Startup Mindsets

AI Sport was started by Anna Stepura in Ukraine about 1 year ago. They were accepted to Alchemist Accelerator and now are trying to get their startup off the ground. I was amazed by her mindset, courage, and perseverance to do all this despite her home country being at war. Make sure to check out ai.sport and follow their mission.

Ethan A. Poetic is one of the most inspirational people I've met. From a terrible life threatening car accident to successful regaining his strength again and now on the verge of publishing an autobiography, Ethan embodies the Startup Mindset. Ethan tells us how he went from "victim" to "VICTOR."

Madison Long founded Clutch in 2019 with her cofounder Simone May. Madison shares invaluable advice for new entrepreneurs. She says to embrace the chaos and uncertainty.  Sign up for Clutch and Transform the future of work by empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs to launch, market, and grow their side-hustles. Clutch is a side-hustle marketplace that  connects the next generation of creators to small businesses looking for  affordable digital marketing services. Gen-Z (18-24-year-old) creators  have a natural aptitude for social media and graphic design. Still,  these companies don't have a central place to seek them out. We bridge  that gap while empowering students financially. If you want to hit your  target audience, hire your target audience.

Clyx was founded by Alyx while she was at Harvard during the pandemic. She saw that it was hard to hang out with friends because it felt like "having to machine gun text" everyone. Alyx also recalls a moment scrolling on social media thinking why isn't my social life as good as some peers? Their motto STOP SCROLLING START LIVING has catalyzed serendipitous meetups in Miami, Harvard, and Yale University as young people have taken part in the movement.  Alyx tells Dan how the team is making this a reality and how she manages the tasks getting Clyx off the ground. Find all your friends’ plans in one place by making sure to follow Clyx on social and download the app to try them out.

Mike Liu started freefuse off an idea when a good friend called him about a breakup. Mike wanted to help his friend’s music career and started creating software to do so. Today we learn about how his time at UC Riverside and Texas A&M shaped his career path. Register to use FreeFuse and tell them Startup Mindsets sent you.  Connect with Mike on Linkedin

Happy 4th of July folks! Today's podcast features Rami Essaid, founder of Finmark.  Rami had a goal of helping founders have a better sense of what their company's future financial picture looks like.  Finmark integrates with your accounting software and CRMs to give a better understanding of current expenses and allows for accurate forecasts of growth.  Rami details pitching 120 investors before getting Finmark's first check and eventually raising a seed round with Bessemer Venture Partners and Draper Associates. We also hear about early entrepreneurship tales like selling shoe polish as a kid and creating a startup with friends.  If you're a founder tired of managing your financial projections with spreadsheets, sign up for Finmark.

Brian Potts, partner at and named top 100 lawyers in America at Perkins & Coie, shares what it's like launching multiple products like his own keyboard for lawyers, an ETF called $DEMZ traded on the Nasdaq, writing a book called The Jobless Lawyers Handbook, and accelerating growth for his own startup, Goods Unite Us.  I stumbled upon Brian's work on Linkedin when I saw a post he wrote about having 200 job rejections out of law school to becoming a partner at the law firm that once rejected him. I had to reach out to find out the full scoop. As we all know getting rejected from jobs is all too common. In the podcast, Brian details what advice he has for people trying to leap over career hurdles and how he's able to achieve so much in multiple aspects of entrepreneurship.  Be sure to check out his book: The Jobless Lawyers Handbook Download Goods Unite Us to know where brands donate politically and the $DEMZ ETF on your brokerage.  Also feel free to DM Brian about career advice in the legal profession. On Twitter he's @brianhpotts Shoutout to Incued for being our sponsor: Experience Data Driven Investor Relations for your VC/PE portfolio

We chose to vent on this episode from a personal standpoint. So much is changing we noticed with the economy that affect startups and entrepreneurs. We used this opportunity to do a solo pod to get some motivation out there and to be cognizant of what's going on in the world.  Introducing our new startup partner, Incued. If you're at a VC firm and want better investor relations, look no further. Learn more https://incued.com/  The only complete Investor Relations CRM from deal sourcing to portfolio management.

Mental Health is talked about more nowadays than ever and we wanted to know why. We have the pleasure of bringing on Tamar Blue Founder/CEO of Mental Happy joins us and guest host Brandon Warren on the podcast today. Tamar talks about what led her to create Mental Happy and what truly taking care of your emotional wellness looks like using Mental Happy's platform. We hear how support groups are a solution to people's mental struggles and why they are worth exploring.  If you're interested in trying Mental Happy, they have a 14 day free trial and can be found: https://www.mentalhappy.com Tamar also tells us how she prioritizes her mental health with the demanding role of CEO of a startup, why the demand for mental health care has risen recently, being part of YCombinator, and where she wants to take the company in the future.   Become an investor in Mental Happy for as low as $500 via https://www.startengine.com/mentalhappy

Welcome back to another amazing episode of Startup Mindsets! Hope your year has been great so far! - Dan Investing in startups was traditinally reserved for the rich or people with access to capital such as VCs. But enter Wefunder, founded by Nick Tomarello in 2013 in an apartment in Noe Valley.  Today we sit down with Jonny Price VP of Fundraising at Wefunder and learn what it's like helping startups raise Community Rounds, persevering internally at Wefunder despite growth challenges. We also learn more about how the public can invest as low as $100 in startups on the platform. Notable companies who've raised on Wefunder include Mercury, Checkr, and Zenefits to name a few.  If you're a startup thinking about a community round, DM Startup Mindsets and we can consult you for free.