33voices

Moe Abdou is joined by Kapil Gupta, MD to explore deeper why only a few can make greatness routine.

Rei Wang, Yasyf Mohamedali, and Jenna discuss how Dorm Room Fund is creating a national community and platform to support student entrepreneurs and investors. Rei and Yasyf share a few of the moon shot ideas student founders are pursuing (including a robotic kitchen!) and their commitment to social impact, as well as how DRF aims to design the program to foster that spirit of courage and fearlessness. Rei and Yasyf give us an inside look into their new product VCWiz, which acts like a founder’s fundraising assistant, and their hope that the tool will create equal opportunity for first-time founders raising capital. We also chat about the strides DRF is making prioritizing diversity and inclusion - 35% of their partners are women compared to 7% at venture capital firms - and the efforts the team is making to serve as a gateway into technology and venture for all students.

Munjal Shah and Jenna discuss Health IQ’s pivot from being a daily health quiz into a life insurance company and how they’re helping the health conscious save up to 33% on their life insurance. For the core of our conversation, we walk through five counterintuitive strategies Munjal chose not to scale up to 140 people and how they helped Health IQ grow even faster: Meeting and interviewing nearly every candidate, the company wide daily stand-up they’ve maintained where every person contributes, their daily senior leadership meeting, the company’s definitive culture values, that may be polarizing, but help seed the right habits, as well as why they didn’t do press for three years.

Christiane Lemieux and Jenna discuss how The Inside is evolving design so we can change our homes to reflect our lives. We chat about the future of customization, e-commerce, and why entertainment is crucial to retail 2.0. We then walk through Christiane's entrepreneurial journey from founding Dwell Studio to partnering with Wayfair, how those lessons influence her building The Inside, and tips to avoid shiny objects syndrome while still leaving room for serendipity. We also discuss her personal journey including her work with Every Mother Counts, why mindfulness is a practice and how to strengthen the muscle, and tips to make time where you need to; “The more organized you are, the more of your life you get back, the more balance you can achieve.”

Jake Kassan and Jenna chat about MVMT’s founding story, from maxing out their credit cards to launch their all or nothing Indiegogo campaign to becoming the leading millennial watch brand. Jake shares entrepreneurial stories, beginning from his first business selling lollipops in elementary school to running two e-commerce startups as a teen, and how they prepared him to help scale MVMT to $80 million in revenue in five years without any outside investment. Reflecting on those experiences, we break down the lessons Jake’s learned about deciding where to invest your time and the simple system he relies on to seek and distill advice. He also shares tips to maintain perspective, “control what you can control,” and strive to always see the silver-lining in your life; “When you let something negative go, something positive comes around the corner.”

George Arison and Jenna discuss Shift’s founding story and the team’s plan to become a full service platform to purchase, finance, sell, and maintain our cars. We then walk through key lessons George has learned articulating and refining company values, finding the right CEO-COO relationship, and how to evaluate investors and board members and build a strong relationship with them.

Jennifer Bett Communications' Founder Jennifer Bett Meyer, Managing Director Melissa Duren Conner, and Jenna discuss how today’s leading consumer startups like Lunya, M.Gemi, and Parachute are navigating the new world of PR. Jennifer and Melissa break down the elements of quality PR that drive ROI, emphasize the importance of startups deploying a diverse press strategy, covering multiple story angles and publications, and explain how to assess media outlets based on how they can help you connect with a new audience. Jennifer and Melissa also take us behind the scenes at their JBC brainstorm meetings, and share their values of always having each other’s backs and never settling; “Success is about never settling. It’s asking: What else? It’s always about how are you continuously evolving and reaching higher than you ever have?”

Semil Shah and Jenna chat about his first investments at Haystack in companies like Hired and Instacart and reflect on a few big bets taken by portfolio companies like Wag and Managed by Q. We discuss the realities of being a VC such as creating space to let your mind rest so your subconscious can kick in evaluating investments, the challenge of saying ‘No’ to founders you admire, as well as developing a willingness to concentrate risk to have outsized returns. We also walk through key insights from Semil’s blog including: whether you need to be paranoid to succeed, the difference between stubbornness and resilience and how to cultivate the latter, in the moment tips to take a step back to make decisions from a place of clarity not adrenaline, and always choosing the opportunity where you can learn the most.

Carolyn Witte, Felicity Yost, and Jenna discuss how Tia aims to be women’s translator to understand their healthcare and their latest feature The Vagina Benefits, specifically designed to decode women’s unique health insurance needs and rights. Carolyn and Felicity share Tia’s efforts changing the conversation around women’s health and how they’re finding the right voice, balancing the education of your OBGYN with the comfort and trust of chatting with your best friend. We also walk through their goal to help women shift from reactive healthcare to preventative healthcare by developing a long-term relationship with them and harnessing their data to coach and remind them to actively manage their health.

Acclaimed management thinker, Morten Hansen joins Moe Abdou to explore the modern framework for individual greatness at work.