Just Go Grind

Josh Itano is the CEO and Co-Founder of CareCar, a supplemental benefit manager and market network platform for home care and medical transport. From his early career working on US Defense contracts to his work with healthcare startups, he’s had one driving mantra: “Do well by doing good.” That mantra has led him and his team at CareCar to grow 3x every year since inception, creating improved access to care for hundreds of thousands of people in need over the past 3 years. Josh is a former collegiate athlete and philosophy and neuroscience nerd, and when he’s not hard at work you can find him playing water polo or speaking about his views on the intersection between philosophy, science, and business. About Our Partner This episode is brought to you by our sponsor WeAreNoCode. WeAreNoCode’s mission is to empower non-technical founders. The problem is that if you don’t know how to code, building your MVP or app idea is a frustrating process: Developers are expensive Looking for a perfect tech co-founder is time-consuming And learning how to code takes 3 years Their program is called, “The No-Code Startup” and it’s a no-code accelerator program that teaches founders how to build, launch and monetize their startup without hiring expensive developers or waiting for a technical co-founder. No-code is a disruptive new way of building software products that allows users to drag and drop functionalities to build powerful solutions like Uber, Airbnb, Twitter and much more. They have founders in over 12 countries and partnerships with organizations like UCLA Accelerator, Startup Boost and Scale Health. If you want to learn more or find out if no-code is a good fit for your startup, visit them at www.wearenocode.com/justgogrind Some of the Topics Covered by Joshua Itano in this Episode What CareCar does and why Josh decided to start the company What the MVP of CareCar looked like and which customers they focused on initially The team behind CareCar and what it took to bring them on board Going without a salary and growing 3x each year How Josh closed the first deal for CareCar The three major user groups of CareCar's platform Expansion plans for CareCar moving forward How Josh invests in himself as an entrepreneur Josh's 1 on 1 experience with Chris Voss How Josh is approaching the fundraising process Books that have been useful for Josh How Josh manages the stress of running a startup Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Gregory Ugwi is the cofounder & CEO of Thinknum, KGBase and the Business of Business. Thinknum Inc has raised $12.6 million to date. Prior to founding Thinknum, Greg graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and worked at Goldman Sachs. Greg was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. Greg enjoys playing soccer and is an investor in New Amsterdam FC.  You can find Greg on Twitter and Linkedin. Some of the Topics Covered by Gregory Ugwi in this Episode What Thinknum does and who the main users are How Thinknum got started after Greg was working at Goldman Sachs How Greg ended up finding his Co-Founder, Justin The initial version of Thinknum The types of datasets Greg was using early on How Greg chose to go through 500 Startups Getting the first customers for Thinknum What fueled the growth for Thinknum after getting their initial customers The business model behind Thinknum Raising a $11.6M Series A Why Greg started KgBase, a no-code knowledge graph tool Why Greg created a media team that can utilize their data Where most of Greg's time is spent today in the business How Greg looks at hiring and building culture How Greg decided to work at Goldman Sachs in the first place The mental strain of running a startup and putting ego aside Why Thinknum has been successful so far What's helped Greg grow personally as he's been running Thinknum Greg's favorite book and why it has been impactful for him What a day looks like for Greg now The big vision for Thinknum Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Gale Wilkinson is the Founder & Managing Partner of Vitalize Venture Group, a seed-stage fund and angel group based in Chicago and San Francisco. Gale previously started two businesses, both of which failed, teaching her valuable lessons about what does not work at the early stage. She loves helping founders with startup strategy and is currently conducting research on how to innovate on the legacy VC model.  Vitalize Venture Group is an early-stage venture capital platform consisting of two funding entities: VitalizeVC and IrishAngels. VitalizeVC is a $16MM fund that invests in scalable software companies, and IrishAngels is an angel network of 270 investors that invests in B2B and B2C tech as well as some products. Vitalize Venture Group has invested in over 60 companies, deploying $40MM in capital since its launch in 2012. Some of the Topics Covered by Gale Wilkinson in this Episode What Vitalize Venture Group is focused on today (Angel Network + Fund) How Gale started an Angel Network out of 2 failed businesses and the entity structure What Gale did to source deals in the early day of the angel network The importance of writing checks early The diligence process How Gale decided to start a fund and how long it took to raise the $16M fund they closed Gale's experience as a Kauffman Fellow How the Angel Network and the fund fit into the greater Vitalize Venture Group The diversity committee Gale created for Vitalize Venture Group and what it entails How the deal sourcing looks today for Vitalize Venture Group The value add of working with Vitalize Venture Group How Gale spends her time today at Vitalize Venture Group and what the team consists of Some of the mistakes Gale sees early-stage founders making Gale's advice around equity splits and founder agreements for founders How Gale began teaching a course around investing at Notre Dame Creating a brand for a VC firm What founders should think about before raising venture capital What founders should ask VCs when having meetings with them Hiring for culture add vs. culture fit The future plans for Vitalize Venture Group The books Gale is reading now How Gale recharges outside of work Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Josh Clemente, Founder of Levels, is a mechanical engineer and CrossFit-L2 trainer. At SpaceX, he led a team to develop life support systems that sustained astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on their May 2020 trip to the International Space Station aboard Dragon Endeavor: the first new crew-carrying spacecraft since 1980. Josh has also spent time designing and building Hyperloop technology and leading engineering for a company providing vehicle-based rescue systems for emergency response teams. Josh enjoys the outdoors, functional fitness training, technology, coffee, and restoring motorcycles. About Our Partner This episode is brought to you by Pivot CMO. Whether you’re a startup and you’ve just launched your product or a larger business, accelerate your growth with performance marketing solutions from our partner, Pivot CMO. Pivot specializes in performance marketing solutions that have helped countless companies double or even triple in the first few months of working with them. They’re boutique, extremely data-driven, and launch and iterate quickly. 