ongrowth - all things that inspire.

Go inside all things that inspire. Talks go into building a business, examining life paths and creativity. We talk to business leaders, artists, entrepreneurs, founders, engineers and more; exploring tactical and strategic elements of various topics. Hosted by Daniel Kivatinos and Greg Wientjes.

Building the "AI copilot for your mind” 10/09/2023

Building the "AI copilot for your mind” Dan Siroker CEO of rewind.ai 🧠 This is an interview with Dan Siroker. Dan Siroker is an entrepreneur and founder of Optimizely, a company that enables businesses and organizations to make better data-driven decisions through website optimization[1]. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Rewind AI, a company that is building a "copilot for your mind" using AI technology to record and analyze your thoughts and conversations[5]. Siroker has a background in engineering and analytics, having previously worked as the director of analytics for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign[2]. He is known for his unique interview questions for potential employees, which he uses to assess their problem-solving skills and creativity[6]. Sources [1] Optimizely's Founder Gives Optimization Techniques You Can Implement Right Now - with Dan Siroker - Business Podcast for Startups [2] Episode 669: A or B : Planet Money - NPR [3] Episode 669: A or B : Planet Money - NPR [4] Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter on Apple Podcasts [5] Jason Calacanis on LinkedIn: #startups#ai#building#founders#generativeai | 36 comments [6] Optimizely CEO Dan Siroker uses three unique interview questions for potential employees - The Business Journals About : is a MacOS app that records everything you've seen, said, or heard on your computer and makes it searchable[1][3][4]. The app uses native macOS APIs and Optical Character Recognition to analyze everything on your screen, and stores all recordings locally on your Mac for privacy reasons[1]. Rewind compresses raw recording data up to 3,750 times so even with the smallest hard drive Apple offers today, you can store years of recordings[1]. The app offers a timeline of every meeting you’ve been in, every website you’ve visited, and everything you’ve typed or clicked on your machine[2]. Users can search, sort, and interact with all that history using different features[2]. A new feature called ChatGPT For Me is a GPT-4 chatbot that can give a chatbot access to all your personal data[2]. The app has two UIs: the rewind UI where you can scrub back and forth, and the search UI where you can search for matching text and show where in the screenshot it was found[5]. is a relatively new app that is charting its own course and is unique in its functionality[3]. Sources [1] Rewind AI [2] Rewind's new feature brings ChatGPT to your personal information - The Verge [3] A First Look at - The Sweet Setup [4] 'Rewind AI' records everything you do on your Mac - 9to5Mac [5] Review - Ian Sinnott [6] AI Startup Rewind Gets 170 Offers—and $350 Million Valuation in Unusual Fundraising /episode/index/show/ongrowth/id/28263119

Unlocking Leadership Potential 10/09/2023

Unlocking Leadership Potential Ed Batista's Journey as an Executive Coach Ed Batista is an executive coach and was an instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business[3]. He has spent years coaching senior leaders who are facing a series of challenges or seeking greater fulfillment in their role[1]. Coaching is a way of being with others that's accessible to everyone and is not exclusive to professional coaches[2]. Ed Batista is a prominent executive coach in Silicon Valley who counts technology company CEOs and leaders in various fields as his clients[4]. He writes regularly on issues related to leadership and management[3]. He emphasizes the importance of storytelling in leadership[5]. In a podcast interview, he discussed the "Impulse to Hurry" hack, which is about slowing down and taking time to reflect[4]. Sources [1] Coaching yourself into a better career with Ed Batista [2] Ed Batista: Coaching [3] Don't Inflict Help, Provide It [4] Ed Batista on the "Impulse to Hurry" Hack: Slow Down and ... [5] Lauren Weinstein's Post [6] 3 Resilience & Courage - Think Visuals Newsletter What is an Exec Coach?: An executive coach is a trained professional who works with leaders and teams to help them improve their performance, develop leadership skills, and overcome obstacles to success[2][3]. They provide one-on-one or group sessions where they use thought-provoking discussions to guide and support clients through professional challenges and opportunities[2]. The goal of executive coaching is to enhance leadership skills, improve critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, expose blind spots, and change limiting behaviors and beliefs[2]. Executive coaches often come from diverse backgrounds and may have certifications from certifying bodies in the executive coaching industry[2]. They provide a safe and structured environment for clients to receive support and guidance[5]. Executive coaching is a client-driven process that is distinct from other service professions such as counseling, mentoring, consulting, and training[5]. The focus of executive coaching is on optimizing leadership performance and effectively managing overwhelm and stress[3]. Sources [1] Definition of Executive Coaching [2] What is Executive Coaching? Benefits & Examples | Bravanti [3] What is an Executive Coach? [4] What is Executive Coaching? [5] What is Executive Coaching? | ATD [6] Executive Coaching: What Is It And How It Can Help You /episode/index/show/ongrowth/id/28263059

