Forward Thinking Founders
Mat Sherman
Forward Thinking Founders is a founder podcast where we interview high potential founders from networks like Y Combinator, The Thiel Fellowship, Product Hunt, Twitter, etc. and brings to light what they're building for the world. Think of it like the opposite of How I Built This, where we interview founders before they are successful, then if they are, we have a moment in time we can look back on in the early days. Does the model work? Look at our early interviews and you'll have your answer.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 22, 2020 • 45min
111 - Matthieu Gavaudan (Tagai) On Pivoting
About this episode:Matthieu is the cofounder of Tagai. Tagai enables you to tag and categorizes incoming customer support tickets, as well as manage the full customer support stackListen to this episode if you are interested in:- Customer support efficiency - Pivoting- The New York tech scene- Pricing strategies- The future of Tagai- And tons more!
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Jan 20, 2020 • 33min
109 - Turner Novak (Gelt VC) On Partner Mondays
This is VC partner Monday, where I bring VCs onto the show to talk about the other side of the table. Turner Novak is a General Partner at Gelt VC. Listen to this episode if you're a founder who wants to understand how to think about raising money from VCs. Hope you enjoy!
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Jan 19, 2020 • 38min
108 - Andriy Bas (Plai) On OKRs
About this episode:Andriy is the cofounder of Plai. Plai helps teams of all sizes manage their OKRsListen to this episode if you are interested in:- Being a good manager - Learning OKRs- Knowing when its too early to implement OKRs- Freemium models - The future of Plai- And tons more!
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Jan 18, 2020 • 35min
107 - Paran Sonthalia (DeWaste) On The Bay Area
About this episode:Paran is the cofounder of DeWaste. Dewaste provides the easiest way to quickly and reliably reduce food waste.Listen to this episode if:- Are interested in sustainability - Want to know how to create a technical solution to solving food waste - Are curious to know what his sales process is like into colleges - Want to know what its like to be a college student living in the bay area- Are interested in the emergence of artificial general intelligence - Want to know Paran's thoughts on VR and AR. - And tons more!
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Jan 17, 2020 • 40min
106 - Landon Brand (Wren) On Offsetting Your Carbon Footprint
About this episode:Landon is the cofounder of Wren. Live carbon neutral with Wren. Offset your carbon footprint through a monthly subscription.Listen to this episode if:- You are interested in saving the environment from climate change- Want to know how he came up the idea- Are curious how they can offset their carbon footprint- How do you spread the word about Wren?- Are wondering about the science of climate change- Want to hear the vision for Wren- And tons more!
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Jan 16, 2020 • 51min
105 - Pranay Prakash (Windsor) on Credentials
About this episode:Pranay is the CEO and cofounder of Windsor. Windsor indexes events across all your company's tools so you can easily find what a user did using just their name or email address.Listen to this episode if:- You are interested in user analytics - You're in a product role at a company- You are interested in the power of Credentials - Are curious to hear about how products get spread around within YC- Are interested to hear about if bootcamps will continue to grow- Want to hear the vision for Windsor- And tons more!
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Jan 15, 2020 • 52min
104 - Ben Tossell (Makerpad) On Future of No Code
About this episode:Ben is the CEO and Founder of Makerpad. Makerpad teaches you to build tools & automate at work without code.Listen to this episode if:- You're interested in in the potential of no code - You want to know how Ben got started with Makerpad- Want to know what some of the top no code tools are- Are curious about why Ben doesn't like the term "no code"- Want to know why Ben tool money from Earnest Capital- Are interested in the bootstrappers movement- Have an appreciation for humility- And tons more!
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Jan 14, 2020 • 44min
103 - Ben Duranske (Beam) On Compliance For FinTech Products
About this episode:Ben is the CEO of Beam. Beam provides a full-stack solution that lets you monitor transactions, detect suspicious activity, manage investigations, and file suspicious activity reports.Listen to this episode if:- You have a FinTech product- You're interested with patterns of data could be perceived as fraudulent - Are curious about compliance once blockchain and cryptocurrency come into fruition- Want to know the backstory to Beam- Want to know how to think about hiring a team- you just raised a seed round and are in hypergrowth mode- Want to hear the vision for Beam- And tons more!
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Jan 13, 2020 • 1h 13min
102 - Farhan Mustafa (Grafiti) On Instagram for Charts
About this episode:Farhan is the CEO of Grafiti. Grafiti enables you to search, discover & share charts from top publishers.Listen to this episode if you want to know:- How he got the idea for Graftii- How we thinks about journalism and how its changing - How to know how much to listen to users. - How they raised their seed round- Why they didn't raise $$$ from SF investors - Wants to hear what the vision for Grafiti is
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Jan 12, 2020 • 41min
101 - Jason Wang (FreeWorld) On Giving Felons A 2nd Chance
About this episode: Jason is the CEO of FreeWorld. FreeWorld will keep 26 million ex-felons prison free through living-wage employment.Listen to this episode if you:- Want to know the type of childhood that most felons go through- Are curious how felons hear about FreeWorld - Want to know what the FreeWorld program provides - Are curious why Jason went with the nonprofit route- Wonder how Jason got funding for FreeWorld?- Wonder how Jason thinks about the ever-changing job market - Want to know how Jason become a felon himself- What is the vision of FreeWorld- And tons more!Check out Jason on Twitter here.
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