Forward Thinking Founders

I had a great time talking to Hamza Zia, who is the CEO of GitStart. They are creating a whole new way that companies can recruit technical talent + a new way to engage developers looking for work. He also has many insights on the future of education in this awesome conversation. Today, we dive into: What is GitStart?How does the model work for companies? For developers?Is GitStart considered a coding competition?How do you pay fort coding tasks within GitStart?Your model feels ripe for blockchain technology. Have you thought about implementing blockchain?Does GitStart feel like an agency to the companies?Where did the inspiration for GitStart come from?Are you going horizontal or keep it vertical for near to mid future?What’s the master plan for GitStart?Who’s innovating on the social side of the college experience?What does the future of education look like in next 50 years?What advice do you have on starting a company?Learn more about GitStart here. Thanks for tuning in! See you tomorrow.What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (f20r)! f20r is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

This was a great conversation with Elena Nadolinski, who is the CEO and founder of Beanstalk. She is a whiz and super insightful person when it comes to blockchain, crypto, and all the way to remote work. She is also a Pioneer, like many of my other guests. ———Quick note - You’ll hear a sound in the background for the first third of the video. This will go away in the middle of the recording.—————In this conversation I ask her some of the following questions: Can you dive into your background?What is Beanstalk?What is the difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin?What are some practical use cases of blockchain and cryptocurrency? Why does privacy matter in cryptocurrency?How are you making your own blockchain?When’s the killer app coming? Why hasn’t it come yet?What is Libra and will Libra matter in a century?Is it too early to build on blockchain technology or is it perfect timingWhat do you think about when you’re not thinking about Beanstalk?What is the remote ecosystem missing to help it breakthrough?If you had $100,000,000 to invest, what areas would you invest in first?Will investors be more remote-friendly in the future?What advice do you have for early professionals who want to have a great career?What tips do you have for someone who wants to start a company but doesn’t know the best step?Thanks again for tuning in. You can catch Elena on Twitter here. You can find Beanstalk right here. Thank all for tuning in and I’ll see you tomorrow :) And if you haven’t subscribed yet, you know what to to do. 👇 What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (f20r)! f20r is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

Neal is a legend at growth. Period. He co-founded Bell Curve, a premiere agency to help startups with growth that have worked with Outschool, Clearbit, Envoy, and many others. From there, he co-founded Demand Curve, a company aimed to teach founders how to do growth themselves, for a fraction of the cost of an agency. On this episode, we dive deep into many topics, including: What is Demand Curve?What is the origin story of Demand Curve?What was it like transitioning from an agency to a tech startup. Is there a difference?Is Demand Curve good for CEOs who want to hire for a growth lead, or is it better for founders who want to grow their company themselves? What space would you consider Demand Curve In?What’s the 10-year vision for Demand Curve?Steps to think about growth as a startup founder:Where should a founder focus on first if they want to grow their company?How would you invest $100,000 into growth for a startup? How does someone evaluate when to push the pedal on growth for their company?What is the biggest mistake that early-stage startups make around their growth?What tips do you have for a first-time founder?This was such a fun episode to do with Neal and I hope you learned something new about startup growth. I know I sure did! As a reminder, find Demand Curve right here and you can find Neal on Twitter right here.What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (f20r)! f20r is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

It was such a blast to have Chris, the CEO of Trainual, on the podcast. Chris is a friend from the Phoenix startup scene and is one of the nicest guys out there. He is also one of the most successful, with Trainua being one of the hottest companies in the valley. In our conversation, he answers some of these questions:What is Trainual? How does Trainual work for users?How did you get the idea?How did you get your first users? What is it like building a rocketship in Phoenix?How do you think about fundraising vs. bootstrapping when starting a startup? What have been some of the biggest learnings from this journey so far?What advice to you have for future business owners?And tons more!Chris is such a smart guy and it was so fun having him on the podcast. If you want to learn more about Trainual, check it out here. Want to catch Chris on Twitter? Find him right here. What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (FTF)! FTF is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