Startup Equity Insights: Empowering Startups 09/23/2023

Startup Equity Insights: Empowering Startups In a podcast episode of OnGrowth.co, we talk with Yin Wu, the CEO and Founder of Pulley, shared her journey as a three-time Y Combinator (YC) founder and discussed the founding story of Pulley[1]. Pulley is a company that aims to reimagine the future of cap table management, providing tools and insights to founders and employees to make more informed decisions about their equity ownership[3]. Yin Wu grew up in Kentucky and was introduced to the tech and startup ecosystem when she attended Stanford University in the Bay Area[1]. Before founding Pulley, she took time off from college to work at an NGO in Kenya that aimed to plant trees to help farmers have another revenue stream[1]. Pulley has raised around $50 million in total funding to date[3]. Sources [1] In the Room with Yin Wu, CEO and Founder Pulley | by The Room Podcast - Medium https://theroompodcast.medium.com/in-the-room-with-yin-wu-ceo-and-founder-pulley-f393449672f9 [2] Yin Wu, Founder, Pulley - Ramp https://ramp.com/authors/yin-wu [3] Founders Fund backs Pulley as it helps companies make better decisions about equity https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/13/founders-fund-pulley-series-b-equity/ [4] Yin Wu (@yinyinwu) / X - Twitter https://twitter.com/yinyinwu?lang=en [5] Episode 110: Founding a Startup That Helps Startups with Yin Wu of Pulley - Leaders of B2B https://www.leadersofb2b.com/episodes/episode110 [6] How to Build a Culture that Ruthlessly Prioritizes w/ Yin Wu, Founder of Pulley - Cup of Zhou https://cupofzhou.com/how-to-build-a-culture-that-ruthlessly-prioritizes-w-yin-wu-founder-of-pulley/ [7] Yin Wu - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ywu01 [8] How to Model Your Seed Round with Yin Wu of Pulley - YouTube https://youtube.com/watch?v=rxqRc1y7lZk Pulley is a cap table platform that provides tools and insights to founders and employees to make smarter decisions about their equity ownership[1]. The company helps founders manage their cap table and equity management, while staying compliant with aspects like taxes and accounting[4]. Pulley is backed by some of the best investors out there, including Stripe, General Catalyst, YC, and Elad Gil[6]. The company has raised around $50 million in total funding to date[4]. Pulley is reimagining the future of cap table management and is helping companies weather the economic downturn[4]. The company is growing rapidly, and its customer base is expanding[6]. Pulley is a mission-driven company that is building a movement, not just a company[6]. Sources [1] Pulley Reviews, Prices & Ratings | GetApp Canada 2023 https://www.getapp.ca/software/2045047/pulley [2] Pulley Cap Table Management Demo - YouTube https://youtube.com/watch?v=i9VzXMhx9k8 [3] How to Model Your Seed Round with Yin Wu of Pulley - YouTube https://youtube.com/watch?v=rxqRc1y7lZk [4] Founders Fund backs Pulley as it helps companies make better decisions about equity https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/13/founders-fund-pulley-series-b-equity/ [5] In the Room with Yin Wu, CEO and Founder Pulley | by The Room Podcast - Medium https://theroompodcast.medium.com/in-the-room-with-yin-wu-ceo-and-founder-pulley-f393449672f9 [6] How to Build a Culture that Ruthlessly Prioritizes w/ Yin Wu, Founder of Pulley - Cup of Zhou https://cupofzhou.com/how-to-build-a-culture-that-ruthlessly-prioritizes-w-yin-wu-founder-of-pulley/ /episode/index/show/ongrowth/id/28122941

