Just Go Grind

Sean Matson is the Co-Founder & CEO of MATBOCK, a company that is run by retired Navy SEALS and whose staff are also former US Military Veterans. The company creates and develops products that fill a need in the real world, whether it's hunting, camping, hiking, going on adventures, for law enforcement or for soldiers while at war. They work closely with the US Military and have been contracted to create products for them that use new technologies to make whatever products lighter, better, and more versatile. Their top-selling products include Auto-focus for Night Vision Goggles, Dry Bags, Cobra Sled (a mountain rescue litter), S-LIFT (poles and ladders for hunters), Reaper Hunting Vest and others. They just also signed a $1 million deal with law enforcement in America for new products to help everyone be safer. About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects. Connect with Sean Matson and MATBOCK MATBOCK LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Some of the Topics Covered by Sean Matson in this Episode How Sean started MATBOCK The distribution strategy behind MATBOCK Building an unsexy product through fulfilling a real need How MATBOCK is run like a private equity group Working with distributors, the government, and procurement officers The challenges of distribution How Sean goes through the process of product development How Sean is handling the manufacturing side of the business Why Sean decided to become a Navy SEAL What Hell Week is actually like as a Navy SEAL and Sean's biggest struggle making it through How Sean's Navy SEAL experience influences how he runs MATBOCK Team building and how Sean has grown his team at MATBOCK The biggest adjustment going from a Navy SEAL to an entrepreneur How Sean recharges away from work Links from the Episode NSW Cole Zucker Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

Swupnil Sahai is the Co-Founder & CEO of SwingVision and previously worked on the autopilot team at Tesla. SwingVision is building A.I. for athletes. Their app provides real-time, on-device video analysis and coaching using proprietary A.I. on just a single smartphone. They were recently featured in the Apple 2020 Fall Keynote event and are backed by investors Andy Roddick, James Blake and Techstars. About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects. Connect with Swupnil Sahai and SwingVision SwingVision LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Some of the Topics Covered by Swupnil Sahai in this Episode Getting featured in the Apple Keynote What SwingVision is and how it got started Pivoting from an Apple Watch app to an app for your iPhone or tablet Making a decision to leave Tesla to start SwingVision Swupnil's experience working on the autopilot team at Tesla... 10 feet from Elon Musk's desk Why Swupnil's parents were so supportive of his decision to leave Tesla and start SwingVision Getting Andy Roddick and James Blake as investors in SwingVision How Swupnil explains such a technical product to people who aren't experts How Swupnil has gone about customer acquisition The team behind SwingVision and how Swupnil has grown it over time Prioritization and how Swupnil looks at who to partner with Swupnil's experience in the Techstars accelerator and why he decided to go through it in the first place How Swupnil iterates on the product itself to make it easier to use Gamification and how they implement it with SwingVision How Swupnil consistently gathers user feedback for SwingVision Pricing and how Swupnil figured it out for SwingVision so far The transition from employee to founder What Swupnil learned from Elon Musk Some of Swupnil's favorite books Links from the Episode Tesla Andy Roddick James Blake Techstars SportsTech Accelerator Tennis Australia Strava Superhuman Product-Market Fit Zero to One The Lean Startup

Tom is the CEO and Co-founder of GameSense Sports.  For the past decade, Tom has been designing and building sports-related technologies. He helped build several sport technology companies serving as Director of Product Development for Cyton8 Sports and NeuroSport Performance. He was Director of Sports Science and Performance at Elite Sports Services as well. He has helped develop multiple devices and software designed to test and train high-speed decision-making, situational decision-making, attention and autonomic control. Tom played college football at Humboldt State University.  Following college, Tom was invited to play and later coach in the European football leagues. When Tom isn’t chasing around a very active 3-year old he enjoys playing music, gardening, biking, hiking and snowboarding. About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects. Connect with Tom Pardikes and GameSense Sports GameSense Sports LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Some of the Topics Covered by Tom Pardikes in this Episode What GameSense is and how it got started How Tom started working with professional sports teams What the MVP for GameSense Sports looked like How Tom financed the company initially Why Tom decided to go through the Techstars accelerator with GameSense Sports and the traction they had prior to applying The business model behind GameSense Sports How Tom is going about educating potential customers for his product The importance of creating a unique metric for GameSense Sports Building trust with customers How Tom looks at expanding into other sports besides baseball and softball The factors Tom is considering when deciding which markets to expand into The biggest challenge of being a first-time founder Impactful books for Tom How Tom recharges away from work Links from the Episode Duolingo Holger Seim Techstars Eric Cressey Todd Durkin How to Win Friends and Influence People What You Do Is Who You Are The Art of War Blinkist Zach Evans

