Forward Thinking Founders

Tucker Schreiber is the cofounder of Combo. Combo is the best way to play with your most loyal viewers on Twitch. ★ Support this podcast ★

This is an Early Bets segment on Forward Thinking FM, featuring Rahul Rana. Rahul is the author of Making Moonshots and an Associate intern at Lux Capital. In Making Moonshots, investor and operator Rahul Rana asks the question: Why should we live in a world of incremental scientific and technological progress when the human race has proven in past eras that we are capable of so much more? This episode was taped live on FTFM in Forward Thinking City Studios. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, we have Susan Sierota, who is the founder of Waggit. Waggit is the only health & well-being monitor that provides key indicators to help detect health conditions early, improving and possibly extending the life of our dogs. The episode was taped live on FTFM in Forward Thinking City Studios. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, we have Dominique Soucy,  founder of PürInstinct. PürInstinct is a sport that mixes basketball, rugby, football, soccer without contact for a super-fast game. The episode was taped live on FTFM in Forward Thinking City Studios. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode of Forward Thinking Investors, we have Clara Brenner, Co-founder and Managing Partner at the Urban Innovation Fund. The episode was taped live on FTFM in Forward Thinking City Studios.About Clara Clara is co-founder and Managing Partner of the Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in the future of cities. The fund provides seed capital and regulatory support to entrepreneurs solving our toughest urban challenges – helping them grow into tomorrow’s most valued companies.  Previously, she co-founded Tumml, a startup hub for urban tech. The organization has provided 38 startups with seed funding and mentorship, and hosts thought leadership events around urban innovation. In 2014, Forbes listed her as one of its “30 Under 30” for Social Entrepreneurship. Clara’s work energizing urban entrepreneurship has been featured in numerous press outlets, including MSNBC and TechCrunch, among others. She serves on the Board of Tumml, as well as the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Bay Area Local Advisory Committee. Clara earned her MBA from MIT Sloan and BA from NYU.Clara's Twitter: Here ★ Support this podcast ★

Nevena Sofranic is the founder of Recrooit. Recrooit is a recruitment platform that helps companies find and hire qualified candidates by harnessing the power of the community. ★ Support this podcast ★

 Michael Martocci is the founder and CEO of SwagUp. SwagUp focuses on creating high-quality swag packs for employee welcoming, client gifting, event attendees, and more. They pair this with our warehousing and fulfillment services to ensure your swag gets where you want it, when you want, without you having to break a sweat through our centralized dashboard and API ★ Support this podcast ★

Jasmine Wang is one of the cofounders of Copysmith. Copysmith allows you to write product descriptions, ads, taglines, SEO metadata and more in seconds. Never start from a blank page again. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode of Forward Thinking Investors, we have Charlie O'donnell, Founder and Partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. The episode was taped live on FTFM in Forward Thinking City Studios.About Charlie O'donnell (From BBV Website)Charlie O'Donnell is the sole Partner and Founder at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures.  The fund makes seed and pre-seed investments and was the first venture firm located in Brooklyn--where he was born and raised.  Brooklyn Bridge invested in the first rounds of The Wing, Canary, Hungryroot, Ample Hills, Clubhouse, Imagen, and goTenna among others.Charlie has a reputation for being early to identifying important companies.  Nick Bilton identifies him as an influence on early Twitter investors in his book, Hatching Twitter.  Dennis Crowley credits him as having helped kick off the first funding of Foursquare before other VCs had said yes.  At First Round Capital, he helped source the firm's investments in Singleplatform (sold to Constant Contact), Moat (Sold to Oracle) and GroupMe (sold to Skype).  Charlie discovered GroupMe at the hackathon where the service had been built.  He also sourced investments in Backupify (which was an idea he had tweeted to the founder, a friend of his), Moat, chloe + isabel, and Refinery29.  Working in venture capital since 2001, he apprenticed his way through the asset class with analyst roles on the original Union Square Ventures team as well as at the General Motors pension fund--a long time limited partner in many top tier funds.  Charlie is one of only a dozen individuals to be named to Business Insider's 100 Most Influential People in NY Tech five or more times. He served on the founding board of the New York Tech Meetup and is one of the group's first 100 members. He was recently named to City & State Magazine’s Tech Power 50.  His blog, This is Going to Be BIG!, is one of the ten most widely read VC blogs in the country and over 13,000 people read his weekly NYC tech newsletter. He has spoken at SXSW and Techcrunch Disrupt.Charlie bikes to work, has done four Ironman 70.3s, four marathons, and founded the kayaking program in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The longest he has consecutively been outside of the five boroughs of New York City is three weeks.About Brooklyn Bridge Ventures (From BBC Website)Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the first VC fund founded in Brooklyn, NY, is the most accessible early-stage partner for startups in NYC. We foster a thriving community both online and offline open to founders and innovative professionals of all backgrounds. BBV manages approximately $30 million and counting across three funds, leading or co-leading investments of up to $400,000 in New York City pre-seed and seed companies that have yet to raise $750,000 in prior rounds. Conversations often start pre-product and pre-deck and no warm intros or other systematic barriers prevent us from engaging with the community. Pitches and outreach generally start by e-mail or via a calendar request.  ★ Support this podcast ★

Chris Motley is the founder of Mentor Spaces. Mentor Spaces's vision is to help high-performing, Black students and young professionals navigate the road to success through mentorship with experienced and influential leaders.This is an episode of Forward Thinking Founders, hosted on Forward Thinking FM, recorded in Forward Thinking City Studios.  ★ Support this podcast ★