Fixing Email Spam Problem with AI 09/23/2023

Fixing Email Spam Problem with AI "How Inboxbooster Fixed Y Combinator's Email Spam Problem," Nicolas Toper, the co-founder and CEO of Inboxbooster, shares his expertise in email deliverability and how his platform helps businesses optimize their emails for delivery on Google and Microsoft email platforms such as Gmail, Office365, and GSuite[1]. Nicolas Toper has over 15 years of experience in ensuring emails get delivered. He previously co-founded CritSend, an email-delivery company that delivered more than 50 billion emails, and Pilo, a cleantech company that launched the first AA battery that recharges when you shake it[1]. Currently, he is the CEO and Co-Founder of Inboxbooster, a platform that uses AI to ensure emails don’t end up in Spam/Promotions on Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo[1]. The platform serves over 2,000 clients, including YCombinator, Zengo, and Wisbee, and has recently been featured in several articles, including Forbes, FinSMEs, and Business Mole[1]. Inboxbooster's mission is to help email senders achieve better deliverability and avoid spam filters[2]. The platform monitors where emails are going, alerts users when their emails are going to spam, and assists in fixing the issue[3]. The monitoring service is offered for free[3]. Inboxbooster recently launched with $1 million in funding after fixing YCombinator's email spam problems[4]. Sources [1] #154 . How Inboxbooster Fixed Y Combinator's Email Spam Problem | Flowium [2] Nicolas Toper - LinkedIn [3] Inboxbooster: We Fix Email in Spam - Y Combinator [4] News Hub [5] News Hub | News Direct [6] Nicolas Toper - Co-founder and CEO @ - Crunchbase Person Profile [7] Nicolas Toper - Co-founder of Inboxbooster (United States) - BEAMSTART Inboxbooster is a platform that uses AI technology to help businesses improve their email deliverability and avoid having their emails end up in spam or promotions folders. The co-founder and CEO of Inboxbooster, Nicolas Toper, has over 15 years of experience in email deliverability and has previously co-founded CritSend, an email delivery company, and Pilo, a cleantech company[1][4]. The platform offers monitoring services to track where emails are going and alerts users when their emails are being marked as spam. It also provides assistance in fixing the issue to ensure better deliverability[3]. The monitoring service is offered for free[3]. Inboxbooster has served over 2,000 clients, including Y Combinator, Zengo, and Wisbee[1]. It recently launched with $1 million in funding after successfully fixing YCombinator's email spam problems[6]. Inboxbooster's mission is to help email senders optimize their emails for delivery on popular email platforms such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo. By leveraging AI technology, Inboxbooster aims to improve the chances of emails reaching the intended recipients' inboxes and avoiding spam filters[1]. Sources [1] How Inboxbooster Plans To Keep Your Emails Out Of The Spam Folder - Forbes [2] Inboxbooster: We Fix Email in Spam - Y Combinator [3] News Hub | News Direct [4] Nicolas Toper | PodMatch [5] Nicolas Toper - Co-founder of Inboxbooster (United States) - BEAMSTART [6] News Hub /episode/index/show/ongrowth/id/28122884

Zack Hemsey American composer 06/11/2023

Building a Multi-Billion Dollar Startup 02/20/2023

Selling 10 Million T-Shirts then Building the Future of Work with over 5 Million in Sales 02/12/2023

Solo Founder Funded $4.5 Million Dollars from Y Combinator and Alexis Ohanian 01/19/2023

Building a Company to a $875 Million Dollar Exit and Doing It Again 12/20/2022

How to Create a Startup 12/18/2022

Starting in tech to building a business for creators 12/04/2022

Dumpster Living to Getting VC Funded 11/21/2022

Amit Garg from Tau Ventures 11/09/2022

John Coogan Co-Founder of Lucy.co and Soylent 09/29/2022

A talk with David Burns Psychiatrist/Adjunct Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine 03/16/2021

Creating Summit Series from Jeremy Schwartz 01/02/2021

Cloosiv, Y Combinator funded startup takes on mobile ordering for local coffee shops 02/09/2020