84% of their clients double their revenue. Pivot CMO is focused on digital marketing channels like Facebook/Instagram, Google, Pinterest, and TikTok. Their founders are involved with every account so you don’t get a low-level account manager, but instead a highly skilled and experienced, outsourced CMO.  They’ve helped a number of Y Combinator and venture-backed companies along with fortune 500 companies, so no matter the size or stage of your company, use Pivot to help with all of your marketing and growth needs.  Some of the Topics Covered by Josh Clemente in this Episode What Josh is doing with Levels today and why he started it How your metabolism affects how you process food The working environment at SpaceX and why Josh got burnt out How Josh decided when the timing was right to quit his job to start Levels How to build a world-class team The product Josh and his team created at Levels The educational component of Levels and how that's led to a waitlist of 50,000 people The competitive landscape in this space What's been helpful for Josh around leading the company The importance of transparency Fundraising for Levels What Josh's schedule looks like today Why Josh is doing more endurance training in his own workouts now To book a free consultation visit pivotcmo.com. Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Ranbir Arora is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dorm, a hypercasual learning app that aggregates and curates the world's audio content to provide a seamless learning experience that fits into your day and makes your downtime more gratifying. Previously, Ranbir was the Chief Growth Officer at Sweatcoin, which he grew to 50M users.   Some of the Topics Covered by Ranbir Arora in this Episode What Dorm is and how it got started The business model behind Dorm Why Ranbir chose audio as the way to educate people at Dorm How Dorm creates the free audio courses their users consume The unique design of Dorm itself and how they came up with it How Ranbir thinks about user acquisition for Dorm Getting to 35,000 users What the customer validation process included for Ranbir and how they creatively beta-tested Dorm How Ranbir used influencers to get 50M users for Sweatcoin when he was the chief growth officer How Ranbir thought about an equity split and role split with his Co-Founder, Taras Ranbir's process for raising his $1M Pre-Seed round What Ranbir is focused on today The actual experience of using Dorm Where Ranbir thinks Dorm will be a few years from now Books and podcasts Ranbir enjoys Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Chris Bennett is the Co-Founder & CEO of Wonderschool. Wonderschool’s mission is to ensure every child has access to early education that helps them realize their potential. Wonderschool programs are diverse in structure and approach, but they all combine engaged teachers, thoughtful education design, and the warmth of an in-home program. So far, Wonderschool has helped thousands of parents find quality in-home care, and our network is growing every day. Wonderschool is hiring! https://angel.co/wonderschools About Our Partner This episode is brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models. Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country’s fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work”​, 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI. Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba. Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast. Some of the Topics Covered by Chris Bennett in this Episode What Wonderschool does and how it got started What Chris learned from the early days of building Wonderschool starting with the first program they started How long it took to go from idea to their first enrollment The founding team of Wonderschool How Chris thought about growth for Wonderschool in the early days How people find out about Wonderschool today What goes into ensuring the quality of the teachers at Wonderschool Geographic growth for Wonderschool The fundraising process and getting top investors involved Going through 500 Startups Understanding the culture and expectation around raising each round of funding Chris's experience raising a Series A round of funding The approach Chris takes to hiring The Wonderschool business model The impact COVID had on Wonderschool Working with a coach, what it entails, and why Chris started writing a lot Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Joel is a serial technology entrepreneur, with a love for building consumer-facing products. Joel previously co/founded four venture-backed technology startups and brings a lifetime of experience building and operating technology companies to RepairSmith. As a technical founder, Joel has served as CEO, COO, and CTO for his previous companies, having raised over $100M in venture financing and scaled multiple businesses nationally. Joel began programming at age 10, started college at 16, and founded his first technology company upon graduating at 21. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Queen’s University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. Joel is a member of the Forbes Business Council and named Executive Hero of the Year for Effective Leadership During COVID-19 by the Consumer World Awards. He is also an angel investor, advisor to numerous startups and active in the Southern California startup community. Joel has been featured on Forbes, Fox Los Angeles, ABC Los Angeles, CBS Los Angeles, KIIS-FM, and more. Joel is passionate about the NBA champion Raptors and super convenient car repair.  