Tara Viswanathan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Rupa Health, a functional medicine platform streamlining the process of specialty labs for practitioners. Connect with Tara Viswanathan and Rupa Health Rupa Health LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Some of the Topics Covered by Tara Viswanathan in this Episode What Rupa Health is and how it started The initial iteration of Rupa Health How Tara initially got people on the Rupa Health platform How Tara got the first prototype for Rupa Health built for only $800 Tara's business model for Rupa Health initially and how this was one of her biggest "mistakes" Tara's troubles in raising her Seed round and how raising a Pre-Seed round was actually a blessing Tara's experience raising a $250K Pre-Seed Round Conversations around splitting up equity and why Tara changed her mind after initially decided an amount Why relative equity is more important than absolute percentages How Tara is approaching growing Rupa Health today Tara's approach to hiring as she scales her company How Tara takes care of her own mental health Tara's journaling routine and how it helps her Tara's experience working with Wim Hof About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.

Sam Caucci is the Founder & CEO of 1Huddle. He has a firm belief that everybody that works hard deserves access to a job that prepares them and skills them up for work. His product is helping companies across the globe to make training more fun, effective and accessible for their entire workforce. 1Huddle is a workforce training platform that's getting people ready to work using quick-burst games. Leading the charge to help organizations, across the globe, better prepare their people for the workforce. Clients across multiple sectors including professional sports teams, politics/government, hospitality, retail, automotive, college/universities, and more. Featured on CNN, Fox News, CNBC, SKY News, Yahoo! Finance, The Huffington Post, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal. Clients include: vineyard vines, Loews Hotels, ESPN, Audible (an Amazon Company), Novartis, UEFA, Madison Square Garden, the City of Newark, and more. They are proud to be supported by some of the world's best VC's and investors, including 500 Startups and Tribeca Venture Partners. Connect with Sam Caucci and 1Huddle 1Huddle LinkedIn Twitter Instagram YouTube Facebook Some of the Topics Covered by Sam Caucci in this Episode What 1Huddle is and how it started The customer discovery phase of 1Huddle and why Sam started with professional sports teams How Sam went about getting the tech talent to build his platform and why he started with an offshore dev team The business model of 1Huddle and how Sam grew the company through bootstrapping initially What the initial version of 1Huddle looked like How Sam adapts the platform to each company that uses it Why Sam decided to go through the 500 Startups accelerator and what he learned from the experience Raising a seed round within 4 months of completing 500 Startups When Sam decided to bring the technical talent in-house Sam's experience as a solo founder Customer acquisition strategy The land and expand strategy Sam uses on the sales front Setting up a sales team for 1Huddle Building a hiring pipeline with local universities How Sam figured out his ideal customer profile The biggest challenges Sam is thinking about today How Sam invests in himself as a founder and why he's read 70 books in the last year Sam's book suggestions Understanding what your own personal mission statement and values are Links from the Episode Monumental sports 500 Startups Y Combinator Techstars Goodmylk Crossing the Chasm Iman Abuzeid 7 Habits of Highly Effective People The Art of War Long Walk to Freedom His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope Malcolm X Hardcore History About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.

Dr. Iman Abuzeid is the Co-founder and CEO of Incredible Health, a career marketplace whose custom matching technology offers hospitals the fastest, most effective way to hire qualified permanent nursing staff. By 2024, the United States is poised to experience its biggest employment crisis to date, a shortage of one million nurses, putting patient care in jeopardy and hospitals at risk of significant financial loss. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the nursing shortage, highlighting the need for qualified nurses across the country. Incredible Health is on a mission to reinvent the hospital and healthcare staffing landscape, helping to solve the nursing shortage. As a former medical doctor whose immediate family includes three surgeons, Iman understands the importance of helping healthcare professionals find and do their best work. Incredible Health is based in San Francisco, backed by top tier venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and is used by hundreds of leading hospitals across the country, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Stanford Healthcare, Baylor Scott & White and many more. Dr. Abuzeid holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  Connect with Iman Abuzeid and Incredible Health Incredible Health Incredible Health's Newly Enhanced Platform Free continuing education units Free nurse salary estimator LinkedIn Twitter Some of the Topics Covered by Iman Abuzeid in this Episode How Incredible Health got started Being 1 million nurses short in the U.S. by 2024 How Iman figured out what the initial version of Incredible Health would be Creating a solution that's 10x better than what's currently available How Iman met her co-founder, Rome, and the conversation around going into business together How Iman thought through the equity split early on Raising a few hundred thousand dollars from friends and family to get Incredible Health off the ground Raising a $2.4M Seed Round in 2-3 months after going through the NFX accelerator Raising a $15M Series A in 4-5 weeks led by Jeff Jordan at Andreessen Horowitz Iman's advice for fundraising and creating a process and how her own skills evolved How Iman brought on the first hospitals through cold-calling The MVP of Incredible Health and why you have to fight the urge to ship perfection How the team has grown for Incredible Health The values of Incredible Health and how it's part of everything they do How Incredible Health uses customer insights to develop their platform, operations, and marketing Why Incredible Health offers free continuing education for every nurse in the country How Iman thinks through the products and tools they're going to provide to their customers The sales process of getting hospitals on their platform The 3 biggest value adds of the investors Iman has for Incredible Health Questions that Iman asked of CEOs for reference checks on investors How Iman takes care of her own mental health and why she has a therapist How getting an MBA from Wharton impacted Iman's journey as an entrepreneur Books and blogs that Iman recommends How Iman recharges away from work and why she doesn't work on Saturdays Iman's experience as a minority woman founder Diversity debt Links from the Episode Rome Portlock NFX Jeff Jordan Andreessen Horowitz Obvious Ventures signal.nfx.com James Joaquin The Hard Thing About Hard Things Who (A book on hiring) Above the Crowd by Bill Gurley Stephanie Lampkin Blendoor About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.