Cloosiv, Y Combinator funded startup takes on mobile ordering for local coffee shops Tim is CEO and co-founder of a company called Cloosiv (YC S19). Cloosiv is a company looking to offer smaller coffee shops a mobile ordering solution that can compete with those of the mega coffee brands. Tim had an idea when he was working at Apple, he was looking at the Apple Store app and customers could walk into the store without ever talking to anyone and buy something. This sparked Tim to build something like that for other markets, which kicked off a journey to the coffee shop market. He became a management consultant at the North Highland Consulting firm, and they invested 300k into the winner of a startup idea. Tim was that winner and they gave him 300k to start his business. Tim found his cofounder James on UpWork to help develop the app. Tim had to unlearn how to be a management consultant, generally, companies pay large dollar amounts and "paid for perfection". But as a startup founder Tim mentioned he had to test, removing those own expectations. Tim's first idea was to create a unified payment app and mentioned he would stand outside stores at the mall and ask questions to the customers walking around. Tim met with the founders of DoorDash and Instacart to learn about mobile ordering. Coffee shops have never had an app that was just for them. Tim applied to Y Combinator 4-5 times over and over again getting rejected, but Tim never gave up. Dalton Caldwell called the Cloosiv founders delivering the bad news about not getting in and Tim applied again after making progress. In one trip to San Fransisco and through a fortunate series of events came to a meeting with Sam Altman, who made some introductions, one being Lachy Groom who was an early employee at Stripe, previously head of stripe issuing, core payments product. Lachy was one of Cloosiv’s first investors. Laura Behrens, Founder & CEO at Shippo joined as one of the early angel investors. Square is now Cloosiv’s payment partner, coffee shops tend to have very little free table space and their app can run simultaneously as the Cloosiv app on an iPad. Tim and the Cloosiv team manage a coffee shop's inventory of coffee ordering real-time working towards a platform for a coffee shop to build their brands. More about Tim here - More about Cloosiv here - /episode/index/show/ongrowth/id/13075010

Hoon Kim founder/CEO of Keelo 07/24/2019

Angelo The Motivator 10/18/2018

A talk with Michael Witz, a seasoned entrepreneur, founder, and CEO 07/11/2018

Stanford University Dr. Krumboltz on Learning and His Life Journey 01/22/2018

Stanford University Dr. Krumboltz on Learning and His Life Journey Stanford University Emeritus Professor John Krumboltz on Learning and his life journey Dr. Krumboltz is a specialist in counseling psychology. He helps counselors learn how to help their clients take actions to create more satisfying lives for themselves. His research covers tracing the roots of academic, career, and personal problems, as well as studying the emotional outcomes of learning experiences, and the use of multimedia in simulating occupational activities. Dr. Krumboltz is also a leader in the theory of career counseling. His social learning theory postulates that career transitions result from an uncountable number of learning experiences made possible by both planned and unplanned encounters with the people, institutions, and events in each person's particular environment. In this interview, Professor Krumboltz talks about his goal to live to 100 years old. Professor Krumboltz talks about our life and how short it is and how we will all die, while we are alive let's have fun. He walks us through his experience in how everything is connected, his thoughts on giving advice to parents about children and their goals and careers and goes into various topics like artificial intelligence. Dr. Krumboltz talks about "the lecture method" in college and how it is bad. Professor Krumboltz, one of the people who coined the term from his book "Fail Fast, Fail Often”, talks about the topic and what it means. Its the fear of failure that is the biggest hindrance. What is someone doesn’t like you? So what, it isn’t a big deal. Dr. Krumboltz talks about becoming a Stanford Professor and the steps he took to get there. Author of the books Fail Fast, Fail Often: How Losing Can Help You Win” by Ph.D. Ryan Babineaux and Ph.D. John Krumboltz Luck Is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career by Al Levin EdD and John Krumboltz PhD Any many others which can be found here - /episode/index/show/ongrowth/id/6174538

