, he held positions in marketing and product management at Apple and was an M&A banker at Bear Stearns and Rodman & Renshaw. I'm truly honored to be joined by someone who dedicated their life to entrepreneurship and making ventures blossom.
Founder of By the Way Bakery, Helene Godin leads a vintage bakery specializing in hand-crafted delectables with four locations, at over 80 whole foods nationwide, and with an enormous cult following. Before founding the business, she has more than 22 years of experience as a successful lawyer in NYC. This is truly someone filled with energy and driven with a vision!
Deputy General Counsel at IEX, former a special counsel at Golenbock Eiseman, and summer associate at Morgan Stanley. Aditi Schretzman is a Tufts alum that dabbled in International relations and economics and eventually fell in love with law!
President & CEO at The B3C Capital LLC, the Founding Board Member at American Business Angels, Inc, and the president of his own advisory group, I'm proud to be joined by Mark Skeete, a serial entrepreneur who is genuinely interested in building a more inclusive start-up ecosystem.
Nick Ghoussaini is a Portfolio Manager of Vector Capital and a former associate at long/short Tiger hedge fund. Before that, he was an Analyst in the Industrials group at Lehman Brothers where he executed over $5.5 billion in advisory and financing activities resulting in 10 closed transactions. Graduated from Wharton's MBA program, he is committed to financial management with a strong balance of work and life.
Serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Sutra, and founder of heartbeat.com, Lorenz Sell seeks to provide individuals and organizations with tools and resources to create powerful group learning experiences online through meaningful connection and conversation. I'm thankful to be joined by someone who has helped hundreds of people deliver transformational online experiences.
Eighteen-Year-Old founder of a highly profitable investment fund, Crypto fund associate for Aves Lair, and the official Crypto Teen of the UK: Lorimer Jenkins joins me this week for a discussion on how he created his Crypto Fund, the future of Polkadot for Web3, and the persistence and dedication to learning required for success.
Nineteen-Year-Old CEO of a six-figure marketing business, Content Manager of Koji Languages, and part-time contractor, Joshua Conrad joins me this week for a discussion on creating wealth through unconventional paths, the enlightenment of working for yourself, and shooting for absurd, laughable goals.
Leading female Sino-American Venture Capitalist, Venture Partner of Aves Lair, and President of Lair East, Yao (Marian) Tong joins me this week for a discussion on leveraging the privilege of entrepreneurial passion, making the right decisions as a venture capitalist, and what it takes to get funded as a start-up.