What's coming up on Series 14 of the Danielle Newnham Podcast.I have long toyed with the idea of branching out away from solely focusing on tech founders. I started the podcast 3 years ago now with the idea of interviewing people in the tech field because that’s what I knew – that was the field that I had been in and I believed that the human stories behind the game changing tech were important which I still do however, I really wanted to expand the scope of the podcast.I guess, most importantly, I wanted to elevate the voices and stories you might not have heard before. If you listen to Series 9 of the podcast, you will see that’s when I started telling more of these stories and the response from you, my wonderful audience was amazing.So, I think the time has come to focus on founders and innovators from all walks of life. I want to give my guests a safe space for them to tell their unabridged stories and I have some incredible guests lined up for Series 14.So each episode of Series 14 will centre around the theme of hope as I ask each person – what were the top three most pivotal moments of their lives – how did they navigate and overcome them.And there are some real tear-jerkers I can tell you. There are some unbelievably inspirational and uplifting stories which I can’t wait to share with you soon.So do subscribe to Danielle Newnham Podcast wherever you get your podcasts from and you will hear more from me, and my guests, shortly. 

Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter and MetaLabel, shares his innovative insights on community building and self-acceptance. He discusses his unique decision-making framework, Bentoism, emphasizing the importance of balancing self-interest with community welfare. Strickler reflects on his journey from solitude to kickstarting a creative platform, underlining the role of collaboration and feedback in the creative process. He also delves into the lessons of authenticity and perseverance, encouraging listeners to embrace their true selves.

Today’s guest is Sharmadean Reid MBE, a serial founder and author. Sharmadean grew up in Wolverhampton, surrounded by strong female influences before she went to London to study at Central St Martins. She then became a successful stylist and creative consultant before starting her first business at 25 -  WAH nails – a pioneering nail salon in East London.  Despite wanting to quit after six months, she celebrated the shop's ten year anniversary before closing it down and launching Beautystack - a beauty tech startup (with outside funding) and, following Covid which hit the beauty industry hard,  she is now founder and CEO of The Stack World– a global media platform and community for women.In this conversation, Sharmadean talks me through her life and career journey from the curious young girl in Wolverhampton with high aspirations to the powerful business woman she became, her likes and dislikes about being a founder in a male-dominated world, the lessons she has taken from her businesses to life, and her new book, New Methods for Women: A Manifesto for Independence– a book which I consider to be the new bible for women.Like her book, this conversation will no doubt uplift women everywhere. Because Sharmadean gives us the playbook for how to succeed... on our own terms.Enjoy! Sharmadean Instagram / The Stack WorldNew Methods for Women: A Manifesto for IndependenceDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

Sean Dadashi is co-founder of Rosebud. Born to Iranian parents who emigrated to the US after the revolution in 1979, Sean grew up in Los Angeles and was on a path of studying mechanical engineering before he switched courses after a year to study Cognitive Science with a minor in Computer Science.He then became a CTO before starting his own company - Somatic Studios in 2016 – where he used his passion for both tech and wellbeing to experiment with ideas including a web app that provided a health and wellness index for over 160 cities across 6 continents.The studio also developed VR experiences to teach pain management patients mindfulness and somatic therapy techniques. After Somatic, Sean then joined up with Chrys Bader, who you may have heard of because he previously co-founded several startups including Treehouse and Secret. Together, Sean and Chris have created Rosebud – the number one AI-powered journal for mental health and personal growth and a product I highly recommend. Try it yourself for FREE here.In this conversation, Sean and I discuss the loneliness epidemic, the importance of good mental health, his passion for helping others, and how he has always leaned towards the marriage of psychology and the human mind with technology and his passion for creating things, which ultimately led to Rosebud.I really enjoyed this discussion and think you will too.This is a replay from Series 12 to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.Sean Dadashi / RosebudDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Substack Newsletter / YouTube

Today's episode is all about how to grow your podcast. I answer questions from listeners such as:  Should I do audio or video?How do you find your guests?How to promote your podcastWhat platforms work best to promote your podcastShould you use YouTube?Should you do clips?Is the podcasting space too saturated?Things I would do differently if I were starting a podcast todayHow do you research?Should each episode fit a niche?I hope you find the answers useful!Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship / YouTubeMentioned in this episode:CanvaDescriptSimplecast  

Today’s guest is Danielle Strachman, co-founder of 1517 venture fund which, in their own words, backs dropouts working on hard problems and sci-fi scientists at the earliest stages of their startups. Prior to starting 1517, Danielle worked with Peter Thiel, and Michael Gibson (who I Interviewed in Series 8, Episode 60) and together, they ran The Thiel Fellowship for five years. For those who don’t know, The Thiel Fellowship was set up to fund students who were 22 or under, giving them a total of $100k over two years so that they could dropout of the traditional education system and pursue important work. The Fellowship guided them through this process which would often involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement. Past founders backed by the Fellowship include Vitalik Buterin  who was still a teenager when the fellowship allowed him to drop out and work on Ethereum full time, as well as Laura Deming, the founder of The Longevity Fund and Dylan Field of Figma.In this episode, we discuss how Danielle went from tutoring to starting the Thiel Fellowship to venture capital, what common traits the founders she has backed share and the lessons she learned from Peter Thiel.Please enjoy my conversation with Danielle Strachman.Danielle Strachman on Twitter / 1517 venture fund  / 1517 SubstackDanielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship / YouTube Mentioned in this episode:Innovations Academy, San DiegoDanielle's writeup of recent 2E camp for teens Noor Siddiqui, Founder of Orchid

