Inspired with Alexa von Tobel

Vishal Garg, Founder of Better, shares how he founded an all-in-one platform to revolutionize the mortgage process. He discusses the impact of COVID on housing, the future of homeownership, and the importance of hiring motivated individuals. Get insights on the challenges of recruiting in the mortgage industry and the surprising aspects of being a founder.

After watching his wife—a Nurse Practitioner—struggle to keep up with patient notes, Andrew Hines had an idea. What if he could apply his engineering training to architect a better EMR (electronic medical record) to power our healthcare system? In 2015, he started Canvas Medical to shift the paradigm of what an EMR can and should be. Today, Canvas is the only complete software platform for value-based care. Designed to empower clinicians, administrators and even software developers building the next generation of healthcare platforms, Canvas is a simple solution to a complex problem. Andrew shares why he tries to maintain a student's mindset, how Canvas is equipping developers with game-changing APIs, and how he launched his first startup (a surfboard company) as a teenager.

In 2007, Kristo and his friend Taavet were two Estonian friends living and working in London. They quickly realized how expensive it was to exchange money between Pounds and Estonian Euros. Their hack to this problem ended up becoming the foundation for their startup, Wise, which they founded in 2011. Today, Wise allows people to hold 56 currencies, move money between countries, and spend money abroad. Not only is Wise one of the world's fastest-growing tech companies, it was recently listed on the London Stock Exchange in a direct listing that valued the company at $11 billion. Kristo shares why demand for Wise is still growing at a rapid clip, why he's personally eager to get back to the office, and why saying thank you is critical. 

Joe Ariel went to college in Nashville, where he fell in love with local delicacies like Nashville hot chicken. Living in New York, he had a craving and wondered if his favorite restaurants could ship food to him. Thus, the idea for Goldbelly was born. Founded in 2013, Goldbelly is an ecommerce platform that empowers the best restaurants and small food makers to ship nationwide. Recognized as one of the top 50 websites in the country, Goldbelly now works with over 850 restaurants and covers all 50 states. Joe shares how Covid accelerated Goldbelly's growth, why restaurants are excited to open up a new online sales channel, and why a phone call from chef and restaurateur Jose Andres was Joe's most meaningful moment to date.

There is a major nursing shortage plaguing the US healthcare system. By 2024, we're on track to be short over one million nurses. Yet, for working nurses looking for a new job, the industry average job search lasted 90 days. Incredible Health, co-founded by Iman Abuzeid in 2017, has brought that search time down to under 20 days. Incredible Health is the fastest growing venture-backed career marketplace for healthcare workers. The company has partnered with over 500 hospitals to offer its proprietary matching software and play an integral role in supporting nurses throughout their careers. Iman shares why she picked the entrepreneurship path after graduating from medical school, how her grandfathers' experience as founders make her comfortable with risk, and why a CEO support group is essential.

In 2014, Mathilde Collin moved from France to California to take part in Y Combinator and to bring her vision for a better email platform closer to her target customers. Today, Front is the leading Customer Communication Platform that serves more than 6,5000 customers, including Shopify, Airbnb, and Hulu. Mathilde has raised over $138 million in funding, and through it all, has taken an open-book approach to sharing her journey of entrepreneurship—including making all of her fundraising decks public. Mathilde shares why she obsessively communicates Front's revenue metric across the company, how she's worked to build a low ego culture, and why she has no work apps on her phone.

The last decade has brought a wave of direct-to-consumer healthcare companies. Instead of building another, Sid Viswanathan and his co-founder Umar Afridi set out to create technology that could fuel the consumerization of healthcare. In 2016, they started Truepill with a focus on the pharmacy industry. Now, they power an end-to-end healthcare experience, have filled over 7 million prescriptions, and facilitate over 50,000 telehealth visits per week. Just three years after launch, Forbes named them to their Next Billion-Dollar Startup list. Sid shares the LinkedIn outreach strategy that led him to Umar, how bootstrapping Truepill in year one impacted their strategy, and why he believes founding teams should be able to launch with only internal resources.

If you asked how ubiquitous electric vehicles would be a decade ago, it's hard to imagine their current rise into the mainstream. So what's next for clean energy innovation? Kathy Hannun, co-founder of Dandelion Energy, believes the next frontier is geothermal heat pumps. At Dandelion, she's working to bring geothermal technology, an energy-saving way of heating and cooling homes, to households across the country. Along the way, Bill Gates' firm led her Series B, and she's been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Kathy shares why she was a reluctant founder at first, why she believes the adoption of geothermal is inevitable, and how she harnesses a constant need to innovate.

What if workers could acquire new skills and training, without taking on debt? That’s the value Guild Education strives to provide. Guild Education unlocks opportunities for America’s workforce through education and upskilling and counts Fortune 500 companies (such as Chipotle, Disney, Walmart, and Taco Bell) among its partners. Since founding Guild in 2015, Rachel has scaled the business to reach working learners in all 50 states and has helped prevent over half a billion dollars in student debt. Rachel shares how COVID-19 has accelerated the future of work, why she decided to make Guild a Certified B Corporation instead of a nonprofit, and what she learned from working on political campaigns.

What if we could make farming faster, safer, and more sustainable? Meet Bowery Farming, the largest vertical farming company in the United States. Irving Fain started the company in 2015 and has overseen the growth of a proprietary operating system—Bowery OS—which leverages AI, robotics, and computer vision systems to allow its farms to grow traceable produce at 100 times the rate of traditional agriculture. Today, Bowery Farming produce is sold in over 800 stores across the United States. The company has raised over $472 million to date and is valued at over 2 billion dollars. Irving shares how Bowery Farming grew during the pandemic, why he believes indoor farming is the future of the agriculture landscape, and why listening to skeptics can strengthen your business.