Jack O'Holleran, Co-Founder and CEO of SKALE Labs, is a technology entrepreneur focused on blockchain and decentralized systems. SKALE is solving the blockchain scalability problem by facilitating processing between blockchains and decentralized applications, helping the ecosystem run hundreds of millions of smart contracts and transactions per second. Jack also maintains a strategic advisor role at Aktana which he co-founded in 2008. Aktana is the leading SaaS sales and marketing analytics platform for global life science companies. About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects. Connect with Jack O'Holleran SKALE Labs Twitter LinkedIn Some of the Topics Covered by Jack O'Holleran in this Episode What Skale Labs is and how Jack decided to start it The idea of a user-owned economy What drew Jack into the world of cryptocurrency How Jack grew his team and brought his CTO on board Raising a $10M financing round and how Jack learned not to grow too fast The business model behind SKALE as a user-owned network What the SKALE token is and how it works The challenges in making the vision for SKALE Labs a reality Bringing on a number of math-focused engineers from Ukrain The differences in growth from Aktana and what Jack is doing at SKALE Labs Jack's advice for other entrepreneurs on fundraising Using investors as a barometer for your company Equity splits and how Jack thinks about them How Jack manages the short term and long term within SKALE Labs What led Jack to leave his company, Aktana, and start something new The difficulty in leaving a company you originally started Jack's book suggestions Links from the Episode Aktana SaaStr Mike Maples Floodgate Rick Thompson Signia Venture Partners Stan Kladko Cole Zucker Hey Hero Game of Thrones Dune Series Foundation Series

Brooke Harris is the Founder & CEO of Goodmylk Co. While living in L.A., the supposed “health food capital” of the U.S., Brooke’s health deteriorated for a period of time. Brooke decided to turn to an alternative, plant-based diet as a form of healing medicine. But to her surprise, she found her effort to ‘eat healthier’ was actually making her sicker. Through research, Brooke found that many of the binders, thickeners, emulsifiers and preservatives in otherwise “healthy” food were unnecessary and unhealthy. It was then that Brooke realized that she would have to create that ‘something better’. Brooke began to experiment with real food recipes that led to her own health transformation, and she wanted to share her passion with others. She went on to create GOODMYLKCO., a game-changing, industry disrupting plant-based milk product for the masses. Of course, it was not all smooth-sailing. When Brooke initially presented her idea to industry insiders and investors, it was met with skepticism on all fronts. They told her there is ‘good reason’ companies with scale do things a certain way (read:compromise the integrity of the product). For Brooke, this was not an option. She was hellbent on better. After many months of trial and error, Brooke finally developed a proprietary flash-blast freezing technique that allowed her to scale without compromising the nutritional integrity or flavor of her plant milks. And now, GOODMYLKCO. plant milks will soon be available nationwide. About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects. Connect with Brooke Harris Goodmylk Co. LinkedIn Instagram Goodmylk Co. Instagram Some of the Topics Covered by Brooke Harris in this Episode What Goodmylk Co. is and how it got started The difficulties in creating high-quality almond milk How Brooke got started in a local farmer's market Why Brooke tested blast-freezing to create her product Brooke's traction with Goodmylk co. before she raised funding Raising $500K in her first round of funding after bootstrapping initially with just $1,500 in the bank Brooke's distribution strategy early on with Goodmylk Co. The use of funds for the initial $500K that Brooke raised How Brooke was able to get products into Blue Bottle Coffee and Soho House The differences in Brooke's first round of funding to her second round How Goodmylk evolved after the second round of funding and how Brooke shifted to a more scalable model The educational component of creating healthy plant-based products How the distribution strategy and customer acquisition strategy has evolved for Goodmylk Co. The challenges that COVID presented for Brooke and her company How Brooke thinks about new product development The importance of timing in launching a new product How Brooke has gone about building her team for Goodmylk Co. and how Predictive Index has been useful for her in the hiring process How Brooke looks at competition in her industry What Brooke does to recharge away from work Links from the Episode Blue Bottle Coffee Masters of Scale Vanessa Dew Soho House Jesse Scheff Predictive Index Jordi Hays Purple Cow Crossing the Chasm Food Fix