Hannah was a blast to talk to. She is the Founder and CEO of YC backed company, Localyze, which helps international employees relocate without needing to deal with dozens of websites to stay compliant. Localyze does it all. In this conversation, we dive into:What is Locayze?What is the current way that people relocate for a job?How does Localyze improve the process?What’s the origin story?What is your big vision for Localyze?What industries interest you outside of what you’re actively working on?What was it like scaling from Founder to now becoming a CEO and manager?What tips do you have for people wanting to start their own company?And tons more! I hope you enjoy this episode with Hanna. Find her on Twitter here and learn more about Localyze here. What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (FTF)! FTF is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

Listen to Ashutosh Priyadarshy, Startup CEO monk, discuss mindful productivity. Discover Sunsama's backstory and user flow, tips for startup founders, mindfulness in tech, and future plans. Explore balancing reactive vs proactive tasks, the importance of mindfulness, and strategies for maximizing productivity. Learn about Sunsama's growth, user-focused approach, and tips for enhancing productivity beyond the tool.

It was such a pleasure to talk to Stefania Olafsdottir, who is the CEO of Avo. Avo is a tool that product leaders can use to track the right data in their app at the same speed that that code is being shipped. Avo recently went through Y Combinator in their W19 batch. We had a really insightful conversation about tons of different topics, including but not limited to:What is Avo?What is the relationship between shipping code and tracking the right data?What happens when startup don’t track their data properly?What have you learned while building Avo?What industries interest you outside of tracking data?We dive deeper into remote workGlobal warmingSan Francisco What makes San Francisco so special?What are channels with San Francisco?What tips do you have for someone wanting to start their own company?And tons more!You can learn more about Stefania on Twitter here. Thanks for checking out today’s episode. If you have subscribed to the pod yet, there’s no time like the present :)That’s it for me. See you next time! Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

Joshua Browder has built one of the coolest products I have ever used, DoNotPay. What started as a way to fight parking tickets has grown into an app the waits in phone lines for you when calling companies, cancels trials for you automatically, and can get through legal matters that you don’t want to spend time on. Funded by Founders Fund, a16z, Index Ventures and more, this is a unicorn in the making. On this show, Joshua and I dive into:What is DoNotPay? Why did you start DoNotPay?What are some of the use cases for DoNotPay?How do you trick companies to treat DoNotPay users like gold?How do you get the word out about DoNotPay?How do you help your users find hidden money?What does the future of DoNotPay look like in a decade?What are the plans for future features for DoNotPay?What movements in the tech world interest you as a technologist?Is AI taking our jobs? Are you helping this move faster?What advice would you have for someone wanting to start their own company?And tons more!I really appreciate you tuning in to today’s show with Joshua. If you want to learn more about DoNotPay, check it out here. Find Joshua on Twitter here. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

I got the chance to talk to the CTO of Glide, which is a powerful platform that enables you to build mobile apps with Google Sheets. Yes, you heard me correctly. Apps powered by Google Sheets. Fresh out of Y Combinator, Glide is one of the leaders in the no-code space right now, as their simple interface but powerful functionality enables creatives to build whatever they want. When I sat down with Mark, I asked him several questions, including topics like:What is Glide?What is the big vision for GlideWhy is now the time the #nocode is getting so big?How did you come up with the idea for Glide/what is the backstory?What are some of the coolest apps that have been built with Glide?Do you have any idea you wish someone built?Where do you think the #nocode movement is going?What tips do you have for someone wanting to start a company?And more!!!Learn more about Glide here and learn more about Mark here. Thanks for tuning in and see you for the next episode! Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

In today’s episode, we talk to Rajiv Ayyangar, who is the CEO and Cofounder of Tandem. Tandem is a virtual office for remote teams. Fresh out of YC and coming off a big raise from a16z, Tandem is on a tear building tools for the ever-growing remote world. In this conversation, we talk about:What is Tandem?Is remote work actually growing? If so, why?What does a typical user get when they use Tandem?How does he think about replicating the office experience, but onlineWhat are other companies pushing Remote Work forward?What other industries interest you other than remote work collaboration? What does the future of work look like in 100 years?What advice would you give to a first-time founder who wants to get started?And plenty more!I also wanted to note, Tandem is hiring. Check out their job board and if anything looks interesting to you, email me and i’d be happy to make an intro if it makes sense. (Mat at Matsherman.com). Also, if you want to join Pioneer, the game I mentioned at the beginning of the recording, you can do that here.Alright, I’m signing off. See you next episode! Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★