Interview with "the father of the Internet” TCP/IP co-inventor 12/19/2017

Rethink how we sleep with startup Somni 10/28/2017

An Interview with Professor Arogyaswami J. Paulraj 07/20/2017

An Interview with Professor Arogyaswami J. Paulraj Arogyaswami J. Paulraj AVSM, VSM (born 14 April 1944) is a distinguished Indian-American electrical engineer. A former Commodore in the Indian Navy, he is currently a Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Elect. Engineering at Stanford University. Paulraj was born in Pollachi near Coimbatore, India, one of six children of Sinappan Arogyaswami and his wife Rose. He joined the Indian Navy at age 15 through the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla and served the Navy for 30 years. Paulraj received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Naval College of Engineering, Lonavala, India, and his doctorate in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. Paulraj is the pioneer of a breakthrough wireless technology known as MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) that dramatically increases performance of wireless systems. MIMO is now core technology in latest WiFi and LTE systems. Paulraj served in India till 1991 where he is known for pioneering the development of military sonars (APSOH family). Paulraj also served as the founding director for three major labs in India - Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), CDAC (Center for Development of Advanced Computing) and CRL (Central Research Labs of Bharat Electronics). Paulraj’s MIMO technology is now crucial to local area and mobile wireless communications. MIMO allows both higher data rates and wider coverage areas. MIMO technology involves using multiple antennas at both the transmit station and the receive station. Efficiency is increased because parallel streams of data can be multiplexed within the same channel. Paulraj first developed the idea of MIMO in 1992 while at Stanford University. Using the spatial multiplexing concept that exploits MIMO antennas, he demonstrated that spectral efficiency could be improved by transmitting independent data streams from each antenna and then exploiting the distinct spatial signatures of each stream at the receive antennas to separate them. Paulraj was issued a patent for the MIMO concept in 1994. He faced skepticism from industry and funding sources and practical application of the technology was not seen until the early 2000s. Among the obstacles, digital transmission was needed to fully exploit the potential of MIMO, but the U.S. wireless industry was still predominantly analog at the time. However, Paulraj persisted and held annual workshops at Stanford on the technology that eventually helped interest in MIMO and spatial multiplexing take hold. Paulraj founded Iospan Wireless Inc. in 1998 to form the first company to incorporate MIMO technology in a commercial system. The system developed by Paulraj at Iospan helped erase lingering skepticism about the practicality of MIMO. The lessons learned at Iospan gave the wireless industry the confidence to incorporate MIMO into emerging wireless standards, and the technology developed at Iospan such as spatial multiplexing, orthogonal frequency-division multiple access and opportunistic scheduling, can be seen in today’s 4G systems. Intel Corp. acquired part of Iospan in 2003 to help launch its own push into WiMAX, further establishing the importance of Paulraj’s MIMO concept. Paulraj co-founded Beceem Communications in 2003 and the company became a leader in WiMAX chipsets. Beceem was acquired by Broadcom Corp. in 2010. An IEEE Fellow, Paulraj is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and several other scientific / engineering academies. His awards include the IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Achievement Award and Padma Bhushan from the president of India, one of the country’s highest civilian awards. Paulraj is a Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, Calif., and is also a Senior Advisor to Broadcom Corp., Irvine, Calif. During his 30 years in the Indian (Navy) (1961-1991), he founded three national level laboratories in India and headed one of India’s most successful military R&D projects – APSOH sonar. He received over a dozen awards (many at the national level) in India including the Padma Bhushan, Ati Vishist Seva Medal and the VASVIK Medal. Paulraj has set examples of bridging Academia & Tech Industry by bringing Academic Innovations to the center-stage of the Industry. After having designed and developed one of the most advanced Sonar APSOH for the Indian Navy, while he proposed the idea of MIMO from Stanford, it naturally faced skepticism and was rejected by the Industry. His relentless persistence for over two decades during which he created working models of his MIMO ideas and proved them by creating two high technology companies in the Silicon Valley. The first - Iospan Wireless Inc. developed the core 4G wireless technology and was acquired by Intel Corp. In 2003, his second company - Beceem Communications Inc. became the market leader in 4G chip sets and was acquired by Broadcom Corp. in 2010. Through productization of his ideas into viable products, he proved his innovative ideas about MIMO & WIMAX, which got overwhelming adoption from the industry world over and became the foundation of the next generation Mobile Communication, popularly known as 4G. Not surprisingly, Paulraj is known as the Father of MIMO and WIMAX, the 4G Cellular Technologies. Paulraj has been honoured with the most coveted global technology awards, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal in 2011 and the Marconi Prize in 2014, for his pioneering contributions to the telecommunications industry. /episode/index/show/ongrowth/id/5557464

ongrowth - all things that inspire.

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