Today’s guest is Chrisman Frank – co-founder and CEO of Synthesis – the online platform that teaches kids how to solve complex problems and think critically. Born out of the school Elon Musk set up with Chrisman’s co-founder Josh Dahn (interview with Josh here),  Synthesis has two main products – teams where kids learn as a group to work on complex problems, and its AI tutor which was born out of some incredible DARPA research which we talk about in today’s episode.We also talk about why Elon wanted to disrupt education and his views on teaching kids how to think vs what to think, what DARPA showed us when it comes to the potential of AI in learning and why John Holt’s adage that kids love to learn but hate to be taught is true.I have followed the Synthesis journey since the beginning and am constantly blown away by their mission so I encourage you to listen to this episode in its entirety to learn how we can educate children in a way that will enable them to thrive in this ever-changing world of ours. Enjoy!Chrisman on Twitter / Synthesis Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship / YouTubeMentioned in this episodeHow Children Fail by John HoltThe Underground History of American Education by John Taylor GattoThe Beginning of Infinity by David DeutschDARPA study Digital Tutor in Navy Training---------Are you looking for influencers to promote your product or service? If so, Passionfroot is the place to go - register for free herehttps://passionfroot.cello.so/YiMAn00572p

Today’s guest is theoretical computer scientist Leslie Valiant - currently the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. Among his many accolades, Leslie was awarded the Turing Award in 2010 for transformative contributions to the theory of computation, including the theory of PAC learning which stands for Probably Approximately Correct, as well as the complexity of enumeration and of algebraic computation, and the theory of parallel and distributed computing.In this episode, Leslie and I discuss his life and career journey – from what problems he has looked to solve in his career to how his PAC theory was first received and his latest book, The Importance of Being Educable.Have you ever wondered what your digital footprint says about you? Or curious how you can make your pitch stand out?Then check out WhiteBridge.ai – it’s an AI-powered digital identity research tool that finds, verifies, and analyzes publicly collected data about someone and structures it into an insightful report.They actually ran a report on me and I was seriously impressed!But not only can you use it to check your online digital profile but you could use it to help you quickly research and understand other people whether it’s a potential client, employee or investor – the report gives you more than enough useful info on the person for you to truly personalize your correspondence to them and help you build that early rapport.Want to learn more? Head to https://whitebridge.ai and use my discount code DANIELLE30 for 30% off your first report.Please enjoy my conversation with Leslie Valiant.

Today’s guest is founder and VC Brett Martin who I first started following ten years ago when we were both in the mobile space.Brett is currently Co-Founder of Kumospace and co-founder of Charge Ventures. Kumospace is a venture backed virtual office space platform that provides immersive and interactive virtual spaces for hosting team meetings, and social gatherings. Charge Ventures is a venture capital firm based in New York that invests in pre-seed to seed early stage tech startups.In this episode of the podcast, we discuss Brett’s first taste of business as a kid, what lessons he learned about entrepreneurship from sailing 6,000 miles on a 50 year old, 30 foot sailboat which involved dodging water spouts, pirates and drug runners, what it felt like to shut down his first proper startup, and what he looks for in the founders he invests in.Apologies that this is a shorter than normal episode but Brett and I spent some time catching up before we got started so I will have to get him back on the show another time.But saying that, this was a fun episode with someone who has done it all, so please enjoy my conversation with Brett Martin.Brett on Twitter / Charge VC / KumospaceDanielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / SponsorshipMentioned in this episode:Sonar Post Mortem by Brett MartinScar Tissue by Brett MartinOn Giving Up by Adam Phillips

Today’s guest is June Angelides MBE – a former founder, turned VC. June grew up in Nigeria before coming to London to study Economics. She then joined Thomson Reuters working on the news desk, covering syndicated loans before she got a call to join Silicon Valley Bank  (SVB) who were just starting up here in London. She joined a small team there, working on both the Venture Debt Team and Early Stage Banking where she started forging connections with early stage startups and founders.It wasn’t long before June wanted a taste of entrepreneurship herself so she started Mums in Tech - the first child-friendly coding school in the UK - which ultimately taught over 250 women to code in 3 years and earned June an MBE from the Queen.After Mums in Tech closed down, June joined Samos Investments in 2018, where she remains today, investing in high growth European businesses. She has also founded an angel syndicate that invests into African Startups.In this episode, June and I discuss her career journey from working in the early days at Silicon Valley Bank here in the UK, setting up and subsequently shutting down her business, becoming an investor and the traits she looks for in founders, the importance of storytelling when pitching, as well as how representation and role models matter.I learned a lot talking to June about her founder investor journey and I think you will too. So here is my conversation with June Angelides.Enjoy!June website / Twitter / LinkedIn / InstagramDanielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / SponsorshipMentioned in this episode:UK Government backed women-led high-growth enterprise taskforce report