About Our Partner This episode is brought to you by our sponsor WeAreNoCode. WeAreNoCode’s mission is to empower non-technical founders. The problem is that if you don’t know how to code, building your MVP or app idea is a frustrating process: Developers are expensive Looking for a perfect tech co-founder is time-consuming And learning how to code takes 3 years Their program is called, “The No-Code Startup” and it’s a no-code accelerator program that teaches founders how to build, launch and monetize their startup without hiring expensive developers or waiting for a technical co-founder. No-code is a disruptive new way of building software products that allows users to drag and drop functionalities to build powerful solutions like Uber, Airbnb, Twitter and much more. They have founders in over 12 countries and partnerships with organizations like UCLA Accelerator, Startup Boost and Scale Health. If you want to learn more or find out if no-code is a good fit for your startup, visit them at www.wearenocode.com/justgogrind Some of the Topics Covered by Joel Milne in this Episode What RepairSmith does and why Joel joined The massive impact RepairSmith can have What Joel was thinking about working on while he had time off between companies Why Joel decided to kill off a dating app he developed The first things he did after starting RepairSmith How Joel went about building his team and defining the culture at RepairSmith Mastery, autonomy, and purpose Expanding into new markets and the decision process behind it Why RepairSmith is not a marketplace Why there hasn't been much innovation in this space so far The logistics behind executing RepairSmith's business model The actual experience of using RepairSmith as a customer Joel's previous experience fundraising and his advice around raising capital How Joel has seen the LA tech scene evolve since 2009 How RepairSmith has responded to the global pandemic and why they donated $100,000 in free car repair Some of Joel's favorite books How Joel manages his time day-to-day and why he wakes up early now What Joel does to recharge Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Santi Bibiloni is a Silicon Valley-based technology entrepreneur and co-founder & CEO at COR, an AI Management Software that serves Worldwide top Agencies and Consultants. Prior to COR he founded Balloon Group, one of Argentina’s fastest-growing digital agencies, among other businesses. Today he also mentors on Sales & Fundraising in 500 Startups. Some of the Topics Covered by Santi Bibiloni in this Episode What COR is and how it got started Going after a $50T market Some of the questions Santi asked to evaluate the problem he wanted to solve in the early days Building a software platform How Santi got Marcos Galperin as an Angel investor Why Santi decided to go through 500 startups Raising a $2.5M seed round Santi's customer acquisition strategy early on for COR and why he made a massive pivot in his business model How Santi thinks about pricing for COR Santi's advice around sales for a B2B startup Why Santi created a video show with industry-leaders How Santi recharges and why he wrote a document on how to work with him Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Amit Mishra is the Co-Founder and CEO of iMocha, a company providing AI-powered digital skills assessments. iMocha enables tech hiring managers and learning and development professionals with the ready-to-use, latest, and most comprehensive online skills assessment solution, offering 2000+ skills tests. About Our Partner This episode is also brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models. Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country’s fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work”​, 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI. Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba. Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast. Some of the Topics Covered by Amit Mishra in this Episode What iMocha does, how it got started, and some aspects of their customer discovery What the product looked like in the early days of iMocha Going from $500/year ACV to $30K/year ACV How Amit was acquiring customers in the early years for iMocha Amit's experience in the Microsoft Accelerator Going from $15K MRR to $200K+ MRR The importance of focusing on the right customer segment and use case How increasing pricing helped the business grow Building the 60+ person team at iMocha The land and expand strategy Why Amit raised $600K in 2020 How Amit looks at using content to grow revenue for iMocha Rebranding from Interview Mocha to iMocha How iMocha's live coding platform came about 6 months early How Amit and his team are choosing which skills to focus on The path for iMocha to $50M ARR in 5 years Amit's experience as an entrepreneur so far Amit's advice for other entrepreneurs Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Harsh Vathsangam is the Co-Founder and CEO of Moving Analytics, Inc. ( https://www.movinganalytics.com/ ) He is driven by a passion for taking technological solutions and applying them to benefit people's lives. He received his PhD from the University of Southern California working at the intersection of big data and mobile health. He holds an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Harsh is also one of the inventors of iGest, an alternative communication device for children with cerebral palsy and winner of the NASCOMM award for social innovation.  Moving Analytics provides Movn - a virtual cardiac rehabilitation service that patients can do from the comfort of their home. They work with over 25 health systems and several payers to increase access to rehab. Movn is based on over 5 randomized clinical trials and clinical validation on over 70,000 patients showing equivalency to current standards of care. Contact Harsh if you want to implement virtual cardiac rehab in your organization! www.movinganalytics.com About Our Partners This episode is also brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media ( https://hawkemedia.com/ ) is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models. Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country’s fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work”​, 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI. Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba. Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast. Some of the Topics Covered by Harsh Vathsangam in this Episode What Moving Analytics does and what the experience with patients entails How Moving Analytics got started Questions Harsh asked early on with potential customers How Harsh got his first customers for Moving Analytics Harsh's fundraising experience for Moving Analytics and what he would've done differently How Harsh approached equity splits with his Co-Founders Building rapport with investors What fueled the growth of Moving Analytics the past few years Managing cash-flow as a startup How Harsh has built his team of experts at Moving Analytics Delegation and how Harsh approaches this How Harsh invests in himself as a CEO Impactful books in Harsh's journey as an entrepreneur How Harsh recharges outside of work Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/