Jordi Hays is the Co-Founder & CEO of Likewise, the end-to-end platform to find and work with the world's best creatives. Connect with Jordi Hays Likewise LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Some of the Topics Covered by Jordi Hays in this Episode How Jordi decided to start Likewise and focus on the needs of eCommerce companies The pain point of accessing creative talent The initial version of Likewise and bootstrapping for the first 6 months Growing 100% MoM, multiple months in a row The business model and pricing behind Likewise Getting their first freelancer to earn $100,000 through the platform in their first 6 months The customer acquisition strategy of Likewise Hitting a $1M run rate without any outbound sales or marketing How Jordi decided to raise outside capital for Likewise The importance of founder-market fit Closing a pre-seed round of funding during the global pandemic Equity splits and founder agreements The brand experience when working with Likewise How Jordi is looking at which creators to bring on the Likewise platform Use of funds for the pre-seed round of funding for Likewise The evolution of Co-Founder roles for Jordi and Matt Jordi's book suggestion What Jordi's day-to-day looks like in the time of COVID Links from the Episode Matt Jung Jyri Engeström Y Combinator Science Zero Grocery Dumpling Holger Seim Blinkist Built to Sell Loom

Jyri Engeström is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Yes VC, an early-stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco. They invest in the pre-seed and seed stages of companies set in motion by social movements. In his previous role at True Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, he invested in e.g. Iceye, building a constellation of radar satellites to track climate change. As an angel investor he's invested in Moves (acquired by Facebook), Applifier (acquired by Unity), Betabrand, Oura and others. As an entrepreneur, he has founded, grown, and negotiated the acquisition of two mobile consumer companies: Jaiku, a mobile social network acquired by Google; and Ditto, a mobile local recommendations app acquired by Groupon. As an executive, he has run product teams. At Google, he was the product manager responsible for the Gmail mobile app, Mobile Calendar, and Google's social networking efforts. At Groupon, he was Director of Product Management on the executive team that started and grew Groupon’s point-of-sale and payments businesses. He was the Head of Product at Boosted, an electric vehicle company that created the Boosted Board electric skateboard. At Nokia, he was Sr. Product Manager of Internet Handhelds. He is also co-founder of Sesat School, a micro-school in San Francisco; and serve on the board of the Rare Cancer Research Foundation. He also co-owns a café in Helsinki.  About Our Partners 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. This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects. Connect with Jyri Engeström Yes VC Twitter LinkedIn partners@yes.vc Some of the Topics Covered by Jyri in this Episode How Jyri decided to start Yes VC in 2018 with his life partner, Caterina Fake Why Yes VC is focused on social movements Making 20 investments and the $13M Fund he ended up raising The check size of Yes VC of $250K - $1.5M w/ the smallest bet of $30K How Jyri is managing his deal flow for Yes VC and what's happening in the early-stage venture capital world "Mango Seed" rounds of funding as a trend in VC The $6M fund of Rahul Vohra and $6.7M fund of Chris Sacca The dynamic of smaller funds and who they invest in Why 3 of 5 investments of Yes VC were invested at the moment of founding Finding potential founders before they even start companies and why Yes VC seeds ideas in smart people COVID in the town of Bolinas and they offered testing for ALL the residents The diligence process at Yes VC and why they focus on founder-product fit How many deals Jyri is looking at and what entrepreneurs need to understand about venture capitalists Why 50% of their investments are from their founder network or early angel investors looking for early-stage funds to lead the round "The obligatory point of passage" Why Jyri believes the best founders now are building portfolios Jyri's experience starting and selling Jaiku to Google Selling his second company, Ditto, to Groupon Links from the Episode True Ventures Caterina Fake Etsy Kickstarter Jerry Yang Phil Black Jon Callaghan Founders Fund Rahul Vohra Chris Sacca Entrepreneur First Y Combinator Blue Bottle Coffee Reconnect Softbank Jack Dorsey Indie Hackers Andrew Mason Descript