Forward Thinking Founders
Mat Sherman
Forward Thinking Founders is a founder podcast where we interview high potential founders from networks like Y Combinator, The Thiel Fellowship, Product Hunt, Twitter, etc. and brings to light what they're building for the world. Think of it like the opposite of How I Built This, where we interview founders before they are successful, then if they are, we have a moment in time we can look back on in the early days. Does the model work? Look at our early interviews and you'll have your answer.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 13, 2021 • 13min
490 - Mariam Nusrat (Grid) On Creating Games For Positive Change
Mariam is the founder of Grid. Grid creates mobile games that educate, engage and empower people towards positive behavior change.
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Jan 12, 2021 • 14min
489 - Sheldon Day and Amir Carlisle (The Players Company) on the Intersection of Athletes and Business
Sheldon and Amir are the cofounders of The Players Company (TCP). TPC acts as the intermediary between athletes and service providers adding a layer of guided protection and curation to ensure their needs are met
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Jan 12, 2021 • 10min
488 - Veetahl Eilat-Raichel (Sorbet) On Creating a Better PTO Program For Companies
Veetahl Eilat-Raichel is the co-founder and CEO of Sorbet. Sorbet Legitimizes and incentivizes employee time off for maximum wellness, productivity and performance.
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Jan 9, 2021 • 14min
487 - Kim Stiefel (Repeat) On Turning One-Time Buyers Into Repeat Customers
Kim Stiefel is the cofounder of Repeat. Repeat powers frictionless reordering experiences that are better & more delightful for your e-commerce customers, resulting in more repeat revenue for your business.
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Jan 7, 2021 • 14min
486 - Kai Faust (Infopop) On Building a Information Management System for the Physical World
Kai is the founder of InfoPop. Infopop is an information management system that augments your reality with meaningful data.
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Jan 6, 2021 • 44min
485 - Mallun Yen & Leyla Seka, Partners at Operator Collective
Mallun and Leyla are partners at Operator Collective. Operator Collective was founded because we believe the power in venture capital is concentrated among a homogenous group that doesn’t represent where our industry is now or where it’s going. Despite the essential role operators play in Silicon Valley, they’ve been largely missing from the venture world. So we’ve created a new access point for operators from diverse backgrounds; they may not be household names, but they’ve spent their entire careers building and scaling companies, and now they’re ready to actively support founders and their teams as they bring new visions to life.
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Jan 5, 2021 • 15min
484 - William Stringer (Chisos) On Rethinking Funding For Startups
William Stringer is the founder and CEO of Chisos. Chisos writes checks of $15,000-$50,000 to invest in idea-stage startups and side-hustle businesses.
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Jan 5, 2021 • 11min
483 - Reginald Parker (Optimal Technology) On Lowering Energy and Facility Costs
Reginald Parker is the CEO and founder of Optimal Technology. Optimal is lowering electricity bills by up to 70% by combining proprietary hardware & software.
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Dec 24, 2020 • 13min
482 - Andrew Phelps (Incentive Pilot) On Growing Your Sales Org Incentive Progeam
Andrew is one of the cofounders of IncentivePilot. With IncentivePilot, easily pilot and scale incentive programs across your sales org. Ditch the spreadsheets, forget about prize distribution, and finally prove ROI.
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Dec 24, 2020 • 28min
481 - Sheel Mohnot, Cofounder at Better Tomorrow Ventures
About Sheel:I'm co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV) in San Francisco, with Jake Gibson. We're a $75m fund that leads pre-seed and seed rounds in fintech companies globally, generally with a first check of $500k-$1.5m. We take a pretty broad view on fintech, and many vertical SaaS and marketplace businesses fit in our purview too. We invest for a better future and genuinely believe that our companies make the world better; fintech is a great way to improve people's lives.We like investing at the seed stage because it allows us to have the greatest impact. Founders need help and support and we love being the first call - we are both entrepreneurs first, investors second. We love thinking through strategy, figuring out distribution, helping companies hire, and helping founders raise the next round. We roll up our sleeves and try to be the biggest cheerleaders and most trusted partners for our companies.I’m also on the investment committee for the Catalyst Fund, an initiative to support entrepreneurs building financial solutions for the underserved in India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and South Africa.
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