Startup Mindsets

Dan catches up with one of the first startup founders he met while working as an analyst at VU Venture partners. Circuit is an all-electric, on-demand, local shuttle service. Download the app & Ride Circuit. https://www.ridecircuit.com Connect with Alex on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/espositoalexander Interested in sponsoring this podcast via strategic ad placement? Give us a holler: ⁠https://www.startupmindsets.com/contact Time Stamps 2:45 What is Circuit? On demand shuttle service focused on small trips  10:00 Selling advertisers 19:00 Operating and scaling a mobility operation,  20:00 Moving 150K passengers a month  21:25: Thoughts on autonomous cars  27:00 When was your first Uber ride? 34:10: Getting first customer and starting the company 35:10 testing out an idea for a company and keeping desk jobs until it made sense financially to leave Taking out 3 car notes to start the business  38:00 Closing first advertiser for 10K  44:00 Differences of working as an employee of a company vs being a founder Get in touch with Startup Mindsets/Dan. Join the discussion with me and other like minded listeners on our⁠ Substack email list⁠. Website: ⁠https://www.startupmindsets.com⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/dan.podcasts⁠ Youtube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@startupmindsets⁠ Linkedin:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangonzales1

Ed Latimore is a writer, physicist, and Professional Heavyweight Boxer. He's been on the world's top podcasts such as Fresh n Fit, Knowledge Project, and Modern Wisdom. It was an honor to interview Ed and we're delighted to share our conversation. Ed's Website: https://edlatimore.com Learn how to control your mind, body, and emotions with my Stoic Street-Smarts Newsletter Follow Ed on X: https://x.com/EdLatimore Get in touch with Startup Mindsets/Dan. Join the discussion with me and other like minded listeners on our Substack email list. Website: https://www.startupmindsets.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dan.podcasts Youtube: https://youtube.com/@startupmindsets Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangonzales1 Interested in sponsoring this podcast via strategic ad placement? Give us a holler: https://www.startupmindsets.com/contact Time Stamps (14:34) If you don’t take a risk, there’s no way to get tough.  (30:11) Approach 1,000 women to get with 100. Approach to a formidable situation. There’s an a symmetrical ROI (39:54) Getting quoted by Steven of Diary of CEO (40:32) Getting quoted by James Clear (46:32) Setting limitations, Why people do it (50:32) Era of humanity we’re in is way different (64:40) We only see the highlights not the downs on social media

Experienced coach for VPs of Engineering, Francis Lacoste, shares insights on nurturing amazing engineering cultures and transitioning CTOs into building orgs. He discusses his remote work experience, the evolution of tech companies like Heroku and Salesforce, and the importance of organizational culture in achieving success. Emphasizing continuous learning and treating all aspects as hypotheses in the startup world.

In this podcast episode, Dan catches up with Rene Morkos, CEO of Alice Technologies about his company's advancements in construction scheduling and simulation. Rene highlights the invention of a parametric scheduler and simulator, which now deploys 100 times faster, and the unexpected optimization of schedules with their software. The company has seen positive beta feedback and a shorter sales cycle. Morkos discusses targeting conferences for customer acquisition, maintaining company culture in a distributed team, and the complexities of scaling and managing a growing organization. The episode delves into Alice Technologies' impact on the construction industry and its commitment to continuous innovation. Entrepreneurs shouldn't value themselves based on how well a company performs. ALICE Core harnesses the power of optioneering to find the most efficient construction paths, all based on your existing P6 or Oracle Primavera Cloud schedule.

David Gaz is the founder and creative director behind several successful ventures, including the award-winning documentary "Kindness Is Contagious" and The Bureau of Small Projects, a branding agency dedicated to amplifying the impact of small businesses, startups, and nonprofits. The Bureau of Small Projects is a think tank of sorts. They're rated in the top 5 agencies in the Los Angeles area for branding and marketing. Their clients are not these well known brands but unknown organizations struggling to make a difference or well known people in their own right with noble missions, but not huge budgets, like Animal Planet Star Jackson Galaxy who has an incredible nonprofit to help at-risk shelter cats, or Bill Nye the Science Guy. The Bureau Of Small Projects started as an incubator within their old firm and it was so successful that it actually out-performed the parent company so in the spring of 2014, they spun The Bureau Of Small Projects off into its own company. Kindness is central to our brand values and our vision. Attract Don't Sell, Create attractors (15:30) Problems Scaling a company (18:30) A $100,000 Problem Learning how to Trust and Delegate to employees (25:18) Pricing a service: websites, marketing (30:00) You can't fail if you don't quit (43:00) How word of mouth of one client lead to AI startups becoming their clients (48:00) A film on luck (01:08:33) Hear how Kindness is Contagious Be a path, not a goal person

