Innovation with Mark Peter Davis

On this week's episode I chat with Freddie Huynh, a veteran data scientist in the credit risk space. Most notably, Freddie oversaw the development of the FICO Score from 1996 to 2015.It was really before analytics and data is what it is today. In a way, Freddie is one of the OG data scientists, one of the original guys out in that space. During our chat we discuss how the FICO Score works, we break down some of the urban myths about how scores are calculated, and we chat about the evolution of the data science industry. Enjoy.Show Links:Guest Links: LinkedInPodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

On today’s episode I chat with Jose Bonilla, Co-Founder and CEO of Chiper. Chiper is the leading B2B distributor of consumer goods to corner stores in Latin America. They’re moving hundreds of thousands of products every month across Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.Corner stores are prominent in some cities in the US, but in other places around the world they have a massive market share of grocery sales. In India it’s around 90% and in LATAM they account for about 50% of groceries.Jose is more than the founder of Chiper, he’s one of the godfathers of the Colombian startup scene. He’s a cofounder of Imaginamos, a development shop that became a startup studio. His partner Simon spun Rappi out of their studio and it’s now a mega-unicorn in the region that has raised over $2B. Jose spun out Chiper. Collectively they’ve trained thousands of future entrepreneurs.We talk all about Chiper, tips for founders and entrepreneurs, and the start up scene in latin and south America. It’s a fascinating chat. Enjoy!Show Links:Guest Links: ChiperPodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

Hey everyone,It’s that time of year again - the pod’s second summer!Like last year, we’re not going to release any new episodes for July and August, so I just wanted to let you know that we’re not leaving you hanging.We’re going to focus on recording new interviews and ideate on some other content ideas.Though there won’t be new episodes, we’ll be releasing some snippets and highlights from past episodes on Twitter, YouTube, and our brand new TikTok account. The username for our TikTok is Interplay.vcLast but not least, I just wanted to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s been tuning in to the pod. I truly appreciate the support.I hope you all have a great summer and we’ll see you on the other side!Until then,MPD

On today’s episode I chat with Dan Porter, Co-Founder and CEO of Overtime.Overtime is the leading brand for the next generation of sports fans. Dan and his team at Overtime identified that the traditional sports media players were (and still are) heavily invested in the old infrastructure like cable deals. That left an opportunity to create an agile sports media brand that would cater to the younger generation utilizing new technology such as social platforms.What started as an app turned into a community and has now morphed into creating and managing sports leagues. They currently operate two leagues OTE and OT7, one basketball and football.Dan is a startup guru. He’s sold a few companies before starting Overtime and teaches entrepreneurship at NYU. If you’re interested in media, the business of sports or entrepreneurship this episode will have something for you. Enjoy.Show Links:Follow us on Twitter: @overtime, @tfadp, @mpdGuest Links: Overtime, OTEPodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn

On this week’s episode I sit down with the CEO of Grayscale Investments, Michael Sonnenshein.Grayscale is one of the biggest heavyweights in the world of crypto investing. They offer investors direct access to crypto. Their premier product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, is a long-bitcoin offering that anyone can access like they would a normal stock. You can simply buy the ticker. This is big, especially for folks looking to invest their money that exists in certain portfolios, like retirement savings accounts. With over 20b of assets across 17 investment vehicles they facilitate many people’s first interaction with crypto and Michael is at the center of it.Crypto is currently down, the market is taking a hit seemingly in-line with the state of the broader stock markets so it was great to hear Michael’s perspective on the market and the future of crypto applications. Enjoy.Show Links:Follow us on Twitter: @Sonnenshein, @Grayscale, @mpdGuest Links: Grayscale InvestmentsPodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

