Startup Mindsets

Mental Health is talked about more nowadays than ever and we wanted to know why. We have the pleasure of bringing on Tamar Blue Founder/CEO of Mental Happy joins us and guest host Brandon Warren on the podcast today. Tamar talks about what led her to create Mental Happy and what truly taking care of your emotional wellness looks like using Mental Happy's platform. We hear how support groups are a solution to people's mental struggles and why they are worth exploring.  If you're interested in trying Mental Happy, they have a 14 day free trial and can be found: https://www.mentalhappy.com Tamar also tells us how she prioritizes her mental health with the demanding role of CEO of a startup, why the demand for mental health care has risen recently, being part of YCombinator, and where she wants to take the company in the future.   Become an investor in Mental Happy for as low as $500 via https://www.startengine.com/mentalhappy

Welcome back to another amazing episode of Startup Mindsets! Hope your year has been great so far! - Dan Investing in startups was traditinally reserved for the rich or people with access to capital such as VCs. But enter Wefunder, founded by Nick Tomarello in 2013 in an apartment in Noe Valley.  Today we sit down with Jonny Price VP of Fundraising at Wefunder and learn what it's like helping startups raise Community Rounds, persevering internally at Wefunder despite growth challenges. We also learn more about how the public can invest as low as $100 in startups on the platform. Notable companies who've raised on Wefunder include Mercury, Checkr, and Zenefits to name a few.  If you're a startup thinking about a community round, DM Startup Mindsets and we can consult you for free.

Our guest today is Will Peng born in Taiwan and immigrating to the U.S. he went to Princeton University. It was at his first job out of college that he realized it was hard to understand compensation packages from his employer on top of his personal challenges around student debt. Will's worked at Red Swan Ventures an early investor in Oscar, Warby Parker, Coinbase prior to creating Northstar.  Since 2016 Will has made it his mission by founding Northstar to guide people in their financial journeys.  Everyone deserves the best financial advice to make the best decisions for themselves. Employers who use Northstar give their employees access to certified financial planners. There's this unique intersection of financial advice and compensation/benefits from work.  We talk about landing top clients like Zoom, Snap, Serviceitan, and Nerdwallet to his first customer in the early days. Will also sheds light on what it was like founding the company doing uncomfortable sales calls and how design and sales are closely related. 

Serial entrepreneur Andrew Gazdecki joins Startup Mindsets to unpack his story of founding startups and leading them to several exits.  Andrew Gazdecki provides an enlightening conversation on how he as a student at Chico State created a majority bootstrapped startup, Bizness Apps, to hit 5 million in revenue and eventually selling it in offer from a private equity firm.  We go over, MicroAcquire's startup marketplace, how he build supply and demand, and when bootstrapping makes sense as a founder.  From selling beanie babies on Ebay to his successful stints creating startups, Andrew's story is proof that hardwork, timing, and doing what you love lead to noteworthy places.   We learn about his new mission of empowering startup founders to achieve liquidity by selling their startups on MicroAcquire's marketplace.  Andrew Gazdecki is a four-time startup founder with three-time exits, former CRO, and founder of MicroAcquire. Gazdecki has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine, as well as prominent industry blogs such as Mashable, TechCrunch, and VentureBeat.

Meet Alyona Mysko, CEO of Fuelfinance as she details her experience running a startup while leading her company in the middle of a war. It was humbling to speak to someone going through such a challenging time, we were lost for words trying to fully comprehend the tragedy in Ukraine.  Alyona describes working from a bomb shelter and managing a team while trying to move the needle forward as a founder. Alyona talks about the importance of following a mission during a crisis and what's being done to look out for the team as they navigate Russia's attack.  If you're a startup exec and want the value a CFO can bring without having to hire one, check out Fuelfinance's product as they were also feature #1 on ProductHunt.  Head to Spend with Ukraine to support Ukraine founders and businesses.  Follow us on Instagram @startupmindsetspod

Meet Greg Shepard, he's been featured on TedX talks and university lectures worldwide. Founder of BOSS Capital Partners, a boutique investment firm focused on Series Seed through Series B technology businesses. We uncover his mindset which is unique because he is neurodivergent. Not being able to land a job led him to become an entrepreneur, finding out he could make money from an early age, he chose entrepreneurship. This included selling a snake and doing interesting things.  He's also former CTO at Pepperjam. Greg's been able to achieve some wild feats like being the heaviest person to base jump, meeting Obama, dead-lifting 500lbs on his 50th birthday, running a marathon with asthma and we learn what made all this possible. Every year he does an annual challenge which are pretty gnarly.  Greg is a 20 year startup veteran and  serial entrepreneur with 14 liquidity events under his belt in BioTech, TransitTech, AdTech and MarTech industries, two of which were sold as  part of a $925M transaction that won 4 private equity awards for  transactions between $250M-$1B Greg recommends starting with the end in mind so you'll be able to back into your goals. 

For this week’s episode, I bring on my cousin, Jim Narvios founder and attorney at Narvios Law Firm. Find out what inspired the leap from performing on stage as Rocko Stedy to fighting for clients’ cases in court. Be sure to follow @filipinoattorney to keep up with Jim’s journey or hit up Narvios Law Firm. We discover that motivation can come from failure and that your distinct creativity sometimes means you have to make your own company, corporation, and in Jim's case own law firm.

Meet Girish Redekar, he founded Sprinto to ensure software companies meet information security compliance requirements like GDPR, HIPPA, SOC2 without having to hire a consultant. Sprinto’s software does most of the work. We find out how security can be a sales asset in that it can allow deals to be approved faster and enhance a product's overall performance.   We hear about Sprinto raising from Accel, Blume Ventures, and Elevation Capital as well valuable tips for startups like going from months to days to get something done or enhance a product. Girish talks about how his mindset towards business changed once he became a founder, learning that startups actually grow the size of the economic pie. 

My guest today is Stefanie Pinsley, now known for her TikToks around marketing and entrepreneur mindset hacks. She's scaled her following on TikTok to 70k. Stef left Google to be a content creator (TikToker) and entrepreneur mindset coach.  Currently Stef is an personal branding coach for her own company Roadmap to Rise and you can check it here. We have thought filled discussion on the content creator lifestyle, building a personal brand, being a coach, and most importantly finding happiness and fulfillment in her career. Follow Stef @stef.pinsley on TikTok and Instagram. We learn that the value of your self worth doesn't come from what school you went to or what company you work for but instead how you align your passion with your purpose. We also touch on the emotional cycle of change and what you can do to make great content. Be sure to follow us on social @startupmindsetspod and subscribe to stay up to date!

On International Women's Day, 3/8, we welcome Senofer Mendoza to the podcast! Senofer and Adrian Mendoza started Mendoza Ventures to address the funding gap in the pre-seed investment stage for underrepresented founders. Senofer founded the first LatinX venture capital firm on the East Coast in 2016 and has since been leading the charge for investing in more diverse founders ever since! She is a former enterprise sales executive selling into large brands including Marriott, Fairmont, and Starwood. On today's show we catch up on market trends and have a thought based discussion on why there is a lack of real diversity in the tech industry and why women and minorities don't receive funding as easily.  *What you can do to invest in women without being a VC  * That the ideal pie chart for diversity looks like the census Pitch Mendoza Ventures