Our guest today is Dorothy Chang who has had an incredible career from venture capital, leading a successful nonprofit working with celebrities and billionaires to being an entrepreneur. She shares cool career stories and her take on being an entrepreneur, and lessons throughout her journey. She's the Co-Founder of Lynx Collective - Supporting startup founders, helping them make their dreams come true: https://www.lynxcollective.com Read their substack: https://lynxcollective.substack.com Previously, as the President of Kode With Klossy, she worked with the org to empower young women to break into the tech industry. Dorothy spent her career working in technology. Leading marketing and communications for category-leading technology startups and enterprises like Foursquare, Paxos, Brew Media. In 2012, she was the first woman to startup a VC fund (Liberty City Ventures) investing in the crypto/blockchain space. I continue to angel invest and advise tech companies - especially where I can be supportive of emerging technologies (Web3, metaverse, etc), female founders and social impact. Check out our new & improved website: startupmindsets.com

Luke Diaz has a passion for building and leading high-performance Customer Success orgs (CSM, AM, SA, Support) to drive 3 outcomes: 1) accelerate product adoption, 2) drive quantifiable business impact for customers, and 3) achieve best-in-class gross & net retention. Customer Success is an underrated segment of startup success, it ensures users are getting value out of the product and even increases their customer value in an increasing revenue stream. Luke is also an angel investor and managing partner at DBT (Do Big Things) Ventures having invested in Kahawa 1893 coffee. If you're a coffee drinker use code: Luke at Kahawa's website at checkout for a discount. On the show, Luke shared a story about investing 100K into the company before they got into Trader Joe's and major grocery stores. Take a gander at their book summaries of over 40 business and self help books: https://www.dbtventures.com/library

Julia Arpag joins Startup Mindsets to detail her roller coaster career journey from working at SoulCycle to a career in recruiting. After she was laid off from her job she scrambled to get 6 job offers within a few months and decided to take one from Alanna the cofounder of Aligned Recruitment. Julia is also an English Major from Hamilton College and describes the best part of her job as seeing people land offers. Julia has successfully run challenging recruitment searches & led high-performing recruitment teams, with a laser focus on the tech industry. She prides herself on deeply understanding her clients so she can deliver best-in-class talent that matches their needs. Learn more at alignedrecruitment.com

The Bar brothers, Eliran and Itamar, join the podcast today to talk about their company Jorny. They are on a mission to solve the existential crisis that is lack of meaning after retiring and entering a new phase in one's life. JORNY is the 1st global hospitality brand, dedicated to midlife growth. Our Growth Compass helps people assess and track their growth, identify their optimal growth “Jorny” and advance towards achieving a sense of purpose. Reinvent Retirement.Love your future. Join the first-ever global community focused on the second half of life. Built on connecting, exploring and thriving. Your adventure awaits. Brought to you by Changed: Download the Changed app and get closer to a debt free future. Automatically send spare change toward your student loans, credit cards, and mortgages. Click Here to sign up>>> https://changed.app.link/mmC3elk9hGb

The hidden hand in all venture capital funds are the limited partners who pledge capital to the fund manager. Today we interviewed, a long time angel investor, physician, and serial entrepreneur Dr. Alan Kadisch. Alan details what it is like being pitched by VCs for funding, his thoughts on how food contributes to our health, and why he created InvestorMatch.ai Brought to you by Changed: Now's the time to get rid of those pesky student loans. Changed rounds up your spare change from debit purchases and puts them directly toward your student loan payments automatically. Sign up & download Changed here: https://changed.app.link/mmC3elk9hGb Follow Startup Mindsets on Youtube Instagram Linkedin