On today’s pod I chat with Richard Harris, the Founder & CEO of Black Crow AI.Black Crow is a no-code, real-time machine-learning based predictive software that helps companies understand likely customer behavior.Richard’s a veteran entrepreneur and has been involved in tech since the 90s. He cut his teeth in the world of consulting, was involved with Travelocity during the dot com boom, then has continued to be a serial founder.As you’ll hear him explain, the world is turning into a browser. Between mobile devices, computers, wearable tech, self driving cars - real time data will be streaming from every part of our lives. He’s using this insight to build a company to help startups and brands collect and understand their first party data so that they can increase revenue and margins.In addition to discussing how Black Crow operates and the machine learning industry, we also talk about some strategies for how founders can navigate down market cycles - like the one we’re entering now. He’s been through three of these cycles and has some very helpful wisdom. If you started your company after 2010, then I definitely recommend that you give this one a listen.Show Links:Follow us on Twitter: @blackcrowai, @mpdGuest Links: Black Crow AIReferenced Content: Waking Up appPodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedInPlease note, Interplay is an investor in Black Crow.

On this week’s episode I chat with Andrew Gazdecki, Founder & CEO of MicroAcquire. MicroAcquire is a marketplace that helps software companies match with interested buyers.Andrew is a serial founder with a clear passion for entrepreneurship - which I obviously love. After selling his last company, he embarked on his current mission to help founders sell their companies more easily. He’s making a ton of progress. A significant number of companies are being sold through MicroAcquire every month.During our chat we went well beyond MicroAcquire. We discussed Andrews’s tips for being a solo founder and dove deep into how to sell a company - where we covered important strategies to consider, the M&A process and market dynamics.Show Links:Follow us on Twitter: @agazdecki, @microacquire, @mpdGuest Links: MicroAcquireReferenced Content: Andrew’s skateboard petition from when he was a kid, MPD’s article about M&APodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedInPlease note, Interplay is an investor in MicroAcquire.

On this week’s episode I chat with Ryan Eisenman, Co-Founder & CEO of Arch. Arch is a tech-enabled service that helps private investors organize all of the paperwork associated with their investments.Collecting statements, tax documents and legal docs from private markets has become a nightmare for investors, and Arch is providing a way to solve that. Ryan interestingly compares the admin of the private markets to what it used to be for public companies back when companies issued paper stock certificates.Arch’s tech tentacles into dozens of platforms to centralize data and the flow of information seamlessly. During the convo we discuss the Arch solution, startup lessons and the fairness of investor accreditation laws in the US. Enjoy.Show Links:Follow us on Twitter: @Ryeisenman, @mpd Guest Links: ArchPodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

On this week’s episode I chat with Diana Heldfond, Founder & CEO of Parallel. Parallel is an edtech platform empowering students with learning differences by providing them with a lower cost, faster solution for getting the support they need. Parallel is tackling a big problem. According to Diana 1 in 5 students has a learning and thinking difference that her platform can help address.Their service is cheaper and faster because it’s tech-enabled. They create efficiencies by automating the admin work that specialists used to have to do and by mixing and matching specialists to make sure fewer specialists bottleneck the process. This has brought the price of care down by a whopping 50%. And it allows parents to get their child’s assessment done in days, whereas it used to take weeks. They work directly with families and with school districts. It’s pretty smart. It’s always so cool to see founders start a company that hits close to home.  Diana was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. That didn’t hold her back - she went to Georgetown and worked on Wall Street before starting Parallel.It’s a great conversation. I learned a lot and hope you do too. Enjoy.Show Links:Follow us on Twitter: @dheldfond, @joinparallel_us, @mpdGuest Links: ParallelReferenced Topics: The Lime Connect Fellowship ProgramPodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

On this week’s episode I chat with Jeremy Levine, a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Bessemer has been around for over 100 years and was originally founded by a family that partnered with Andrew Carnegie back in the day.Jeremy has been at the firm for 21 years and has seen a few cycles. He’s a hell of an investor and has quite the track record. He’s been on the Forbes Midas List and his investments include the likes of Yelp, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Shopify.If you’re interested in how the VC industry works this is a great conversation for you. We cover how Bessemer operates, how to be a good early-stage investor, the impact of macro trends on the VC landscape, Jeremy’s point of view on contrarian investing and much more. Enjoy.Show Links:Follow us on Twitter: @jeremyL, @mpdGuest Links: Bessemer Venture PartnersPodcast Links: Website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn